Milford chronicle., 1896-07-17
1Me wEALIn oE NATIONS.
Proportion Coming to Each Inhabitant II
an Equal Division Were Made.

. an Equal Division Were Made.
There is very old story, which sober
minded statisticians reject as erroneous
ard apocryphal that tells how needy
man in the city Of Paris obt;incd an audi
ence with the head Of the banking house
of Rothschild
To this financial magnatc tho needy
man recited his distress and argued that
there should be an equal division Of all
property doing away With the existing
dislaritics, which hc alleged were unjust
NJ. Rothschild. SO the story goes, took from
his desk u piccc Of paTcr and figured upon
It the total wealth of France. Then he di-
! Sidcd the total by S. 900 900, the popula-
ton Of France at that time, the result be-
ing the per capita share Of che wealth to
which his visitor would lHivc been entitled.
I Then NJ. Rot!.schild rodivided TINT total
/ by the population Of the country, and,
handing his visitor a one franc piece GO
[ centS), said:
My friend, here is your share Of all that
l would owe you on the rcdivision Of the
property Ct tie country Collect the bal
ance from others
Whatever may be the basis of fact upon
which this story is founded there is no dis
putting its periodic recurrence in the form
Of an estimate of how much each citizen OF
n country would have il the wealth Of such
a country was equally divided among all
its inhabitants Recently paragraph.
probably Of Eli lish origin has started on
its travels Through tho newspapers and
magazines which shows thnt If the wealth
of the United Statas WAS so divided every
person In it-man woman ard child mil
Ionaire and Paurer, banker, farmer arti-
san, schoolbcy and schoolgirl-wOuld have
5000. This is :ot Z; large sum when the
growing resources Of the L nitcd States are
considered, but there are probably plenty of
persons in every community who would be
willing to acccIt 5000 in cash in full salts
faction of Prospective division ut some
time far remCec OF the total wealth Of the
country
In point of fact it is, of course, unrca-
sonablc TO base AIRY Ian Of division on the |
total number of inhabitants, for a very I
large number Of these are infants below |
the age of years, and a stlll larger num- !
Der are male minors between and 81 and |
female minors between ard Is But, even /
on the basis Of the total Inhabitants Of the 1
country, division Of It's wealth would 4
yield much more than SOON fact, more /
than LOCO. There were by the last federal 4
census about 1000, GOO male adults in the
United States and division of the wealth
of the country among them would give
50, 900 apiece as tic share of each The
word wealth has somewhat elastic
meaning when applied as n designation of
but among the stntisticians it
covers, first AID chief of all land; next
houses; then the contents Of houses, and in
the order of importance cattle, money
metal, railways, merchandise, ships and
sundries On the basis of all thcs the
average wealth to each inLgbitilut In the
countries is In excess of 81, 900
per rerson-thc United States, Ergltnd
France, Denmark, Ht Hard ard Australia
Between tie 500 and the s 900 limit are
switzerland Belgium Canada Below
That are Germany, spain, Italy and Swe-
len. In Russia the average is $500 and
IN no country from which authentic sta
-istics are attainable is the amount OF
wealth less
On the basis of the actual money in cir
,ulation among the Inhabitants, irrespec-
i've Of such forms of invested wealth as 1
louses land, ships and merchandise,
France is the woalthiest country, with an I
lverage Of $50 to each inhabitant, the
argest proportion Of which is in gold coin
The average in the United States is $50, in
Germany S95, in Holland $40, in Great I
Britain So. go in Spain 500 25, in Italy {
10, in Belgium $50, in Canada So in J
russia $40, in India So, in Japan ST. so c
nd in China 81. A division of the wealth I
f any country on an exact and indiscrim- S
mating basis among its inhabitants is, of /
curse, chimcrical, but consideration of C
he results of such division gives a very l
lear indication of the relation which the v
realth of one country bears to the wealth /
f another. The growth Of material wealth
more rapid in the United States than in
ny other country, but the growthof popu-
ltiOn keeps on too New York Sun.