The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-09-21
POPULAR ERRORS DESTROYED.

Professor Thurston is Director OF Sib-
ley College, Cornell University. He is a
noted student of economies and the laws
of statistics, and equally well known as a
scientist and reasoner upon the lines of
scientific truth.
In the September number of the North
american ReViea0 he gives US the result
OF his studies and arraignment of soien-
tific proofs relative to the cry that the
rich are growing richer and the poor
poorer, and that on the whole our lines
are the hardest of time and that the future
of the nation ia deplorsble. He COM
pletely disproves these fallacies and
shows by scientific reasoning and array
OF evidences not possible to be oontro-
yerted that nature is turning no sharp
corners, as she never has; that ali great
movements and the sweep Of all great
currents are, as they always have been,
the results of the action of great natural
forces. and that these have in all cases q
definable route and rate of motion.
1t would be impossible to reproduce in
an ordinary article the argument upon
which he proceeds to prove just what is
the trend of our national progress. For
that the full article with the accompany
ing proofs must be read. It is long
paper, but profoundly full of interest,
and so lucid that the commoness intelli-
gence may grasp the meaning, under
stand the application of the evidences
addueed, and comprehend the elaborate
diagrams used to illustrate the points
made. Il must suffice in this place To
indicate briefly as may be done the scien :
tific prophesies made. These, as PROBES.
sor Thurston shows, are logical, Of scien-
tito form and accurate. for science gives
oiairvoyant views of the Immediate. II
not of the distant future.
Professor Thurston shows by recitation
Of facts and by many tables and diagrams
that since the invention of the steam en-
CINE wealth has been Increasing with an
accelerated ratio. From $1,000, 600, 900 in
1920 it has come to be Sos 900. 00O. 900 in
1880. and may be expected to become so
per cent. moro in 1900
But in 1870 the wealth of our people was
but 500 per capita. In 1890 it was 81, 600
and is now SLIGO, and will be 1920 in
1900. So that within the first quarter of
the new century the per capita OF wealth
for every human being in the land will
be $1,000. At the same time, says he, it
must not be forgotten that the people en-
JOY now. as everyday comforts, what in
our grandfathers' days was luxury and
possible to be availed of by only the very
few. So, too. all the future gains. or
nearly ell, will be employed in adding to
these comforts possible to all the people,
in greater or less degree.
In the early days wealth was mainly in
the rural districts. In 1856 It was nearly
evenly divided between country and
town, and to-day it is three-fourths
urban. This means that the country is
supplying the city with surplus popula-
ton. and that the city is paying the sur
plus better wages than can be paid in the
country. In 1900 the towns and cities
will have between three and four times as
much wealth as the country.
But how are wages distributed out oi
this increasing wealth? Ia 1860 the
wages paid each operative was less than
$500. Now it is a sum nearly 5000 pei
oneratiye. and will be much above that
figure In 1900. In a few years more. says
Professor Thurston, the wages paid on
the average, per individual worker, will
be as great as to-day supports the average
welI-to-do family.
or all rises, that of wages has been the
most rand. he adds, which means that
the distribution of wealth is continually
coming to be more and more equalized,
and that the average day laborer and the
workman of every grade will gain con-
.tantly a larger and larger share OF this
distribution.
wealth will be moro and more equally
distributed just as long as the present
.ooial and economic conditions are main