The Monitor-register., 1896-09-18
The Glasses and the Masses.
From the New York Sun

and economic questions. His present pur-
pose in writing is to examine the grounds
for an assertion first made by Karl Marx,
then endorsed by Carlyle, and since accep-
ted as an axiom by Henry George. The
assertion is that in our contemporary
civilization the rich are growing richer
and the poor poorer. Mr.. Mallock has
undertaken to prove by statistics that in
Great Britain, at all events, the contrary
is the fact. Yet, If the statement i'm
pugned be true of any country. it ought
to be true of England, where capital is
most concentrated, and where the methods
of using it, characteristic of the latter half
of the nineteenths century, are most
thoroughly applied.
MI. Mallock reviews the growth of
wealth in Great Britain as it is disclosed
in statistics during the years from 1850 to
1880. These data show in contradiction
to the popular view that the middle classes
are increasing with far greater rapidity
than the rich, while if their increase is
compared with that of the working
classes, it becomes more extraordinary
still. By the POOR are here meant all
persons whose earnings or incomes fall
short of $3.50 a year; in the so-called mid
die classes are comprised all individuals
or families whose annual earnings or in
comes range from $3.50 to SIS, 900; by the
rich are meant those whose incomes exceed
50, 600 a year. 1t is the middle CLASSES
and the rich, as thus defined, who pay the
income tax in the United Kingdom, and
we have consequently an easy and trust
worthy means of asoertaiDing their growth
in numbers from year to year, as com-
pared with that of the rest of the popula.
lation. Now, from 1850 to 1880 the total
populrtion of the United Kingdom in
creased from about 81, 500, 900 to $4,000
600; on theo other hand. the income-tax-
paying population was. In the first-named
year, !. 500, 900. whereas it was more than
$500, 600 in 1881. If these two amounts
are deducted from the totals at the two
dates, we obviously have a working class
population of 26, 900. 900 in 1850, and OF
80. 500, 900 in 1881; it follows that during
the three decades named the working
classes increased by only about Is pei
cent, while the middle classes Increased
by more than 300 per cent. Instead, then
of the poor becoming poorer, the statistics
prove that they are mounting rapily into
the comfortable middle class, comprising
persons whose annual incomes amount to
$3.50 a year or over, which incomes, it
must also be remembered, possessed in
1881 a much greater purchasing power
than they did thirty years before.
This is by no means the whole of the
case made by Mr.. Mallook in refutation OF
the current assertion that the rich are
becoming richer and the poor poorer. He
goes on to show that not only has the
number of the comfortable class increased
at q rate out of all proportion to that Of
the rest of the community. but that the
incomes of those who may be said to have
been left behind in the "w working class
exhibit an enormous and almost ncredi
BILE aggregate advance. 1t appears tba'
during the first sixty years of this century
the aggregate incomes of the working
Glasses rose to such an extent that in the
year 1860 it was equal (all deductions fol
the increase of population being made
to the income of all classes combined il
the year 1900. A still more amazing fac
brought out by the statistics is that a re-
suit precisely similar has been sine,
accomplished in one half of the time. Ii
1880 the aggregate income of the workin,
classes was Gall deductions for the in
crease of population being made) NOR
than equal to the income of all Glasses il
the year of 1850. Thus, the workin,
GLASSES of the United Kingdom in 1876,
were in precisely the same pecuniar,
position as the working classes of 1870
would have been had the entire wealth O
the kingdom been placed in their hands
and. secondly, the working classes of to
day are in a better pecuniary position
than their fathers would have been coulG
they have plundered and divided between
them the wealth of every rich and middle
class man in the kingdom at the time o
the building of the Crystal Palace uset
for the first London Exhibition. MI
Mallock points out that the wildes
Socialist cannot possibly claim for tn.
people more wealth than exists, no matter
what revolution he might be able tt
accomplish. Yet, in point Of fact, thil
miracle of Redistribution has taken place
twice in the course of three generations
not only without any attempt at revolu
ton, but In consequence of the very insti
tuition against which the would be revolu
tionists protest.
We may notice one other current fallacy
with Mr.. Mallock has disposed of. In thu
minds of many persons a vague belize
exists that there is in the United Kingdom
a colossal unoccupied class of luxurious
and worthless persons. Now, it is true
that the class described as ''~unoccupied'
is stated In the British census at some
thing like 55 per cent. of the whole mum
Der; and this figure certainly looks
startling until we learn what it sta nds for
AS a matter of fact we must deduct from
it nearly all women, nearly all children
under IS, nearly all males over 65. all
lunatics, all deaf and dumb persons, &c
By making such indispensable deductions
we reduce the number of the unoccupie6
to 200. 900; again, of these we find thai
more than 40, 600 are men that have re-
tired from business after their fifty fifth
year, and nearly {. 1000 are pensioners
about the same age. AS a matter of fact
the number of males between 90 and g.
returned as ''living on their own means
is not more than $4,000 in the whole
United Kingdom and a large number O.
these are men who have returned to EGG
land to live after having acquired fortune,
in foreign counties.
These facts will be found hard nuts tt
crack by the popular ~agitators, who argue
from the %unfounded p~ostulate that undel
the existing social and economic regime
the rich are growing richer and poo
poorer.
What Kind Of Money Does Every
body Want?
What does a man want money for, any
how +? To spend, doesn't he Z?
What kind of money does he want
Money that he can get the most for
doesn't he