Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-25
THURSDAY. JUNE a5, 1891.
THE CONCENTRATION OF CAPITAL-A
PECULIAR PROBLEM.


s'combines," and at the corporations
whose proportions are becoming man.
moth. and remembers what a really
democratic-republican country this was
when he was boy, he is of course
amazed. Thirty years ago he who pos
sessed one hundred thousand dollars
even IN New York city was considered
weIl-to-do, while in the interior he who
could claim fifty thousand dollars with
out incumbrance was thought to be well
ahead of the world. How different now
The other day a New York journal
said that no man could pretend to live
in New York city short of $4,000 year
the interest at 6 per cent. on 100000
and that without regard to his fam
lily. And this is probably not an exag-
geration. There are wearisome miles of
streets in the commercial metropolis OF
this country in which the rentals run
from $4,000 to $4,000 year. When a
single item of the maintenance of
household rises to such monumental
figure, what may not be assumed of the
outlay involved in maintaining family
in the principal city of the United
States?
1t is hard to realize that, in the COM
pass of generation, the United States
have passed from one of the most frugal
nations OF the world to the most extrav-
agant, but the facts prove it, neverthe-
less. In our efforts to locate the modern
Babylon, for such hastily accumulated
wealth means all the vices, we need not
hesitate to locate it in New York.
We are told that when Mr.. William
Ell. Vanderbilt died he was worth some
thing over two hundred millions OF dol
lars. He is said to have taken friend
into a safe deposit building in New York
city, and to have shown him securities
which exceeded that sum. Mr..
William D. Rockefeller, who is
thought to be about to die, is
reported to have an income of SO, ,000,-
600 year, and his accumulations are
placed at $l50.000,000. Mr.. William
Waldorf Astor is credibly assumed to be
worth hundred million. Mr.Jav Gould's S
fortune is placed at the comfortable fig
ure of between $50, 900, 600 and $60,00O,-
900. The list of Americans whose
wealth runs up very near to the $780,
600, 1000 mark could be made very form
idable by any one who should care to
work the problem out. We were told,
the other day, that the Commodore Gar
ner estate had swollen to the $40, 900, 900
figure.
In California we could add to the
roster OF plural millionaires. Not to
take count of the bonanza people, whose
wealth has shrunk instead of expand
ing, with the possible exception of Mr..
James G. Fair, it would be hardy man
indeed who should undertake to set
limit to the possessions OF Mr.. j. b.
Haggin. That gentleman INDUCES in
the vagary of 100000 acre farm, and
he has valuable real estate everywhere.
His ownership in mines of the base and
precious metals is something on the
colossal order. We have heard con-
servative man with opportunities OF re-
liable information lump Mr.. Haggin' g
wealth at $S0,000,000, and he added
that there were conditions which
might turn him up as the richest man
in the world if he lived ten years longer.
One of the trihes in the inventory OF
Mr.. Haggin's assets is a controlling
ownership in the Anaconda copper
mines-the greatest copper deposit thus
far discovered in the world. Then we
have our other plutocrats, by no means
to be forgotten, such as Leland Stanford,
Huntington, the Crockers, Hopkinses,
Lloyd Tevises, and others too numerous
at from $40, 100000 to $50, 100000. The
late Charles Crocker, in an interview
with New York reporter, said that his
own wealth would probably foot up
$SO,O00,OOO
Where will this process of accumula-
tion end? 1t is said that when Commo-
dore Vanderbilt was fifty years of age
he was only worth $1,00O,0O Money
makes money, and in these later days at
an incredible pace. At sixty Vanderbilt
years this sum had swollen to $S0,000,~
900, which vast estate he left practically
in bulk to his son William HI. Wander
bilt. In dozen years it had swollen to
5000, 900, 900, which is the sum the latter
divided amongst his own sons, the
grandsons of the old commodore, the
pioneer of our later race of millionaires.
Most of these prodigious fortunes are
founded upon the watered stock of rail-
way and other corporations. The orig
inal stock of the New York Central rail-
way was $2S,OOO,OO0. Under the Van
derbilt manipulation this stock was
swollen until it represented SIP, 100000,
or $4 for 81, and the traffic of the road
was made to pay heavy dividends on
this expanded stock. The manipulation
of the stock OF the Erie railway by Jim
Fisk and Jay Gould is fresh in the mem
ory of most readers of newspapers who