The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-09-04
INCOMES IN ENGLAND.
Wealthy Men Not So Numerous
as in America.
notwithstanding which the Wealth OF
This Country Is More Evenly Dis
tributed-Facts Cleaned
from Figures.

If the evidence of the British govern
ment returns showing the number of
persons assessed for the income tax is
trustworthy the number of very rich
people in the United Kingdom is small.
Only $50 900 subjects of the queen con-
fess to an annual income of over $1,000
a year derived from trades or profes-
sions. The whole number of them who
live on the scale represented by fam
lily income above the 81 900 mark, de-
rived from any source, is set down at
about 100000, or one in nineteen of
the population. In other words, says
the Baltimore Sun, moi, more than ; per
cent. of the inhabitants of England,
Wales, Scotland and Ireland are living
in the moderately well-to-do state, inn
piled by family income of $50 per
week. Going up in the scale of in
comes we learn from these official re-
turns that 123, 900 British families, ag-
gregating 615, 900 persons, are all who
are in receipt of incomes of 81, 500
year and over. Commenting on these
figures the Westminster Gazette SAYS
of the limits of wealth and income in
the realm of Victoria: ''The possession
of what is ordinarily termed modest
income, of anything, in fact, above
ESQ Tor S750) is rare stroke of fortune,
which comes to very few in this world,
while the chance of becoming Crnsus
is so wildly remote that it will hardly
enter into the calculations of reason
able man" 1t appears that about
5000 persons in the whole United King
dom have incomes of over $25, 900 Il
year. Gen. Booth some time since took
Il servant girl census of London and
found that only $4,000 houses in that
city hired any servants at all, and that
in one-half of that number there was
only one maid-of-all work employed
And this in the richest city of the coun-
try, containing one-ninth of its entire
population.
Making due allowance for the fact
that Britishers, like mankind general
ly, can be trusted not to overstate their
incomes for purposes of taxation, it is
still evident that the wealth of this
country is not only greater than that
of Great Britain, but that it is better
distributed. Far more American fami-
lies than British have incomes exceed
ing any given figure above 81 900
year. As against the 5000 British fam
lies with incomes of S25. 900 a wear. or
larger, the famous tabulation made by
Thomas &. Shearman shows that there
are more than twice as many American
families possessing that degree of
wealth. These Shearman figures have
not been disputed by anybody, and. if
true, they show that at least 400, 600
American families, or ., 200, 600 persons,
live on level of comfort represented
by an income of 81 900 year or more,
as against the same number living on
the 81, 900 a year plane'in England. 1t
is estimated that 81, 900 persons will be
called upon in this country to pay the
new income tax on incomes exceeding
$1,000 year. The British parliament
tary returns indicate that this is three
times as many persons as are assessed
over that figure by the queens tax col
lectors. On the whole it seems safe to
conclede that the average incomes of
families in the United States are still
higher than in the most favored, or at
any rate the best governed, country in
Europe. Wealth is still distributed
more evenly here than anywhere else
in the world