Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-01
MEN AND MONEY
BY Nj. S. RuIecyscr.
Copyright, 1927

Perhaps it Is a sign that SOCIAL
foundations are Of granite when the
aristocracy of wealth in America feels
unafraid in boasting of it's extrava-
gance and grandeur.
In a country where wealth is less
widely diffused among the masses
spokesman for the giided classes mig nj
hesitate before telling the world In
precise statistical form the manner
in which the affiuent indulge their
whims and their fancles. Catering to
the passion of Americans for superla-
lives. the Park Avenue Association in
New York shas published figures to
support it's claim that Park avenue
has greater spending power than amy
other boulevard in the world. Incl
dentally, the statement also tends to
prove that the local milhonaireS row
has shifted from Fifth avenue to Park
avenue.
Such a change was inevitable. The
war began to turn out millionalres in
quantity production. The one-family
houses of Fifth avenue could not be-
gin to house those who suddenly found
thmselves subject to the upper brack-
cts of the SurtaX. Park avenue, a
newer street, has in the last decade
developed skyscraper multiple apart
ment houses to crowd in the new sur
felt of millionaires.
Average Income $4,000 Year.
According to the Park Avenue AS
ISOLATION, of which Fl. Gordon Duval
is president, the average income of
residents of Park avenue is $75 900 a
year-the salary of the Chief EXecu-
tive of the United States. Residents
on this avenue strewn with gold be-
tween Thirty.fourth and Ninety-sixth
streets, spend $40 900 600 a year for
jewelry. the same amount is spent for
food and 81 900, 900 more than the out
lay for rent Besides, SIS, 900, 900 a
year is spent for paintings, objects of
art and antiques and another SIS ,000,-
600 for furnishings and decorations
The association estimates that the
1000 plutocratic families spend 81 ,096,-
107 a day and approximately $3.50, 000,-
600 a year for comparative luxuries.
There is profit for a relatively
small number of vendors of articles
for the rich. However, genuinely big
business depends not only on the aris-
tocracy of wealth customers, but on
the masses. The rich cannot run
100000 automobiles, or use more
than 1850, 900 telephones. Mass pro-
duction, which Is the American way of
overcoming the penury of nature, de
ponds on mass consumption-not on
the extravagances of the upper crust
of society. The new American
scheme of economic enterprise is in
the nature of things more or less dem
ocratic. It's smooth functioning de-
ponds on a perpetual raising of the
standard of living of the great multi
tudes of average families.
Workmen's Earnings Larger.
Moreover, the earnings of working
men and professional classes constl.
tute a large aggregate amount each
year than the income of large CAPT
talists. The wealthiest individuals. in
order to finance their pet corporations,
are in increasing numbers taking the
masses into partnership either
through the sale of shares to en-
ployeS, to customers, or to the gen.
eral public. This unprecedentedly wide
diffusion of tokens of wealth consti.
tutes what Prof. T. N. Carver. Har.
ward economic sage, regards as an
economic revolution.
The late Warren S. Stone, former
chief of the Brotherhood of Locomo-
tive Engineers and father of the labor
DdAiAAiA6 movement IN America, once
told me that if railroad workers saved
their money they could own the rail.
roads for which they toll in 10 years.
Park avenue may be the center of
what Thorstein Veblen describes as
conspicuous waste and conspicuous
spending, but in the aggregate bust
ness of the country its purchases con-
stitute a negligible bay in a great
ocean OF economic power Prosperity
rises and falls in accordance with the
purchase of Main street and 10000
byways. Park avenue is merely a
symptom of national prosperity, not a
cause.
Incidentally, the recent mergence of
Park avenue as a capital of glorified
business success is feather in the
cap of the New York Central Rail-
road Co., which is the largest single
beneficiary of this new real estate de.
velopment. Many of the homes of
millionaires are on plots owned
by the railroad and leased to the in
dividual who constructed the building.