Arizona republican., 1899-11-02
THE RISE AND GROWTH OF
WEALTH.
Ii. D.. Superintendent of the Chi
cago Public Schools
(SecOnd Installment.)

We said in the preceding lesson that
wealth or effective value cannot ne
gagged by the criterion of exchange
value. We must dwell 4 moment long
eT on this matter. for it is important
OF course nothing could be more nat
ural at first than TO take national
wealth as simply the total of the esti-
mated prices which individual and
public properties would bring if sold;
yet no procedure could be more mis-
leading. For instance. let general
prices for any reason slowly decline.
All business will be sluggish and there
Will be much most useful property
which perhaps cannot be sold at all.
its utility for all the purposes of life
remaining as great as before. Value
is not the same thing as valuation. In
the case supposed the aggregate of ex-
change values may have lessened a
third. yet the mass of satisfactions
throughout the nation not have de-
creased an iota. How idle il seems to
say that under such circumstances the
country has become less wealthy. Such
n state of affairs may retard the pro-
ductiOn of new wealth. but cannot i'm
pair the wealth quality of useful things
already IN existence
According to Sir Robert Gifren the
money value Of British exports and i'm
ports between 1895 and 1920 ranged
from about csc. 900 to about e45.-
100000 annually. An annual total of
nearly e52, 600, 900 was reached in 1915.
but did not occur again till 1886. and
no higher figure appeared till 1910.
These money figures greatly obscure
the real fact. During all those years
the quantity of goods exported and i'm
ported was increasing much more rap
idly than the money figures hint. the
tonnage entered and cleared in 1896 be
ing about 100000, or nearly double
that at the opening of the century. No
one needs to be told that of the mass
of satisfactions afforded to the British
people by foreign commerce between
1915 and 1886. the tonnage of this for
eign trade is a far truer measure than
the pounds sterling valuation.
Again. if we are seeking an index of
the contribution which the plant of Il
railway for example, makes to the ma
tons wealth. in some cases the par
value of the stock is nearer the mark,
in other instances the market value.
There are doubtless railways so useful
X.
ously bulled. however copiously wa
tered. would fall far short of indicat-
ing the benefit which the existence and
work of these railways confer upon
the body polite.
Still again, how can exchange value
measure the wealth which public works
employ? Roads and parks could be
sold. if at all. only for the land they
70
in their present form? Harbor i'm
provements it would be impossible to
sell to any one. but surely they form
part of a country's wealth. What
would the Washington monument
bring or the capitol or Cleopatra
needle or the sewerage system of any
city? In fact. utility. or value in use.
satisfaction afTording quality, so far as
it is the creature of effort, ought to be
the real unit or criterion in reckoning
national wealth and world wealth, eH-
change value coming in only where it
can be trusted as a clew to the utility.
In appraising national wealth or the
worlds wealth certain other cautions
are necessary Clearly it would be in
accurate to reckon into nations
wealth both property and titles to the
for so much it will not do to put down
its stock for so much more. National,
state. county and city bonds. too, must
be excluded. They are signs of debt.
and debt is not wealth. The same OF
property like copyrights and patent
rights. and of promissory notes and
bank notes so far as they are based
on hard money Notice, by the way.
11al
make up an individuals wealth:
whence we see from another point of
view how erroneous 1t would be TO
state the nations wealth as simply the
sum of the fortunes of individuals and
corporations. plus the public property
of the nation. On the other hand, titles
held by people domiciled in one land
to values in another are. if good, pieces
of the first lands wealth. If. however.
we are seeking to make out the whole
worlds wealth all titles of this sort
must be kept out of the reckoning.
Where now shall we class land-as
wealth simply or as Il basis for or con-
dition to wealth? The answer turns on
the sense in which the inquiry is
meant. 1t may relate to Improvements
upon land, as trees, hedges. bitches and
fetal qualities of land belonging to it
by nature which comes 10 land simply
from its location in reference to human
dwellings, and activities. Improve
ments upon land come clearly within
our definition of wealth. They are
man-created utilities. Just as clearly
the natural qualities of land are ex-
cluded from the definition and to be
relegated to the same class of things as
air, sunshine and the ocean. The fact
that these qualities are appropriated,
made subjects of exchange and price,
does not alter the case. Could greedy
men fly: had they in any way the
requisite power, they would probably
appropriate air and sunlight just as
land is appropriated now, but that
would not turn air or sunlight into ar
ticles of wealth. 1t would leave them,