Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1901-07-03
FATE OF FORTUNES.
It Doesn't Take Long to Seattle,
Them in America.
There Are Not More Than Three Genera
lions Between Shirt-Sloeves and Shirt
Sleeves - a Common Fallacy
About Great Possessions.

Much appreH don is felt and often ex-
pressed concerning the concentration Of
enormous wealth In the hands Of few per-
sons, the idea being that a sort of plutocrat-
10 dynasty may be established which will
tend to destroy republican institutions in
time and to subvert the liberties of the peg
pie. The impression is quite general, says
the San Francisco Chronicle, that there is q
source of great danger to tie Nation in
these gigantic fortunes, and some reform
ers have even gone so far as to propose that
hereditable wealth shall be limited bylaw,
the excess over a certain sum to go not to
the rich mans legatees and devisees, but to
the State. This idea, however, has not been
received with general favor, for it antagon-
lies the theory Of property, which seems too
deeply seated to be uprooted even by Henry
George and his followers.
The danger Of dynasty of plutocrats ID
rather imaginary than real Large fortunes
become scattered in much less time than
might be imagined; or, to put it as it has
been already expressed by an American
writer, there are not more than three gen.
erations between shirt-sleeves and shirt
sleeves" This rise and fall of fortune
could hardly be expressed more tersely and
epigrammaticsIly, and at the same time
with more truth. The representative of the
drst generation takes of his coat and gees
70 work in his shirt-sleeves, and by I'm
ceaslng industry accumulates competence.
To him succeeds his son, who inherits his
fathers industry, and has, superadded to
that industry, the gift Of money-making,
and he dies very rich. Then comes his son,
in whom the old stock shows marked signs
OF deterioration, and his life is given rather
to spending money than to earning it, so
that when he dies the fortune which he in
herited has vanished into thin air, and his
son has to pull off his coat and go to work
In his shirt-sleeves, as did the founder Of
the family before him.
This is reducing the case to the slimmest
possible terms, for it must be apparent that
with family of sons and daughters the
acquired fortune will be dissipated even
more speedily. Take few figures by way
OF further Illustration: Our imaginary rep
resentative Of the second generation dies
worth, let US say, $1,000, 600, but he leaves
two sons and two daughters. His fortune
Is then divided into four equal parts, giving
t500, 900 to each child. Should each of these
children have four children the share of
each would be but 1925, 900, even if the
original fortune were to remain unimpaired;
but out ct sixteen children 1t is certain that
ct least one-half would be improvident, es-
pecially If bore 70 a fortune. So it is safe
20 say that by the end of the second genera
ton the fortune Of 100000 would have
dwindled to 81 900 900, and that third gen.
GRAFTON would zoe the money scattered ia;
and wide.
America has presented thus far bit two
exceptions to this rule, in the families of
the Astors and the Vanderbilts, and the
time has not yet fully run to say with GER
tainty that they are exceptions. But even
Ii they prove to be they do not destroy tie
force Of the proposition as a general truth
that great fortunes can not be held together
for very long period. but will become
broken up and scattered, returning to the
general mass Of the wealth of the country
from which they have been segregated.
OF course the absence of the law of pri-
mogeniture and Of the law Of entail makes
this dissolution of fortune more probable in
the United States than it would be where
those laws prevail In Great Britain landed
estates descended from generation to gen.
GRAFTON because so strictly entailed tt at sue
cessive holders have what in reality is only
a life interest in the land and only one child
takes that With US entail is practically
unknown, and public sentiment and in
some States the law itself, insists upon :.
division among all the children, so that it is
impracticable to transmit real property as
it is transmitted under English law. This
does away with any danger Of landed
ar1stocracy, and insureS the ultimate distri-
button of the land among the people.
Again, there is u common fallacy about
great fortunes which often leads to con-
fusion. A man, Jay Gould, for example, is
spoken of as being worth $5OOOO,OOO or
SIS, 600, 900 and we picture him to ourselves
as sitting in front of his strong box and
gloating on mass of gold coin which he has
Withdrawn from circulation, and which he
might throw into the ocean if he pleased.
The fact is that his wealth is represented
in tho main by certain printed or written
pieces of paper called stocks and bonds, hav.
ing a certain negotiable value, but each one
Of these pieces Of paper, while it represents
o certain monthly or annual income for It's
holder, also represents avenues of industry
for hundreds and thousands of the Amer
lean people, to whom the greatest calamity
that could befall them would be Jay Goulc's
failure and bankruptcy.
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