Omaha daily bee., 1890-01-19
THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.
Great Britain's is Estimated at Fifty
Billions.

olS" htu . 10 az
Billions.
$50, 600, 0OO, OO0.-or in words, fifty bill
lions of dollars-is the wealth of Great
Britain, estimated by Robert Gitfen.
the English statistician md writer on
economic topics. This estimate gives
England 81 $40 a head, Scotland, 81, 2l5,
and Ireland 1913.
Comparing the three richest nations
of the world, he gives the wealth per
head as follows:
Great Britain, $1,45O; France, $3.50,
and the United States. $500.
If this shows anything it shows the
utter fallacy and supreme folly of av-
erages as applied to matters of this sort.
BY Citizens computation there ought to
be nearly three times as much abject
poverty in the United States as in Great
Britain, for if the average wealth per
capita is not a measure of the compar-
alive wealth of the people, and conse-
quently of their poverty, it is not a
measure Of anything; and yet every
schoolboy knows that the poverty of the
United States is not comparable with
that of Great Britain.
In the city of London alone, so say
English writer's, there are nearly
1000 900 people who are all the time on
the verge OF starvation. In the same
city lies the enormous landed property
of the Duke of Westminster, who counts
his wealth by the millions; and yet Mr..
Gitfen talks about the per capita wealth
of Great Britain as though il meant
something. If one man had it all, the
figures OF per capita wealth would be
the same, for they are arrived at by di-
viding the sum total of the wealth by
the number of people.
Again, Mr.. Giffen falls into n serious
error in estimating the mass of the
wealth of Great Britain, and this, OF
his calculations. He includes all the
investments OF British capital abroad,
as though they were Il substantial part
of the wealth OF the kingdom. 1t is
obvious that all such investments should
be carried on a suspense account, for
they are extremely uncertain. A re-
volution or two in South America, an
attack by Russia on Turkey, a revolt in
Egypt, in fact almost any event OF that
sort would wipe out a great portion of
what Mr.. Citizen considers a part of the
national wealth, aud would reduce the
per capita distribution very consider
ably.
AS a supplement to Citizens figures
there NAV be presented the estimate OF
the national wealth of the United States
compiled from the returns IN the offices
of the treasurers of the several states.
This computation puts the wealth of the
United States at $6l Ass, OO0, 900, exclu-
sive OF public property.
A moment's reflection will show that
the excluded property, which embraces
the property owned by the general gov
eminent and by state, county and city
governments, and also the public do
main, cannot be rated at less than &c.
100000 900, SO it is entirely fair to esti-
mate the wealth Of the United States at
$72, 900 600, 900 in round numbers, or
nearly one-half more than that Of Great
Britain, as Mr.. Giifen estimates it.
After all, though, the real wealth o
a nation does not consist SO much in
tangible property as in the ability TO
hold its own in case OF emergency. The
reserve force Of a country, its undevel-
eped resources and unexhausted sources
OF supply are what constitute the real,
substantial wealth Of a nation. A ma
tiOn in that respect is like an iDdivid-