The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-03-06
Wealth Increase --It's Form.
New York Bulletin.

; New York Bulletin.
; At the end of every year there comes
; the question, "What has become ofthe
results Of the years production?'
1t is said that the nation is adding to
its wealth a thousand million yearly;
in what form? 1t is not in monetary
circulation. 1t is not in claims against
other countries or ownership of proper
ty there. The crops of the year we
shall presently consume, or if part is
to be sold abroad, the goods to be re-
ceived in exchange will presently be
consumed. Where is the additional
wealth of which we boast? Is it only
in higher valuation Of lands and
buildings and other fixed property-a
valuation which may be lost with the
next turn Of the wheel?
These questions are not as childish
as to many they may seem. 1t is of no
small. Importance to discover what form
the added wealth of the nation takes,
so that we may yjudge how far it is solid
and lasting, and capable of reproduc-
ton. For if all the lands of the country
were worth sl0,000,OO0,OOO year ago,
and Sll, 900, 100000 now, but can pro-
duce no more, the added wealth is inn
aginary. Or if there has been added
within few years $4,000, 600, 900 to the
nominal value Of railroad property,
without any increase in the yearly
earning power, what actual gain in
wealth is there?
The foundation of prosperity is the
land, and every year witnesses all ac-
tual increase in the number of acres
reduced to cultivation and productive
ness. That change means increased
wealth. From 1870 to 1880 there were
added of improved land about 96,OOO,.
600 acres, or more than fifty per cent,
and there is every reason to believe
that TIE progress in that respect has
been even more rapid during the past
decade. But the addition of fifteen mil
lion acres of improved land every year
involves permanent investment oflabor
in clearing, fencing, breaking and road
building, in the erection of houses and
barns, and the procurement of stock
and implements and machinery. The
new railroad, which may not pay a
single dollar to owners as yet, may
nevertheless have made possible and
profitable this enormous expenditure
of labor in the creation of new farms,
and if the fifteen million acres yearly
were worth no more than the average
of land in 1880, that alone would rep
resent an addition of four hundred mill
lions or more to the national wealth
each year, even though nothing had
been added to the price of land pre-
viously cultivated. But the completion
of the roads and railroads, the settle
ment Of other lands near by, and the
gradual development of community,
also add largely to the actual as we'll as
the nominal value of all farm property
within the circle of influence.
So it is with the dwellings and other
structures in cities and towns. The
country is not worse, but better sup
piled with all such structures than it
was ten years ago. But that means an
increase more than proportionate to
population, and the yearly addition of
100000 Inhabitants, even if there were
no Improvement in the condition and
accommodations of the people, would
by itself require additional investment
yearly of three hundred and forty mil
lions or morein buildings.
Property of that kind contributes as
| truly as any other to the wealth-pro-
ducing power of the country; dwellings
no less than stores, or warehouses, or
factories. But in addition there has
been each year an enormous addition
to the manufacturing plant, apart from
the buildings otherwise estimated; to
the machinery in use and its produc-
tive capacity. 1t is not so easy to form
even an approximate estimate of the
value of these additions, but every one
realizes that they must be large. More,
over new mines are constantly opened,
which add millions every year to the
production; the new mines in the Lake
Superior district alone, which have
been added within the past five years,
have increased the production more
than 4,O0S,00O tons each year, in value
s2O,OOO,OOO.