The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-06-06
ERA OF PROSPERITY.
Country PhcnomeRaily Prosperous
Durinr Last Ten NearS

During Last Ten Years.
We are hearing a good deal these
days to the effect that the country has
been phenomenally prosperous during
the last ten years-mOre so than ever
before in its history. The politician
who thinks it incumbent on him to
make out a rOuSing case for the Ding
ley tariff as the fount of every bless
ing is especially emphatic in making
this assertion.
He is not going into figures to prove
his case just now, but in the fullness
of time we shall hear him quoting lib
orally from the volume OF the 'Statis-
teal Abstract" which has just been
issued by the bureau of statistics of the
department of commerce and labor and
which contains comparative tables
showing the economic progress of the
country as far back as data are avail
able.
We need not expect him to draw
anything from this treasury OF infor-
nation that does not tend to maintain
the general statement that our pros
perity under the Dingley tariff has
surpassed anything in the past history
of the country and has been little short
of miraculous.
There is one comparison which COM
prises the whole mater in nutshell
so far as that statement is concerned.
That is the comparison OF wealth per
head of population at different times.
II We accept the Statistical Abstract"
as good authority this comparison must
be taken Us conclusive, for if prosper
it, is not shown by the per capita in
crease in wealth it cannot be shown by
pretty sure to be ignored by those who
assure US that our prosperity Of late
has never been equaled.
1t is undoubtedly true, and nobody
will care to deny it, that we have been
enjoying substantial prosperity, be-
sides an appearance of prosperity with
rothing substantial behind it, since the
passage of the Dingley tariff, and that
we have been especially prosperous
during the last six years.
But we need not 90 further back in
the records from which the government
statisticians get their facts than the
year 1880 to show that our recent pros
Perity has not been SO greatly beyond
anything ever before known.
According to the abstract our wealth
per head OF population in 1880 was
$3.50. In 1900 it was S1,03S. The In
crease in the ten years was $3.50, or a
fraction over - per cent.
In 1900 our per capita wealth was
81 ,16J. The increase over 1890 was
$127, or close to 12A per cent. That
was the panic decade. One would think
from the tremendous cutlery raised
about hard times in those years that
tie people were growing poorer-that
they were living on what they had
saved during the good times gone be-
fore. But they were doing nothing Of
the kind. They were producing all that
they consumed and something to lay by
besides-something like $127 for every
man. woman and child or more than
50, zoe, 100000 for all OF them together.
OF enough to reproduce nearly all the
railroads then in the country and their
equipment, or upward OF $500, 100000
more than the entire wealth of the
country in 1850 according to the cen
sus for that year.
Now we come to the alleged UMPIRE
cedented prosperity. According to the
same Official authority our per capita
wealth increased from S1,165 in 1900
to S1,31O in 1906. The increase was
S145 per head, or less than 121a per
cent in six years. AT this rate the IN
crease for the entire decade, begin
ring with 1900 may be a little more
than % per cent, the increase from
1880 to 1890. 1t may be less.
There is nothing in the official fig
ures, therefore, 10 warrant the asser-
ton that the country has prospered
beyond all precedent since the enact
neut of the Dingley tariff. 1t has pros
pered Nobody denies or cares TO deny
that. So far as its prosperity may
have been due to legislation we ought
probably to thank the gold standard
legislation as much as the tariff legis-
lation.
AS matter Of fact, the enormously
increased worlds output of gold is en-
titled to more credit than any legisla-
ton, and the industrial energy and
genius of our people is entitled to more
credit than all three OF the other
caused named
1t is not creditable to us as a peo-
PIE claiming to be highly enlightened
to ascribe all our prosperity TO some
act of congress and all our adversely
to some other act of congress. And 1t
is not creditable to our statesmen that
they encourage the propensity Of peo-
pie to place superstitious trust in
statutory charms or fetiches.
The people owe their prosperity to
their natural environment and their
own efforts, not to acts of congress-
Chicago Chronicle.