The Detroit times., 1913-02-14

GAN HAS.
What is a million dollars, anyway?
Here are the newspaper telling us
about that Pujo money trust investi-
CATION in Washington and talking
about a million here and ten millions
there and a hundred millions in an
other place, and they even get into the
billions when they show by testimony
that j. Pierpont Morgan controls 1874
corporations having an aggregate cap
ital OF 25,335, 000, 900.
Get that-$25 1885, 000, 600!
What do all these figures mean2
Correspondent ellison Gardner decid-
ed to find out II there was any way
by which the human mind could be
made to grasp such monster sums, SO
he went TO see the Hon. 0. p. Austin
CT the governments bureau OF stats
t.cs, who eats nothing but figures for
breakfast, dinner and supper. Austin
put 1t this way.
THE United States treasury ex-
perts will count 4,uU0 silver dollar
piece in an hour and keep it up all
day long; but that is their limit.
Working eight hours day, then, an
expert counter OF coins will count 81
COO silver dollars In a day, but how
long will 1t take him at that rate to
count a million dollarsf -Thirty-one
days
But that Is only the beginning G
the measurement OF great figures, Il
r. this same man we're TO go on count
Ing silver dollars at the same rate OF
speed for 10 years he would find that
he had only counted 100,000,00o OF
them, and that to count billion dol
lars would require 102 years OF steady
work at the rate OF eight hours per
day during every working day OF the
102 years.
THAT 10 the meaning OF q billion
in terms of counting silver dollars"
Dye get that?
But the aggregate amount of money
controlled by Mr.. Morgan In his 134
corporations is not one billion, but
twenty-five billion. SO we will have
TO multiply Austin's term OF years by
20. SO II Morgan began to count the
money which he controls and could
have lease of life granted him for
the purpose, he would work At his
Job $3.50 years.
But suppose 1t is considered not In
terms of money controlled by Nor
gan. but in money actually his-the
amount at which he could cash In"
| IL he desired to convert his holdings
| fate money. On the basis OF the com.
mittee's fndings II Is conservatively
estimated that Morgan Is worth q bill
lloE dollars.
To count this, as we have shown,
would require 1O2 years. So Morgan
has literally more dollars than he can
count.
Bat suppose we consider his wealth
In terms Of income instead OF princi
pal. Poor people count principal. but
the rich are always considering
wealth merely in terms Of income
The income from a billion dollars al
five per cent is $5O.000.00o year
This would amount TO approximately
$ls7 900 day or about s5,f26 pei
hour. waking or sleeping, or 1854:
a minute, or $1.59 every time the
clock ticks, morning noon and night
| Here's another way. Let US con
slider how many families Morgan
could support. Suppose, to begin
with. we take families living at the
rate of $4,000 q year, which will give
n family OF FIVE a decent house,
clothes and education. With his in
come of fifty millions, II Is easy to
see that Morgan could furnish sup
port for $4,000 families. This would
/ be quite a fair-sized city. 1t would be
city OF $4,000 people. Suppose
Morgan devoted his principal to sup
porting families at $4,000 q year. he
could support for q year b00,oO0
families, or q population OF 100000
persons.
But the great majority OF families
In America, according to the census