The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-02-23
WILL THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION
SAVE THE REPUBLIC?
Bv REV. AARON A THAYER, LA GRANGE ILL.
National Wealth.

WEALTH., hhOWiON6S
The gross amount of knowledge in
the United States is greater than In
any other nation, not because great
er percentage can read and wrlte' but
because the great masses OF our ma
ton are better able to patronize the
public press, the bookstore and IL
brary. And this implies greater dis
tribution of wealth in the United
States than in any other nation. We
not only have better distribution
of riches, but we are actually richer
than any nation on the globe. In
1890 our wealth had the enormous
footings of SCI, 459,OOO,OOO. Great
Britain is the next in wealth. But
the younger nation on this side OF the
great water had more than $276, OOO,-
600 in advance of Great Britain. The
great Russian nation has 5,OOO,OOO
square miles mole territory, and So
$4,000 more population than the
United States. And yet all of her
wealth, and the wealth of the Turkish
Empire and of Sweden and Norway
and Denmark and Italy and Australia,
South Africa and ali OF South Ameri-
ca-put all the wealth of all these
kingdoms and empires and republics
together, and we have greater riches
greater by the inconceivable sum
of eighteen and a half thousand of
millions of dollars
What little tinsel bauble for a
toy shop was all the wealth in the
petty kingdom of Solomon compared
with the amazing riches of the Unit
ed States to-day! We exported a
thousand million dollars worth of
merchandise in 1892. Twelve years
ago our domestic commerce COM
priced eighteen thousand ccillions of
dollars worth of merchandise. And
80 the figures make us dizzy to even
tell of national riches. statistics
from Strong's "Our Country.'O
Sources of Wealth.
And how have we gotten these
golden mountains of this worlds
goods2 National robbery enriched
ancient Rome. Human slavery en-
riched our Southern States, as it did
many of the kingdoms and republics
of antiquity. But the Federal Union
has aggregated its wealth chiefly
through animal muscle and the power
of steam and water in the applica-
tions of heat and gravity. In the in
genious application of these agencies
we vastly excel all other nations.
Our non-human working power is
equal to the combined power of
Great Britain and the German EN-
pire with gross population of eighty
five cunning millions of people. In
short, our non-humsn working power
has greater productive capacity than
333,OO0,000 of human beings. And
the bulk of this power eats nothing
when idle.
Hence because we utilize vastly
more power and are greater adopts in
its application-this is the secret rea-
son why our land of bounty and of
glory is the richest terrestrial nation
under the heavens.
We discover, therefore, that the
American people are subjected to
greater dangers from the seductions
of riches than any other nation, by
so much as our wealth is greater than
any other nations. 1t is also the
more readily produced. Hence the
dangers have an arithmetical progress
sion. They grow more and more
serious as the generations go by.
No Entailment of Estates.
But we must not fail to take note
of one favorable condition in this
country. The right of perpetual en-
tail of estates cursed Europe for
about six hundred years. 1t fol-
lowed the feudal system. 1t has been
totally abolished in France and Spain,
and greatly restricted in Great Britain.
1t was in force in this country till the
Revolution of 1776. But fortunately it
has been abolished by all States, or
confined within exceedingly restricted
limits. Hence the holding of large
real estates and accumulation of i'm :.
mense properties and monopolies in
the same family through indefinite
generations by the law of entail, is
prohibited in this country. Hence
the libertines and dudes of one gene
ration are left to the delightful trade
of picking to pieces and dividing
among their chamber-fellows the
hecatombs of money which the pre-
ceding generation had piled up.
This scattering of fortunes, though
painful to the disinherited heirs and
d. a,,raa 10 tho eHa,Ith-.f4o =. - -