The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1906-06-27
WHERE THE SOCIALIST GOES WRONG.


WHERE THE SOCIALIST GOES WRONG.
It has long been the practice OF the
s0cialistic agitator in haranRuing
people who will listen to him to assert
that under the present "capitalistic
system" q few men are rapidly getting
all the wealth of the country into their
" hands and that the day 10 near
when they will own everything and
have everybody at their mercy. Not
so very long ago his stereotyped Is.
sertion was that thirty men owned
more than half of the wealth of the
country, or something about to that
effect.
This sort OF assertion comes very
handy for the reckless agitator, says
the Chicago Chronicle, because the
census does moi show who owns the
wealth, and other source Of informa.
ton are unreliable, and It is therefore
impossible to produce official figures
showing even approximately the truth
of the matter. But we have plenty of
facts indicating Enthusiastically that
thirty men do not own one.half the
country's wealth OF anything like it.
That fiction was current as long ago
as 1885, when the country was pros.
pering greatly despite the calamity
prophets who had told US that the re.
sumption Of specie payments spelt
ruin, and it is still with US.
TO begin with, it has been open to
common observation that from that
day to this we have had many men of
moderate fortunes running from $780,.
600 to 500, 900. Every town Of any
size, especially in the northern states,
has had one or more such men, and it
has been equally open to common OBJ.
servation that the number of these
small fortunes has been increasing in
u greater ratio than the total popula-
ton.
1t is notorious, too, that wages have
advanced largely throughout the coun.
try and that the ''poor," as they are
called, so far from being poorer are
decidedly better off than they were.
The census statistics, for instance,
show that the number of farms in the
country increased from 4,OOS. 907 in
1880 to 5,737,372 in 1900, and that the
number operated by their owners in.
creased from 1884, 306 to 3,712, 4Os.
This certainly does not show that
farms have been passing from the
of the many into the hands of a
few.
W. find a palmer and more general
indication in the statistics of wealth.
The figures of the census show that
the total realized wealth of the coun.
try was $42, 642, OOO, 900 in 1880, $685.
O37, 100, 900 in 1890 and s94, 300, 900 900
in 1900.
A very simple arithmetical process
will show that If thirty men owned
over one.half of these totals each man
of them owned an average OF at least
S7lO, 7OO, 600 in 1880, $l,OS3, 900 900 In
1890 and So, l43, OOO, 900 in 1900.
This bare statement shows how pre-.
posterous is the assertion that thirty
men now own or even owned One-hali
of the wealth of the country. 1t shows
that the assertion is Q falsehood with
out the least foundation In fact.
There is not q man living, it is safe
to say, who is now worth 81, ZOO. 600,
600, much less than thirty men in this
country each worth on the average
three times that enormous sum-. To
say that we have thirty men worth
3 5000. 0OO, 900 in the aggregate, or ar
average 800. OOO, 900 each, might be L
keep within the bounds Of the credulit!
of the most receptive mariner, but
would be very extravagant.
The socialistic agitator perfect.
understands the readiness of the av
erage person to take in almost any
thing anyb is pleased to tell hin
about the magnitude of q rich man
fortune. He takes advantage of thi
form Of credulity to magnify the grea
fortunes and lend plausibility to hi
alarming fiction that the rich ar
growing richer by leaps and bound
and that before we are aware they vii
get hold of everything and reduce a
the rest of us to bond age and abjet
poverty.
THE GAME OF POLITICS.