Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-20
MANY M|LL|ONA|RES
There Has Been a Regular
Mushroom Growth
IN THE LAST DECADE
MEN WHO KNOW NO LIMIT IN
MONEY GETTING.
Origin of Some Big Fortunes - Com
parsons Between Today and
a Century Ago.

Written for The Evening Star by John CLINE
Speed.
Give me neither riches nor poverty the
| wise King Solomon prayed in the older
| time How often that is the prayer now
| adays l do not know; but l am persuaded
that nearly all men of ambition in the mod
| ern world are struggling for wealth with
might and main. And what is more in the
| United States at least. more men achieve
| riches than was ever the ease before in the
| history Of the world III
| To be millionaire Is still a distinction,
| but there are now so many OF them tha'
| the presence of one of them, even in a
remote part of the country does not create
| a very great sensation The increase In the
| numbers of this class has been more marked
in the past decade than previously but the
class has been growing for more than hall
a century l am not going to say how many
there are; to do this would be guessing
even for the best Informed banker in the
country. But that there are ten where
there was one thirty years ago Is surely
true, as true, indeed, as the other fact that
cannot be disproved, that there are 100 TO-
day where there was one sixty years ago.
This statement. which Is not made as an
exercise in guessing or merely for the pur-
pose Of creating surprise, shows how WON
derfully this country has grown In wealth
in a comparatively short space of time.
If the millionaries have become more nu-
merous, the well-to-do-the happy well-to-
do, according to King Solomon-have In
creased in numbers also, and the thrifty
poor have removed themselves further from
the worst pains of poverty. The Well-to-do,
the thrifty and the industrious prosper
with the rich. 1t Is inevitable that they
should, and study of savings bank depos-
its and real estate statistics in the census
,;ynpa W IN lie pQ n.
able of recognizing results and seeing facts
In their real relations to one another.
In Colonial Days.
And yet in the colonial days or the early
federal days it is doubtful If there was
any man in the whole country who could
be called a millionaire. 1t used to be the
right thing to say that George Washing
ton was the richest man of his day in
America, l very much doubt it. He was
careful and thrifty and always knew how
he stood in his affairs, but he probably
had very little money; nor did his estate
even when combined with that of the
Widow Curtis, have those potentialities of
wealth from which great riches come by
what Henry George called "unearned IN
crement."
Washington's wealth could not have been
nearly SO considerable as the PATRON Van
Rensselaer's of that day, for he owned
thirty miles square on either side of the
Hudson Z, y
besides a very considerable estate In New
York cfty There were potentialitieS of
wealth in this Van Rensselaer, property
and what is more. they were realized, for
in the forties the estate of Stephen Van
Rensselaer,, the last of the PATRONS, was
estimated to be worth ten millions of dol
lars, and this property was considered
only to be less in value than that of John
Jacob Aston that marvellous money-maker,
whose enterprises and investments were
more lucky even than the dreams of AL
naschar of Arabian Nights memory.
The Astor Estate.
This remarkable Aston, from humble be-
ginnings in 1888, when his career in this
country began until .1s4S when he died,
made the accumulation of money the one
main object of his life. And no man up
to his time in America at least, ever sue
ceeded so abundantly. When he died he
left some s25, 100000 to his sons and daugh-
tiers. 100000 to found public library and
an annuity of $500 to his friend. the poet,
Fitz Green Halleck. The fortune estab-
lished by the first Astor has grown into
something so immense that his heirs can
not spend the income; so the fortune Is
getting larger all the while. and utterly
refutes the saying whlch generation ago
was accepted in this country as an axiom
an America 1t is only three generations
from shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves"
But there were many. wealthy men in
America sixty years age gear and notably many
metropolis, as 1t is now, but not SO far
ahead as at present Of Philadelphia and
Boston. In 1916 MosessY. Beach, then the
owner of the New York Sun, compiled,
with the assistance OF commercial, real es-
| tate and banking friends, list of the rich
men and women in the metropolis. The
standard as to wealth was not then so
high as it is now, for person who then
| had 500 600 or its equivalent in property
| was considered rich enough to be notable.
| This list embraced Io24 names. some of
them undivided estates. OF these the fol-
lowing were set down as worth million
| or more: