Evening star., 1927-08-14
ERA OF FINANCIAL GENIUS
SEEN In RICH MARRIAGES
Tendency of Wealthy Families to Wed
Persons of Own Class Draws Comment
From DIR. Wiggam, Scientist.

| gam. "there was not the wide and
growing gap in wealth between the
| upper and lower classes of colonial
days that there is today. Consequent
ly this wide difference in wealth be-
| tween the upper and lower classes to-
day has segregated the wealthy AMI
accentuated differences that formerly
were not great.
| "In Colonial days a man was con.
| Sidered very Well-to-do IL he owned
| 81, 500 worth of property. The well-to-
| do people of that day possessed from
| 800 to $1,000 or $4,000. Robert
Kane, one of the richest men, left in
| 1856 an estate of $12 $500. Capt.
/ Thomas Brattle died in 1853, leaving
an estate of about $4,000, and one
| historian says that this was probably
the largest in New England. Thus in
! Colonial days the very richest men
were not more than SO times as rich
as the average. BY the year 1850 a
| few fortunes were listed at half a
million dollars. This would make the
very richest man at that time perhaps
| 800 times as rich as the average citi-
! zen.
! But today there are men who are
| 10 900 to 10000 times as rich as thu
| average If this rise of colossal for
tunes were presented graphically, the
mass of average citizens would extend
about 6 inches up. but the very rich
would have to be carried up on pape'
5000 feet high. Such is the gulf that
separates the very rich from the aver
age rich today.
Racial Evolution.
But there is another reason why
wealth is marrying wealth. Many
times in civilizations tendency of the
ruling classes to unite in marriage has
been observed. The nobility of Eu
rope intermarried for centuries. In
America our ruling class are our
financiers. They are merely following
out an old law of racial evolution
the fit tend to marry the fit and so
fortify themselves in their power and
prestige because offspring gets a
double dose of ruling class character
istics."
What factual proof have you that
since Colonial days there has been Il
marked decrease in marriages be-
| tween the rich and the poor?" !
queried.
"One very noted biologist. DIR. F. A.
Woods, has already answered scien
tifically and factually this question.
Woods selected a group of Colonial
| families prior to 1921 who were un-
Ill LtlC uppSA CidoSSS VI AIIOSS
days. The research established the
surprising fact that out of 204 mar
| riages prior to the year 1921. 4S of
them-that is. 23.5 per cent-werc
marriages of these pre-eminent gen
try with the children of yeomen. In
other words, nearly one-fourth, or 90
per cent, of these cases were cross
marriages between upper and lower
classes of that day.
in order to check up results this
same scientist selected another list
of early American families from a
book called The Memorial History OF
of the first of the elite families he
found there and discovered that the
first 100 marriages yielded again APP
proXimately % per cent of cross mar
riages between upper and lower
classes.
Now to get a comparison with
the present day. Woods selected Il
illustrious families before the year
1921 and followed out their mar
riages down to date-families whose
marriages he had included and
traced back of the year 1871. In 152
modern marriages of the descendants
of these II noted families. at least
143, or 90 per cent, turned out to be
marriages within their own class.
There were only two instances known
in the list where marriages were dis
tinctly outside of the social class to
which these people belonged.
."Out of these two examinations
Wood derived the following conclu-
sion: Out of 204 marriages from
families of the gentry in the earliest
period of Colonial history. 119, or
only 5S.3 per cent, We're within their
own grade. But during the modern
period-that is, between 1920 and
1920--at least "a per cent have been
strictly between members of the
same social class. Thus the tendency
toward caste marriages of the
wealthy has increased markedly and
has increased recently. Woods has
given to this pyramiding process the
fine term social conification'
Wealth is marrying wealth in
America. Wealthy families are thus
building up financial genius by this
intermarrying of like qualities. And
these families are going to rule
America for a long time to come.
But l haven't, l repeat again. the
slightest fear of any oppression of
the masses. / look. instead. toward
period OF the most enlightened
economic leadership when we will
have an era of financial geniuses."
tCopyriFht. 1927