Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1929-09-12
ARE WE A NATION OF PAUPERS?

Are we a nation of paupersp Evidently this is the no.
ton held by Mrs. Daisy Nicholson, University of California
economist. 1t was a sad picture painted by the lady, who is
an extension lecturer OF the University OF California, IN a re-
cent address which is given wide publicity.
According to Mrs. Nicholson, thirteen per cent of the
American people own ninety per cent of the property. Only
one-fourth Of the people have enough to provide actual ne
cessities of life. The American workngman has nothing
left for vacation savings, automobiles and radios.
This sounds very depressing at first sight, but an analysis
of these figures will show how far an economist may go
astray when she undertakes to make figures fit theories rath-
err than theories fit figures.
When it is stated, as it is SO often, that thirteen per
cent of the American people own ninety per cent OF the pro-
perty, no mention is made of the fact that most holders of
property are heads of families which share both morally and
legally in 'hese accretions. For instnace, Mrs. Nicholson
counts among the financially busted some 80, 900, 900 I'M
der fifteen years of age these 60 to help make up this 80 per
cent. She also counts all wives and other members of house
holds who derive their support from the property held in
fewer hands, and puts them in the class OF the economically
dsinherited There are, according to government figures,
some IS 600, 600 families in the United States, or "A per
family. 50 that this thirteen per cent must be multiplied by
three Of four to tell the real ruth. The accurate statement
would then have to be that between forty and fifty per cent
of the people are in possession of ninety per cent of the
property.
The statement that only one-fourth of the people have
enough to provide the actual necessities of life is equally far
fetched, and is quite easy to dispose Of with a few facts.
There are twenty million passenger motor cars in use in the
United tates. Eliminating all Implications it will be noted
that one passenger in six has a motor car, and this means at
least two families in three. In other words, while Mrs. Mich
olson asserts that only one person in four has enough to pro-
vide the actual necessities O. life, statistics show that three
fourths of the people belong to families which are able to
maintain motor cars. Perhaps Mrs. Nicholson calls an auto
mobile an actual necessity Of life, but the deduction drawn
from her statement by most readers would be that seventy
five per cent of the people are suffering for food, clothing,
medical attention etc.
Here are some more figures that bear on the crdbility
OF Mrs. Nicholson S statment. There are telephones in over
seventeen millions out of less than thirty million structures
out of the country. More than half of he families in the
country have telephones. There are more than eighteen mil
lion homes in which electric lights are used. There were in
effect in 1927, 81. 246, 402 industrial insurance policies.
There were l,336,26l members of building and loan associ-
atoms with deposits of $7l78, 562,45l.
No one believes that we have reached a perfect industri-
al or social order in this country, yet few believe that the
economists and sociologists who profess their ability to SUI
~perinduce the millennium by some verbal hocus pocus, could
do anything of the kind No service to the masses Of the
people of this country is done by those who paint a far black
er picture than the facts Justify. Nowhere else in the world,