Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1903-02-12
HOW MUCH is A BILLION?
No Eillionaire Class" Yet Exist
ent.

salary of 100000 a year. His sai-
AIRY is about one-tenth of that sum,
which is pretty good pay for the SCI
vices of any one man. Two years
ago John d. Rockefeller was said TO
be worth $2O0,000,00O. This sooa
grew TO be too small a sum in the
eyes of imaginative newspaper writ
ers and they increased it to S500,000,-
600 and then to SS00,000000. Some
of them have placed it at 81 900 ,000,-
00O, and there are people who believe
it because they read it in a newspa-
per, or heard some campaign spell-
binder make the assertion.
A $1,000, 900 is a good deal of
money. IL is so much the ordinary
mind cannot conceive the immensely
of it. Beside it S1.000,000 would
seem like SO cents. And 81 .0O0, 006
is a considerable sum-larger than
some of us are in the habit of carry
ing. When a man through luck, bus
mess sagacity, theft or robbery has
accumulated as much as a half mil
lion or a million, ne is usually rated
as millionaire several times over
A year or two ago a New York paper
printed what purported to be a list
of the millionaires of this country.
If we remember correctly the list
contained about 1000 names. In it
were included a number of Tennes-
scans, not one in five of whom was
then, is now or ever was a million.
aire. 1t is as easy to write billion
as 1t is to write million, and il is
easier to write million than il is to
write one hundred thousand-anu
this is why there are so many i'm.
mense fortunes in this country-on
paper. We are led to make these
PREDATORY observations by the follow
ing from the Washington Post, which
is also somewhat shy in accepting
as gospel truth wonderful stories.
heard over at the mill or down a,
the store, concerning the stupendous
wealth of persons who are not oil
speaking terms with the estimators.
REALTORS or auditors:
rs there man in the Uniteo
States whose assets are worth ST.
600, 100000? Senator Hoar has heard
of such a citizen, and his mention of
the unnamed Millionaire is exciting a
good deal of Speculation. The Post
has no doubt that the senator stat
ed fact-the fact that he had heard
that wondrous story-Lut the Post
does not believe that such a man
lives in this or any other land be-
meath the sun. 1t may be possible,
although we doubt 1t seriously. that
the American citizen is worth $780,
100000, and that there are several
others whose fortunes vary from $50
100000 to 500, 900, 900. but that biz.
lionaire passes our belief like a fairy
tale.
1t is a rare occurrence for the es.
tate of a wealthy decedent to "cut
up or "pan-out' half the ante-moI-
tenn estimate Expectant heirs are
as likely to find the liabilities in ex-
cess of the assets as to fully realize
their hopes. 1t is sometimes advan-
tageous to an ambitious manor at
any rate, he deems IL soto be rated
in fortune far beyond his possessions,
IN other cases false rating is not the
fault of the rated but due rather 10
the general habit of exaggeration.
Men pass for millionaires or multi
in spite of their posi-
tive and truthful disclaimers.
There are few minds that are able
to comprehend the meaning of fig
ures that extend beyond one million,
and even that total staggers the av-
erage man. 1t means putting one
thousand onto another thousand 800
the putting of one million onto an
other SO times, or one thousand
repeated one hundred thousand times.
And billion means one thousand
or million times one thou
sand. AS well try to comprehend
the distance from the earth to star
whose light occupies two hundred
years in reaching this planet. 1t is
like counting the little drops of wat.
er" and little grains of sand" that
the Sunday-school children are taught
make the mighty ocean and the
beauteous land"
There are large fortunes in this
many such, perhaps
but none of them gets in sight OF the
billion mark. Death will, in a few
years, divide most OF them, and the
heirs will speedily subdiyide into
small fractions. Let us hope, too,
that the growing habit of our rich
men to give beck TO the people in the
shape of educational or charitable
institutions much of their wealth
will continue to grow. Meanwhile It
should be easily possible to put
period to undue accumulation OF
wealth through the operation of ua-
just, unequal laws. Nashville Amer