The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1945-06-22
/ EaZO0KzNC
-.RIE AHEAD
BY GEORGE S. BENSON
AZ \ notwithstanding college
\ ' Searry. Arkaxsas
National Income

How well man lives is matter
that depends largely upon his in
come and how he divides it. If he
earns $40 week $4,000 year, and
spends every bit of it on himself, he
can live about as we'll as anybody
until some unforeseen calamity hits
him. If he has a wife and child
and an aged parent to support, each
individual must subsist on about $40
a week.
How well the people of any nation
live is similar matter. 1t depends
upon the nationa! income and how
it is divided. Just like family in
come, national income changes from
year to year and it is not always
divided the same way. National in
come is the grand total of what ev-
erybody in the nation earns. 1t in
cludes all wages, salaries, farm
yields, interest, rents, profits and
dividends.
How About Now?
The United States Department of
Commerce keeps track of our ma
tional income figures pretty well,
year by year. Already we know that
the income of all Americans totaled
1903 billion dollars in 1914 and that
workers got 1870 of it, or 116 billion
dollars. BY workers." / mean peo-
pie who draw wages and small
clerical salaries. Corporation prof
it's that year ran just under ten bill
lion dollars or SO.
There is popular notion that peo-
pie who work don't get very much of
the fruits of their toll. Not long ago
somebody repeated a 40-year-old
piece of political propaganda to me,
believing it every word. He said,
"Here in America go of the people
have 900 of the wealth." There is
not much to say about this state
ment: 1t is not true. 1t has never
been nearly true.
Official Figures
Last year the national-income dol
lar went like this: TIC to American
workers, &c to corporations, &c to
small businesses in the form of prof
IL, ~ W ldllllCIS do CtdlL VII WAiot
they produced, and another 7c to
landowners and stockholders in the
form of rents and dividends, and
to money lenders in the form of
interest Of course all years aren't
alike but they vary less than you
might think.
National income hobs up and
down but people who work always
get most of it. Back in 1889, which
was a typical pre-war year, our ma
tional income was not half as high
as last years; 1913 billion dollars to
be exact. Then, workers got $3.50
of it, and So was corporation profit
not much change in how the income
was divided, but less than half as
much actual money for everybody.
Ancient History
Back in 1929, the year Hoover sue
ceeded Coolidge as President, ma
tional income was 1873 billion dol.
lars; bigger then, than in 1899. Cor
poration profits were higher-9% as
against go in recent years. But
wage earners and office help were
getting 64% of national income, even
then. In 1882 (the depression) when
corporations generally earned go
less than nothing, wages climbed to
979o and still some working people
went hungry.
Any fair analysis of national in
come figures over period of years
leads to this observation: workers,
laborers and clerical people, gel
more money with the slightly small
er percentage of big national in.
come than with the bigger per.
centage of small national income
The moral is perfectly clear. We
will all fare better working together
for a big national income than by
wrangling about who gets most Of
it, and then having a small ones