The true northerner., 1900-09-07
THE RICHEST NATION
" DIVIDED EQUALLY WHAT EACH
ONES SHARE WOULD az.
An American Family " ouid own 100 Aerss
OF Land ana 10 l-2 Feet OF Railroad-It
Would Pay But s8.6s "a Year In Taxation
Only 80 Cents for Our Navy.

| would Fay But So.oS Year In Iaxatfon-
Only 90 Cents for Our Navy.
| II the Government OF the United
| States be considered merely as busi-
ness firm, its stockholders just now
are pretty well 10 do. Their wealth
| is very large, considering the num-
ber there are of them. The expenses
| OF carrying on trade under the Stars
| and Stripes seems small when devid-
ed. and their debts are trifiing indeed.
Not many years ago 1t was said that
| Uncle Sam had land enough to give
| every one a farm. In theory this
| is true to-day II all Territories in
the United States, not even including
| Alaska and our so-called new posses
sions, were TO be divided. there would
be farm OF thirty one acres for each
one. Every man, woman and child
in the country would own this much
real estate.
family consists OF five people. there
would be 155 acres to the family. In
making these calculations the pop
ulation is estimated at 70.0O0,000. The
area of the United States is 3,600,000
square miles.
Not all of this land is good enough
TO farm tt on, but most OF il can
be made good enough by Yankee in
genuity.
The value of all the real estate in
America is s39 ,544. 1888, 900. These fig
ures fail to give any definite idea.
They are too big Let us suppose,
however that pure socialism prevail
ed and that this enormous wealth
was equally divided The share OF
every individual would be $564.50
The share of every average family
would be S2,S2450. Aod this does
not include personal property, which
would greatly increase the sum. Ihese
figures are by far the highest to be
found in any country in the world.
In Great Britain. for instance. each
man is a land owner owning to the
extent of about $3.50. British house
property would give share of but
about $500 to every man.
Practically, in Great Britain there
are few small landowners. or none.
A laboring man who owns his cot
tage is a rarity; one who owns the
land on which it stands almost an
impossibility.
The taxes which the individual pays
seem trifing All the taxes last year
were $471, ,365.14O. The share of each
individual was but $673 Britain's
taxes during the same period amount
ed to f2 los each, or nearly twi
that OF America 1t must also be con-
sidered that our rate was unusual y
~ nf
war. A good deal of complaint Is
heard of the extravaganza of the Gov
eminent, but the share Of the individ-
ual is small The total expenses OF
the Government last year IL divided
would have placed a burden Of $6.6S
on the individual. This is share OF
the sum of s4S7 1903 900.
The individual contributions 10 the
various departments also sound curl,
Gus In view OF the great things which
have been accomplished. We are all
proud of our navy. which during the
past year has been larger and more
expensive than ever before But each
individual was only required to con-
tribute just sixty cents TO maintain
this department and our great fleets
of warships. The total expense. 10 be
sure, was s4S099 000 The mainte-
nance OF the army last year was one
of the most expensive items the Gov
ernment has ever called upon to meet.
1t cost us just sS0,000.000 The war
with the Philippines and the mainte-
nance of an army in Cuba and Porto
Rico, besides the regular expense OF
the department, could be met, how
ever, IL each individual contributed
$1.14 The expense of running the en-
tire Government cost each of us ex-
actly 1892
The United States, as every one
knows, is the richest nation in he
world. Our bonded debt is $1,032, ,0JO,-
600. Each of us is in debt on this
score just S14.74. Looked at in this
way our national debt, large as it
seems, is a trifling thing. The real
estate holdings of the individual, ac-
cording to this distribution, are alone
worth more than forty times his IN
debtedness. 1t is no wonder that the
world considers loaning money to |
America good risk.
Our country is the land of railroads. |
AS every one knows we have more |
railroads by far than any other cou1-
try in the world. The mileage of the |
United States is 100000 The Share of |
the individual is I3la feet of rail. Still |
another way to state our great wealth
is TO calculate the amount of gold and
silver which woul come TO us il all |
were equally divided Each of us
would have $40 in silver bullion as
his share and $3.50 in solid gold.