Free press., 1901-12-07
roo sTTFENDoUs 70 CoNoEITE:
!. Ilat Americans Fortunes Would Amount
to IN Eighty Years at Per Cent.

This is the StupendouS questions Sug-
gested in the estimate by Henry CleWs
of the natural growth OF the ten. great
est fortunes in America in eighty years.
Mr.. Clews figures are based upon a
casual statement recently made by John
q. Parsons, attorney of the late Henry
Bradley Plant, at the Plant estate.
which is now valued at 20 million dol
lars, will be worth $50 million dollars II
sixty years and 32O million dollars in
eighty years.
Mr.. Clews estimates that, valued to-
day at 1925 million dollars, these ten
fortunes, on the basis used for the Plant
estate, will in eighty years reach the
astounding and wholly inconceiVable
aggregate OF sS6,402, ,S96, ,OOO-and this
not by speculation or any superficial in
crease in values, but by the gradual ac-
eumulation Of wealth by wealth at the
apparently insignificant rate of per
cent year.
This means that these ten fortunes
knt size. It is the strike at which they
would in eighty years be worth 10000
million dollars (12 billion dollars) more
than all the gold and silver in the world.
1t means that they would be sufficient
to buy up all the food in the United
Btates, at the present prices and rate Of
production, for a period of forty years.
l. 1t means that these ten estates would
bwn in eighty years enough OF the
values of the world to give every man,
woman and child in existence $lS-or
twice as much as they would have to-
day were all the wealth in the world
distributed equally among them.
l. With a world supply OF precious
metals falling II billion dollars short Of
hn ability to repr2 ent the fortunes OF
ten American estates, what changes in
finance and currency could be devised
to meet the unparalleled condition?
With a one years food supply Of the
greatest national granery on the earth
representing only one-fortieth OF the
purchasing power of these ten estates.
what new and now undreamed of plans
might be necessary to protect the food
bf the world from monopoly control?
These are some of the questions which
pre- raised for general consideration by
the astounding estimates whic Mr..
Henry Clews has made.
Henry Bradley Plant, late president
of the Plant system of railway and
steamsnIp lines, left an estate worth 90
! million dollars.
By the terms Of remarkable will Mr..
Plant placed his vast estate in trust for
q period of sixty to eighty years.
The fortune remains in tact until a
son of his infant grandson shall have
reached the age of 81 years.
In suit now brought to set aside the
will Attorney John f. Parsons recently
made the following startling Statement:
l. 81 have calculated that the Plant for
tune in sixty years will have increased
IN value to $50 million dollars. In eighty
years 1T viii be worth 800 million dol
aars.
| Mr.. Parsons estimate is based upon
an uninterrupted increase of per cen:
| per annum. Calculated at the same
| steady rate of increase, the ten greatest
i American fortunes will, according to
| Henry CleWs, present the astounding
totals of SIG, 1855, ,264,O0o at the end OF
sixty years and $26, 6,402, ,ss6, 900 at the
end of eighty years.
These figures represent sum so stu
pendous that the human mind cannot
comprehend it. They mean, for exam
pie, that eighty years from now the
! worlds supply of gold and silver will
fall u billion dollars short of enough &C
measure the wealth of these ten estates
The worlds supply of precious metals
increase at the uniform rate Of 200
million dollars year. ALI of the &C.
cumulated store of 5000 years, added &c
the product of eighty years to come
will not pay the toll of the ten richest
men.
In eighty years more these combined
fortunes would amount to $1S per capita
for every man, woman and child in ex.
istence. The per capita is now 1878.
If Adam had had ten sons and they
had set to work at 50 a day to earn this
gigantic sum, each would still have s.
900 years Of toll before him.
This sum would buy and store up the
entire food crop of the United States for
forty years.
In gold it would weigh 95,S12, 500
pounds.
To move it 2,427 freight cars would be
required.
1t would require $4,000 farm wagons
20 carry it.
Working twelve hours q day and
counting SIS minute, one man could
aot reckon the j. D. Rockefeller estate
OF eighty years hence short of SAL years.
Andrew Carnegie's estate could, In
eighty years, finance seven billior-dollar
steel trusts and still have 500 million
dollars left for libraries.
Astounding as these aggregates ap-
pear, the estimated rate Of increase Is
very much less than the pace at which
these fortunes have grown to their pres
ent size, 1t is the stride at which they
would move without the touch of wnis
or spur.
Invested in government or municipal