Cornell University Library HB 821.B77 The impending crisis; conditions resultin 3 1924 002 741 357 THE LIBRARY OF THE NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002741357 PRICE, 35 CENTS THE IMPENDING CRISIS CONDITIONS RESULTING FROM THE CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES By BASIL BOUROFF PUBLISHERS MIDWAY PRESS COMfiattTTEE CHICAGO THE IMPENDING CRISIS. CONDITIONS RESULTING FROM THE CON- CENTRATION OP WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES. THE IMPENDING CRISIS CONDITIONS RESULTING FROM THE CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES. BY BASIL A. BOUROFF, Graduate Student of the University of Chicago. publishers, Midway Press Committee, CHICAGO. 1900. Copyright, i900, by MIDWAY PRESS COMMITTEE. PREFACE. This is not a novel, nor a work of fiction; it is based on the facts of the Eleventh Census and other statistical reports, and on the most reliable authorities on these subjects. This book repre- sents the most essential and fundamental features of the nation's situation. It shows the reasons why your cities rapidly become the property of a com- paratively very few persons; why the American farmers lose their ground, and the urban popula- tion lose liberty; and why all become absolutely dependent upon a few multi-millionaires. It ex- poses the conditions in consequence of which the whole nation becomes a nation of mere tenants of farms and homes, paying rents; and, while the wealth increases, the greatest majority of the peo- ple come into desperate struggle not for pleasure, but for simple existence. In order to impart as much knowledge in regard to the situation of the nation as possible, it was found necessary to supply the readers with a suf- ficient comparison of statistical facts, pointing to the differences of averages made by different au- thorities on the subject. This comparison has also been introduced for the purpose of indicating cer- tain truths of special value, and for finding the true V vi PREFACE. bases of reasonably dealing with the most vital problem of the national existence. This problem involving conditions that cause the commonly rec- ognized social unrest of the present time is a prob- lem which grows in intensity. Recognizing the difficulty in solving the prob- lem and the danger of the situation, we should not wonder, if the very persons who are always inclined to make discounts in established truths, will be profoundly surprised to know from the final conclusions here presented, that the time of dis- counts has passed away, and that it is now too late to ignore the facts of so serious significance. If this work should come to be regarded as a general diagnosis of the diseased situation, we may rest assured that there are many thousands of peo- ple who will count it their sacred duty to find the proper remedy for curing the disease of the na- tional organism. For it will be seen that the situ- ation is rapidly growing worse every year with the increase of population, and there must be an end to the disease. Surely, if the increase of the national wealth is becoming less than the continual net incomes of the private monopolies, trusts and combinations, it is not difficult to recognize that the situation is already very bad. It is therefore desirable that every one should carefully learn the situation. THE AUTHOR. Chicago, April i, 1900. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES. Preliminary: opinions and views i Conclusions of Mr. G. K. Holmes, U. S. Census Expert, illustrated by diagrams and Table 1 5 Conclusions of Mr. Thos. G. Shearman 11 Diagrams, Table II, and explanation 12 Conclusions of Dr. C. B. Spahr 18 Diagrams, Table III, and explanation 20 CHAPTER II. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. Statistics of aggregate wealth 27 Economic classes of families analysed 28 Holders of wealth, tenants and mortgagors 32 Reciprocal comparison of contradictory classes 39 Comparison of the poor and the rich families 42 Right table resulting from comparisons 45 Comparison of families in tables of different authorities: averages of family wealth 47 Illustrative chart showing worth of individuals 50 CHAPTER III. THE PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. Fundamental diflference in number of resources of the propertied and propertyless 53 Sources of multiple incomes of the wealth owners 54 vii vm CONTENTS. (Extent of mechanical forces applied to labor in favor of the wealthy) 57 A propertyless man himself is a source of multiple ex- penses in favor of the propertied "^ Primogeniture replaced by dividogenesure, the principle of dividogenesure defined and explained 7° CHAPTER IV. ABNORMITY OF THE SOCIAL SITUATION. Numbers of the people subject to dividogenesure 78 (Percentage of the homeless population in cities and towns and of the landless on farms) 79 The propertyless a great nation 83 Bread-winners and others in gainful pursuits 89 Productivity of the American people superior 93 The people labor in favor of speculators 95 (Artificial world a witness for justice and rights) 98 Yearly net gains of the natural monopolies loi Rates of injustice of dividogenesure expressed in daily incomes derived from millions of dependent individ- uals by the wealthy few 103 CHAPTER V. THE MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. Loss of rights precedes loss of property no Statistics of farm and home families in debt in Percentages and numbers of families in debt in the United States after 1890: double table 116 Increase of mortgages on acre-tracts and lots 119 Amounts of indebtedness and life of mortgage 121 Per capita debt and average rate percent on the debt. . . . 122 Annual interest charges on debts combined 126 Public and other debts in force after 1890 stated 126 Significance of mortgages: different views 128 Loss of properly by foreclosure of mortgages 135 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER VI. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH IN MONOPOLIES, ETC. Increase of the national wealth in seven years 139 Wages: the doctrine of; artificially kept up; the fall of. . . 141 Net incomes of the natural and mortgagee monopolies from 1891 to 1897 inclusive 145 Net incomes of monopolizers of rentable houses for the same period 146 Net incomes of monopolies of rentable farm lands for the same period 148 Net incomes of some trusts unascertained 151 Net incomes of the owners of offices, hotels and other rentable properties in the centers of cities 152 Development of trusts in manufacture and mechanical industries; concentration of capital 154 Net incomes of manufacture and mechanical trades 157 Net incomes of mining monopolies 161 Increase of the propertyless population 164 Grand total of the total-net-incomes of monopolies, trusts, and combinations in seven years 169 Excess of the net incomes over the total increase of the national wealth in seven years explained 170 National and local taxes for seven years paid 174 Increase of the propertyless and that of national wealth after 1897 up to 1900 stated 180 Appendix 187 Index 191 CHAPTER I. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN THE UNITED STATES. When a heavy mass of clouds suddenly rises in a clear sky, every one thinks that a terrific storm is to follow, displaying a great store • of pent up forces. And many people ^"^rfMEs^"^ never make a single mistake in pre- dicting from so ominous a summer sky what is going to take place. Some similar forecasting is now going on within the consciousness of the peo- ple. For nearly every one more or less clearly feels that he is heavily pressed upon by some por- tent in the national life. And every one whose mental horizon is clear enough and wide enough sees, beyond the outward appearance, that some- thing dangerous is stored in the nation. It may be something so unusually great in its force, some- thing so explosive, something so combustible, that with the new century it may terribly shake the world. It was quite recently when the "North Ameri- can" of Philadelphia asked the question, "What has the Nineteenth Century in store for Philadel- phia?" And by its own admission the replies received were amazing. In summing them up, 1 2 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. before spreading them at large before its readers, it said: "Substantial business men, whose names are al- most household words, solemnly afifirm that with OPINIONS OF the new century will come revolu- BusiNESs tion and bloodshed. Leading law- yers say the tendency will be toward socialism. Bankers join with labor leaders in fore- casting the triumph of the single-tax theory and the consequent overthrow of existing social condi- tions. That such a tremendous undercurrent of dissatisfaction and unrest exists in this city will undoubtedly come as a shock to thousands of con- servative citizens. The opinions given are not those of labor agitators or anarchists. They are the careful expressions of men of wealth and of broad education. The revolutionary suggestions were not shouted upon the street in time of riot and excitement, but were given deliberately while the speakers sat in their well furnished ofifices, sur- rounded by comforts and evidences of prosper- ity.*" So then the Nineteenth Century has stored up in the social organism of the nation enough material to produce revolution and bloodshed in the Twentieth Century. And Mr. Louis Post says in "The Public" of Chicago: "Our leisurely friends of Philadelphia, * Quoted frgm "The Public," Numter 6p, July 29, 1899, DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 3 who are to be envied, by the way, and not sneered at, for being philosophical enough and sensible enough tO' keep so much unwholesome hustle out of their lives — these slow and sober people must have been 'startled' by the above 'revelations' of the Philadelphia North American, that ancient landmark, now in its 128th year.* It was undoubt- edly an amazing surprise in view of its age that the answer of its readers was, as you see, 'revolu- tion and bloodshed.' If similar questions were presented to the think- ing public of the various cities of the United States, we might have thousands of like opnions and all of them would be conditioned by sufficient reasons. One of the most prominent thinkers of the city of Chicagot also quite recently said that "the Twentieth Century will bring to us the bloodiest revolution that human l°earn°ed^m'en. history ever witnessed." And his assertion was not less amazing than was the affirm- ation of the substantial business men of Philadel- phia, If it were honest and right to expose the names of men whose confidential conversations led to the same or similar assertions, I alone could make a long list of these names. They all admit that the nation, as an organism, has long been diseased; its nerves have long been * Louis Post, ibid. t His name cannot be here given. 4 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. abnormally strained. But, like the friends of Phila- delphia, they speak about revolution and blood- shed which is but the last and most convulsive stage of any nation's serious disease. And it is true that, when this stage is reached, it is impossible to avoid the most intolerable operation. But the amazing feature of such opinions is that different men agree in affirming that revolution and bloodshed is almost unavoid- "'unrktI'' able; yet different men, as I know, assign dififerent causes for such an undesirable event.* Some say it must come be- cause the population increases and the unemployed laborers increase. Others say that the trusts, com- binations, and monopolies must ruin the nation. Still others say that progress and poverty, being very rapid in their diverse directions, must rapidly bring the wealthy and the poor into the state of cut-throats against each other. And only very few men understand that all these causes are but secondary, though working to the same horrible end. While the real, effective cause for revolution and bloodshed, vdth the nation, is the exceedingly unequal distribution of wealth, and its rapid con- centration in a very few hands. It is this situation that our democratic people will not be able to endure, because they are born * This work will show the real causes of it and the rapid tendency toward it. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. free, whereas the storing up of wealth in a few hands makes them all economic slaves; deprives them of the privileges they enjoyed; makes people them absolutely dependent upon the think they are mercies of the rich, which, if shown to them, they may live; if withheld from them, they must starve to death. Let us see, then, what it is that the Nineteenth Century has stored up, which is to result in such a terrific convulsion in the Twentieth Century. The following diagrams present the Logical Premises from which the "revolution and blood- shed," as a conclusion, must inevitably follow, pro- vided their action is not checked. Distribution of Wealth in the United States.* Population: 62,622,250. Wealth: $65,037,091,197. ' i!i;'i^ff^'6 i i: ■y^y^^^//. wm A Millionaires .03 | Hieh 8.97 .09 Lower.... 11 Poor. .53 .91 Uillianaires.20 Ricli.. Uiddle lover. Poor .. ,71 .29 * Encyclopedia of Social Reform, p. 1435. Ed. by Rev. Wm. Bliss and published in 1897 by Funk and Wagnalls Company, New York and London. 6 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. "These diagrams showing by percentages the population and weaUh distribution in the United States, according to tables compiled by George K. Holmes, U. S. Census Expert on Mortgage Statis- tics, are from the Encyclopedia of Social Reform." The contents of the above diagrams show on the bases of statistics that in 1890 three hundredths PERCENTAGES °^ °"^ P^*" '^^"^ °^ ^^^ population, OF WEALTH AND which are the millionaires, held 20 per cent of the nation's wealth. Eight per cent and ninety-seven hundredths of one per cent of the population, which are the rich, held 51 per cent of the wealth. The middle class, con- sisting of 28 per cent of the population, held 20 per cent of the wealth. The lower class, consisting of II per cent of the population, held 4 per cent of the wealth. And the poor class, consisting of 52 per cent of the population, held but 5 per cent of the national wealth,* as this table shows: Table I. Percent- ages of People. Population in Oroups. Percent- ages of Wealth. Aggregates of Wealth in DoUars. Distribution of wealth per head in doUarB. 00.03 08.97 28.00 11.00 52.00 18,786 5,617,172 17,534,216 6,888,432 32,568,644 20 51 20 4 5 13,007,418,274 33,168,916,461 13,007,418,253 2,601,488,644 8,251,854,565 691,867 59,041 741 877 99 100.00 62,622,250 100 65,037,091,197 1,036 *This S per cent includes personal, unproductive property of all sorts. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 7 This illustrative table represents the exact value of the diagrams on p. 5. And nothing is more interesting in this table than the sad differences in the w^orth of the groups, and especially when their respective wealth is divided per every head. The right-hand column shows that there are 18,786 persons whose aggregate wealth, if divided equally among them, would give $691,867 to each man, woman, and child. And there are 32,563,644 per- sons* in the last group, whose wealth, if equally divided among them, can give but $99 to every person. These two groups present the greatest possible extremes of group-poverty and group- opulence. The other three groups, as their averages clearly show, are intermediary between the two extremes. And if all the wealth of the nation were equally divided among its pop- ''wealth!* ulation, we could have $1,036 to every man, woman, and child. This per capita wealth indicates that the nation is very rich on the whole, but its riches, as you see, belong to a very few persons. What then is the difference between a rich man and a poor man, between a rich woman and a poor woman? If the 32,563,644 men, women and children had * Mind that these statements are of one authority only, viz.: Mr. G. K. Holmes. 8 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. $100 per capita wealth, then one rich man of the first group of the above table, would be worth more than 6,918 men of the last group of ""men." the same table. A rich man's horse often worth more than 10, 20, 30, or even more, poor men taken together. A rich woman's finger alone worth more than 10 or 20 poor women taken together, because that finger is often embellished with the diamond rings that cost thousands of dollars. A complete ladies' dress or a costume often amounts to more than $5,000, and hence it is worth more than 40 or 50 women taken together with their dresses. Such are the differ- ences between the rich and the poor people when they are valued by the dollar. But the dollar dififerences cause a great many other differences between the rich and the poor. The poor man is not only poor in ''""rights"*^'*'' wealth, but he is poorer still in social rights and privileges. And there is no possibility for the poor to rise up out of his pov- erty. For he has no resources of wealth which the rich people have; and he has no property of his own; for if he is worth but $99, which is really his house-scarb,* he has no productive property at all; he is then absolutely dependent upon the mercy of the wealthy, without which he cannot exist even *House-scarb means: all domestic or household property that may be carried on from one rentable house to another. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 9 for six months. He cannot acquire higher educa- tion and training, because he is encompassed with poverty which furnishes no means for the educa- tion that helps men to acquire wealth. Hence, the lack of education keeps the poor in poverty; and this poverty prevents him from getting the helpful education. So that, poverty and ignorance become the bitter enemies of the above millions of indi- viduals in the modern world of progress. Yet the modem poor have a far more potent enemy than poverty and ignorance combined, which we shall see later on. Meanwhile, we will say here, that the rich are the masters over the poor in the sphere of law, in the sphere of politics, in the club, in the theater, in the church, at home ""THTRfcV and abroad — ^everywhere; as if all power were given unto them under the heavens over the poor. And how many church-ministers would not give them the same power and the best places in the hereafter? For the very character of sermons in our days depends upon the pleasures of the rich in many churches, because the ministers depend upon the wealthy few more than they de- pend on the millions of the poor. While all these poor are the rich men's economic slaves, spending half of their labor energy in favor of the wealthy. That is what the Nineteenth Century has provided for the nation. 10 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. But the above statistical conclusions were by many regarded as "roseate" and "extremely mod- erate conclusions." And it was in ""SoderatV" consequence of this that Dr. Spahr was obliged to reiterate the expres- sion : "Since the completion of this study, a vol- ume has appeared that must set at rest all question as to the extreme moderation of the estimates reached."* For it was clear that every new investi- gation of the distribution of wealth confirmed the fact of a more and more rapid concentration of the national wealth in fewer hands than before. And it is the question of poverty, that spreads like con- tagion, that the American people have now to deal with, in view of a phenomenal increase of the national wealth which concentrates in the few hands. And it is this question that cannot be set at rest while millions grow poorer and poorer and the propertyless increase in numbers, as we shall soon see. The people cannot set this question at rest un- til they know the truth of the dififerent statistical tables, indicating the nation's situation and des- tiny. And we cannot rest until we make a series of propositions for the purpose of producing more equal distribution of wealth in this country. And *Dr. C. B. Spahr, Pres. Distribution of Wealth in the U. S. (1896), p. 69; published b> Thos. Y. Crowell & Company, Boston. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. H even then we cannot rest, until our propositions be applied to the irrational life of the nation, with the purpose of working out justice for the people. When we see all this in their actual life, then we shall rest, as the people shall be regaining their freedom, their property, their resources of income, their rights to work and to enjoy the fruits of their toil. The intelligent people cannot and must not rest before they reach a resting place. They can- not always be deceived by the shallow and selfish arguments which prove that the national wealth increases enormously, — for it so increases only with the few and rapidly decreases with the entire people. But the time will come when the tens of millions will no longer vote for men who deprive them of all rights, self-respect and liberty. As we shall see later on, the 32,563,644 persons of the last group of the table I possessed no real wealth at all even at the census in 1890. For though the diagrams rep- "health!** resent them as having had $99 worth of wealth to every head, yet this wealth was per- sonal and not productive. STATISTICAL CONCLUSIONS OF MR. SHEARMAN. "An estimate of the distribution of wealth in the United States was made by Mr. Thomas G. Shear- man in the 'Forum' for 1889, and for January, 1891. It was based on careful estimates of the wealth of 12 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. RESEARCHES OF MR. SHEARMAN. the very wealthy, a list of which he gave, and esti- mates of the division of the remaining wealth of the country between the middle class and the poor based on assessors' returns."* "Mr. Shearman came to the conclusion that 1.4 per cent of the population own 70 per cent of the wealth; 9.2 per cent of the population own 12 per cent of the wealth; and 89.4 per cent of the popula- tion own only 18 per cent of the wealth."f In these conclusions, we have a still greater twist of facts by wrong handling. Now, to illus- trate these conclusions as they stand by another set of diagrams, they will be as follows : Population: 'mm 62,622,250. The wealthy. Independent. Wealth: $65,037,091,197. 'I I "1 " II 1.4 9.2 The poor and dependent... The wealth of the wealthy . . . .70 Independent., .12 Dependent and the poor Conclusions of Unrestrained Averages of 1890. p. 1388. 1 ♦Encyclopedia of Social Reform, tibidem, p. 1388. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 13 These diagrams indicate by percentages the ex- act conclusions of Mr. Shearman in respect to the population and the wealth distribu- tion in this country. The author averages of these conclusions obviously put too much salt of his own into his averages; for, by parceling out the wealth of a number of the well- to-do and rich people, he succeeded in persuading his readers, that, in America, the body of tens of millions of propertyless people, the paupers and the tramps, do not possess, on an average, less than $200 worth of wealth for each person, including women and children of all ages. Whereas, in re- ality, the wealth from which he made the fictitious averages, belongs to a very few persons of the nation. While an astonishing majority of the peo- ple, as we shall see, have no rights whatever to this wealth. Let us again illustrate the conclusions in a tabu- lar way for the sake of definiteness : Table II.* Percent, of popu- lation. Population in economic groups. Percent. oi wealth. Aggregates of wealth per group in dollars. Wealth per head in dollars. 1.4 9.2 89.4 876,710 5,761,242 55,984,298 70 12 18 45,525,973,867 7,804,450,932 11,706,676,398 51,928 1,354 209 100.00 62,622,250 100 65,037,091,197 1,036 *This table gives you the exact equivalent of diagrams found on p. 12. 14 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. The first glance at this table and a glance at the table on page 6 show the reader that Mr. Shearman divided the population into three TF\VEVE'o™g™"Ps; and Mr. Holmes divided it into five groups. The bases of di- vision are economic in both tables; but the lines of division are very different with the one statistical authority and the other. If we examine these lines, we shall find that Mr. Holmes' fifth group consists of over 32J million persons who, taken together, had been worth a little over 3 billion dollars; so that, each person of the group could have about .$99 worth of wealth, as the average of table I shows. The next higher group of the same author, wliich comprises nearly 7 million persons, had, on an average, more wealth to each person, than each person could have in the fifth group, hence the per capita wealth of the fourth group of people was $377. While the group still higher up in wealth, which consists of little over 17^ million persons, and which had over 13 billion dollars' worth of wealth, could have $741 to every head, that is, if this wealth were equally divided among them. The second group of Mr. Holmes' division consists of over 5^ million persons, among whom the poorest ones had, probably not less than $5,000 worth of wealth, as their average worth of over $59,000 shows. Such a division of the popu- lation into five economic groups, if every family is DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 15 rightly and honestly valued, presents an immense amount of truth to the public judgment.* But what Mr. Shearman really did with his esti- mates and conclusions is this : Seeing that the extent of poverty is appalling, he made the division Hne in the group of AVE^fAGE*' well-to-do people; he thus made the group of the very poor extend so far as to comprise nearly 56 million persons; and then, by dividing the wealth of the well-to-do persons among all these millions, he obtained an average of $209 worth of wealth to every pauper, to every tramp, to every man, woman and child, — who have had no wealth, and have had no rights whatever to the wealth they are nominally represented as entitled to. Consequently, his distribution oi wealth among the third group of people is merely on paper, is nominal, is showy, and it does not correspond to reality with reference ''o'lsTmBiiTiON'^ to more than 35 million persons as represented in Mr. Holmes' distribution of this wealth. Mr. Shearman might as well follow the example of Mr. Carroll D. Wrightf and, by a single efifort in calculation, divide among all indi- viduals the 70 per cent of wealth that belongs to his 1.4 per cent of the people. In doing that, he might apportion more than $1,000 worth of it to * So far, we give honor to Mr. Holmes in advance, t One of the best authorities in statistics. 16 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. every penniless individual, and then might say, Why, we are all rich, we are the most civilized and righteous people in the world ! But such an effort, and such an assertion, however, would not at all alter the real situation; no more than Galileo, when in view of the danger of death, signing the Jesuit verdict in favor of the non-revolution ^^GAULEr" °^ °'"^ planet round the sun, could thereby stop the actual revolution of the earth; for the earth's progressive motion went on, in spite of the ardent desire and policy of the Jesuits to make it stand still by a verdict. Nothing but an indescribable shock of the earth against an- other heavenly body can change its principles of motion. The same is true of the nation. Once the prin- ciple of concentration of wealth is left unimpeded in its action, it must work out its end; DANGER. it must of living necessity produce revolution and bloodshed. And neither the extremely moderate statisticians, nor the false averages, of even of the meanest falsehood, can prevent its action toward such a horrible result. "You remember the French revolu- 'vmRom^"' tion?" asked Hon. Jno. S. Crosby of his audience in Binghamton,* N. Y., and then he said: "In France all the lands had come into the hands of a few people, the king * Reported in Binghamton Independent of Aug. 12, 1899. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 17 and nobles, and a majority of the people were de- pending on them for a living. The time came when these down-trodden people rose up and Paris streets ran with blood. Your country will have the same experience if you keep on fooling with the laws of God. "Rome was once the mistress of the whole world. She lorded it over the other countries. But she fell, and Pliny, her historian, lays the cause of her downfall to land monopoly."* And so it was with ancient Egypt; so it was with ancient Assyria, and so it was with the Byzantine Empire, those great and powerful nations that perished for similar misconduct in relation to themselves. Exactly so, this young nation also irrationally strides in the way of Rome. The concentration of her wealth in a few hands is now more rapid than it was before the last "^^"ation."^ census. That census brought about astonishing conclusions, yet the nation rushes as fast as she can to her ruin. And who can locate the weight of responsibility for her end? Every one seems to think about his selfish interests. Con- sequently, nothing has been done in the past tO' evade the ruin; nothing but the greatest national harm is being done in the present; and no funda- mental measure, no rational remedy, no serious *"The Public," Chicago, No. 74, Sept., 1899. 18 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. means appear for delaying it in the future. While ■ n^.o., „„^..,.„ the Logical Premisest for revolution LOGICAL PREMISES =■ , 1- L j FOR THE YEAR and bloodshcd have been established "''■■■■ in the nation's life, and their forces have been working to that inexorable end. Now we are ready to present another conclusion that the statisticians of 1890 reached. It deals with the numbers of families, leaving out the indi- vidual inhabitants. We have been assured that the U. S. nation in 1890 consisted of 12,690,152 families, and that each family, on an average, consisted of little less than 5 members, namely: 4.93 members.* The distri- bution of the national wealth among families, there- fore, was expressed as follows : "Less than half the families in America are prop- ertyless; nevertheless, seven-eighths of the families hold but one-eighth of the national "nation^ wea/f/z," and vice versa. "While one per cent of the families hold more (wealth) than the remaining ninety-nine," says Dr. C. B. Spahr.l At last we have struck in these conclusions a t The diagrams and statistical tables supply the life con- tents for these premises. * The exact statistics of the Eleventh Census, 1890, have given the average at about 4.93 members to a family, which means that in each 100 families 93 have 5 and 7 have only 4 members. In 1880 this average was 5.04, and in 1870, 5.09 members to a family. t Ibid., p. 69. — I italicize these conclusions. See Enc. of Soc. R., p. 1389- DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 19 piece of more serious reality. "Less than half the families in the United States are propertyless." Here you are! "Less than half." Yet even here, we are far from the ''of re" fulness of truth. It seems as if the statisticians themselves were afraid to reveal the full truth to the people. And there are many intelli- gent persons who' beHeve that the pure and com- plete truth should be known only to God Omnis- cient, while His creatures must be content to know but particles of truth mixed with falsehood. As long, however, as the U. S. nation remains a democratic nation, and as long as responsibility for its prosperity or distress and disaster rests upon a majority of its people, o'p^TH'E'raPLiE. this people ought to know not par- ticles, but the whole truth of the conditions of their existence. Otherwise the least possible minority of the sharks in human form or the wolves in sheep's skin, may devour or ruin the greatest bulk of the people. Let us then illustrate here one of the above con- clusions, while leaving the two others for later discussion. "Seven-eighths of the families hold but one- eighth of the national wealth," and vice versa, as the diagrams on the following page indicate, where the 12,690,152 families represent 62,622,250 individuals as in the preceding diagrams. 20 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. Population: 12,690,152.* Wealth: $65,037,091,197. C'^ J/- v^ ■' Poor families . . Poor families .1* Bich families,. These diagrams represent exactly the truth of the conclusion : "Seven-eighths of the families of this nation held but one-eighth of the national wealth ;* or seven-eighths of the nation's wealth was held by but one-eighth of the families. The table on the next page illustrates some of the details of the above conclusion. The upper division of that table presents the distribution of wealth among the families, where the two "per family" averages indi- FAMiLiES. cate a difference in the worth of more than 11 -million families that held $732 each, and the wocth of little over \\- million families that held $35,875 each. So that, * Dr. C, B, Spahr, "The Present Distribution of Wealth in the U. S.," 1896. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 31 each family of the latter group was worth as much as 49 families of the former. While the general average of $5,125 shows that, if the national wealth had been equally distributed among all families, every one of them would have had this average amount as its own. Table III. =1 Numbers of families in groups. a? Aggregate wealth per group, in dollars. Average wealth per family. 1^ 11,103,883 1,586,269 8,129,636,399 56,907,454,798 $ 732 35,875 f 12,690,152 8 3 65,037,091,197 5,125 i Number of individuals. Wealth— the same in dollars. Wealth per head. 54,794,468 7,827,782 ^8 8,129,636,399 56,907,454,798 S 148 7,269 62,622,250 s e 65,037,091,197 1,036 The lower division of the table represents the same amounts of national wealth, the same popu- lation, only individually considered; and both the wealth and the popula- individuals. tion were divided into eight parts each, in order to carry out thie proportions between numbers of the individuals and the wealth they possessed. The result in this division is that 7,827,782 individuals have had an average wealth of $7,269 each man, woman and child, and 54,- 794,468 individuals had but $148 worth of wealth 32 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. to every head.* The difference between the worth of one person of the one group, and one person of the other group, is $7,121 in favor of the rich person. And that, again, one person of the wealthy class, on an average, is worth more than 49 persons of the poor class. But the most astounding fact is that we have over 54-|-million inhabitants of this poverty- NUMBERS NEAREST ^tncken ckss, and we have only a TO THE little more than 7j-million inhabit- ants of the wealth-swollen class. So that, these 54^-million individuals appear to be totally dependent upon the mercies and motions of 7i-milHon persons who are steadily growing richer and decreasing in numbers, while the poor are growing poorer and rapidly increasing in numbers. For such has been the growth of economic slavery that the above millions have to combat with. Besides all this, we have seen the statistical con- clusion that, "Less than half the families in Amer- THEPROPERnLESS ica are propertyless," which certainly ""'iTT?E 'bet"" means, that these propertyless fami- TER OFF. lies must be found included among the 54-millions of the poor. So that the present average wealth of these millions, which is $148 per every head, was made of the wealth of the upper classes, which average was not at all pos- ♦Whereas the general average of per capita wealth was $1,036. DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. 23 sessed by the poor. The economic conditions of the poor must be still worse than Table III repre- sents them. But we shall find this out in the next chapter; while the conclusion that, "i per cent of the families hold more wealth than the remain- ing 99 per cent of them," nearly corresponds ^x\t\\ the conclusion of Air. Shearman, as represented on pp. 12 and 13. CHAPTER II. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. In the preceding chapter, we have dealt with ready-made conclusions of different statistical authorities, which, by the way of "firstIhTpter^ analysis, revealed to us, that 32,563.- 644 persons* of the population had on an average $99 worth of wealth, according to Mr. G. Holmes; that 55,984,298 personsf had on an average $209 worth of wealth, according to Mr. Thos. Shearman; and that 54,794,468 persons^ out of 62,622,250 inhabitants, with $65,037,091,197 worth of wealth, had on an average $148 worth of wealth apiece, according to Dr. Spahr. These differences in conclusions indicate that the national wealth is very strongly concentrated with a few persons, and that in order 'hankVpfew! ^° obtain the nominal average of $148 worth of wealth to every poor person, one has to move the line of division of wealth so far up toward the wealthy few as to include nearly all the people among the masses of the poor. .While, without this unfair moving of the line, more than 30-millions of the population would have no real wealth at all. For $56,907,- *Here, p. 6. tHere, p. 13, tHere, p. 21. 24 STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 35 454,798 worth of the wealth actually belongs to one-eighth of the population, or to 7,827,782 in- dividuals, including men, women and children. And among these, we are told, "i per cent of the population held more wealth than the remaining 99 per cent held together."* So that the day is not far ofif when these 99 per cent of the people shall absolutely depend upon the i per cent of the rich and far reaching. Regarded as the Logical Premises of the life of the nation, this extremely unequal distribution of wealth cannot be other than ex- ^he situation is tremely dangerous for the existence dangerous for r , 1 , . -i ■ r i.1 1 ■ ■ THE FUTURE. of the nation as it is, for the logic is inexorable: (Whatever you have sown, that shall you alsoi reap, is a saying that cannot be mistaken either by the wealthy or the poor. The situation indicates that this apparently polished nation pre- sents only an enormous working mechanism, made not of steel and iron, but a mechanism of wood, which may be broken into pieces at any future time, in consequence of any insignificant occasion, if it continues tOi work heedlessly on with a wrong speed against itself. A rational regulation of its speed is absolutely necessary, in order to save it from an otherwise unavoidable destruction. A civilized nation cannot live long without a highly intelligent regulation of all its working principles. *Here, see p. 18, 26 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. For, to live a national life is not to play a childish game. Yes, we have examined the above conclusions, but we have not realized the entire truth of the situation. For we were told that, THE SITUATION IS ,,. ,,,,,,..,... WORSE THAN Lcss than half the famihes m Amer- iNDiOATED. j^^ ^^^ propertyless,"* which clearly means that the distribution of wealth among the people is much worse than we have a right to sup- pose upon the basis of the stated conclusions of 1890. As these conclusions differ from each other in contents, we have the moral right to re- examine the varying statistical tables that testify of the same distribution of wealth. And we have a right to find the naked truth in the mass of ma- terials we have, and to look it straight in the face, if we can. But before proceeding to compare the main tables of statistics, it will be well to show what the wealth of the nation in 1890 consisted of. Ac- cordingly, the table on the next page represents eight items intO' which the wealth was classified. And it represents the summary of all kinds of wealth that was found existing in the United States in the year of the nth census. While the next table, following it, represents the history of the accumulation of wealth, by application of the labor *Dr. Spahr, "Present Distribution of Wealth in the United States," p. 69. — Enc. of Soc. R., p. 1389. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 37 energy of the people upon various resources of land. STATISTICS OF WEALTH. "The census valuation of real and personal property in the United States (Alaska excluded) in 1890* was prepared by J. K. Upton," as follows:- Table of Wealth. Real estate with improvements thereon Live stock of farms, farm imple- ments and machinery Mines and quarries, including product on hand Gold and silver coin and bullion . Machinery of mills and product on hand, raw and manufactured Railroads and equipments, in- cluding street railroads Telegraphs, telephones, shipping and canals Miscellaneous ;g39,544,544,333 2,703,015,040 1,291,291,579 1,158,774,948 3,058,593,441 8,685,407,323 701,755,712 7,893,708,821 Total (United States) . . g65,037,091,197 Accumulation of Wealth. Tears. Aggregates o£ wealth. Per capita wealth. 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 $ 7,135,780,228 16,159,616,068 30,068,518,507 43,642,000,000 65,037,091,197 $ 308 514 780 870 1,036! *Enc. of See. R., p. 1384. tC. D. Wright, "Atlantic Monthly," Sept., 1897. 38 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. The last historic table shows that the accumula- tion of wealth by the nation has been phenomenal, and equal to the expense of labor INCREASE OF , ■ , . j- j u ^t, WEALTH energy which was embodiea by trie PHENOMENAL, ^^^^i^ j^to that wealth. And if the amount of wealth existing in 1890 had been equally distributed among the people, every man, woman and child, would have had more than $1,000 of it, or exactly $1,036 as the nominal per capita dis- tribution of it by Mr. Carroll D. Wright indicates. Let us, however, see the actual distribution of wealth, as it was in 1890 : The United States, 1890*— 1st Table. BSTATES.+ Number (of families}. Aggregate B of wealth per class in dollars. Average wealth per family. The wealthy clas- ses, $50,000 and over 125,000 1,375,000 5,500,000 5,500,000 33,000,000,000 23,000,000,000 8,200,000,000 800,000,000 264 000 The well - to - do classes, g50,000 to $5,000 The middle clas- ses, $5,000 to $500 The poorer clas- ses, under $500 16,000 1,500 150 Totals .... 12,500,000 65,000,000,000 5,200 ♦"Encyclopedia of Social Reform." (p. 1388), 1897, by Rev. Wm. Bliss. tDr. Spahr, "Present Distribution of Wealth in the U. S.," p. 69, 1896, who held each family at five members. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 29 It is difficult to understand why this important table has been published in round numbers almost throughout. It is, however, not at all difficult to see that it represents an extremely unequal dis- tribution of the wealth among the American peo- ple. And in order to restore the figures of this table so as to bring the whole into accord with the last census, it is necessary to regard the size of each family at 4.93 members, ^"equalized. ^^ as the census represents them. In doing this, it is also necessary to restore the round numbers, supplying all omissions in the aggregate totals and in the wealth of the groups. Before giv- ing a further explanation, then, the restored table will appear as follows : 1st Restored Table. EcOQomio clasaes of families. Number of families. Aggregates of wealth per class in dollars. Average wealth per family. The wealthy clas- ses, g50,000 and over The well - to - do classes, 550,000 to 55,000 The middle clas- ses, 55,000 to 5500 126,750 1,394,250 5,584,576 5,584,576 33,000,000,000 22,676,863,197 8,522,541,600 837,686,400 260,355 16,264 1,526 150 The poorer clas- ses, under 5500 Totals .... 12,690,152 65,037,091,197 5,125 30 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. Now, this restoring has been made up by bor- rowing $323,136,803 from the wealth found in the 2d group; and again by adding $37,091,197 worth of wealth which was omitted in the round numbers O'f the total aggregate of wealth. These two amounts, consisting of $360,228,000 in the re- stored table, have on the basis of the original aver- ages been distributed among the families of the 3d and the 4th groups. So that the 3d group of families appears to be richer by $322,541,600; while the 4th group by $37,686,400; and the 2d group appears to be poorer by $323,136,803 worth of wealth. Hence, we have made the ist R. table represent the distribution of wealth by $360,228,- 000 more equal than the author of the original table has actually found it to exist.* On the other hand, in restoring the numbers of family-members to. the census average of 4.93, we ^, ^„ „ „^ add about 7 members to every 100 FAMILIES MADE . . ' -' EQUAL families of five members each, as Dr. ENsus. Spahr represents them. This addi- tion of 190,152 families to the whole renders the average-family and the total number of families in the United States exactly as they were given by the census in 1890. But in restoring this table to the census status, *It should be borne in mind that, "Goods, wares, mer- chandise, utensils, furniture, cattle, provisions, and every other species of personal property, was included among the assets" representing wealth. Dr. Spahr, lb., p. 55. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 31 we do not for a moment disregard its original value, as the most reliable work, nor do we think of making an argument, or anything of the kind, in favor of anybody, Upon the ground of the sur- face restoration. No, there is a deeper sense and a deeper ground in the restored and the next table, and we have an abundance of other material for our purpose of showing the truth. Meanwhile, this restoring of the ist table that had omissions, has been necessary for many reasons, and because it seemed to many thinkers as probably an ex- treme representation, though it was true to the facts. For these thinkers desired that the dis- tribution of wealth should be more equal than it has really been. And, further, holding a conservative position, it was necessary too to avoid a serious disturbance in the original averages of the family wealth found by Dr. Spahr, thus making the table comparable with another table, which is the most important one, be- cause it indicates the tenants of farms and homes and the owners O'f mortgaged farms and homes. Furthermore, the restored table may serve as a means ol comparison of its classes of different worth with the corresponding classes in the follow- ing table, based upon the eleventh census facts. Accordingly, the next table represents the families of different worth which were classified upon the same economic bases as in the table of Dr. Spahr. 32 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. U. S. 2d Table, 1890.* Holders of Wealth. Kumber. Value in Dollars. Tenants of farms and homes Owners of mortgaged farms and homes worth less than $5,000 Owners of free farms and homes worth less than g5 000 7,871,099 1,483,356 3,078,077 1,257,620 2,837,049,500 2,614,955,764 10,946,616,952 48,600,000,000 Owners of farms and homes worth $5,000 Totals! 13,690,152 64,998,622,216 METHODS OF RESEARCH. We have read on pp. ii and 12 that, when Mr. Shearman made his list of statistics of wealth dis- tribution, "that his table was based on careful estimates of the wealth of the very wealthy; while the wealth of the poorer classes was estimated on the bases of assessors' returns;" just as the table of Dr. Spahr, p. 28, which represents the very wealthy families in the 1st group, the well-to-do in the 2d, and the poor families in the 3d and 4th groups. This arrangement and representation of the families evidently agrees with that of Mr. Shearman, and proves the fact that both distinguished authorities used the same or similar methods in studying the *Encyclopedia of Social Reform (publ. in 1897), p. 1388. tThese totals have been summed up by me. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 33 actual distribution of wealth, and in representing their conclusions to those that were anxious to know of the distribution. But the 2d statistical table, on the preceding page, was based upon the carefully averaged con- clusions of Mr. G. K. Holmes, the U. S. Census Expert on Mortgage Statistics in 1890., "Mr. Holmes," as the author of the 2d table says, "follows a method contrary to that of Mr. Shearman, and by estimating the wealth of the poor, arrives at the wealth of the rich. He finds that .03 per cent of the people own 20 per cent of the wealth; 8.97 per cent of the people own 51 per cent of the wealth, and 91 per cent of the people own only 29 per cent of the wealth.* "The fact that Mr. Holmes is not a partisan either of conservatism or radicalism, gives to his estimates an unwonted value. As published in the Political Science Quarterly," says the Editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Reform, "and in the Jour- nal of the Royal Statistical Society, these estimates have resulted in these four groups of families seen in the 2d table, p. ^2." We agree with Rev. .W. Bliss and others in re- garding the estimates of Mr. Holmes as exceed- ingly valuable, because without them we could neither have known the holmes' work. number of the tenant families, nor the number of the mortgagor families, in the 34 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. United States. And hence, we could not have known the seriousness of the situation in the eco- nomic conditions of the nation. While having the table based upon his estimates, the reader may, at the very slight examination of the first two groups of it, reflect and know the great danger implied in them for the nation. And it is this table that can tell the number of the propertyless families in the United States, even without regard- ing any further material on the subject. But the first trouble about this tablef is, that the author of it has omitted $38,468,981$ worth of wealth from the aggregate wealth difficuIty. °^ t'^^ group 4, for the sake of round- ness in the great numbers, I sup- pose. Otherwise it is impossible to admit that the omitted wealth did not belong to anyone in the United States at the time of his making up the table. So that, restoring the $38,468,981 worth of wealth to the 4th group, we find its aggregate amounting to $48,638,468,981 worth of wealth. And it thus begins to correspond with the great masses of wealth owned by the first two groups in the 1st table, p. 28 or 29. This omission cannot be regarded as a serious one; but, to reach a definite conclusion, we must restore it. The second trouble in the same table, p. 32, is. tTable, p. 32, here. tCompare the total wealth of this table with that on p. 27. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 35 that the total of famiHes in it contains exactly 1,000,000 families more than the nation consisted of in the year 1890. For there were 12,690,152 families in the United difficulty. States, whereas the second table represents 13,690,152 of them, an absolutely round number having been added to some group of the families. As this table has been pubUshed since 1896, it may be that the author of it had a reason to add one million families to the ist group, be- cause, as the population has increased, so the fami- lies without property have also greatly increased during the seven years since 1890. And he is un- doubtedly right in his calculations as to the growth of the propertyless. The statistics of 1890, also, represented an ample ground for similar calcula- tions on the part of anyone who has studied them. The estimates of Mr. G. Holmes, however, do not warrant the conclusion that there were 7,871,- 099 family-tenants of farms and homes in the United States in 1890. "Venants.^^ For, whatever degree of moderation might be in his estimates, this number of the prop- ertyless families could not have existed at that time in the United States. For, if so many prop- ertyless families had been in existence ten years ago, a thousand presidents at this time might lose their heads in view of the national troubles that could result from that abnormal situation of so 36 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. vast an extent. The individuals that now howl about an unusual prosperity might be the indirect butchers of human flesh before they themselves are butchered. No, we drop out the surplus mil- ion families from the ist group of the 2d table, and the table will be more correct as follows : 2d Table Restored. Holder! of Wealth. No. ot Farms. Value in DolIarB. Tenants of farms and homes Owners of mortgaged farms and homes worth less than g5,000 Owners of free farms and homes worth less than S5,000. . . . Owners of farms and homes worth g5,000 and over 1 2 3 4 6,871,099 1,483,356 3,078,077 1,257,620 2,837,049,500 2,614,955,764 10,946,616,952 48,638,468,981 Totals 12,690,152 65,037,091,197 The conclusions in the first two groups of fami- lies of this table now appear as trustworthy as the entire conclusions of Dr. Spahr in the 1st table, p. 28 or 29; and, that the first two groups, made up on the basis of Mr. Holmes' estimates, actually surpass everything in statistical importance for this coun- try, no one will doubt, when he has read this work. TRUSTWORTHY CONCLUSIONS. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 37 For the first group represents the tenant-families that hire their farms and homes from others, be- ing themselves propertyless. And the second group represents families that are in debt, and that are also rapidly becoming propertyless, as we shall see in Chapter V. The differences between the ist and the 2d tables, however, appear very great. The ist table shows that the national wealth is quite abnormally concentrated in a in'the^tabl^es. comparatively few hands, repre- sented by the first two groups. The 2d table shows that the same wealth is more equally distributed among the families of the last two groups, than is true in the ist table. And it is the 2d table which was compiled from the estimates that by some men were regarded as extremely moderate, and, there- fore, inconsistent with the real situation of the people. It is certainly not difficult to misrepresent the whole situation even without intending to do any wrong to the nation. For the right or the wrong representation of reali- unXentionally. ties depends very greatly upon the handling of the averages in the distribution of wealth among the people. The census facts or the assessors' returns may be right, as well as the class- ifications of these facts or returns. And yet the final representations of them may be twisted, either 38 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. according to the desire of the statisticians or ac- cording to the abstract rules of arithmetic. So that these rules and desires may be satisfied, but the realities may easily be obscured, and even the greatest national dangers may be concealed under an improper use of the averages. Thus, we have seen the average of Mr. Shear- man, which, including some of the well-to-do fami- lies among millions of the poor, BIAS oTwiLL. rnakes these poor appear as if every one of them possessed $209, because Mr. Shearman's average covered nearly 56-millions of individuals.* While Mr. Carroll D. Wright,t describing the problem : "Are the rich growing richer and the poor poorer?" makes a single aver- age on the basis of the entire population. His sweeping average actually and correctly makes, not only the 56-millions of the poor of Mr. Shearman, but every pauper, every tramp, and everyone in hundreds of the lunatic and other asylums, worth $1,036 of wealth. Whereas, in reality, i per cent of the population held more wealth than the remain- ing 99, as Dr. Chas. Spahr has proved.| Now, something similar has taken ^MSorRATioN. place in the 3d group of the 2d table, where more than 3-million families are represented as the "owners of free farms and homes worth less than $5,000." And, con- *Here, p. 13. tAtlantic Monthly, Sept. 1897. tSee here, p. 18. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 39 sequently, the difference between the ist table and the 2d table in the wealthy groups appeared. The 2d table contradicts nearly all statistical authori- ties and has been spoken of as based upon extreme- ly moderate conclusions. It is, therefore, neces- sary to show the degree oi moderation implied in its distribution of weatlh. The fact that all families in the United States were classified according to their economic worth, as families worth $5,000 and over and $5,000 and under, gives us the ctAssiFicfATFON. best basis for a comparison of the two contradictory tables of the great authorities. Let us first see the inconsistency in the groups of families which represent the middle classes in the two tables. Reciprocal Comparison. FamilieB worth 15,000 and under. Number The wealth of Aver- ages. DifTerence from the number below. . . . $ 2,424,075,352 Middle classes of the 1st R. table* Free owners of the 2d orig. tablet.- •■ 5,584,576 3,078,077 8,522,541,600 10,946,616,952 1,526 8,556 Difference from the number above. • . . 2,506,499 ♦This is the restored group of the ist table, p. 29. tad group, p. 32 or 36. 40 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. Now, the restored group of the middle classes of the first R. table should be absolutely in favor of diminishing the differences in the poSto TRUTH, worth of the identical families and in their number. Yet the two groups reciprocally exclude each other by their opposite terms. So that, the comparison shows that the greater number of families has much smaller amount of the aggregate wealth; and the lesser number of families has much larger amount of the aggregate wealth; and that the difference in family- numbers is greater than 2j-millions in favor of the group of the ist table; and the diflference in the wealth, nearly 2j-billion dollars worth is in favor of the group of the 2d table. Hence, the opposite terms of the two economically similar groups can in no way coincide with one another. This being so, it is not difHcult to find out the true situation as to the actual distribution of wealth which ought to have been *theSes.^ represented by the 2d table. The alleged moderation of this table has been brought about by the same influence of averages which we have seen in the conclusions of Mr. Shearman.* One average of this gentleman has covered 89.4 per cent of the population, and thus made the wealth of the richest of them to be distributed among the millions of the very poor. *See Diagrams, p. 12, and Table II, p. 13. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 41 The 89.4 per cent includes nearly 56-millions of individuals, whose aggregate wealth amounts to 18 per cent of the national wealth, and apportions $209 worth of it to every individual. But if you exclude only 20 per cent out of the 89.4 per cent of this great mass of people, selecting the wealthi- est of all for the exclusion, you will thus have 69.4 per cent of the people left with less than 9 per cent of the national wealth. Your average then will be altogether dififerent; it will cover masses of the poorest people, and every one of them will have less than $99 worth of wealth. It is by a similar inclusion of a number of the well-to-do families among the group of "owners of free farms and homes" that the SOME OF THE RICH more equal distribution of wealth averaged has been obtained in the 2d table. ""^" ^"^ ''°'"'- Otherwise, this table could represent a more mel- ancholy array of facts than the presentation of these facts which appeared in the first table. But, however bitter the truth may be, it is always better to taste it than to be ignorant of its existence, be- cause one falsehood must create thousands of other falsehoods, and, accumulated and multiplied into a tremendous mass, these falsehoods may lead the nation to self-destruction even as many other nations were led to it. Dividing again all families of the nation into the families worth less than $5,000, and families worth 42 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. over $5,000, we shall now compare these two classes of families in both tables upon their common basis. THE SAME -^fi"i) ss this basis presents the very ECONOMIC BASES bottom of Statistics, the comparison OF THE AUTHORS, therefore cannot fail to show us the very naked truth as to the actual distribution of wealth which has partly been obscured by the 2d table. Comparison of the Poor. Families worth under $5,000. Number of families. Aggregates of wealth in dollars. First three groups of the 2d table* Last two groups of the 1st R. tablet 11,432,532 11,169,152 16,398,622,216 9,360,228,000 Differences from the 2d table 263,380 7,038,394,216 Comparison of the Rich. Families worth $5,000 and over. Number of tamiUes. Aggregates ot wealth in dollars. Two first groups of the 1st R tablet 1,521,000 1,257,620 55,676,868,197 48,638,468,981 The fourth group of the 2d restored table* Differences from the 1st R. table 263,380 7,038,394,216 *Compare these families in the 2d restored table, p. 36. tCompare the same families in the ist restored table, p. 29. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 43 As you see, the comparison of the families of the same worth in the different tables shows that the poor classes of the 2d table are lar- ger by 263,380 families, and richer °revmled^^ by $7,038,394,216 worth of wealth, than they are in the first table. On the contrary, the comparison of the wealthy classes that congist of families worth. $5,000 and over, shows that the 1st table is larger by 263,380 families, and richer by $7,038,394,216 worth of wealth, than the same famihes in the 2d table. Hence, the concentration of wealth in the first table is by $7,038,394,216 worth greater than it is in the 2d table. And it is clear that this amount of wealth is closely con- nected with the 263,380 families of the well-to-do classes. The question, therefore, is. Where could Dr. Spahr find so many more families worth $5,000 and over, than Mr. Holmes has found? We know that both these great authorities dealt with the same primary facts of statistics, though Dr. Spahr dealt with them as they appeared in the Surrogate unalterable. Courts, thus raising the value of the facts. And we know that these facts or returns represent the worth of every family, just at it actually was at the time of the nth census. Sup- posing then that the above families were repre- sented as worth $26,723 each, could Dr. Spahr make each one of them worth $4,000 of wealth, 44 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. with the purpose of including them among the mil- Hons of families worth $S,ooo and under in each case? And could he thus rob the 263,380 families of their ownership of wealth, in order to make the distribution of wealth so abnormal as his table shows it? No, sir; this is an utter impossibility on anyone's part. And Dr. Spahr represented the above families among those that were worth $5,000 and over in each case, and that is what any- one ought to have done in his place. While in the case of the second table, the little more equal distribution of wealth appeared not UNREAL BASIS OF bccausc it was actually so, but be- "?RfBUTmN'or" '^^"se the above 263,380 families, WEALTH. with their $26,723 worth of wealth on the average, unintentionally or accidentally, were included among the families worth less than $5,000. Consequently, their aggregate wealth, amounting to $7,038,394,216 worth, has been nominally distributed among the group of "owners of free farms and homes worth less than $5,000" to every family. This inclusion was as easily per- formed a^ was the inclusion of the well-to-do among the poor by Mr. Shearman. jWe therefore subtract the above families and their wealth from the 3d group and add them to the 4th group of families worth $5,000 and over, in order to show that these families and wealth belonged to another class of the people, as follows : STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 2d Right Table. 45 Holders of Wealth. Number. Value in dollars. . Tenants of farms and homes Owners of mortgaged farms and homes worth less than g5,000 Owners of free farms and homes worth less than 55,000 6,871,099 1,483,356 2,814,697 1,521,000 2,837,049,500 2,614,955,764 3 908,222,736 Owners of farms and homes worth ;g5,000 and 55 676 868 197 Totals 12,690,152 65,037,091,197 Now this table represents the very essence of statistics on the distribution of wealth which was worked out by the two contradictory authorities. The 4th group of it con- "aluable.^ tains the 263,380 families with their aggregate wealth, and equals the first two groups in the ist R. table, these two and that being made of the families — each worth $5,000 and over. It should be noticed here, that neither the 263,- 380 families that we have now included in the proper group of the table, nor their aggregate wealth, had anything to sigSant. do with the groups of mortgagors and tenants in the 2d table. These two groups of families have been separated from the influence 46 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. of the free owners of wealth, by being debtors and tenants, who have a definite significance of their own in the statistics. And this is the reason why the subtracted famihes worth $5,000 and over could only be lodged in the 3d group of families worth belO'W $5,000 under its wholesale average. It should also be remembered that, though the 4th group of the last table represents an enormous amount of wealth, yet there are hun- ™nly"ew"^ dreds of thousands of families in it which are worth but few dollars over $5,000 worth of wealth. So that, the real concentration of that enormous amount of wealth remains in the possession of less than half a million families, as these facts have been represented by :Mr. Shearman and the others in the first chapter. And nothing can be said against the accuracy of the careful estimates of the wealth of the very wealthy by Mr. Shearman and the other authori- ties. In order to have a more definite idea of the distribution of wealth, let us compare both tables on one page, and remember that if the group wealth were equally divided among the group-fam- ilies, each family could have such amount of it as the averages indicate. And mind that the next two tables, being based upon the same census facts, repre- sent the results of careful comparison of the original ones. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. The 1st Table as Restored. 47 Owner- of Wealth. Number. The wealth ol Average. The poorer classes under g500 The middle clas- ses 5500 to 55,000 The well - to - do classes 55,000 to 550,000 The wealthy clas- ses 550,000 and over 5,584,576 5,584,576 1,394,250 126,750 5 837,686,400 8,522,541,600 22,676,863,197 33,000,000,000 5 150 1,526 16,264 260,355 The totals. 12,690,152 65,037,091,197 5,125 The 2d Table as Restored. Ownera of Wealth. Number. The wealth of Average. Tenants of farms and homes 6,871,099 5 2,837,049,500 5 413 Owners of mort- gaged farms and homesworth less than 55,000 1,483,356 2,614,955,764 1,762 Owners of free farms and homes worth less than 55,000 2,814,697 3,908,222,736 1,388 Owners of farms andhomesworth 55,000 and over. 1,521,000 55,676,863,197 37,117 The totals. 12,690,152 65,037,091,197 5,125 It should be noticed again, that the differences in the family averages of the corresponding groups 48 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. of the two tables, depend on the differences in the numbers and in the aggregate wealth of the same AVERAGES OF g^oups of the tables. And these dif- FAMiLiES' WORTH ferences could not be avoided, since DIFFER. ^j^g ^^^ authorities have made a different classification of the families of different worth. But the comparative importancei of the two tables consists in the fact, that the last group of the I St table shows the extremely ab- THE RICH AND THE , ^ ^. , ,.i • POOR GROUPS. J^ormal concentration of wealth m the hands of 126,750 families, which possess more wealth that the remaining 12,563,402 families do, on the one hand. While, on the other hand, the first group of the 2d table shows that there have been 6,871,099 families without real property; and the second group shows, that there were 1,483,356 families in debt and in danger of losing their properties, and that both these groups of families have been in the state of economic slav- ery to the wealthy few. But we shall examine their conditions of existence later on. GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE, AND GERMANY. "The distribution of private property in Great Britain and Ireland in 1891," was such that it was THEPROPERTVLESS ^^^^ "that Icss than 2 per cent of the IN BRITAIN. families of the United Kingdom hold about three times as much private prop- STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 49 erty as all the remainder, and that 93 per cent of the people hold less than 8 per cent of the accumulated wealth. There remains, therefore, nearly 6,000,000 families"' — i. e., 30,000,000 indi- viduals — "or more than three-fourths of the people of Great Britain and Ireland, without any regis- tered property whatever. They have indeed their household goods, but the total value of these can hardly exceed £100,000,000,"* which is little over $16 to every individual. "The ownership of land is an important factor in the social condition of a people," says Mayo Smith.f And "if we contrast the „,ex„.o„T,„M on DISTRIBUTION OF peasant proprietorship system of land in France France, with more than 4,500,000 *"« e"«'-*"°- owners of land, with the landlord system of Eng- land, with its 325,000 owners, the social as well as the economic influence must be very different"! in the two nations. Certainly the French people feel and enjoy economic freedom, while the British people are pressed down by an economic slavery. In fact, the statisticians seem to agree that the distribution of wealth, even in Paris, the capital of France, and in Berlin, the capital of Germany, is proportionally much more equal than it is in the nation of Great Britain or in that of the United States, although it is natural that the largest *Enc. of Soc. Reform, p. 1389. tStatistics and Sociology, p. 201-2. 50 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. ILLUSTRATIVE CHART. EacfTbtiebutot-the 625.362 individ- uals has owned so much wealth as the largest block shows Each one out of the 6,879.935 Individuals has owned so much of it. Each one out of the 13,888.- 979 individuals has owned so much ' . 'Eacli one out of the 7.319.697 Individ- uals has owned so much Each one of the 33,908,277 Individuals so mucb Groups 1st 2d 3d 4tli 5th Every block here represents a comparative average wealth of one man, woman, or child of the respective groups in the 2d Corrected Table, p. Si; while the figures above show the numbers of individuals owning one block each, as indicated. STATISTICS OF WEALTH OWNERS. 51 cities, as a rule, have the distribution of wealth much worse than the nations behind them. While the thirty millions of British people have on the average $i6 worth of wealth, the American people of the same class have somewhat more of this kind of wealth than the British, as the last table, individually regarded, shows the average property of every person of the families. It is as follows . The 2d Corrected Table, 1890. Holders of Wealth. Individuals. The wealth of Average. Tenants of farms and homes 33,908,277 $2,837,049,500 $ 83 Owners of mort- gaged farms and homes worth less than $5,000 7,319,697 2,614,955,764 357 Owners of free farms and homes worth less than g5 000 13,888,979 3,908,222,736 287 ^J\J h VJ \J \J ■• •■ ■• •■ •■ Owners of farms and homes worth $5,000 to $50,000 6,879,935 22,676,863,197 3,296 Owners of farms and homes worth $50,000 and over 625,362 33,000,000,000 52,769 The totals. 62,622,250 65,037,091,197 1,036 The average of $83 worth of persdnal property in the ist group of individuals here is a little too large, because, subtracting the surplus million 52 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. families from this group,* we have left the wealth of it untouched. In any way, this group contains 27,117,000 individuals having on JussTs""^;. the average $30 worth of prop- erty each, according to the last group of families in the table of Dr. Spahr.f It does not, however, make a great difference on the whole, because the group of tenants, since 1890, has undoubtedly increased up to 38,837,849 with- out having been able to add anything more to its aggregate wealth. The increase of the propertyless accrues from the natural increase of the population, and from CAUSES OF THE ^^^ ^°^^ °^ ^^^ mortgaged properties INCREASE OF THE by forcclosurc of the mortgages in PROPERTYLESS. ., j J t ^u ■ ■ \he 2d group, and from the immigra- tion of the. propertyless foreigners^ without special means; while the people of the 3d group have sunk by thousands into debt from having mort- gaged their properties; and only about a million families of the last two groups have been exceed- ingly prosperous, as we shall understand the situ- ation later on. *Subtraction has been made on p. 36. tSee table, p. 29. tThe total number of immigrants entered into the United States from 1891 to 1897 inclusively was 2,854,834. — The World Almanac, 1899, P- 176. CHAPTER III. PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS ^S&rCS~ The statistical authorities told us that "Less than half the families in the United States are prop- ertyless,"* and we desire to know the chances for, and resources of, their living; and what it means to be a propertied person or tO' be a propertyless person upon earth. Let us see the clear distinction between the state of a property owner and the state of a prop- ertyless person ; between the condi- conditions of tions of life of the former, and the ERnE°D7ND%^R0P- conditions of life of the latter, and ertyless. how both are afifected by and related to these conditions. First of all an owner of property and a prop- ertyless person, are, on an average, perfectly equal in that they have physical strength, and in that they have equal rights to ^^"lstrength.' use or to apply that strength some- where upon the wealth of an owner of wealth. And here we meet the first difference between them: An owner of property has a chance to apply, and to spend his strength upon his own *Here, p. i8.— Dr. Spahr, "The Present Distribution of Wealth in the United States," p. 69. 53 54 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. property ; if, for instance, this property is land that gives him any kind of returns in exchange for his THE ONE HAS. THE l^^or and toil. The propertyless per- OTHER HAS NO son has neither this chance nor this CHANCE. ^.gj^^ ^^ ^^.j anywhere, unless he pays for the opportunity of using his strength, by dividing the results of his labor between himself and the owner of wealth who permits him to draw some income from the resources of his own prop- erty or wealth. So far, the advantage of the prop- ertied person is such that he has twice as much right in his strength, and twice as much chance to profitably use his personal strength. Now, -every one knows that whatever the wealth of a nation may be, it is primarily derived from land which is the only inexhaustible origin'^'ofwealth. source of riches, or, of derived wealth. And when a person gets into his possession a portion of land, whether it will be in a city, town, or in the country, he then obtains a number of resources for his hfe; he becomes a propertied man, and he can apply his strength, his skill or his intellect upon his own property and thus reap the fruits of his labor. The land then is the first store of wealth; but it almost never yields anything to man, unless he labors, works upon it, with a hoe, a plough, a scythe or some other implement that aids him to draw greater returns from his land. Again, if iron, PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 55 for instance, is primarily derived from land, then when it comes to the forge, where the hammer, the anvil and the other tools aid the blacksmith to make an ax out of the rough iron, the ax will be of a greater vahte than the material he used for it. But what really made the ax is his personal strength and the skill that '"'"'of'^wealt""'' were aided by the tools he used. These tools with the blacksmith, and those imple- ments with the farmer are economically called "capital," because they aid tO' draw more wealth by the labor of man. It follows, that land is the main factor of wealth; that human ecpn«,n energy or labor is the next factor of factor of wealth; and that capital, as aiding labor and land to produce more wealth than they can yield without it, is the third factor of wealth. Money is not regarded as direct capital here. As capital is a very important source of income to a propertied man, and as it is perhaps not clear- ly understood by all, let me illustrate this factor of wealth by introducing more examples of it. Capital from an economic standpoint is that wealth which produces farther wealth, or simply aids to create farther wealth. A c^p^^iL third needle is capital, because it aids to factor of make a shirt that costs more than the material used for it. A sewing machine is capital of more efifective kind than the needle used 56 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. by hand, because it aids to produce more wealth than the tailor or the seamstress can produce with- out it. A lathe is capital, because it ft"T?"icwLWEALTH: ^°^ ^^^Y ^hapcs the round forms of any material more accurately than the artizan would ever be able to make without it, but it greatly saves his time on every piece of the work; thus saving time it aids in producing more wealth. A factory, as a whole (including the building and machinery), is capital, because all the machinery, all tools and instruments used in it produce farther wealth from the raw materials, and serve as sources of income to the owner of this property. Under the care of the stock-raiser, cattle are capital, because they grow and multiply ; but the meat or beef is utility, because it may be unproduc- tively consumed.* Agricultural implements, as well as the fertilizers, like guano, phosphates and many others are capital, because they increase fertility and increase the produce of land, which makes a greater *Even the uncultivated land is a great source of income to its owner. And if it were not so, the great landowners of England and Scotland would not have owned fully 20,000,000 acres of the U. S. land. But now five of them own it, and draw large incomes from it, while remaining at home beyond the Atlantic. And the Holland syndicate and the German syndicate could not have owned 7,000,000 acres pf the U. S. land, if it were not a source of income, even .without special application of any labor energy to it. But now the former syndicate owns 5,000,000 acres of grazing land in Western States; and the latter owns 2,000,000 acres of it in various States," as the "Up to Date, Coin's Financial School," has indicated, pp. 108-118. PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 57 income in favor of its owner. A thousand different machineries and special instruments might be intro- duced here to show that each one of them has been invented for the purpose of aiding to create more wealth out of less wealth. And that all of them and every one, when used by an owner of wealth, is a definite source of income and of profit to him, because it aids his own skill and energy to obtain greater returns in exchange for his labor and mind, than he can obtain without it. But the most effective factor in aiding to pro- duce more wealth and a much greater income for an owner of wealth is the energy of „^p„^^,g^^ p^^^^. steam or any other mechanical force, increase of applicable to various forms of labor and completely obedient to the bidding of man. "Steam power has increased in the United States from 3^-millions, in i860, to 17-millions horse power in 1895; while in Great Britain and Ireland it has increased from 2^- to 13-milHons; Germany from f- to 7^ millions, and in France from I to 5-millions horse-power. The increase of this capital has been most manifest in manufac- tures," says Dr. Henderson.* But it should be remarked at once that no one of the famihes worth below $5,000 could apply these millions of horse- power of steam force upon their properties. This energy has all the time been a profitable source of *Chas. R, Henderson, D. D., "Social Elements," p. 144. 58 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. great income in favor of the families that made the wealthiest group in the tables of statistics, where- as the others have had but little crumbs of its increase of wealth. The mechanical force, as every one knows, is in service of the capitalists. But when we look into the limits of towns and cities, we find millions of rentable properties of all possible kinds; and every factory, ^°iNCONiE°^ every storehouse, every shop and every dwelling house there is a sure source of income to the propertied man. The very sweat-shops, where the working people can not, on an average, live longer than 28 years — even these dens of poison and pestilence are inexhaust- ible sources of income and profit to their owners. As to the town and city lots, they are all sources of greater or less income to the men who own them. Whether these lots of land are occupied by anything or are remaining waste, makes little dif- ference, because as the town population increases, their values also increase in proportion as the city population and its business increase; the owners of properties towards centers of the cities are usu- ally bound to be rich out of the resources of rent. Even a simple house, somewhere ^Ta fN?OME.°'' about the marginal line of a city or town is usually a source of indirect income to its owner, because he and his family may have a comfortable shelter in it, without PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 59 which they would pay the rent for another's house,* and would carry on all other expenses of life, just as they do in their own house, in which they save the rental money for some other purposes of living. Now then, whatever property you may think of — whether natural or artificial, whether animate or inanimate, that a person has possession of — it is always wealth, and a source of income in his favor. The natural wealth is the land, wherever it may be in convenient places, it may always provide one or more resources of """by^labo"^^" income in exchange for the applica- tion and expense of strength or skill of labor upon it. The artificial wealth includes all capital, what- ever it may be, it is capital, if it can assist the labor energy to double, triple or multiple the inco.me and profit, drawn from the natural resource to which the labor-strength is applied. The rentable house or any other building is artificial wealth. And it is also a source of incom.e to its owner who, by a use of skill and by an application of labor energy, can make his source of income give a mul- tiple yield, in return for the expense of his personal strength upon it. Thus, the indirect and direct resources of a prop- *Some one may of course prefer to live in another's house, as they say, not willing to pay taxes for his own property. But a just taxation can never cause this trouble. The abnor- mity of taxation is shown here in Chapter VI. 60 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. ertied person, therefore, are always many and complete when he works out the wealth himself. COMPLETE AND IN- By Complete I mean this, that what- coMEs''oF^PROP- ^^^^ ^^^ intelligence and strength can ERTY OWNERS, draw out of the source they are applied to, it is always his and is always to his benefit. An incomplete income or yield from a source of wealth, to its owner, will be this, that, if he hires the energy, or the skill of another person to apply upon his property, then his income is incomplete, because he has to pay for the hired labor energy as well as for hired skill. In this way an owner of wealth of any kind may even divide the yield and the product of the source of income into halves. But as long as a person is an owner of wealth, an owner of capital, and an owner of physical and mental energy, he is a possessor of ""anty oV life!* resources; his labor energy and his existence are then fully guaranteed for himself, his wife, and children by his wealth, because wealth or property becomes a direct source of income, when he himself labors on it, and an indirect, when he rents it to others. A propertied man, therefore, is safe forever by the resources of his property, which yield incomes and profits for sustenance of the highest possible life, highest education, freedom, and enjoyment. But what about the propertyless man? How PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 61 many resources, or how many sources of income has he for his own life, the life of his wife and chil- dren? What sources of income has^^^ ^^^ p^j,p^^^_ he for education, for bread and butter, less any source for clothes and dress, for their shel- ter and his own? What resources has he for his sustenance in this world, when the entire world tends rapidly to be the property of a very few persons ? He has neither land, nor capital, nor house; he has neither natural, nor artificial wealth to serve him, and hence, has not a single oneiHEPROPERTYLESs of the above described sources of source^ofmulti- income and profit which the Creator ple expense. provided for man's enjoyment. On the contrary, the propertyless man himself is a source of multiple expense; he has but a store of labor energy within himself, which store must be supported by its own effort, and that too while his life is guaranteed by nothing but by his physical strength and natural mind. And it is only these two that unite to sup- port him who is the single source of the following manifold expenses in favor of many owners of properties and wealth, who sometimes make enor- mous fortunes by the efforts of the propertyless. If a propertyless man desires to exist at all in the sight of his God in this quasi-civihzed world, he must spend his life in the following ways: I. He must pay from it for a shelter to one or another property owner, when this owner has 63 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. a rentable house, which house serves as a source of income and profit to the owner. So that the tenant of his house becomes a permanent resource for the owner's well-being, because he cannot avoid paying rent to the one or the other. 2. He must pay for his clothes to another prop- erty owner or an owner of wealth, who gets in- come and profit from selling the CLOTHES^ etc" goo^s, and who gets incomes and profits for making and producing the goods. And as a consumer, the propertyless man is relied upon as a source of income by these owners of wealth, and hence, he is a resource of their own well-being. He must also pay for laundry to another owner of wealth and must be a real source of income and profit for him, because he too is a propertied man and has many resources for life. 3. He must pay for his board, whether in a boarding house or in a restaurant, it makes some dif- ference; but by boarding in either nourI'shme'nt' °'^^ °^ *^^ other, he must be a source of income and profit to servants and waiters every day, and to a crowd of owners of wealth who are ever ready to draw all from him they can. But if he boards in the house he rents, and if his wife performs the domestic duties in his case, then the expense of his life is reduced through this channel in favor of the wife. Nevertheless, he PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 63 must continue to be a source of income in favor of the butcher, the baker and grocer, and some other propertied men who derive their profits from him at a certain per cent in the way of his nourishment. 4. The propertyless man is another source of expense in favor of the support of the general gov- ernment of the nation, a state gov- ernment, a county government, and govSent^etc. perhaps a municipal one. And he pays the taxes in the prices of the goods and clothing he wears; in the prices of food and the drinks he consumes, — these expenses make him a sure source of income to many other owners of wealth, and so on. And to this channel of drain must be added his expenses for education, for dif- ferent asylums, for churches and other institutions; expenses for the books and newspapers he reads; expenses for the carfare, etc., he cannot avoid; expenses for the physicians he is cured by, and the drugs his strength is invigorated with, and so on. Thus every one of these propertied persons obtains his own percentage of income from the resource- less man. And certainly there are many other channels of expense for him in the society he comes into contact with. It is really impossible to number here even the unavoidable expenses of the propertyless man. - It is then in the above directions that the physi- cal and mental energy must run out of the prop- 64 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. ertyless person. And of course it runs out in the form of currency or the money by which he pays HIS ENERGY IS *°'" shelter, for clothing, etc., for ser- DRAiNED BY THE viccs and all utilities, to the owners PROPERTIED MEN. ^^ ^^^j^^_ g^^^ .^ ^^^ propertykss man himself is only a source tO' be drained by the Others, and if he has neither land, nor capital, nor any other natural or artificial wealth to draw an income from, then his very strength is good for nothing. For the strength itself can neither be eaten nor can he pay with it any one who has the right to draw on it. His energy must, there- fore, be first exchanged either for money or for some other utilities of value which are derived out of wealth, out of property that he does not possess. How then can this persistently drained source be- come filled or supplied again? Where is the resource of his own income? Surely he can not exist without one at least. And, being property- less, he naturally does not have even the single one outside of himself. Yet he has to live from with- out or he must die of starvation from within. Now, the only chance for the propertyless man to live is to go again to an owner of wealth, and HE MAY HAVE BUT ^° ^^^^ somc oue or another resource ONE CHANCE of incomc from him and to apply FOR A PAYMENT. ,. ^ .^ • r .» his energy to it, paying for the per- mission. Again paying, paying is the only hope for the propertyless man. And this is the most PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 65 important point after all, because he must pay even for the application of his personal energy to all natural and artificial resources of wealth, or in- come. Has any one understood what it means — to pay for an application of labor energy to wealth that the merciful Creator provided for man? I am sure that the politico-economists do not under- stand it. A few of them hit this point, sometimes, but unconsciously, without conceiving its signifi- cance. The propertyless person, then, who is drained in all directions, and who has but one chance to restore his expended energy from a single source of income — this man again becomes an additional source of expense in favor of an owner of wealth, an additional source of income and profit to prop- ertied men. But where, and how, can this unfortunate creature of God, this multiple source of income and profit for men, further pay and expend his strength, for becoming a still further source of income in favor of the propertied men? This question, after the four previously ex- plained series of drains of the propertyless man, demands the next point. 5. The propertyless man can not even make himself the source of income and profit to others without paying an exorbitant price for it to an owner of wealth. If, for instance, he labors for 66 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. wages, his employer and others finally obtain from 25 to 50 or 75 per cent or even more profit out of the results of his labor. If he works on a farm, HIS EXPENSES FOR ^^ ^ plant, or on any other wealth EMPLOYMENT IN with Capital, Or works in making ANY SPHERE. -^ 1 1 i. • J- capital, he must m any way di- vide the results of his work between the owner of wealth and himself. His portion is usually paid by time in money, as wages, as a salary, or in some other way; while the whole result of his work remains, and is dispensed by the owner of wealth who is profited by him. If the propertyless person serves to an owner of wealth as a clerk, a book- keeper, salesman, or in any other capacity, he can- not serve unless he or she is a profitable source of income to the propertied master who gives him the chance to supply his ever drained source of mul- tiple expenses. If, further, the propertyless man leases a farm or any other wealth of a propertied person, he has always to divide the results of his labor between himself and the owner of wealth. Whereas, if the owner of it himself labors on his wealth, then, the whole result of his toil must remain as a reward to himself. And there is the difference : The tenant or the lessee is obliged to labor twice as hard as the propertied man in order to derive so much income for himself, as the owner of wealth can derive by working half as hard; and that is because the owner of property is drawing PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 67 all income of his labor for himself, while the prop- ertyless man is drawing income for himself and for the propertied man, to whom the former is a source of income by paying rent. If, finally, the propertyless man labors upon a rentable source of income, and then borrows money for improve- ments, in addition to the paying for that source, he thereby makes himself a source of income in favor of the creditor, by paying per cents for the loan; and, consequently, he must divide the results of his toil between himself and between two owners of wealth. The improvements, being a capital, must aid him to produce more wealth than he can produce without it; but the high rate of percent- age which exists in America must surely ruin the debtor, because per cents in favor of lenders of money, etc., generally run from 6 to 12 per cent per annum; and in some cases the money sharks obtain even from 15 to 18 per cent. What then are the advantages of the propertied person and the disadvantages of the propertyless man? From the preceding it is clearly seen that both men are on an equality merely in the physical energy. And the propertied person has an absolute advantage for devel- QisADVANTflGES. oping his mental energy or skill. We have, therefore, to regard their physical energy as an equal in both. But, with the propertied man, 68 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. this energy is surrounded by multiple resources of income; so that to whatever resource he applies his energy, it always yields him the whole results of his labor. An application of capital in his power multiplies the yield in his favor. An application of the hired labor energy still farther multiplies the yield and increases his income. His A PROPERTIED IS A •' MAN OF MULTIPLE physical energy, therefore, must be INCOMES. regarded as a source of multiple in- come even in relation to a small amount of wealth or income-bearing property.* On the contrary, when there is plenty of employmicnt, the energy of A PROPERTYLESS ^^^ propertylcss person is itself a IS A MAN OF MUL- sourcc of multiple expense in favor TIPLE EXPENSES. r , i , • j A j • of the propertied men. And agam, when there is employment, he is permitted to apply his energy but to a single resource of income; and when permitted to do so, the prop- ertyless man can only draw about half the income that this resource can yield to his energy, while the other half of it must go to the multiple in- comes of the propertied men who employ him as the people call it. Hence, being surrounded with the inexhaustible wealth of nature, with innumer- able resources of income, the propertyless man is only a semi-sourced man — a man of semi-sourced income. He is a man who is entitled to a portion ♦Land, Capital, Rentables, SalaWes sre income-bearing properties, PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 69 of the yield, for the expense of energy which is equal to two or more portions of it. And there is nothing more in the whole realm of wealth than a semi-income from one source for the man who himself is a source of multiple expenses in the favor of many owners of wealth. A greater injus- tice than this could not be fabricated by mankind under the heavens. But what about the propertyless, when there is no employment at all? Or, when the caprice of the propertied is not satisfied by the halves of the yields produced by the ''Sf''emJIoym\nT labor energy and skill of the prop- ertyless people? What, when they demand still more impossible efificiency in product from the emaciated energy of their victims? The answer is clear and but one. These economic slaves, these victims of the greatest injustice and absurdity are thrown back by thousands into the sphere of humiliation under public relief. And who con- stitutes this public? Nearly all the same prop- ertyless millions, who relieve the others, when they themselves are not yet on the point of starvation. And who is after all accused? Who is searched? Whose character and history of life is mercilessly scrutinized at the bars of charity? A • ^1 _, 1 • HE IS REGARDED Agam the same propertyless vie- ^g [nferior. tims, the same economic slaves, whose lives have been spent in working for the 70 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. owners of wealth, owners of property, of fortunes. It is certainly not with Japan, nor even civiHzed England, where primogeniture persists to reign, and where the hereditary noblemen "'"injustice"'' equally continue to suck the energy of the British and Irish people and of the peoples of their colonies that we have to deal with. "In 1891 Great Britain and Ireland had had nearly 6,000,000 propertyless families*;" and they have been accustomed for centuries to spend more than half of their energy in favor of the lords of property, who are the lords of nearly all resources of wealth in Britain and in many other parts of the world. But we have to deal with the people of the United States, whose fathers tried by all means to escape the influence of primogeniture, and whose children have now reached the same eco- nomic condition of slavery, but DiviDOSENESuRE. Under a different title, viz., that of dividogenesure.f As its definition here shows, the principle of dividogenesure in- volves both the individual and class dependence of *"Encyclopedia of Social Reform," p. 1389. ^Dividogenesure ratans: (As a class and as an individual, I am the owner of land, of wealth and capital) : Divide with me your sole results of active energy upon my source of wealth, or else you may be sure you have only the right to starve from drain by others without this supply. [Latin: divide, AWiAe, part, separate. Greek: genesis, origin, source, creation, origination, production. Latin: ure, (perish) by rust, by fire, by cold, wither, dry up, or starve to death.] PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 71 the needy upon the wealthy and appHes to the entire millions of the group of tenant families, as well as to the group of mortgagor families of the 2d table.J For all these families have been dividing the sole results of their labor or toil, in one way or another, between themselves and their economic masters that they wholly or partly depend upon. The subsequent chapters, however, will better ex- plain the situation of their dependence. While here we shall but briefly indicate that dividogenesure, as a principle of tacit reality, sepa- rates the people into two classes: ist, into indi- viduals of multiple expenditure in each case, but with a possible semi- classes'' income for supplying this expendi- ture; and 2d, into individuals of also multiple expenditure for living, but at the same time of multiple incomes sufificient to leave a considerable net profit or balance for their future. This balance or profit, in some cases, gradually amounts to mil- lions of dollars' worth of wealth, remultiplying further incomes most rapidly; while the indi- viduals of the first class become absolutely depend- ent upon the second even for the semi-income which may at any time be refused them on account of too many individuals in need of resources for incomes belonging to the second class. tHere, p. 32 or 36. 73 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. And it further follows, that when the resource- less are admitted into the sphere of dividogenesure, then their multiple expenditure is ONE SPHERE, meagcrly supplied. But when they are refused admittance into this sphere, then their unavoidable fate is starvation or falling back into the realm of public relief for the unemployed. As to their fate under the pubhc relief, Dr. Amos G. Warner says : "The most difificult problem in the whole realm of poor- otherspheTe. ""elief is this of providing for the unemployed. England has worked at it intermittently from the time of Elizabeth" (1558-1603) up to date without success. For there were more than 30-millions of individuals without property in Great Britain and Ireland, when Dr. Warner was writing, and he continued as follows : "The most careful investigation made in this country regarding enforced idleness was probably that conducted by the Massachu- Loss OF TIME, sctts Burcau of Labor during the depression of 1885. There were during that year in Massachusetts 816,470 per- sons engaged in gainful occupations; of these 241,589 were unemployed during part of the year. The time lost, if we consider only the principal occupation of each individual, was 82,744 years; but many persons, when unable to work at their PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 73 principal occupation, had some subsidiary work. Making the proper deductions for the time thus put in, the net absolute loss of working-time amounted to 78,717.76 years. * * * Aver- aged among those who lost a certain, amount of time, the loss per man was 3.91 months."* or near- ly four months. This description shows the absolute helplessness of the resourceless people in the State of Massa- chusetts alone, while there were 48 other States and Territories besides loss of money. Massachusetts in this country. In all these States and Territories, therefore, not only millions of years of working-time must have been lost during the depression of 1882 to 1885, but millions of dollars of public and private money was unproductively spent for the relief of the property- less from starvation, cold and from other distresses. And after all, that was a comparatively mild reality. For the same Dr. Warner further writes : "This present chapter passes from my hand in March, 1894, when special relief-work for the un- employed is being carried forward , T /• T „ HOMELESS CON- on a scale never before known or gy^^y factor. needed in this country.'^ It is there- fore not possible to give the results of this *Dr. Warner, American Charities, pp. 178-9, Dr. T. Ely's edition, tl italicized his word?. 74 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. emergency work." * * * But the relief must be given. "The present chapter is concerned especially with the problem of the homeless poor as a constant factor in the administration of chari- ties.'^ The question of how to deal with the tramp is said to be of special urgency in every locality in the United States with which I am at all acquainted. From Boston to San Francisco, and from St. Paul to New Orleans, complaints come of a number of tramps, which is alleged to be 'especially' large in each case."t In fact. Dr. Warner's book of more than 400 pages is one that represents the saddest spectacle of human misery on the largest ™°iNi'Qijm'! °^ scale. It treats all possible causes of the misery, excepting the main, and all-powerful, cause of all the minor causes, which I have named dividogenesure, because it is the sister of primogeniture, the one being as iniquitous for millions of families as the other. As a universally pernicious principle, divido- genesure is always working in behalf of a few favorites. It has always been unjust '"oMNJusmE!^^ to the employees, even when those favorites commanded an equal num- ber of places of employment to the number of the employees in a nation, because the latter have * I italicized his words. t Dr. Warner, ibidem, p. 181. PROPERTIED AND PROPERTYLESS PEOPLE. 75 always been obliged to divide the results of their toil at an unjust rate of per cent with the former. The injustice of dividogenesure, however, intensi- fies as soon as the number of the employees be- comes greater than the number of the places of employment, and this injustice grows especially intense when these employees appear to be the propertyless individuals. And when a nation has so many propertyless individuals as to outnumber by millions the places of employment, then, the great injustice of dividogenesure changes into the very foundation of iniquity. For its favorites, then, make all possible devices, like the blanks with tens of scrutinizing questions, and other humiliating devices for the purpose of selecting the most efficient applicants for employment at the cheapest possible rates of payment. Thus, the employed ones become harder and harder economic slaves of these favorites, while the unemployed are cast out of the sphere of the slavery without bread, etc., into the sphere of starvation and the public reHef. Further, dividogenesure is not a system of ordi- nary slavery, where the slaves are dependent upon their masters for living and dying. It is not the slavery that imposes a binary slavery.' moral obligation upon the masters in favor of the slaves who are subject to them. No, no, dividogenesure has made millions of families absolutely dependent on its favorites, but it has 76 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. removed from these favorites all moral obligations in favor of the modern economic slaves. The mod- ern master of hundreds of the slaves can extort the last inch of labor energy from each of them, and yet can live in perfect peace under the shield of dividogenesure without responsibility and with- out the slightest remorse of conscience. He does not compel any of the slaves to make applications for employment, for working out his wealth and fortune. But he knows very well that there are invisible, omnipotent and omnipresent forces, namely: Hunger and thirst, or the UNSEEN FORCES, multiple expenditure in every indi- vidual case, which mightily push the slaves to his commanding mastership. And the only duty dividogenesure bids him to perform, is to choose the most efficient applicants for the lowest pay, as they would seem to be the most profitable for himself. As to the rejected ones, it is neither his business nor his duty to care whether they live or perish by fire, by cold, by disease, wither away or starve to death. CHAPTER IV. ABNORMITY OF THE SOCIAL SITUATION. The preceding chapter has shown the differ- ences between the conditions of life of the prop- ertied and of the propertyless people. T^ , , . , , : . , DIFFERENCES IN It has explained the multiple expen- conditions of ditures of the resourceless, and how '""'^' they are obliged to labor under the principle of dividogenesure without ever being able to appro- priate the full results of their labor to themselves. The present chapter will reveal the astonishing number of the propertyless in the United States, and the places where they are mostly to be found. However, before proceeding to examine the investigations about the people without property, we must add here, that the property- ' ^ ^ -^ THE PROPERTY- less are those that occupy houses, or less pay rent or rooms, or simply little cells in the ""^ expelled. rentable properties of the propertied, paying rent for them. They are, therefore, regarded as the tenants of homes, and when occupying rentable farms, they are regarded as the tenants of farms. And as long as they are able to earn and to pay the rents on time, they are regarded as good peo- ple, good families and respectable persons, because 77 78 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. they constitute the real sources of income to the owners of the rentable properties. But as soon as they cannot find a situation, cannot find employ- ment, cannot find work, cannot find a job, cannot borrow money, cannot pawn anything, hence can- not pay rent at the well defined times, then they are gently or ruthlessly kicked out of the rooms, and regarded as "no good," as degenerates. Expelling them from the tenement houses or farms, some gentlemen or lady-proprietors some- times even express sympathy or THES?7uAmN. sorrow to lose their tenants; and sometimes they anticipate further sufiferings and privations for their unfortunate roomers, etc., but cannot help them under the existing conditions. The expelled tenant then wanders about, sufifers privations, humiliations, till he falls into prison, or she falls into prostitution, and into all the miseries of the world. And it is only at the point where these propertyless lose their real manhood and womanhood that they cease to be the sources of income for the prop- ertied. Now let us deal with the homeless and landless in the statistical accounts, where the tenants and mortgagors are described together, but with greater details in respect to the mortgagors than to the tenants. For the sake of clearness, there- fore, I must prominently represent here the tenant ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 79 families, as the propertyless, and must leave the mortgagor families for the next chapter. The following census statistics represent only percentages of families occupying farms and homes in the United States, while I have supplied the figures implied in the relative percentages of these families. STATISTICS OF THE TENANTS. "Extra Bulletin No. 98 of the United States Census, 1890, says: "There are 12,690,152 families in the United States, and of these families 52.20 per cent," or 6,624,259 families, "hire their farms or homes, and 47.80 per cent own them."* "In regard to the families occupying farms the conclusion is, that 34.08 per cent," or 1,624,655 families, "hire, and 65.92! per cent own, the farms cultivated by them." farm families. So that "among every 100 farm fam- ilies 34 hire their farms," being landless. "The corresponding facts for the families occu- pying homes are, that 63.10 per cent," i. e., 4,999,396 families "hire, home families. and 36.90! per cent,"i. e., 2,923,560,! families, "own their homes." So that "in every 100 ♦Remember that these conclusions are moderate. tThese owning families include the mortgagors. 80 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. home families, on the average, 63 hire their homes, and 37$ own them." "There are 420 cities and towns that have a population of 8,000 to 100,000, and in these cities and towns 64.04 per cent of the 64.004 PER CENT. homc-famiHes hire and 35.96I per cent own their homes." So that in these cities and towns, 64 out of every 100 families hire their homes, and 36 own them, or as the Bul- letin states: "in 100 home families, on the average, are found 64 that hire their homes, and 36$ own them.^' Besides this, "the cities that have a population of 100,000 and over," i. e., cities up to millions, LARGE CITIES ^^^^ Philadelphia, Chicago, New 77.17 PER CENT. York and so on, "number 28, and in ""'^' these cities 77.17 per cent of the home families hire their homes and 22.83$ per cent own them." It follows, that in these large and very populous cities of the United States more than '^y families out of every 100 are tenant fami- lies or those that hire their homes, and 23I own them. Or, as the Bulletin says: "In these cities among 100 home families, on the average, 77 hire and 23I own their homes."§ Now then, what this Extra Bulletin reveals to us is as follows : tMany of these home-owning families are in debt, and their homes serve as securities for it. §Enc. of Soc. R., pp. 899-900. ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 81 I. That in 1890 we had 1,624,655 families hir- ing farms. The difference between hiring a farm and owning a farm is this, that an ^ ' NUMBER OF FAMI- owner of a farm reaps all the benefits lies hiring of his own farm; whatever amount ""ms. of energy he spends upon his farm, he obtains all the results of it by himself and for himself, re- maining all the time an independent man. A farm tenant is just the contrary. He is a dependent being and is a subject to dividogenesure. He works upon a rentable property and must first of all satisfy the rightful owner of the farm. He must divide the results of his labor between his master and himself, by paying rent. And in order to be equally well off with the farmer that works upon his own farm, the tenant must exert almost twice as much of labor energy as the owner of a farm. But this is impossible. And this impossibility rests upon all the tenants of farms. They are economic slaves of their masters, slaves under the principle of dividogenesure. If they don't wish to divide the sole results of their labor, then they must starve, and there is no other alternative for them, because they are propertyless and hence resourceless. 2. That at the same time we had ^^^^^^^ ^^ p^.^,, 4,000,412 other families that were lies hiring 7. . , , , , , , HOMES. hirmg not the farms but rentable homes of the propertied men. And these nearly 5-million families were not only the sources of 83 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. income and profit in favor of the owners of the homes, but also the sources of income for the employers that permit them to labor. So that a farm tenant is a direct* source of income to one lord of property; while a home tenant is a directf source of income for two owners of wealth. And a great injustice hangs on the neck of every one of these millions, because they have no property of their own. But the principal point is this, that neither one of them has the right to expend or apply his labor energy anyw^here without paying for it to those that may not labor at all and live. Adding now the two classes of tenant families, we have 6,624,259 of them; and regarding their numbers individually, we have 32,- coMBmED. 656,808 propertyless persons who are in bondage of dividogenesure, because they have neither the right to expend their strength nor to restore it without paying for both to the propertied. The question now is. Do these numbers show that we had "less than half the families in the United States without property?"J Even without examining the numbers of the propertyless in cities and towns, the Extra Bulletin proves that there were 279,023 more of the propertyless fami- *He pays rent. tHe pays rent and divides the results of his labor, p. 58-61. tSee conclusion, p. 18. ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 83 lies than the half of the entire population. And this little more than the half represents 1,345,683 propertyless individuals who could build and could inhabit yet another ''"arge^cit?.* one of the largest cities in the world, while under the unjust principle of dividogene- sure they have neither a farm, nor a lot, nor a single house of their own. But what do you think about the whole number of the propertyless? We had fully 32,656,808 individuals of them in 1890, accord- ing to this Bulletin, and they could T^mE^clmt likewise build and inhabit 32 great cities having in each more than a million of good citizens. A million population in one city, as you know, constitutes one of the most populous cities in the world; and we could have thirty-two^ such cities in the possession of these now propertyless people. These millions of people could make one of the finest nations on earth with 32 of most populous cities which they could erect by their labor energy. How is it, then, that they are obliged to remain homeless, landless, propertyless, resourceless? Have they been lazy to work? Have they been incapable of doing anything for them- selves? Have they been degenerates? No, no, these tens of millions have been working hard, but they have been deprived of the results of their labor by the unjust principle of dividogenesure that com^ 84 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. pelled them to labor for the few families of the wealthy group of the two tables on p. 47, which own the results of their labor and toil. And do you realize what it means to have 420 cities and towns with the population of 8,000 to 100,000 individuals in each? Do you know what it means to have nearly seven-tenths of their pop- ulation without property, when they cannot exist without it? And what it means to BY^uBoliERS. ^^"^^ 2^ 'pities whose population is above 100,000, and which goes up to millions in some of them; and yet nearly four- fifths of their people are without homes, without property, and without any resources of their own? And do you know that these very cities (and towns j have almost all been built out of the realized labor energy or on account of the results of labor of these slaves of dividogenesure? And this is not all, for, according to the Bul- letin, we had 32,656,808 of the propertyless indi- viduals, while the 2d R. table, p. 36, ^GREAT^mEs!^ which resulted from the 2d table on p. 32, and which was published in 1897 — this table authoritatively demands that we should add 1,251,469 more propertyless people to the number found in the Bulletin. This additional number of the propertyless could make yet an- other one of the most populous cities in the world. And, being added together, these people could ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 85 inhabit not 32 but 33 cities, with the total popu- lation of 33,908,277 individuals or nearly 34-mil- lions of souls. Imagine! The whole nation in 1865 was made up of this number of people, whose wealth aggre- gated over $24,000,000,000 worth, whole nation Now the principle of dividogenesure prq^ertyless required but 25 years to render the in laao. number of the propertyless equal to the entire nation of 1865. Is it not an astonishing fact that while this great number of the prop- gy increasing ertyless people grew up, the national property men , , '^ ,, . , , , LOST PROPERTY. wealth actually mcreased by the worth of about $41,877,475,129? For in i860 the total aggregate of it was $16,159,616,068, whereas in 1890 it aggregated to $65,037,091,197 worth of wealth. In view of these contrasting facts, can any one say that the 33-millions of the property-losers were idle? or that the phenomenal in- human energy is crease of the wealth was produced Jp"e1?ator*in by the very few owners of it because production. they had the most effective capital at their own hands? No, sir, the capital itself is dead in every respect and form, and not a single piece of it can produce anything by itself. But, being effective aid, assistant in production, capital only helps the living human energy to increase the results O'f its labor. And it follows that whatever the increase 86 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. in production due to mechanical forces or to other capital may be, it must be attributed to the activity of human energy which manipulates all invented forms of capital. And surely the blessings of the various inventions consist in the fact that the in- ventions can aid the labor energy to produce more wealth than it can produce without them. Hence the real blessings of the invented capital ought to have been preeminently in the fact of its increasing the w^ell-being of the millions of laborers in the various grades of industry. How is it, then, that the wealth of the United States nation, from 1865 to 1890, increased by IS IT LOGICALLY "^^''^ ^^^^ 42-billion dollars worth, CORRECT OR while the well-being of its producers MORALLY RIGHT? ^i j J o tj- ■ -j. ^\. ^ greatly decreased? How is it that the tens of millions of the workers not only could not obtain the due share of the wealth they in- creased, but many millions of them in addition lost their own properties? How is it that the great blessings of the inventors have been changed into great curses against their well-being, because now they appeared to be absolutely dependent for life on the wealthy few, having nothing of their own? No explanations of minor causes can answer these questions, but the great injustice of dividogenesure explains them. But what can the propertyless people do when they increase and when all the wealth and capital ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 87 produced by the people are monopolized by a few families, as even the ist and 2d tables, p. 47, show the facts? What can the 33,908,277 individuals without property do, when they have nothing to hope for but labor under the principle of divido- genesure for the wealthy few that consist of less than a million families in the enlarged nation? It is evident that their fate condemns them to labor, as slaves, on permission, and tO' satisfy first the demands of dividogenesure and afterward take for themselves what may be allowed claims of from the results of their toil on the dividogenesure rentable farms, while the millions of families which hire homes in the 448 cities and towns are still harder slaves of dividogenesure than the families that hire their farms. They are harder slaves because they are more liable to be freed even from the oppression of dividogenesure, and liable to remain months and months in the sphere of starvation without employment. Can there be a greater iniquity in the world than the iniquity that proceeds from the abnormal system of dividogenesure ? No! No nation in human history has seen an iniquity that can be compared with the results of dividogenesure as they are at pres- „,v,oogenesure ent, for it now deprives men of their is a fountain of fruits of toil to the utmost degree; it deprives them of their energy, of their rights, and 88 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. of their property; it deceives them by the medium of exchange of commodities and products; it makes them economic slaves of the very few mas- ters or throws them out of the region of the slavery into the region of resourceless starvation and de- generation; it concentrates masses of the people's wealth into a few hands, leaving millions of fami- lies without income in despair and casts them out of the rentable homes; it drags them into the courts, throws them into prisons, drives them into penitentiaries, fits them for and chases them into the lunatic and insane asylums. And not only this, but nearly all causes of murders, of parricides, of infanticides, etc., and of the suicides perpetrated by the people, can indirectly be traced to the ab- normal system of dividogenesure, which most fundamentally conditions almost all national, so- cial and private crimes, because sound life always depends upon sound economic basis of a nation. The system of dividogenesure, however, is per- nicious not only to the tens of millions of the IT COMPRISES propertyless people alone, but it has THE PROPERTIED cnslavcd millions of families that have homes and have other little properties not bearing direct incomes for subsist- ence. These families therefore are also compelled to be in gainful pursuits under the same conditions with the landless and homeless. And Mr. Carroll D. Wright, onesided and severely criticised, wrote ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 89 about some of them as the American bread- winners, as follows : "Bread-winners in 1870 engaged in supporting themselves were 12,505,923, or 32.43 per cent" of the population. "The bread-winners in 1880 were 17,392,099, or 34.67 per cent of the total popula- tion" of that time. "The bread-winners in 1890 were 22,735,661, or 36.31 per cent." By "bread- winners" he meant "wage earners, salary receivers . . . . or any one who was engaged in gainful pursuit," including "proprietors of whatever grade or description, and all professional persons."* I must here make a diversion to examine this author's argument. For the purpose of proving that the poor, the producers of wealth, were getting better off from 1870 to 1890 by their gainful pur- suits, Mr. Wright has placed in the mr. c. d.wright. same class individuals of incompar- able description, and, by making averages upon equally incomparable basis of their gains, logical- ly arrived at the false conclusion that the wages in general had risen during that period of time. And hence, he added that "the rich are growing richer and the poor are getting better off." He thus arrived at the same nominal conclusion at which Mr. Shearman has arrived in making nearly 56-millions of individuals appear to be in pos- *Mr. Wright, "Atlantic Monthly" for September, 1897, 90 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. session of $209 each.f And it is exactly in the same way Mr. Wright himself made the per capita wealth in the United States, as a whole, amount to $1,036 for every inhabitant of the nation. The rules of arithmetic are accurate in every calcula- tion. But the nominal distribution of wealth has never made the millions of the people better off; and it has never altered the fact, that in 1890 we had nearly 34-millions of them without property; and we had a little over 7-millions of other in- dividuals owning more than 55^-billion dollars worth of wealth. I iWhereas, at the same time, there were more than 27-millions of individuals whose aggregate wealth was only $825-millions, which is but $30 to each person.* This little diversion from our main thought once more testifies that the increase of the 42- billion dollars worth of wealth which accrued from 1865 to 1890 did not in the least raise the wages of those producers of the wealth who were com- pelled even to lose their own properties. On the contrary, while the salaries and incomes of some professional persons had decidedly increased, the wages in general had fallen, as we shall see later on. Consequently, the tens of millions of the creators of tSee his conclusions and my explanation of them, here, pp. 12, 13. tCompare for this the original tables, pp. 28, 32 and 51. *See 1st R. table, group ist, p. 47, and as individuals, p. 51, ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 91 that wealth appeared to be all the worse off, as we have seen on pp. 85, 86. And when Mr. Wright adds "that the transpor- tation has been so perfected," during the same time, "as to bring to the door of the t„epropertyless poor man and the rich the results of have neither 1 . r r 1 " • 1 DOOR NOR WINDOW. mdustry of far away people m order that they may buy them from different monopol- ists; this sentence really sounds like a mockery to the 34-millions of individuals who had in 1890 neither their own door nor even window, and who were absolutely dependent upon chances for a semi-income under the oppressive dividogenesure. But as to how many people were engaged in the gainful pursuits and how many of them were en- tirely subject to the system of dividogenesure, we can better know from the researches of Prof. Mayo Smith. He says as follows : "Persons in gainful pursuits. United States 1890, by classes of occupations, in ten years of age and over, were 47,413,559. Out of them 24,352,659 were males and 23,060,- prof, mayo smith. 900 were females." After this state- ment he innumerates their respective occupations and adds "That 9,013,201 persons were in gainful pursuits in agriculture, fisheries and mining, and that 8,333,692 of these last are males and 679,509 are females."* So that out of 62,622,250 inhabit- *Mayo Smith, "Statistics and Sociology," pp. 200, 201-2. 93 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. ants of the country 47,413,559 individuals of 10 years of age and upwards were engaged in the gainful pursuits. Now these nearly 47^-millions of persons in gainful pursuits could not all be the slaves of - w„„.^^„ „,. dividogenesure. For some of these FAVORITES OF ° DIVIDOGENESURE persons serve its favorites for very high salaries and their services are well remunerated. Nor could this number include many of the favorites of this unjust principle. For its real favorites are those that possess extensive rights in natural and artificial resources of wealth; they are those that earn their enormous incomes even in their comfortable beds, by simply speculat- ing on and relying upon the energy and productiv- ity of the subjects to dividogenesure. And as the productivity of the American people is very high, it therefore becomes as easy for them to grow very wealthy under the favor of dividogenesure as for the millions of makers of their fortunes to grow very poor and emaciated. Reviewing then the various occupations of the people in the United States as these are repre- i.ooo.oooFAMiLiEs'^'^^^^ ^y ^'ff^"^^"* authorities, we AND 38,837,849 havc sufificient reason to judge that INDIVIDUALS. . ,v o ^1- 1 1. smce the year 1890 there have been about 38,837,849 persons who may be regarded as positive slaves to dividogenesure on the one hand. And there have been about one million families ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 93 that were more or less profited by their highly productive labor and skillful energy on the other hand. The above number includes nearly all the homeless and landless of the last census, and in- cludes about six milHons of those who had their little homes and other properties of no importance. The productivity of these people may be exem- plified by the following reports : "Mr. Mulhall, in the 'North American Review,' for June, 1895, says: "An ordinary farm-hand in the United States raises as much grain as three in England, four in France, five in Germany, or six in Austria, which shows what an enor- of°farmefis! mous waste of labor occurs in Europe, because farmers are not possessed of the same mechanical appliances as in the United States." (Enc. of Soc. Ref. p. 1093.) "Mr. Edward Atkinson gives the following statements on the industrial productivity of the United States." He says: "One thousand barrels of flour, the annual ra- tion of 1,000 people, can be placed in the city of New York from a point 1,700 or 7 persons 2,000 miles distant with the exertion serve t.ooo of human labor equivalent to that of ""™ ^''"°- only four men, working one year in producing, milling and moving the wheat. It can then be baked and distributed by the work of three more 94 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. persons, so that seven persons serve i,ooo with bread."* "The average crop of wheat in the United States and Canada would give one person in every 20 of the population of the globe a ^'?heVo°rlT° barrel of flour in each year, with enough tO' spare for seed. The land capable of producing wheat is not occupied to any- thing like one-twentieth of its extent. We can raise grain enough on a small part of territory of the United States to feed the world."t "The general conclusion at which I have ar- rived is that in the year 1880, the census year, when the population of the United irvMir^aT States numbered a little over 50,- 000,000, the annual product had a value of nearly, or quite $10,000,000,000 at points of final consumption, including, at market prices, that portion which was consumed upon the farm, but which was never sold. Omitting that con- sumed upon the farm, it was about $9,000,000,- ooo."t "At an average of 200 pounds per head in the United States, the largest consumption of iron of ONE OPERATOR ^"^ natiou, we may yet find that the SERVES HUNDREDS equivalent of one man's work for iTH GOODS. ^^^ year, divided between the coal- *Mr. E. Atkinson, "The Distribution of Products," p. 15. tib., p. 22. tEd. Atkinson, ib. p. 27. ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 95 mine, the iron-mine and the iron-furnace, suffices for the supply of 500 persons. One operator in the cotton factory makes cloth for 250; in the woolen factory for 300; one modern cobbler (who is anything but a cobbler), working in a boot or shoe factory, furnishes 1,000 men or more than 1,000 women with all the boots and shoes they re- quire for a year."t These paragraphs sufficiently indicate the gen- eral capability of the American people for produc- tion under the existing conditions. If an Austrian wine-producer or a farmer is six times less capable to produce than an American farmer; and if this Austrian farmer can easily defray the multiple ex- ,g |^°p^oss1ble penses of his family and his own out of the results of his less capable labor and live com- fortably every year, the American farmer ought to have five times as much of net profit from the re- sults of his capable labor energy as the Austrian farmer can spend every year for his living. So that, living in the same way as the Austrian, the American farmer ought to be in six years fully thirty times wealthier than an Austrian farmer of an ordinary type. How is it then that the wealth of the sturdy American farm tenant consists on the average of but $360 per family of nearly five members each; tEd. Atkinson, ib., pp. yT, 78. Also, Enc. of S. R., p. 1093. 96 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. while an Austrian farmer is incomparably better off, being almost always a propertied man? And if seven American laborers are able to serve 1,000 persons with bread and feed themselves every year, it is perfectly legitimate, then, that every one of them should have a yearly profit of his labor, which is equal to the value of bread, yearly con- sumed by nearly 143 men. And this yearly profit must quickly make a considerable amount of wealth in his store. How is it then that the millions of American producers of bread, each supplying hundreds of persons, are obliged to live from POVERTY EXISTS, hand to mouth, having neither prop- erty nor land, nor any other wealth in store for their future? And if their productivity testifies that they are able to feed and clothe the world, as Mr. Atkinson very reasonably affirms, is it not highly important to find out who profits by their remarkably efficient labor energy? Or, who yearly devours the surplus of their products, leav- ing them in poverty? Further, the work of one American miner, "for one year, divided between the coal-mine, the iron- mine and the iron-furnace," ulti- FOR°povERTY. "^^tely "suffices for the supply of 500 persons" with the metallic goods and utilities they consume in a year. "One operator in the cotton factory can provide goods for 250, in ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 97 the woolen factory for 300, in a boot or shoe fac- tory for 1,000 men or more than 1,000 women" — one worker in any of these industries, in one year, can work out the respective goods these numbers of consumers require for a year, thus showing that the productivity of every operator is simply phe- nomenal. How. is it then that these very operators who can and do supply hundreds and even thousands of consumers with different utilities yet poverty for living and enjoying, are unable ^AgiyNCE 0"^ to support their own families for six justice, etc. months after they cease to be in their exceedingly productive employment? And why are nearly all of them homeless? Is it the essential and neces- sary demand of modern ethics, that the more one produces the poorer one must be? Or is it exactly the demand of modern justice that millions of human beings should only toil and work for others, without having the right to work for themselves, and to partake of the fruits of their own labor? And where is the court of justice to be found which can vindicate their cause in view of their unusual pro- ductivity? Many consumers are convinced that these opera- tors as well as all other American la- borers are always paid what they de- reasoning. serve, though they cannot provide for their future. Many other consumers think that 98 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. they could not be so productive if it were not for the highly efficient aid of costly capital under their operations. And as a logical inference, these con- sumers further think that this capital must be high- ly paid for its own productivity. Hence the capital- ist must have a lion's share from the results of the active energy of every operator with the me- chanical forces in production. And, although the error of such reasoning is transparent from begin- ning to end, yet it seems that justice itself is thus often satisfied. These reasoners seem to never ask, Whose energy- is embodied in the capital that the inventors have JUSTICE CLAIMS ^^^^ ^^ S^^^^ blcssing for working A DEEPER BASIS humanity ? And whose energy has FOR REASONING. ,• J i.1. ^ ■ r j .1 realized, or rather materialized, the existing inventions after they had been created in the minds of the great men? Has all this been done by inanimate dollars or money, or by the same animate and intelligent beings whom we now re- gard as the mere operators in every sphere of human activity? Is it not their energy that flows like a river into all things of utility? Then they say that the organizers, the managers, the superintendents must be paid manifold for their superior work and intelligence. All right, nobody denies that. But will you show me a single article in use, in existence, or an object in the process toward use ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 99 and existence, which does not represent the energy of the laborers in need of some of the necessaries of mere existence? Show me a brick the whole ar- or a stone in its use, an iron-bar, a p'^^g expended steel-rail, a machine or an engine, human energy. a steamer or cable, or whatever you please, which has not been washed with the sweat of the brow of their makers in need ? Show me that build- ing, that palace or mansion, a house or home, which does not directly imply, or does not testify of the energy of the propertied poor and the home- less? Or show me that article, a heavy stone in a struc- ture, a lump of iron or coal, a coin of silver or gold, or show me anything in the world, which should prove to have been only stained with the sweat of the brow of a mere speculator in motions of values, in rentable farms and homes, or in products of the workers in need ? I am sure you cannot. While as facts I can show that the crystallized energy of the homeless, the poor and the landless, in possesion of others, floats on the rivers, the seas and the oceans; it justly paId^for fills up the land, builds up the towns and cities, heats them in winter, lights them at night. In possession of others, their energy is sold on the markets, and is laid in the stores and the banks of others. Further, their energy stands in the forms of the plants and the factories working in 100 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. speed throughout the country; and it burns in the stoves, in the furnace of the various works; it steams in the boilers and moves the machines of its own making; and it pulls on the cables and the cars upon the roads made by its muscle and bone. It crystallizes in goods and all objects of use; it then moves on in masses upon the lines of rails, and runs on from cities to cities, obeying speculators' com- mands. So, having been shaped into millions of different forms, and having escaped from the work- ing hands of its genuine owners, the energy quickly changes into more and more durable forms; and after several motions, it finally rests in the clean hands of the speculators, as if it were their righteous net profit and wealth. Even this picture indicates the true basis where on'e should look for justice and rights, for losses and profits. "The profits of the Wall street kings the past year were enormous," says Dr. Josiah Strong,* about January, 1880. "It is estimated that one of them made $30,000,000; another, $15,000,000; two, $10,000,000 each; one, $8,000,000; and four, from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 each; making a grand total for 10 or 12 estates of about $80,000,- 000"* in one year. While "Mr. F. C. Waite, special agent of the ♦"Socialism and Chrigtianity," p. 205. AI50 En?, of SOC. R., p. 289, ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 101 Eleventh Census, in charge of True Wealth, makes the following statement as to the gross and net earnings of important natural monopolies for the census year 1890."* Itemi. GroBB Earnings. Net Earnings. Railroads: From operation . . . Other sources Unreported roads (about) Express com- paniest Street railways .... Water transporta- tion Telegraph compan- ies Telephone compan- ies Insurance Com- panies: Life Fire, etc Banks: National All others (esti- mated) Artificial Gas Companies: (Estimated) 51,051,877,632 126,767,064 50,000,000 53,000,000 90,000,000 191,000,000 25,000,000 16,404,583 90,000,000 54,991,613 144,614,053 200,000,000 25.000.000 Total earnings! 2,118,654,945 $331,373,057 11,000,000 28,000,000 31,000,000 7,000,000 5,260,712 59,000,000 19,000,000 72,055,564 553,689,333 *Prof John R. Commons, "Distribution of Wealth, p. 258. Also, see Enc. of Soc. Reform, p. 1102. f'Gross receipts less gross disbursements." tTotals made up by me. 102 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. Now, these totals show what an enormous amount of the people's crystallized energy accrues to the monopolists in one year, and in every year, besides covering all yearly expenses. No wonder, then, why we find that the highly productive peo- ple, of which Mr. Atkinson speaks and which could even in 1880 put upon the market, "at final points of consumption," the annual surplus of $9,000,- 000,000 worth of various kinds of products, ap- peared in 1890 to be in possession of only about $10,000,000,000 worth of aggregate wealth, belong- ing to more than 55-millions of individuals. Where- as, on the other side, there appeared less than y^- millions of individuals in possession of more than $55,000,000,000 worth of wealth.* Jt is certainly understood that all products, while reaching the "points of final consumption," rise in their value, on account of the enormous earnings derived from them by the speculators in the prod- ucts of human energy, while they move these products by the cheapest possible labor of millions of employees, under the principle of dividogene- sure. The rising of their value is, of course, in- evitable from beginning to end. For as the raw materials, or the products of any kind, continue to acquire their consumable state in the hands of the operators, more and more energy is being spent ♦Compare the last two groups with the first two of the table, p. 28. And compare the same groups of table, p. 51. ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 103 upon them or added to them. And it is just and meet that the persons who thus add their energy to the products should be paid for it, whether en- gaged in the factory, in the plant, in transporta- tion or in the final distribution among consumers. Yet what do we find? We find that the 38,837,- 849* slaves of dividogenesure, who work in the whole field of production and dis- ,„„, . . . ^ . THEY LABOR FOB tnbution, are losmg a great amount less than of their energy in favor of about one ^"^ °"^' million* families that employ them for less pay- ment than these families finally derive from the results of the labor energy of these employees. By "less payment" I mean that net profit which is called the undue concentration of the producers' wealth in the employer's hands; and I mean what is absolutely due to the laborers and not what is undue. The facts of the undue concentration of wealth in the hands of these few families will be shown in chapter VI. If we now regard one million families of the wealthy group of one of the tablesf as the employ- ers of the 38,837,849 propertyless and the propertied poor, the daily ^"incomes.'"' injustice of the million families will be expressed in their daily incomes from every in- dividual as follows: *See this number and families, p. 92. tSee tables, p. 36 or 45. 104 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. Obtaining daily from each individual worker: ic. they derive $ 388,378.48 2c. " " 776,756.96 3c- " " 1,165,135.44 4c. " " 1,553,513-92 5c. " " 1,941,892.40 6c. " " 2,330,270.88 7c. " " 2,718,649.36 8c. " " 3,107,027.84 9c- " " 3,495,406.32 IOC. " " 3,883,784.80 lie. " " 4,272,163.28 I2C. " " 4,660,541.76 15c. " " 5,825,677.20 20C. " " 7,767,569.60 So that, if only 20c is obtained from each of the propertyless and the propertied poor in any em- ployment whatever, then every one of the million families on the average gets daily more than $7 of the unjust income. And that is simply because the resourceless people cannot apply their energy anywhere without oppression. But, if the prin- ciple of dividogenesure allows these families to squeeze out of every one's energy daily 25c, then the daily dividend of these families will amount to $9,709,462.25, which is nearly $10 to each family among the million. And this is one way how the rich are growing richer and the poor are growing poorer. While the next chapter will show another way of getting rich and the poor. ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 105 No one ought to suppose, however, that the million families, variously employing the above number of the absolutely dependent ^^^^ losses and people, obtain equal shares of the profits are unearned profits from the workers in the United States. Nor ought one to suppose that these workers lose equal amounts of energy in favor of the owners of capital, means of transporta- tion, or distribution of products, in favor of land- lords and houselords, etc. No, some of the workers lose more than others, just as some of the fam- ilies get much more than others. The net profits of the different monopolies, p. loi, as represented by the census agent, illustrate these dififerences in the gains of several famihes connected with the mo- nopolies. But, notwithstanding the dififerences in the de- tailed gains and losses, there cannot be any doubt or discrepancy in the general fact, that if "the nat- ural" and other* "monopolies" shall continue to earn billions of dollars worth of wealth every year, all the nation will soon be absolutely enslaved by a very few families of the wealthiest type. The economic slavery of the nation then will grow harder and harder upon the people absolutely de- pendent on the principle of dividogenesure. *By the "other" monopolies, I mean some monopolies, companies, trusts and combinations which have not been mentioned here at all, and many of which de^l with ren^abl? houses in cifies, ancj so on, 106 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. For if each one of the 38,837,849 individuals now daily loses, on the average, 25c worth of wealth produced by his energy, the con- iNDmouALS tinual increase of these dependents must bring about a continual in- crease in the rates of the daily incomes in favor of the wealthy few — at the rates shown on p. 104, which shall then go higher up. The concentration of wealth will go on, and from the standpoint of dividogenesure, these rates will indicate a con- tinual increase or decrease in the unjust concen- tration of wealth in a few hands. No one must suppose, however, that by the rates of dividogenesure we mean only the underrated wages and salaries. No, we mean here the losses of the people in all stages of productive and dis- tributive activity and the final gains of those that unjustly profit by this general activity of the peo- ple. And I view the nation as a whole with its fu- ture. If the situation be left, as it is at present, many possibilities can unmistakably be predicted for the nation's future. When the nation is rapidly growing into the economic slaves of a few favorites of dividogene- sure, there is no use to think about POSSIBLE FUTURE, the freedom and political power of the enslaved people, because such thinking or talking will only be a general mock- ABNORMITY OF SOCIAL SITUATION. 107 flattery against the helpless by the ignorant or dis- honest men who may also be slaves over the slaves. And this modern dependence of the people will certainly be to their own harm. The tens of mil- lions of families together shall neither be able to support the public schools, colleges, churches, nor any other public institutions without the means of the wealthy few. Then it will be that the very teachers, professors, ministers and every one else in the pubHc service will also be in bondage. Then it will be that they shall be bound to educate the people by so shaping their nervous system as to bear even greater economic slavery than any savages could tolerate. Then it will be that they shall be unable to teach any truth valuable for the well-being of the people even if they know it per- fectly well.* And then it will be that every one shall feel his impotency and littleness in attempting to throw ofif the heavy yoke of the few rich fam- ilies. Besides, we may see here a type of the Venetian Republic with all its inherent miseries, on a large scale; while the people shall continue to groan even as the Venetians did republic. under a few prosperous families. But the American groaning and misery may undoubt- *Prof. George Herron's dismissal from the Iowa College is a striking example, foreboding the nation's near future. This professor was forbidden by financial necessity to teach what is good for the people.— "The Public," Nov. ii, 1899, 108 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. edly be even greater than theirs, because they were oppressed and labored as beasts of burden, but they were never compelled to work on a par with the modern mechanical forces. And as the misery of the American Republic will be greater, the oppres- sion heavier, and the economic and other forms of slavery will be more degrading, it will be necessary to have a greater Napoleon Boneparte in order to liberate the future Americans from their oligar- chic plutocracy than the one who spoke to the Venetians: "I am your liberator; I am not your enemy; I am your friend; don't be afraid," and so on. It is, however, to be hoped that the present American fathers will not hesitate to provide some- thing better for their children. Chicago. "The Public" No. 115, 1900, has now on record four other professors similarly dealt with in different col- leges on grounds similar to that of Prof. G. Herron. One of these four is President Henry Wade Rogers, of the North- western University, at Evanston, 111. CHAPTER V. MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. It must be borne in mind that in this chapter we have to consider only those families of the nation which were in possession of real or artificial* prop- erty before and after the year 1890. And we have especially to consider those of them whose prop- erties were mortgaged; and those whose properties were to be lost in consequence of the mortgages they were encumbered with. While the property- less or the tenant families, that were treated in the preceding chapter, will now be kept in the back- ground of the statistics with which we have to deal. When, however, we are through with the statis- tics, we may make references to and may even make special statements about the tenant families treated before; while the prominent position will now be given to the mortgagor families, showing how they fall from the class of property owners, be- come debtors to the owners of greater wealth, lose their properties and increase the numbers of the propertyless. It is important to note here that the loss of the rights to property always precedes the actual loss ♦Artificial property again means all things that were cre- ated or invented by man in the past or the present. 109 110 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. of property itself; and that the fall of the prop- ertied into the sphere of dividogenesure, also pre- cedes the actual economic slavery of those that be- come propertyless. The very day in which a propertied person mortgages his property he loses his rights for the wealth he has owned, because his LOSS OF RIGHTS ' PRECEDES LOSS property goes from him as a secur- OF PROPERTY, ity for the loan he makcs. And while losing the rights, he takes upon himself the obliga- tion to divide the results of his labor between the lender and himself, and thus falls under the in- fluence of dividogenesure. For, henceforth, he spends his active energy in favor of the creditor and himself, and is obliged to regard the interests of the creditor as of more importance than his own. The rate of interest to the creditor must be accurately paid so much per cent per annum for the loan. Hence, the mortgagor at once appears in the position of a tenant of farm or of any other property. And it depends on the rate of the per- centage he agreed to pay out of the results of his labor whether he is better oH or worse even than a mere tenant. It also depends on the fact whether his mortgaged property is a large one or small, and whether he has mortgaged one part or the whole of his resources of wealth. In any way, a mort- gagor, according to the degree of his indebtedness, is an economic slave of the owners of greater MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. Ill wealth. And he must have a supernatural ability and must use an extraordinary effort in order to pay his debt or to redeem his property. Otherwise his property must pass into the absolute owner- ship of the wealthy families that millions of other individuals already labor for under the modern type of slavery. But let us now see the statistical facts and then we may better judge of what mortgages signify and what they mean to the nation. We shall take the other class treated in the same bulletin out of which we extracted the 6,624,259 tenant families for the preceding chapter.* STATISTICS.! "Extra Bulletin No. 98 of the United States Census, 1890," (of the mortgagor families) "says :" That out of the whole 4,767,179! farming fam- ilies in the United States only "65.92 per cent," or 3,142,414 families "own the farms cultivated by them." And "that '"Zlfsj!^^ 28.22 per cent," or 886,839 families out of the 3,142,414 owning ones, "own subject to encumbrance," i. e., they are in debt; "and 71.78 per cent," or 2,255,575 families, "own free of en- cumbrance." So that among every 100 farm own- *See the same number on p. 79. tEnc. of Soc. Reform, p. 899. tThis number contains 1,624,765 tenant farming fcmilies. 113 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. ing families 72* own without encumbrance and 28 own with encumbrance. And the same Bulletin further says : That "on the owned farms there are liensf amounting to $1,085,995,960, which is 35.55 per PER CENT° ^^^^ °^ ^^^ value of the encumbered farms, and this debt bears interest at the average rate of 7.07 per cent," which is more than 7 dollars for every $100 borrowed. It is at this rate per annum that the farmer's labor eneygy is drained by the wealthy creditors or by the bank- ers. "Each owned and encumbered farm on the average is worth $3,444." This average, of course, includes the families far above $3,444 worth and far below it — "and" each, on the average, "is sub- ject to a debt of $1,224." Hence it follows that the principle of divido- genesure, in these cases, has a yearly demand that every debtor should, on the average, INTEREST. pay about $86.53 worth of the results of his labor energy to his creditor. And it is a question whether even a highly effective capital worth $1,224 is really able to increase the yearly results of the debtor's labor to the extent of $86.53 — I mean an increase in his product abso- lutely due to the aid of the borrowed capital on which he is to pay this sum as the annual interest *Remember that the tenant families are excluded here. tLien means a legal claim on property which must be paid. MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 113 charge. It is rather probable that the majority of the mortgagors pay more than half of this annual percentage at the expense of their personal energy, even under the condition of the most effective use of the borrowed means. For the rate of 7.07 per cent is unconscientiously exorbitant and is gen- erally abnormal. As to the families owning homes, the corre- sponding facts are "that 27.70* per cent," or 809,- 831 families, out of the 2,923,577 home-owning families, "own their "°"n debt'"'^* homes with encumbrance, and 72.30 per cent," or 2,113,746, "own them without en- cumbrance." So' that in every 100 home-owning famihes 28 are in debt and 72 are free of debt. "The debt on owned homes aggre- gates $1,046,953,603, or 39.77 per e.23''pER cent. cent of the value of the encum- bered homes, and bears interest at the average rate of 6.23 per cent. An average debt of $1,293 ^^' cumbers each home, which has an average value of $3,250." This average again includes the family homes worth far above and far below the indi- cated value. While the homes below this value may have greater encumbrances than the others; and it is certainly the poorer families that lose their properties first, if they attempt to get rich by ♦Remember that the 4,999,396 tenant families are excluded here. 114 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. means of the loans they can obtain at the rate of exorbitant per cents. If then the average debt of these 809,831 fam- ilies is $1,293 and the rate per cent for it is 6.23 per cent per annum, every one of them "i'Iter'est'' ^^' therefore, a subject to the prin- ciple of dividogenesure at the rate of $80.55 ^ year. It must, however, he understood that the averages indicate only the general truth, and always conceal the particular miseries and distress of many millions of the people. And I understand that many of these debtors have been in the gain- ful pursuits spoken of by Mayo-Smith, and hence the dividogenesure presses upon them from two or even more sides. But it is only the next census that will show us the situation these debtors are in. Let us now speak about the cities and towns with one side of which we have become acquainted in the preceding chapter. CITIES AND TOWNS. "There are 420 cities and towns that have a population of 8,000 to 100,000, and in these "cities OWNERS OF THE and towns 64.04 per cent," i. e., Zm Ih,Z 1.120,433 "of the home families hire FAMILIES. and 35.96 per cent," i. e., 629,146 famihes "own their homes, and of the home- owning families 34.11 per cent," i. e., 214,602 "own with encumbrance and 65.89 per cent," i. e., 414,- MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 115 544 "own free of encumbrance. The liens on the owned homes are 39-55 per cent of the vahie of those subject to Hen. Several averages show that the rate of interest is 6.29 per cent; value of each owned and encumbered home is $3,447; lien on the same is $1,363." (See Appendix I.) So that these debtors of the 420 towns and cities are also subject to the principle of dividogenesure at the rate of $85.73 each per every year, as long as the mortgages remain in force and are not fore- closed. "The cities that have a population of 100,000 and over" (up to millions) "number 28, and in these cities 77.17 per cent," i. e., owners of the 1,503,911 "of the home families hire ^^^^l^^'^% and 22.83 per cent," i. e., 444,923 276,744 families. "own their homes; 37.80 per cent," i. e., 168,179 of the latter families have encumbrance and 62.20 per cent," i. e., 276,744 families are free of en- cumbrance. Averages for owned and encum- bered homes are: Encumbrance, $2,337; value, $5,555; rate of interest, 5.75 per cent. Homes are encumbered for 42.07 per cent of their value." This is the largest average encumbrance among all en- cumbered homes and farms. So that every debtor in these 28 large cities (and there are 9 of them in every 100) is a subject to the principle of dividogenesure at the rate of $134.37 each in every year as long as the mort- 116 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. gage is in force and is not foreclosed. It is after the foreclosure that the debtor cannot even redeem his mortgaged property; he has then to remain propertyless. Let us now sum up the preceding conclusions in a tabular way, as follows: United States Farms and Homes. The Farm-Families. Per Cent. Number ol The total of families occupying farms (1) out of them: The families hiring farms 34.08 4,767,179 1,624,765 (2) and the families owning farms. Out of the last 65.92 per cent, of them are those owning farms with encumbrance 65.92 28.22 71.78 3,142,414 886,839 2,255,575 And those owning them free of encumbrance The Home-Families. The total of families occupying homes (1) out of them: The families hiring homes 63.10 7,922,973 4,999,396 (2) and the families owning homes. Out of the last 36.90 per cent, of them are those owning homes with encumbrance 36.90 27.70 * 72.30 2,923,577 809,831 2,113,746 And those owning them free of encumbrance Total of farm and home families with encumbrance 1,696,670 ♦These percentages ar§ from the Official Bulletin, No. 98 MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 117 This double table shows clearly enough that there were 8,320,831 tenant and mortgagor fam- ihes that have been subject to the principle of dividogenesure. And oivfoo'eESyuRE. that these families had 41,061,563 in- dividual members, including children that have now grown up to the same fate of the drain of labor energy, under which their unfortunate par- ents have been. For all these individuals, of course, cannot exist without working in favor of the few money lenders and propertied men, because the tenants have no resources to apply their energy to, and the mortgagors cannot profit themselves by the loans of exorbitantly high per cent of interest. Hence, they are all drained and all are economic slaves of the wealthy few. Besides, the necessary life-expenses of every one, subject to a strong dividogenesure,* are absolute- ly greater than the same expenses of any one in the wealthy group. While the incomes of the rich that the millions of other individuals and the forces of capital work out, cannot even be compared with the semi-incomes of the poor that are obliged in any way to work for the wealthy, when these are disposed to give them a chance to work. ♦Dividogenesure is the stronger, the larger the per cent an employer obtains from the results of the labor of every employee; and is the weaker, the smaller the per cent he obtains from every one dependent on him for life. 118 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. Further, is it not an abnormal reality that the 420 towns and cities in the United States should belong CITIES OWNED BY to Icss than 24 per cent of the entire ■"I^^tTthbr^" population in them? And is it not PEOPLE. strange that the remaining 76 per cent of the inhabitants in these cities and towns should live and labor with the purpose of feeding, fattening and enriching these 24 per cents of the people who are really the owners of these towns and cities? And is it not abnormal in the extreme to have 28 cities, populated by hundreds of thou- sands and by millions of individuals; and that these cities, including all kinds of buildings, machines, CITIES OWNED BY houses, ctc, ctc, should actually be ""c^ENroF THtfif possessed by less than 14 per cent of PEOPLE. their population? And that, in addi- tion to this extreme abnormity, the remaining 86 per cent of their people should be obliged to divide all results of active and creative energy with these few owners of the great cities? But what is inconceivably strange is that this ex- tremely abnormal situation should be produced in a nation governed by the people's representatives chosen by their good will and purpose; and that this will and purpose should bring about the results of so great injustice and wickedness against this people, is only possible on the basis of ignorance, neglect of duty and selfishness. Let us now have an idea of the progress of de- MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 119 velopment of the principle of dividogenesure in the United States, and of the rapidity with which the people fall under its oppressive influence, thus gradually becoming propertyless or the absolutely helpless economic slaves of those that capture them within the extensive nets of that principle. "Extra Census Bulletin No. 71 gives the statis- tics on mortgages by amounts, length of mortgage, rate of interest for the United States from 1880 to 1889." It says: "That during that time 9,517,747 real estate mortgages, stating amount of debt incurred, were made in the United States, rep- resenting an incurred indebtedness mortgages. of $12,094,877,793. The number of mortgages made during one year* increased from 643,143 in 1880 to 1,226,323 in 1889, or 90.88 per cent, and the yearly incurred indebtedness in- creased from $710,888,504 in 1880 to $1,752,568,- 274 in 1889, or 146.53 per cent." "With regard to mortgages on acre-tracts, the number made during 10 years was 4,747,078, rep- resenting an incurred indebtedness of $4,896,771,112." The increase in acre-tracts. making them was as follows : "The number of these mortgages made in" the year *That is, the rate of making mortgages in 1880th year was 643,143, and the yearly rate in 1889th year was 1,226,323 in one year. 130 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. "1880 was 370,984; in 1889, 525,094." So that during the years between these "an increase of 41.54 per cent" was made; "while the incurred in- debtedness increased from $342,566,477 in 1880 to $585,729,719 in 1889, an increase of 70.98 per cent. "The increase was relatively larger in the case of mortgages on lots. They numbered 4,770,669 during the 10 years, and the indebt- ON LOTS. edness incurred under them amounted to $7,198,106,681. From 1880 to 1889 the annual number made increased from 272,159 to 701,229, an increase of 157.65 per cent. During the same time the amount of an- nual indebtedness incurred increased from $368,- 322,027" in the year 1880, "to $1,166,838,555" in the year 1889, "an increase of 216.80 per cent."t As you see, the yearly increase in the numbers of making new mortgages was astonishingly great on all sides. This progress of falling under the in- fluence of dividogenesure, falling into debt, indi- cates that the people could not avoid becoming slaves to the percentages for loans. This progress indicates that they were compelled by the general- ly abnormal conditions of existence to take the risk of losing their properties. And all cities thus grow as "New York City," where "but 6 1-3 per cent of the families owned their homes"| in 1890. tEnc. of Soc. Reform, p. 901. tDr. Spahr, ib. p. 67. MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 121 "AMOUNTS :" "During the decade 622,855,091 acres were cov- ered by 4,758,268 mortgages stating and not stat- ing the amount of indebtedness incurred under them. The number of acres covered by mortgage in 1880 was 42,743,013; in 1889, 70,678,257; an increase of 65.36 per cent. In the case of lots covered by mortgage the increase was 198.25 per cent. The number" thus "covered by mortgages stating and not stating amount of indebtedness in the former year being 429,955; in the latter year 1,282,334. "At the end of the decade, January i, 1890, the real estate mortgage indebtedness amounted to $6,010,670,985," on the whole, "rep- resented by 4,777,698 mortgages,"* °" ''^^^^ "''° which were divided into the mort- gages on the acres and the mortgages on the lots. It was also computed that the average length of a mortgage in the United States is longer than four and a half years, or exactly "4.660 years." The Bulletin calls it mortoage. a "life of a mortgage," which may last "as much longer without being paid ofif;" that is, a mortgage may last as long as the creditor gets his rate of interest, or as long as his increasing *AII expressions under the inverted commas are from Bul- letin. 123 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. interest is secure in the whole value of the mort- gaged property. Otherwise a mortgage is fore- closed. But what is specially important for us is whether the mortgagors are able to extinguish their debt with the same rapidity with which it was incurred by them? If they are able to pay ofif their debts at the proper times, then mortgaging of property would at least appear uninjurious to their well being, though it could not be regarded as profit- able to them. The same "Bulletin No. 71," however, states that, "since mortgages in force were made, 12.68 per . _ , cent of the original amount of in- ORIGINAL DEBT ° PAID: 12.68 PER dcbtedness incurred under them has ^^^' been extinguished by partial pay- ments." Now, it was time to extinguish all the original amount on mortgages in force. Yet 87.32 per cent of the original indebtedness could not be paid off by the debtors. And this is a sign of the ORIGINAL LOSS OF ^°^^ forcibk argument, showing PROPERTY: 87.32 that the greatest majority of the PER CENT. , 1 u ..1. mortgagors have been on the way to ruin, and on the way of losing their properties. It is thus the millions of tenants appeared in 1890. THE PER CAPITA DEBT. Instead of being paid ofl at proper times, the mortgage debt was accumulating so far that if it MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 123 were divided among the entire population in 1890, every man, woman and child would have been in debt of $96. Just as the Bulletin says that "the mortgage debt per ''"°'°tat'es.' "" capita in the United States is $96; the three largest state averages (omitting the Dis- trict of Columbia) are $268 in New York, $206 in Colorado, and $200 in California. The smaller ones are found in the south and the Rocky Mountain region."* Such is the per capita debt in these three States. "In 41 States 28.86 per cent of the taxed acres are covered by mortgages in force. The largest proportion of mortgaged acres is in Kansas, where 60.32 per cent of the total number of taxed acres are mortgaged. Nebraska stands next, with 54.73 per cent; South Dakota third, with 51.76 per cent.* "In the five States, IlHnois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Carolina, 23.99 per cent of the taxed lots are covered by mortgages in force,"* and so on in the other States. But the most im- portant fact is the annual interest the people have to pay to the wealthy few for their loans. AVERAGE RATE PER CENT ON THE DEBT. "The average rate for all mortgages in the United States is 6.60 per cent. For mortgages on ♦Bulletin No. 71, Encyclopedia of Social Reform, p. poi. 124 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. acres," the average is "7-36 per cent; for mart- u. s. RATE gages on lots, 6.16 per cent. These PER CENT. rates make the annual interest charge on the existing real estate mortgage in the United States amount to $397,442,792."! Now we have reached the principle point in these statistics. Imagine that the families in debt are annually charged with the rate charge! °^ interest amounting to $397,442,- 792 worth of the results of their la- bor, and that the group of creditors get this amount of wealth yearly without work. And think that, if the average life of a mortgage is even 4^ years long, these families have to pay $1,788,492,564 worth of wealth produced by their energy during this time. But we were told that the average length of a mortgage life continues "as much longer without being paid ofif," that is, it lasts nearly 10 years, and these families have, therefore, to pay nearly $4,000,000,000 worth of the wealth produced by them during this time. That is how the debtors are affected by the principle of divido- genesure which steadily works in all directions in favor of the wealthy few. This is the economic slavery that the Nineteenth Century has estab- lished for the people of the United States. The Bulletin shows that this interest charge is tContinuation, "On the debt in force against acres, $162,- 652,944; on lots, $234,789,848," is the yearly interest. MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 135 for mortgages on acre-tracts and on lots, against which the debt of $6,010,670,985 was in force in 1890, after which it continued to exist and to in- crease probably with the same rate as it increased in the previous decade. For, nothing special has been done to prevent the needy people from mortgaging their properties. So the mortgages were increasing and the annual interest charge against lots and acres, too, continued to increase. But the Extra Bulletin No. 98 shows that the indebtedness on owned farms was equal to $1,085,- 995,060,* and the same on owned ^•yo^-y , ^ ^ ^ . INTEREST CHARGE homes was equal to $1,046,953,603;! on farms and so that, added together, these two "°""^^- classes of debt amount to $2,132,949,563, as was stated in this Bulletin. And the average rate of interest on this debt is shown at the end of the second Bulletin to have been 6.65 per cent per annum. And "the annual interest charge is $141,- 910,106"$ that has been a burden on 1,696,670 fam- ihes represented here in the table, p. 1 16. Of course, thousands of these families have now lost their properties forever, as there were Hens on their farms and homes representing the above total of more than 2-bilHon dollars. ♦Here, p. 112. tib., p. 113. tEnc. of Soc. Reform, p. go2. This interest charge is at the end of the Extra Bulletin No. 71. 136 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. If we now unite the annual interest charge on the acres and lots mortgage debt, and the annual interest on farms and homes mort- iNTEREST CHARGE, g^ge debt, wc find that these charges amount to $539,352,898 in every year, which must be paid in any way. It is certainly not the yearly charge of the me- morial past, but it was stated as existing in the year 1890, and would naturally continue as an annual interest charge up to the present day. The debtors must use an extraordinary effort in their toil, in order to get sufficient results from their applied energy for clearing up this annual interest charge, and keeping themselves alive.* And to speak about an unusual prosperity of the people under such conditions is as absurd as to say that the creditors are growing poor from receiving the annual interest charge consisting of $539,352,898 worth of wealth because they get it yearly without work. Yes, every one that speaks about prosperity in the United States knows what he means. For the statistical facts prove that there is an unusual pros- *Yet, it should be remembered that we do not here deal with the debts of Railroad Companies, Street Railway, Tele- graph, Telephone and other companies and corporations; nor do we deal with the U. S. debt of $891,960,104; States, $228,- 997,389; Counties, $145,048,045; Municipalities, $724,463,060; School districts, $36,701,948, which in 1890 made the grand total of $18,027,170,546 including the debt under our consid- eration. But we deal with family-debtors, for whom debt is equal to ruin. Whereas debt to the others is prosperity. MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 137 perity for the very few that the tens of miUions of individuals are bound to work for. But, is it 23ros- perity for these milHons of the propertyless * * * and debtors? No, there is positive enslavement for them and their children. And it is the innocent children or posterity that are to be specially pitied. These tens of millions of individuals become weaker and weaker consumers of their own prod- ucts and products of the nation. So that, the few prosperous families are obliged to look after wider foreign markets to export to the produce that the millions here have no means, no purchasing power to acquire. It has long been the case in England, where millions of the people wear overcoats, for in- stance, from 5 to 10 years each, without being able to procure new ones; while the exports of all goods are ever going on to the dififerent foreign markets. And the United States are growing similar to Great Britain in almost every respect. * * * "The percentages representing encumbrance for various rates of interest," says the Extra Bulletin No. 71, "show that the larger en- ^^^^^^^,^^^^^^^ cumbrances bear the lower rates of are higher on interest, as a general fact." And the differences in the rates of interest are from "less than 6 to greater than 12 per cent." Hence, the poorer the mortgagors, the greater the weight of oppression they bear; and the greater oppression they bear, the quicker they lose their properties, 128 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. and the greater becomes the number of tenants and of economic slaves which we have. The brute-minded creditors think that it is nat- ural to skin the helpless, because they have no great security for the loans. What is the significance of mortgages for the nation? And what do other men acquainted with mortgages think of them? The significance of mortgages has already been considered by many thoughtful men, and it is not out of place to quote here the ready views of some of them. SIGNIFICANCE. As there are two economic classes of the people in the United States,* so "there are two views, both of which must be understood." The ^^^^WEWs!^™ view presented by writers like Mr. Edward Atkinson is known to some people as worthy of regard, notwithstanding that these writers knock their heads against a moun- tainous wall of facts. "They argue that the mort- gage is an indication of prosperity." Mr. Atkinson says, in the "Forum" for May, 1895, writing (be- fore the complete mortgage returns given above had been reported) concerning the census returns for 33 States: *That is, if we divide them by the line of families worth $5,000 and over, and families virorth $5,000 and under; and the latter will include the economic dependants. MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 129 "The first startling fact is that in these 33 States and Territories nearly 7,000,000 mortgages have been recorded in ten years for a total sum of nearly $9,500,000,000. The final statement, covering the whole country, which has not yet been published, discloses the fact that 9,517,747 mortgages were executed in the decade 1880-89 to the amount of $12,094,877,793."! * * * And then because "on the first of January, 1890, the amount of these mortgages remaining unpaid in the whole United States was $6,019,679,985,$ Mr. Atkinson says : "It therefore appears that dur- ing the decade one-half of the mortgage debt in- curred had already been paid." But he forgets to deal with the process of losing property by the thousands of the debtors who appeared without property in 1890. And being uncertain about mortgages on acres and lots at the beginning of the last decade, he infers that "the least estimate of the sum due on acres and lots at the beginning of this period (1880-90) would be $1,500,000,000." And con- tinues that "these original mortgages executed prior to 1880 must have been wholly liquidated, mostly by payment." * * * As regards this point we have equal or even greater reason to say that those mortgages have tHere, p. 119. JHere, p. 121. 130 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. mostly been liquidated by an absolute loss of prop- erty, because at the end of the decade we have had many millions of propertyless families. But the chief feature of the situation Mr. Atkin- son wishes to vindicate is that the mortgage growth indicates prosperity and not the system of tenancy and landlordism as in Great Britain. He says: "The evidence is conclusive that the increase of hired farms does not imply the permanent estab- lishment of the relations of landlord PRIMOGENITURE. ^"^ tenant after the English fashion. It does not imply the concentration of land in fewer hands, but rather the reverse. It does imply better and more intelligent methods of agriculture, larger and more varied crops pro- duced from lessening areas of land throughout the whole great grain-growing section,"* and so on. As to the prosperity, I will say, that a family se- curing a large amount of borrowed money or cap- ital at low rates of interest may ''prosperity"'' prosper under mortgage by efficient- ly applying the capital on its wealth, by efficiently applying the labor energy of the family members, and, especially, by efficiently ap- plying hired labor upon its farm or any other kind of property. So that, only those mortgagor fam- ilies can have prosperity, which are aided by many *Enc. of Soc. Reform, p. 904, Edition of 1897. MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 131 agencies in drawing incomes from their land. While all the poorer families must be ruined by the mortgages. As to the argument that we have no establish- ment of tenancy after the English fashion of primo- geniture, it is enough to refer the reader to the third chapter of this work, and beg him to under- stand it well by reading a second time. For the effects of primogeniture and dividogenesure are the same, as both principles demand that millions of individuals should divide the sole results of their applied energy with the few owners of capital and wealth, or else these millions must starve without employment. They produce economic slavery in England and in the United States, where most of the people are now propertyless and therefore help- less. Dividogenesure, however, differs from primo- geniture by including all mortgagors into its sphere of oppression. And it seems to me perfectly naive to assert that "larger and more varied crops are produced from lessening areas of land throughout the whole grain-growing section" of queer. the country. For it really means that the more land the people lose through mort- gages, the better crops they will produce, and hence the best crops must be produced by them when they lose all the land they formerly owned, 133 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. But Mr. Atkinson does not here deal with the fact that more than 64 per cent of the population in 420 cities and towns, and ']'] per cent of it in the 28 largest cities are also tenants of homes, be- side the tenants of farms he writes about. He does not speak of the fact that the 420 cities and towns actually belong to less than 24 per cent of their population, and that the 28 great cities in the United States really belong to less than 14 per cent of their population ; and that the whole population of the 448 cities and towns are bound, by dividogensure, to work in one or other way for the small per cent of their wealthy neighbors, the only independent population that holds the others in slavery. A dealing with these tenants would disprove his posi- tion. See appendix I. Mr. G. H. Holmes, writing in the "Annals of the American Academy and Social Science Quarterly," gives a more balanced view on the subject. He says :* "While mortgage debtors must admit that they have done better to obtain real estate on credit than not to obtain as much of it as effects! they have done, or not to obtain it at all, they are nevertheless in a situa- tion where they feel the pinching effects of a reduc- tion or loss of income more than real-estate owners *Enc. of Soc. Reform, p. 904. MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 133 do who are not debtors. This is owing to the in- terest that is wanted by the mortgagee." While a still better view is given by Rev. Wm. BHss, editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Re- form.f He says : "The mortgage indicates a hope of progress, but also a slavery to interest under which many sink." It is exactly the point of reality, for many prop- ertied families borrow money with the hope of get- ting economically better off, but the hopes mostly deceive them, and they °^o^"^m^°m^ find themselves in the trap of slavery on account of paying too high rate of interest for the loans they obtain. And it is this slavery to in- terest that makes them absolutely propertyless, slaves to dividogenesure. And it follows that the claim of Mr. Atkinson, that mortgages are profitable to both the mort- gagor and the mortgagee is only true in the cases of paying the rates of interest not exceeding 3 per cent per annum, which, however, does not exist in America. And if this rate had been in existence, then, an effective application of all possible agencies of production could make the mortgages profitable to the mortgagors and the mortgagees. While under the present conditions they are only ruinous to the former and most profitable to the latter. tib., p. 904. 134 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. But let us see the other view on mortgages which must be understood too. "The view that America is becoming a nation of tenants is well known," says Mr. J. P. Dunn, Jr., writing in the Political Science ^'"'viEW™'^"'' Quarterly for March, 1890, after de- scribing the situation as regards the Western States.* "BURDEN OF DEBT." "The mortgage indebtedness of the Western States is a matter worthy the attention of econ- omists and statesmen, as well as of '"TmTvab^e*"" the people of those States. What- ever may be thought of its effects, it is a fact — mountainous and immovable. And more, the probabilities that loom far above the figures here presented make it very questionable whether the alarmists who have discussed the subject have in fact materially exaggerated the existing condi- tions. * * * "If the people of the Western States may be con- sidered thrifty and judicious, the people of Mich- igan may, and by the official records their condi- *Mr. Dunn could not have known at the time that some Eastern States were even worse than the Western ones, and that "New York," for instance, "is" more "conspicuously prominent as having a real estate mortgage indebtedness of $1,607,874,301, which is 26.71 per cent of the total indebted- ness on acres and lots in the United States." MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 135 tion appears to be as bad as that of their neighbors in Indiana. In 1887 an attempt was made by the bureau of statistics to ascertain the mort- gage debt of the State through personal declara- tions of the owners of land. * * * The re- turns show (report of 1888) that the real estate mortgages of the State amount to $129,229,553, with an annual interest payment of $9,451,851 on a total realty valuation of $686,- 614,741- Of this amount $64,392,- ^SrecSres!' 580 is on farms, and the annual interest charge is $4,636,265," which the farms pay out of their produce. "The number of foreclosures made during the year was 1,667, ^"^ in only 131 cases were redemptions made, leaving a net loss of 1,536 pieces of property by foreclosure in one year. The situation apparently justifies the statement of Commissioner Heath that a very large per cent of the people seem to be in a financial rut, and are unable to extricate themselves." Here you are. Mr. Dunn's view is not an argu- ment based upon an inference from a guess, but on immovable facts of evidence which testify that the State of Michigan t^n to losses! alone assists the prosperity of the few wealthy families by the yearly contributions of $9,451,851 worth of wealth produced by the labor energy of its debtors. And that in addition to this contribution, the same debtors make a net loss of 136 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 1,536 pieces of property by foreclosure in one year. That's how this civiHzed nation regulates the sys- tem of money-lending for helping the people to live. And that's how the civilized slavery is insti- tuted. It is by becoming mortgagors that the fam- ilies pass from a bad degree of slavery to a worse, until they lose all property, and become totally helpless slaves of dividogenesure. But do not flatter yourself by thinking that this is only the fate of Michigan. No, the people's economic conditions are more or less similar in all the States and Territories, and some States are much worse ofif than Michigan, as the statistics show their situation. Mr. D. R. Goodloe, in the "Forum" for Novem- ber, 1890 (not knowing yet the facts of the East), says: "The conclusion from this melancholy array of facts is irresistible. The virgin soil of the West is rapidly ceasing to be the home and 'humanity.'' ^^^ possession of the sturdy Amer- ican freeman. He is but a tenant at will, or a dependent upon the tender mercies of soulless corporations and of absentee landlords. We have abolished monarchy, and primogeniture, and church establishments supported by the State, yet the universal curse of humanity, the monopoly of the earth by the wealthy few, remains." * * * And I can tell Mr. Goodloe that these few have MORTGAGOR FAMILIES. 137 monopolized, not only the earth of the country, but also the hundreds of cities and towns, together with their buildings, their capital, their natural and artificial wealth, their houses, etc., etc., and the tens of millions of the inhabitants of these towns and cities too, have been economically enslaved, under the system of dividogenesure, to the same wealthy few. CHAPTER VI. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH IN MONOPO- LIES, ETC. The first and the second chapters have revealed to ns that, since the year 1890, there have Ijeen nearly 34-millions of individuals without property in the United States. The third chapter has shown that about one-half the results of their labor must be expended for the necessary support of exist- ence, while the other half must go to enrich the owners of rentable farms and homes for which these owners draw incomes from the propertyless, with- out any labor or without any expenditure of their own energy. Besides this, out of the more than 47-millions of individuals in the gainful pursuits,* there must have been hundreds of thousands of families who have small properties, like homes, but their members have been obliged to support them- selves by laboring under the same conditions of dividogenesure as did the propertyless. If we admit then that there have been only 38,- 837,849 individuals in the gainful from\hTpoor. pursuits absolutely under the prin- ciple of dividogenesure, and that if one million families have employed them in vari- *Here, pp. 91, 92, or Mayo Smith, Statistics and Sociology, p. 200. 138 CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 139 ous ways, gaining 25 cents daily from each person thus employed, the total daily income of these fam- ilies would be $9,709,462 per every day.* And if the labor year on an average, for all, consists of 250 days, the yearly income of the million families would amount to $2,327,365,500. This amount then would be yearly added to the aggregate wealth of the fourth group of the 2d R. table, p. 47. Though most of the income would go to only a few families among the million. And if the mortgagor families continued to exist even without an increase in their numbers — which is really impossible, for the mort- gages certainly must have increased Tl[fE''DEBTORs — and continued to pay the annual interest charge at the rate of $539,352,898, as has been stated on pp. 125, 126, then the yearly income of the wealthy families in the 4th group of the 2d R. table must have been still greater than what they could get from the propertyless alone on the condition of giving them employment, and renting them the rentable farms and homes. In fact, tli^e direct and indirect profit in favor of the wealthy few from the application of the labor energy of the above millions of the economically enslaved would amount to $20,067,028,786 worth of wealth during seven years. And what do we have? Mr. G. B. Waldron, continuing the estimates of *As the rates of their gains show, pp. 104, 105. 140 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. the increase of wealth by the Director of the Mint, from 1870 to 1897, has shown that by 1890 the in- crease of wealth had reached $65,037,- "^'wealth'"' 091,197, as has been already stated in several places, while in 1897 the increase amounted to $86,825,000,000 worth.* So that an addition of $21,787,908,803 worth of wealth has been made by the people's energy during seven years. Yet, with this enormous increase of the wealth in seven years, listen ! listen ! to what the statisticians said in 1897: "In the United States wealth has increased phenomenally; wages since 1873 have fallen (on account of too great supply of la- coNoIusioNS. ^°'") ' ^^^ concentration of capital has increased; the number of the out of work has grown."t Some men tried to minimize the significance of these statements by proving the contrary situation. Mr. Atkinson is one of those who said that "wages have risen and prices fallen," which view he entertained on the bases of government reports. But all such arguments "have been shown in the article 'Wages' of Enc. of Soc. Reform, to be false." J And Prof. Mayo Smith *Enc. of Soc. Reform, p. 1386. — Waldron, "Handbook on Currency or Wealth." tReferences: Enc. of Soc. R., see "Unemployment." Dr. Spahr, "Present Distribution of Wealth in U. S." (1896).— J. R. Common's "Distribution of Wealth," Enc. p. 1392. |Enc. of Soc. Reform, p. 1392. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 141 has disproved all attempts of these men to show that the wages have risen, on the whole, by show- ing the falsehood of the averages such men repre- sented in their arguments.f Further, the fundamental doctrine of wages in economics is that the rates of wages depend prin- cipally on the efificiency of labor and ^^^^ economic on supply and demand of labor, doctrine of the That is, if the efficiency of the labor- ers is high, the wages can be high, and if the de- mand is great and the number of the laborers small, the wages are again high; but if the demand for laborers is small, and the supply is large, the wages must naturally be low, whether the efficiency of the laborers is high or low. The wages in the United States since 1873, on the whole, have gradually fallen, but not so low as they ought to have done. For, as the propertyless people have in- ^^^fc^Low'' creased in numbers up to tens of mil- Hons, the wages should have fallen twice as low, otherwise only half the employees at a time should have employment, because of the over-supply of laborers. But, since the trade-unions have been organized, the wages have artificially been kept up (for the employed) by these organizations, and by the employers themselves to some extent. "A trade union," says Mr. Webb, "is a continu- tEnc. of Soc. Reform, p. 1370. 143 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. ous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment.* The chief object of ficiall?kept'up ^^ ^^ ^° elevate the social position of its members. * * * It is a union of individual forces in order to compete against the undue and unfair encroachments of cap- ital into the continuance of the established well- being of the united individuals."t Hence, "the trade unions wish to keep up the rates of wages, and to prevent a laborer from accepting employ- ment, under stress of starvation, on terms which in its common judgment would be injurious to the union's interests. And they would rather encour- age idleness than cheap labor. Such idea existed with them since the beginning, or when it orig- inated. This idea originated in 1741," says Mr. Webb,t "but the special enforcing of it commenced at the beginning of the eighteenth century." * * * And surely many an employer knows very well what the "Strike in Detail" of the trade unions un- der this enforcing means. The trade unions have used all the means in their power for the purpose of holding up the wages. But, if the wages have fallen notwithstanding the *Mr. and Mrs. Webb, "History of Trade Unionism," p. I or 2. t'Tntroduction and Mutual Insurance," vol. I, pp. 148-9, 150-1164. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 143 artificial support, their falling testifies to the pres- ence of a mightier force pressing them down. In 1896 it was said that, "according to the last volume of the Connecticut Labor Report and the Massachusetts Statistics of Manufac- „„„„„ „ GROSS INCOMES tures, the nominal rate of wages in of workers 1894 had declined 7 per cent below """"s^^- the level of 1892, while the yearly incomes of labor- ers had been still farther reduced by the lack of employment." The Connecticut Report testifies that wages for the same period fell about 10 per cent, and it says that "the heavy losses of the wage- earners, however, came not from reduced pay, but from reduced employment, and that the reduction in pay and in the employment had decreased the total wage-payments 25 per cent." And "the great mass of families in Connecticut had had their in- comes reduced one-fourth," says Dr. Spahr.* So that, in Connecticut and Massachusetts, together, "the family incomes of the laborers between 1892 and 1894 fell at least 20 per cent. In Pennsylvania they fell 24 per cent. The fall of wages in agri- culture from 1890 to 1894 reduced the incomes of laborers to the extent of 20 per cent."t And the- rents of houses, on the whole, have risen against the homeless. It is not necessary to multiply the same examples *Enc. of Soc. Reform, pp. 1370, 1373 and the Labor Re- ports. tDr. Spahr, ib., pp. 116, 117. 144 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. in the remaining States, since we know that the supply of labor has increased throughout in the United States; and since we know that the demand for labor has proportionately decreased. And, con- sequently, the wages in general must have fallen according to the fundamental principles of econom- ics, because of the increase of population without property and without resources. Now then, if the incomes of, say, 40-millions of individuals in the gainful pursuits, have on the WHO PROFITS ■whole been reduced; and all these BY THE INCREASE milHons of pcoplc have been made OF WEALTH? „ , i.1. • i.^ worse off, we have the right to ask : Who was profited by the phenomenal in- crease of wealth during the period of the seven years? In other words: Who had obtained the amount of $21,787,908,803 worth, the increase of wealth up to 1897? Is it the group of tenants, or the group of mortgagors? or is it the group of owners of free farms and homes worth $5,000 and under, as they are represented in the 2d R. table, p. 47? And was it possible for all these highly productive families to retain a goodly share of this phenomenal increase of the wealth? The above total of the increased wealth, divided by the 7 years, gives, on the average, an increase of $3,112,558,400 every year. It being, of course, understood that this average was smaller in the year 1891, and augmenting year by year, it became CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 145 largest in the year 1897. And this augmenting necessitates a progressive increase in the business of all monopolies, trusts and combinations, highly- increasing the gross and the net incomes of all. THE TOTAL ITEMS OF THE CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. Let US then sum up the net earnings of the nat- ural monopolies alone, as they are given on p. loi, leaving out their necessary increase consequent upon the unavoidable ural'^monopoue's. growth of business in their favor dur- ing the seven years. The net earnings of $563,- 689,333 by these monopolies in every year amount to $3,945,825,331 worth of wealth in seven years. This is one item of positive loss by tens of millions of the people in favor of a few families, connected with the monopolies. Another item of similar earnings, we have seen on pp. 125, 126, consists of the annual interest charge, equal to $539,352,898, from ^^^^^^^ ^^ the results of labor of the mortgagor mortgagee families, who are compelled to lose this amount of their substance yearly in conse- quence of the abnormal distribution of wealth in general. And, as there is no reason to suppose that mortgages were not increasing in their num- bers, and the mortgagor families were not losing their properties by foreclosure, so there is no reason whatever to suppose that the above annual interest 146 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. charge against mortgages, on the whole, had dimmished up to 1897. Hence, we consider that the above annual interest charge continued to be paid at least as it was paid in 1890. For, in order to diminish it or to stop its ruinous effects, some im- portant reform must be accomplished, which, how- ever, has not been done. The annual interest charge of $539,352,898, against the private family-mortgages, in seven years amounts to $3,775,470,286 worth of wealth or of the products of the mortgagor families, lost during the period in favor of group 4 of the 2d table (p. 45 or 47). This amount is in addition to " the net earnings of $3,945,825,331, which accrued to the same group of families in the table. Further, we have seen in the lower table, p. 116, that there were 4,999,396 families that hire their homes, because being homeless. renS^hSmes"! A"d this number of the homeless must be augmented by 246,938 fam- ilies, found in the group of the "tenants of farms and homes," which are represented by the author of the same 2d table to be so many more than the lower and upper tables, p. 116, contain of the ten- ant families. We have therefore tO' deal with 5,246,334 families that hire their homes* mainly *The above 246,938 families could not be here classified among the tenants of farms consisting of the 1,624,765 fam- ilies, because after losing their country properties, these homeless hurry on to crowd up cities. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 147 in the 448 cities and towns we have spoken about on pp. 81, 1 14-15, 132. For it is they that find sheher in the rentable houses of these cities, towns, etc., by paying rents. And our problem is to find the amount of rent they paid to the owners of these houses. An example of average monthly rentals may here be presented for Boston, as follows : Monthly rentals under $5 average $4 From $5 to $10 average 8 From $10 to $15 average 12^ From $15 to $20 average 1.6 ^ From $20 to $25 average 22* These averages may be too small for many cities and too large for the whole United States. But if we take the general average for all families at $9.50 a month, it will houseTent. probably be little below,t but cannot be above the true one. In fact, if every family of 4.93 members paid an average of $9.50 of monthly rent, it would indicate only the net income in favor of the owners of the rentable houses, and absolute losses on the side of the homeless. Now then, by paying $9.50 a month each, the 5,246,334 homeless families paid $598,082,076 rent in one year. And by paying the same amount seven years, without regarding the increase of fam- *Dr. Spahr, ibid, p. 122-3. tAs numerous inquiries convince me. 148 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. ilies, they paid $4,186,574,532 worth of their energy, as an unavoidable tribute to those that speculate in their comfortable beds, while perform- ing every action by the hired labor of agents and building new houses by hired laborers. Furthermore, we have seen in the upper table, p. 116, that there were other 1,624,765 families that hire their farms, because being landless. If we regard the average tenements of these families at 136 acres of land per family,* we shall find that the 1,624,765 tenant fam- rentable'lands. ^'i^s held about 220,968,040 acres of land every year. Although this gen- eral average for all farmers in the United States may be a little too small for the tenant families, be- cause their acreage increases much more rapidly than that of the families owning their farms, as we shall soon see, yet we shall consider this average as it is given. As to the average rent per acre of the farming land for the United States, the general average was $2.81 for wheat and $3.03 for corn raising lands.f Supposing, however, that many farm tenants hold the grazing and other less valued lands, let us even admit that the general average rent per ♦According to the U. S. Census of 1890, there were 4,564,- 641 farms consisting of 623,218,619 acres of land, or an aver- age of 136 acres to a farm. World Almanac, 1899, p. 184. tEnc. of Soc. Reform, pp. 22, 23; also based on the census. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 149 acre was only $2.75 for all lands hired by these tenants. By paying then $2.75 of rent per acre, the 1,624,765 tenant famihes paid $607,662,110 in one year for the 220,968,040 acres of land that does not belong to them. And uand monomlies. by paying the same amount seven years — from 1891 to 1897 inclusive — they paid $4,253,634,770 worth of wealth to a number of the speculators upon land and upon the energy of the farmers who are the slaves of dividogenesure. It follows that every farming family of this group, on the average, paid about $374 for the land alone. It seems, however, that there are many farm tenants that pay separate rents for the farm houses. And in the year 1890 these paid the total of $140,000,000 of the "onmrmT house rent, says Dr. C. B. Spahr.* By paying this rent seven years they paid an addi- tional amount of $980,000,000 worth of their crystallized energy. Including this total into the general total of house rents, let us now sum up the above losses of the productive people, which are the gains of the few monopolists and speculators for the seven years as follows in the ist table of concentration of wealth on the next page*. ♦"Present Distribution of Wealth in the U. S.," pp. 104, lOS; (see here: Appendix I.). The same: Enc. of Soc. Re- form, p. 1385 — table of incomes, 1890. 150 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. 1st Table of Concentration of Wealth. Monopoliee and Combinations. Total Net Inoomca. The natural monopoliest Mortgagee monopoliesf Companies, etc. of rentable houses. Monopolies of rentable lands $ 3,945,825,331 3,775,470,286 5,166,574,532 4,253,634,770 gl7,141,504,919 Even this grand total indicates that a nation of thirty millions of individuals would be rich by it, yet it does not include many other net incomes. Besides these certain facts, the highest rentals tSome one may suppose that some net earnings of the national banks might overlap some net earnings of the mort- gagee monopolies, since mortgage profits are often obtained by banks. But such a supposition cannot have a real ground here, because the national banks are prohibited by the law of the United States to make investments in mortgages; and because mortgages of real estate, being not easily convertible securities for loans, would not be admissible by them. The only exception made by the law for these banks is that, for a necessary accommodation of their business, a mortgage may sometimes be held as a security, collateral to some other which is more easily convertible into currency. (See Revised Statutes, §5137. Prof. Dunbar's "Theory and Hist, of Banking," p. 26. It is the non-national or State banks that often directly deal with mortgages. But estimating their gross earnings at $200,000,000 for the year 1890 (see p. loi), Mr. Waite evi- dently could not ascertain their enormous net incomes, hence we leave them to be understood as surplus above all our concluding totals of net incomes. And whereas, the net incomes of the national banks de- creased $110,378,930 in the 7 years, those of the life insur- ance companies increased $108,932,030 (World Almanac, igoo, p. 180, 184) and with the help of the omitted net incomes of the gas companies (p. loi) more than offset the loss, leaving our totals correct. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 151 derived from the offices, hotels, and other rentable properties found in the central parts of the cities above and below 100,000 population are to be as- certained. And no one will doubt that the com- paratively very few owners of these city-centers must have collectively drawn a greater amount of the net incomes from rent, than can be expressed by three billion dollars' worth of wealth, derived without work by the few owners of the most valu- able parts, especially of the 28 cities far above 100,- 000 population. Further, we have not treated the net earnings of the companies and combinations filling up the large storehouses of the wholesale and retail busi- ness in the same great cities, which distribute the industrial products of the people, for consumption at home and abroad. And while the distribution of these products is carried on by cheap laborers, we have not represented here the few monopolists that grow into multi-millionaires behind the busy work of the distribution. The net incomes of these will be included into the incomes of the Manufacture and Mechanical Trades hereafter. But further still, we entirely omit the indication of the net earnings of "the meat companies" in the large cities, like those of the Chi- ^^^ trusts' casfo stockyards, "the cattle compa- net incomes . . . , fl, OMinED. nies, unitmg more than $100,000,000 ; combinations of the millions, invested in the ele- 153 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. vators of the Northwest against the wheat-grow- ers; in whiskey and beer about $100,000,000; in sugar, $75,000,000; in leather over $100,000,000 (1894). The trust of piano-makers was to have a capital of $50,000,000, and there is the Cordage Trust that gets from 40 to 50 per cent on its cap- ital; the Cotton Seed Oil Trust and Lard Trust" and others.* Finally, we have not treated the earnings of some other well-known monopolies, trusts and combina- tions, which have, as all the others, been established with no other purpose or end in view than to draw from the productive people all they can for them- selves by means of speculation. For, drawing wealth by combined speculation is the easiest thing in the world for those who were enabled to make its beginning. Omitting the above trusts and combinations, be- cause of the uncertainty of their net earnings, we OWNERS OF THE ^^'^^ positivc mcaus to find out the CENTRAL PARTS highest rcutals of all central parts of OFTHECmES. ,, ■^. , , 1 c u the cities and towns spoken of be- fore. In estimating the total income of the nation for the year 1890, Dr. Spahr found that "the total income from house and office rents, as estimated in the text" (his text) "is one-seventh of the total in- *Enc. of Soc. Reform, 1857, PP- 1346-7; from "Philadel- phia Times," etc. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 153 come of the non-agricultural population."* And the total income of the latter population was $8,200,000,000,** one-seventh of which is equal to $1,171,428,571 3-7 — apart from the agricultural land rents. This one-seventh, then, paid seven times in seven years, amounted to the same $8,200,- 000,000, which amount shows that the owners of the central parts of the cities and towns obtained at least $3,033,425,468 rent from their properties. It does not, however, make a difiference whether we accept the whole amount of rent estimated by Dr. Spahr or simply add the three billions and over to our grand total, p. 150. In any way, these facts indicate that the wealth has concentrated with the very families that were enormously wealthy in 1890 and appeared to be much wealthier in 1897. Yet the concentration of wealth is not only very rapid in drawing the wealth of all the 11,190,152 families worth $5,000 and underf to concentration a very few families of the 4th group of wealth in . ^, , ^ , 1 , , , ^ .^ . 1 ., HIGHER SPHERES. in the 2d table,tt but it is also rapid among the families worth $5,000 and over, J so that all are crushed by the monopolies, the trusts and combinations. In order to illustrate it, I here quote the same authority that estimated the in- *Dr. Spahr, ibid., pp. 104-5. **It was the gross income. tSee the upper table, p. 42. ttTable, p. 47- ifLower tabic, p. 42, ist two groups, 154 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. crease of the wealth from 1890 to 1897 before mak- ing a conclusion from the foregoing, respecting industries, as follows: "As to development of 'the' trusts before 1890," Mr. G. B. Waldron says : "Of the manufacturing and mechanical indus- tries, whose statistics were returned in the census of 1890, there are 43 whose manu- iNDusTRiES. factured product for the year 1889 was about $30,000,000, whose capital averaged above $10,000 per establishment, and which admitted of comparison with the census of 1880. Of these 43 industries we have chosen 30 as especially illustrating the growing concentration of capital during the 10 years from 1880 to 1890. "It is a significant fact that while in 1880 these industries were carried on by 84,708 establish- ments, or about 33 per cent of the total number of manufacturing establishments of the country, the same industries in 1890 were carried on by only 69,659 establishments, or about 22 per cent of the total establishments, and fewer in number by over 15,000 than in 1880. "The value of the total product of these 30 indus- tries in 1880 was $3,125,915,574, or 58 per cent of the total manufacturing products of the country. In 1890 these same industries produced products to the value of $4,595,804,626, or about 51 per cent of the total product, CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 155 "The concentration of capital in these 30 indus- tries is shown from the fact that in 1880 their total capital was $1,735,577,540, or an average of $20,- 489 per establishment, while in 1890 their total cap- ital reached $3,468,277,249, or $49,789 per estab- lishment, a gain of 143 per cent in 10 years. There has been a similar concentration of employees in these industries. In 1880 the 84,708 establish- ments used 1,340,490 employees, or an average of 16 to an establishment. In 1890 there were 1,964,- 232 employees in these industries, or an average of 28 to an estabhshment."* This is a separate and an additional item of the concentration of wealth which undoubtedly con- tinued — from 1890 to 1897 — to farther aggravate the general situation, shown by the grand total of the net incomes in favor of monopolies, on p. 150, beside the uncertain ones. For the 30 different industries, taken out of the 43, have perhaps forever supplanted 15,049 fac- tories and other establishments in ten years. Dur- ing the same time the supplanters did much more than double their own capital. In fact the increase in the capital of these supplanters reached the amount of $1,732,699,709 over the capital they had in 1880. But, if Mr. Waldron would investigate the same *Mr. Waldron, "Hand-book on Currency or Wealth," pp. 106 and 107. See also: Enc. of Soc. Reform, p. 1389. 156 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. facts in the total number of industries, he could probably show us that the supplanting of different establishments reached at least 21,586, and that the increase of capital reached over two billion dollars' worth with the fewer supplanters. That is, if the above rate of concentration of the capital were the same, as it must have been, throughout the indus- trial operations in the entire country. And while there was also the concentration of the employees, we know that, with the astonishing increase of the capital in favor of the supplanting trusts, the wages of these employees have fallen,* notwithstanding that their highly productive labor enormously increased the capital of the fewer em- ployers. As regards the fall of wages in all the manufac- turing industries since 1890, it will not be out of place to state here the minimum injury thereby sustained by the employees in the seven years un- der our consideration. When all the available data of the Eleventh Census were published, Dr. Spahr started to esti- mate the total income of the nation for the year 1890. • In estimating it he found out that the total income of the manufacture and mechanical trades alone amounted to $2,790,000,000, including their *See the statistical conclusions on the fall of wages, p. 134; also Dr. Spahr's "Present Distribution of Wealth," etc.. 00 95-118. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 157 net profits of $1,116,000,000 for the year. The total number of persons engaged in these trades was 5,091,000, of whom 4,650,000 were wage-earn- ers, while the remaining 441,000 were officers, firm members and clerks. Disregarding these, the aver- age of actual wages of the wage-earners for the year was $360. After that year these meager wages, by reduction and unemployment, "had de- creased 25 per cent," says Dr. Spahr.* But if we regard the average reduction of these wages at 10 cents a day only, and the average labor year at 250 days, leaving thus gp^^,^^ ^^^^^^ a sufficient room for unemployment, of the i-U C J J.I. J. 1.1. ti. WAGE-EARNERS. we then find that the 4,650,000 wage-earners were losing $116,250,000 every year. And distributing the same losses over seven years, they have lost $813,750,000 worth of their energy in favor of the trusts and combinations. The losses, however, have been greater than this amount, al- though we consider only this minimum, which is simply an increase in the injustice brought about by the principle of dividogenesure. But while the real producers of wealth thus con- stantly lose their energy in products, the net profits of the trusts of these of the'^trustc industries for the year 1890 amount ed to $1,1 1 6,000,000. t This great yearly income ♦"Present Distr. of Wealth in U. S." (1896), pp. 104, 105, 112. Here, pp. 140-143. "Average daily wages: 1873, $2.04; 1851, $1.69; urban laborers." tDr. Spahr, ibid., pp. 104-5. Enc. of Soc. Reform, p. 1385. 158 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. excludes all expenses, and excludes even the yearly waste of machinery, tools, and of the other capital used in operations. Obtain- ing such profits seven times in seven years, these trusts have profited themselves by about $7,812,000,000. And these enormous profits ac- crued to them for nothing more than the trouble of buying the machinery and other capital that the real producers of wealth operated upon, mostly under hired supervision. And while the human and mechanical forces work out these results, the real beneficiaries do nothing but speculate on the ways of concentrating the entire increase of wealth to their hands. The speculative efficiency of these trusts and the profound injustice of it will be more apparent, if we remember that these profits do, not only imply the systematic extortion of the crystallized energy of the real producers of wealth by means of exorbi- tancy in dividogenesure, but they imply a similar extortion from the public at large, which consume the products of these industries for excessive pay- ments. The question of the "excess of selling price over the cost of production" in these industries has been well ascertained. A cost of pro- pRomjCTioN. duction according to economists, im- plies cost of materials used; salaries, wages, rent, taxes, insurance, repairs paid; waste of CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 159 machinery, instruments, and of other capital valued ; in short, it implies all expenses, including reasonable percentage on stock and reasonable remuneration for the troubles of capitalists and entrepreneurs. And all these expenses must be collected by means of selling prices from consumers of the products. While what is unreasonable in such prices under ordinary circumstances is called an "excess of selling price over the cost of production." This excess was raised by the trusts up to 12.95 per cent in 1890.* If then we take the selling prices even of the total profits of $1,116,000,000 of the manufacture and mechanical trades for the year 1890,1 and subtract this excess from -J^^^ public. it, we find that the excess amounted to $144,522,000 in one year. Admitting that the above percentage sustained some fluctuations, we cannot but think that, with the increasing activity in combinations of the trusts, this percentage of the excess must have increased soon after that year. So that the average of it, from 1891 to 1897 inclusive, must have been carried on by the trusts in different ways and means. If so, then they must have exacted from the consuming public fully $1,01 1,654,000 worth of its wealth, as an excess *Dr. Spahr, ibid., pp. 98, 104-5. Also: Statistics of Mas- sachusett's Bureau of Labor, 1890, p. 319. tDr. Spahr, ibid., p. 104-5. 160 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. of selling price over the cost of production of the goods consumed. This loss of the public wealth, of course, does not exclude the losses of the families worth $5,000 and over; nor does it include an};- re- lation to exports of the products of these trades. The loss simply indicates an extortion from the public by perverted morality and profound selfish- ness of the combines. The next item in the concentration of wealth has been drawn from the agricultural regions. It has been estimated that the wages and earn- ings of all farmers from 1890 to 1895 have fallen over 20 per cent;* and that 8,497,- OF THE '"farmIrI. °°o persous engaged in agriculture have suffered from the fall, according to the estimates of Dr. Spahr,t which he based upon various reports. If, however, we admit only 10 cents of this loss from every person, every labor day, in favor of the various monopolies, trusts and combinations which use the raw materials and transport the agricultural materials and products, we find that in about 266 working days in one year the above people lost $226,020,200 worth of their products. Distributing these losses equally over seven years we find that these people have lost and the monopolies, etc., have gained about $1,582,- 141,400 worth of their wealth for nothing. And *Dr. Spahr, ibid., pp. 116, 117. tibid., pp. 104, 105. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 161 this is only the minimum loss that was carried throughout the period of seven years, as constant drain. Another item of similar losses is represented by the 350,000 miners whose wages since 1890 have fallen "exceptionally low."* So that it would be perfectly safe to regard of^the" mTe^rs* the average fall in their daily wages at 15 cents, and the labor year at 266 days, allow- ing again for a possible unemployment. This be- ing so, they have lost about $13,965,000 in one year. And as their average wages did not really rise again during the period under consideration, they must, therefore, have lost about $97,755,ooo worth of their labor energy in favor of the mining trusts and monopolies. While the profits of these monopolies in 1890 amounted to $80,000,000,* when the total income was $210,000,000 which we leave out of further consideration. p^Qpus ^p y„g The $80,000,000 profits must nat- mining urally have increased with these mo- nopohes. But even if repeated as they were in that year, they must have amounted to $560,000,000 during the seven years. Considering the excess of selling price over the cost of production here at the rate of 12.95 per cent, this amount of net profits includes $72,520,000 worth of the public losses, of unjustifiable extortion. *Dr. Spahr, ibid., p. 104-5. 163 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. Beside all this, I find the telephone and tele- graph monopoliesf had an increase of $229,624,- 566, and the railroad monopoliesf of $80,377,053 in their net earnings over and above the amount on pp. loi, 150. The same course is true of many other monopolies and combinations. And as Henry B. Brown, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, in an address at the Yale Law School, June 24, 1895, said: "If no student can light his lamp without paying to one company; if no housekeeper can buy a ALL PRODUCTS P°""^ °^ ^^^^ °^ °^ ^"S^r without ABSORBED BY Swelling the receipts of two or three COMBINATIONS. „ i- , , i ^ • ^^ all pervadmg trusts, what is to pre- vent the entire productive industry of the country becoming ultimately absorbed by a hundred gigantic corporations?"* The foregoing facts clearly show that the corporations, whether under boards of trustees or under directors of monop- olies, with the principle of dividogenesure do, not only absorb the entire mass of products of the peo- ple, but absorb even the wealth that was formerly produced and now being gradually lost. But let us now turn to the meaning of the in- crease of the population in connection with the preceding facts and estimates for the seven years. The table on the next page shows it. tWorld Almanac, 1899, pp. 200, 225. *Quoted from Enc. of Sec. Reform, p. 1347. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 163 Increase of Population. Yean. Individuals. 1790.. 1800.. 1810., 1820., 1830.. 1840.. . 3,929,214 . 5,308,463 . 7,239,881 . 9,633,822 .12,866,020 . 17.069.453 Percenls in Cities. 3.35 3.97 4.93 4.93 6.72 8.52 Years. Individuals. 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880. 1890. 1897. .23,191,897 .31,443,321 .38,588,371 .50,155,783 .62,622,250 .71.551.571 Fercentfl in Cities. 12.49 16.13 20.93 2.57 29.20 t INCREASE OF POPULATION. The preceding table shows that, from 1891 to 1897 inclusively, the population of the United States increased by about 8,929,321 individuals, or, distributing this number over seven years, the in- crease will be 1,250,000 souls in each successive year. And the approximate proportions of this in- crease indicate that every year about 105,665 new families were reproduced by the 5,246,334 famihes that hire their homes; and about 31,698 by the 1,624,765 families that hire their farms, leaving out here the propertied. And the heritage of these 137,363 newly formed families under the condi- tions is to be homeless and landless subjects of dividogenesure, even as their unfortunate parents are. For scarcely any of them could acquire prop- erty and thus escape paying rent. tFor 1897 is an approximate estimate of The World Almanac, 1899, p. 200, foot note, 164 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. If then we conclude that the one set of the newly bom families consisted of the tenants of rentable homes, while the other of the tenants .nl^'^LIfJcc of rentable farms, we must admit FOR nUUbcoi that they paid at least the same average rents for homes and farms as their parents did. Therefore, the first set per family paid $9.50 a month as follows : Table of the House Rent Paid. 105,665 families in 7 years paid $ 84,320,670 105,665 families in 6 years paid 72,274,860 105,665 families in 5 years paid 60,229,050 105,665 families in 4 years paid 48,183,240 105,665 families in 3 years paid 36,137,430 105,665 families in 2 years paid 24,091,620 105,665 families in i year paid 12,045,810 739,655 Total $337,282,680 Thus the homeless families of the year 1891 paid the largest amount of the house rents up to the end of 1897. Meanwhile the other foITfarms yearly additions of the new families paid less and less, on account of having been younger in age. The number of the increased families renting houses, then, . was 739,655, and the total of the rent they paid was $337,282,680. The increased families of the farming occupa- tions, by having paid the average rent of ^2.y^ per CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 165 acre, for the average of 136 acres of land per fam- ily,* have paid sums as follows : Table of Rent Paid for Land : 31,698 families in 7 years paid $ 82,985,364 31,698 families in 6 years paid 71,130,312 31,698 families in 5 years paid 59,275,260 31,698 families in 4 years paid 47,420,208 31,698 families in 3 years paid 35.565,156 31,698 families in 2 years paid 23,710,104 31,698 families in i year paid 11,855,052 221,886 Total $331,941,456 That's what the increase of the homeless and landless population means. The newly formed families could neither avoid paying the rents in favor of the same landed and propertied rich; nor could they avoid paying indirect taxes in favor of the national government, as we shall soon see. And they could not avoid being the slaves of dividogenesure, nor of being victims of extortion by various trusts and monopolies. In making our final conclusion of the profits and losses, the above amounts of $669,224,136 worth of paid rents by the iticreased families will be included into the previous totals of house and land rents. *It might be that some of these families paid house rents on farms beside the land rent, as Dr. Spahr has shown; while some others might pay simply house rents, and thus offset each other, making the above sum correct. 166 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. But, in respect to all farmers' rents and the aver- age acreage, it should again be noticed that we have dealt only with minimums of their rentYd*farms expenditure in favor of the land mo- nopolies. For, "according to the abstract of the eleventh census (p. 97), farms culti- vated by their owners increased 9.56 per cent; rented farms, 41.04 per cent, and farms rented for a share in product,* 19.65 per cent. In the north central division farms cultivated by their owners increased less than i per cent, while rented farms increased 66 per cent. In the North Atlantic di- vision, rented farms increased only 6 per cent, while farms cultivated by their owners actually diminished. The farmers thus complain that they are losing possession of their farms and becom- ing tenant farmers."! On p. 112 we have seen the enormous amount of indebtedness on the owned farms in the United States.J "The percentage of incum- iNDEBTED*FARMs. ^ercd farms was, for the United States, 47; Kansas, 30; Iowa, 32; New Jersey and Mississippi, 34; Nebraska, Dela- ware, and South Carolina, 35; South Dakota, 39; and at the other extreme, Oklahoma, 95; Utah and New Mexico, 85; Arizona and Idaho, 74; * "For a share in product" is an initial form of serfdom pure and simple. t Enc. of Soc. Reform, pp. 606-7. t Also here, p. 125. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 167 Montana, 73; Maine, 71."* This economic state of the farms and farmers continued to exist from 1890. Consequently there is enough evidence to make one sure that thousands of farm mortgagors have lost their mortgaged farms by foreclosure, and have become merely tenant farmers without real property. The increase of the propertyless through mortgages may even be greater than through the increase of the population, though we regard only the latter. Seeing also that the "Principal of Public Debt" has increased from $1,549,206,126 in 1890 to $2,092,686,024 in 1899,1 it is probable, therefore, that the indebtedness of private fam- ilies has also greatly increased up to puBLfc^o^Bi the end of 1897. Yet, except the annual interest charge against the indebtedness in force from 1890, neither the increase of the mort- gage losses, nor the increase of the gains from them, has entered into our accounts, even as the great net earnings of the non-national banks, often draAving immense profits from mortgages, etc., have been totally omitted from our estimate..! If, therefore, there should be any decrease in the few unrevised net earnings of the natural monop- olies after i890,§ the net earnings of the above *Enc. of Soc. Reform, pp. 606-7. tWorld Almanac, 1900, p. 174. JHere, see foot-note, p. 150. §Table of profits, here, p. loi. 168 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. banks alone would abundantly fill up the loss with a great remaining superfluity. Seeing also that the cities grow and the population increases, increas- ing every business in favor of the same monopolies, no one will doubt that our conclusions will be moderate, and especially so, because we have failed to ascertain the net incomes of several trusts. As to the trusts, the American Anti-Trust Jour- nal, No. 3, Chicago, says: "Go and talk to the thotisands of commercial travelers^ — those skir- mishers on the firing line of commercial indepen- dence — who have been thrown out of employment by the trusts. They will tell you of hundreds and hundreds of business men who have been forced out of business within the last four or five years. They will tell you how the trusts ordered one man after another to close his establishment. They will give you the names of ambitious and thriving pro- prietors who are now clerks or agents of gigantic corporate combinations, all hope dead, all oppor- tunity gone." Dealing as it does with the trusts of still later development, the array of facts in this Journal shows that our final conclusions for 1897 can only be very moderate. This being so, and disregarding the crooked ways of making profits, let us then make up the complete summary of the preceding losses by the United States people during the period from 1891 to 1897 inclusive, as follows: CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 169 2d Table of the Concentration of Wealth. Monopolies and Combinations. Total Net Incomes. The natural monopolies* Mortgagee monopoliest Owners of rentable houses]: Monopolies of rentable lands §. . . Owners of rentable offices, etc., in cities Manufacture and mechanical trades Mininp" mononolies $ 4,255,826,950 3,775,470,286 5,503,857,212 4,585,276,226 3,033,425,468 7,812,000,^000 560 000 000 Grand total $29,526,156,142 National and local taxes paid by them** 3,455,963,952 $26,070,192,190 21,787,908,803 The Total Concentration of Wealth The total increase of national wealth Excess of net incomes over and above the total increase of the $ 4,282,283,387 ♦Includes the increase of $310,001,619 by the railroad, tele- graph and telephone monopolies, p. 162. tExcludes net incomes of the artificial gas companies and those of the non-national banks (beside mortgages) as not given in the table on p. loi. See foot note, pp. 150, 167, 168. tincludes the house rent on farms and that of the increased population, pp. 149, 164. ilncludes the rent of land paid by the increased popula- tions, p. 165. **This amount of double taxes is calculated to have been fully paid for 7 years on the net incomes here stated, and on all the property these trusts, etc., have had in the be- ginning of 1891 and ^fter, acQor4in|; to the tax rsit^s to b§ here iricjicatedi 170 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. The above table of the net in«comes shows the conclusions that must deeply astonish the thinking people. It shows that a "terrible change has oc- curred in the conditions of life in America within fifteen or twenty years." But this concentration of wealth has taken place within seven years, when the national expenditures for wars and the incomes of monopolies and trusts started to increase. The latter obtained $26,070,192,190. Think of this total concentration of the wealth in seven years ! It is twenty-six thousand seventy milHons of dollars' worth of wealth. ITwE^uH. While the total increase of the na- tional wealth, during the same time, only amounted to $21,787,908,803, which was en- tirely concentrated in the hands of monopolies and combinations, together with the additional con- centration of yet another amount of $4,282,283,- 387. This astonishing fact indicates that the net income of about one million families in the United States has been greater by $4,282,282,387 than the total increase of the wealth collectively produced by the nation during the period under considera- tion. The whole increase of the wealth then has been lost in favor of the few. But what does this over four billion dollars difference between the total in- crease and the total net incomes of the monopolies and combinations mean in view of the situation? CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. I'^l Where does this over four bilHon dollars' worth of wealth come from? This surplus amount of $4,282,283,387 of the net incomes certainly cannot mean anything else than that the families, unconnected with monopolies, trusts, and other """v^ouT wealth^' combinations were quickly eating up themselves. They not only have absolutely lost all that they produced during the time of seven years, but have also lost $4,282,283,387 worth of the wealth which they owned in 1890. So that the aggregate of about $9,260,228,000 worth of wealth which was owned by the 11,190,152 "fam- ilies worth $5,000 and under"* in that year, must have been greatly reduced by monopolies, trusts and combinations. There cannot be any doubt, too, that hundreds of thousands of the "families worth $5,000 and over"* have also sufifered from the same causes. Hence, the absolute loss of $4,282,283,387 worth of the previously owned wealth must have been shared by all in favor of the very few families whose undoubted prosperity has indeed been unusual. For they have concen- trated the enormous total of over $26,000,000,000 worth of the people's wealth in seven years, and have thus made the greatly increased population much poorer in 1897 than it was in the year 1890. ♦Compare tables, here, on pp. 42 and 47. 173 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. And this fact of growing poverty has not been unsuspected. For, if Mr. W. H. Mallock, in try- ,„^ „ „„„,., ing tO' prove the contrary, admits THE POOR GROW S, f J> ABSOLUTELY "that the rich" in England do grow POORER. richer and the poor grow relatively poorer, because their numbers increase, although it seems that in the distribution of wealth a greater share (of it) falls on their part."t As for the United States, it was also said that "since 1873 the poor have grown relatively, if not absolutely poorer."! The method used here for establishing this fact leaves no doubt that the rich in both countries do grow absolutely richer and the well- to-do and the poor in the United States do grow relatively and absolutely poorer: accordingly, "the largest fortunes" in this country "are increasing most rapidly," says Dr. Charles R. Henderson.* The reasons why "the largest fortunes are in- creasing most rapidly" have already been indi- THE REASONS WHY catcd in this and in the preceding ™A yoLUTELY™ chapters. The most potent of these RICHER. reasons are: i. The profoundly un- just and abnormal principle of dividogenesure, which further and further underrates the value of human labor energy and overrates the value of mechanical forces in favor of the wealthy. 2. The tMr. Mallock's "Classes and Masses" (1896.) tEnc. of Soc. Reform, p. 1392. *His work on "Social Elements," p. 162. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 173 too high percentages for loans and capital, which deprive mortgagors of the fruits of their labor and cause the losses of property. 3. Abnormal excess of selling prices over cost of production, and low- ering prices on raw materials. 4. Dififerent frauds and extortions carried on by means of "watering- stock" and so on. All these and other unjustifiable means are freely used by monopolies and combina- tions against the general well-being of the United States people who are constantly robbed and spec- ulated upon by a very few members of the nation. As an example of the stock-watering by railroad monopolies, I introduce here the exact paragraphs of Dr. Spahr who, after representing the table of figures of stocks and bonds and the cost of rail- roads to original investors, says : "It should be observed, however, that the sum upon which the public is paying interest is not the total capitalization of the railroads, nor even the stocks and bonds not ^"theTublic"" held by other railroads, but rather the sum upon which five per cent net is realized by the roads. This sum in 1890 was $6,627,000,- 000.* Not from the standpoint of socialism, but from the standpoint of common morality, which condemns as robbery both the refusal of the public to pay interest upon capital actually lent it, and the compelling of the public to pay interest on capital ♦"Statistics of Railways, 1890," p. 58. 174 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. never lent it, the hvo thousand and odd millions of railroad capital representing no investment^ is simply capitalized extortion. "But not even the fruits of this extortion have gone to the original investors. The expenditures of railroads and the dividends they de- THE^HiGHWA°YS. '^^^'"^ ^^^^ ^^^" ^° '^^gely in the hands of loosely controlled directors, that railroad construction, railroad purchases, and railroad speculation have all served as means to divert the property of the stockholders on the out- side, into the pockets of the managers on the in- side. Nearly all the profits of this extortion from the public have passed into the hands of a com- paratively few men intrusted with the management of the public highways."* These passages simply indicate another way of extortion from the public of the wealth it creates. In addition to these crooked ways of concen- trating all that the public has and all it produces, let us examine the amounts of the THE TAXES. direct and indirect taxes paid by the wealthy and the poor during the same time of seven years. Upon this subject Dr. Spahr speaks as follows : tl italicized the words. *Dr. Spahr, ibid., pp. 41, 42. The total capitalization of railroads in 1890 was represented by $9,437,300,000, while the total investment amounted to only $3,714,400,000. And Mr. Van Oss stated that "shares now return at least 18 per cent per annum on the actual investment." Ibidem. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 175 "When we consider only the revenues actually received by the government the conclusion inevit- ably reached is that the wealthy class •^ •' THE PROPORTIONS pays less than one-tenth of the indi- of indirect rect taxes, the well-to-do class less "''^*' than one-quarter and the relatively poorer classes more than two-thirds. The table summing up the incidence of these taxes in 1890 would stand as follows : Class o{ Incomes. Total Incomes in Dollars. Total Property in Dollars. National Taxes in Dollars. Taxation to In- oome. .01 .08 .05 Prop- erty. .001 .004 .028 $"5,000 and OTer. $5,000 to $1,200 Under $1,200 . . 3,110,000,000 2,890,000,000 4,800,000,000 35,500,000,000 21,500,000,000 9,000,000,000 35,000,000 85,000,000 260,000,000 The above table of indirect taxes indicates that the poorer classes (including the homeless and landless) which had only little over $9,000,000,000 worth of the aggregate wealth, paid more than twice as much of these taxes as did the well-to-do and the wealthy classes taken together. Dr. Spahr, therefore, adds : "In the domain of direct taxation such injustice would not be tolerated one month, but in the domain of indirect taxa- ™ xErpw" tion it is endured year after year."* So that, enduring similar injustice seven *Dr. Spahr, ibid., p. 143. The total incomes in the table of taxes above represented are gross incomes. 176 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. years — from 1891 to 1897 inclusive, the increased number of families paid the totals of indirect taxes approximately as follows : Table of Indirect Taxes Paid, 1891-7. ClaBsea of Families. Number. Totals of Property. Taxes Paid. Families wortli $5,000 and over. Families worth under $5,000.. 1,695,117 12,755,310 g79,825,000,000 7,000,000.000 $ 840,000,000 1,479,179,059 The fact that the total revenue, including cus- toms, etc., received by the government in the seven years amounted to $2,319,179,059,! indicates, that while the population has increased, the indirect taxes seem to have decreased by $340,820,941 be- low the amount which would be required by the rates paid in 1890. This diminution would average about $48,688,705 in each successive year, and may THE TAXATION ^^ ^"^ ^° ^^^ passage of the Wilson MOST UNJUST TO Bill. Although Dr. Spahr says that this bill has not materially changed the situation, because the poorer classes, as we see, have paid $639,179,057 more for the support of the government than did the well-to-do and the wealthy classes together. He therefore adds that "our system of national taxation remains in pro- portion to its weight the most unjust to poorer classes of any now tolerated in any popularly gov- tStatistics, World Almanac, 1899, p. 165. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 177 erned country."* Of course, "the situation was the most unjust," when the families worth $5,000 and under were smaller in numbers and when they owned over $9,000,000,000 worth of collective wealth. But the injustice now surpasses all de- grees of comparison, because these families in- creased by about 1,565,158, even without counting the families worth $5,000 and over whose wealth must have been reduced below the worth of $5,000. As to the distribution of local taxes in the year 1890, these were paid as follows : TABLE OF LOCAL TAXES PAID. Families with incomes of $5,000 and over $220,000,000 Families with incomes of $5,000 to $1,200 170,000,000 Families with incomes of under $1,200 i25,ooo,ooot From this table it is clear that the local taxation is not so unjustly imposed upon the poorer families as the indirect taxa- ['s^less^u'njust. tion is.i: Yet judging from the facts that thp above table represents gross incomes, * Dr. Spahr, "Present Distribution of Wealth in the United States," p. i43-4- tib., p. 156-7. f'Extra Census Bulletin No. 70" represents taxes on prop- erty including corporations for 1890 $465,000,000 Licenses, poll taxes, etc. (about) 50,000,000 Total (the same as that contained above) $515,000,000 The Bulletin adds that "three-fourths of this tax falls upon the relatively poorer classes." Dr. Spahr, ibid., p. 156. 178 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. and that the poorer classes lose all the wealth they produce in favor of monopolies and combinations, the injustice against these classes cannot again be regarded other than a profound injustice. For, having been paid seven years — from 1891 to 1897 inclusive — these taxes amount to as follows: Table of Local Taxes Paid. ClaBses of Families. Number of Families. Totals of Property in Dollars. Taxes Paid in DoUars. Families worth $5,000 and over Pamilies worth under $5,000 1,695,117 12,755,310 S79,825,000,000 7,000,000,000 2,615,963,952 875,000,000 As to these taxes Dr. Spahr says that "from the incomes less than $1,200 less than three per cent is taken; from the incomes above $5,000 seven per cent is taken. Nevertheless, even these rela- tively humane burdens rest twice as heavily upon the property of the poorer classes as upon the property of the rich. When these local taxes are joined with the national, the aggregate tax is one- THE TOTALS OF twelfth of the income of every class. TAXES PAID IN There is no exemption of wages. All the resourceless individuals,* even the absolute slaves of dividogenesure, who divide the results of their labor with the wealthy, are com- pelled to pay taxes from their wages. And "the *See here, pp. 64, 65, 68, 72. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 179 wealthiest class is taxed less than one per cent on its property," says Dr. C. B. Spahr, "while the mass of the people are taxed more than four per cent on theirs."t Consequently we see that the 1,695,117 famihes whose wealth, at the end of 1897, aggregated to $79,325,000,000 worth, paid $3,455,- 963,952 of the national and local taxes. While the 12,755,310 famihes whose aggregate wealth, at the same time, was reduced to about $7,000,000,000 worth, also paid $2,354,179,059 of these taxes, though these families could not have any net in- come at all. Whatever might be the gross income of the 12,755,310 increased famihes under the network of imposition spread by the combines, they could not have any net income ^Ks'^N'iMr" at all, because at the end of 1897 these famihes represented about 63,150,136 indi- viduals of a multiple expenditure in every individ- ual case. And as these families include about 7,832,640 propertyless families which represented about 38,785,279 homeless individuals, each of which in addition to his multiple expenditure, is obliged to pay rent for shelter and to pay for per- mission to labor, the multiple expenditure of every one of these, therefore, surpasses that of each indi- vidual of the remainder of the population. It would, however, be wrong to suppose that tDr. Spahr, ibid., pp. IS7. iS8. 180 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. we had only 7,832,640 propertyless families at the end of the period. For beside these families there were thousands of the mortgagor PROPERTYLESS families in the beginning of 1891 COUNTED YET. ^^-^^ j^^j^ ^^^ j^^^ pj^^^^ ^^ ^^^ mortgaged property. And they could not but lose the very last under the heavy pressure of the com- bines and of the taxation, thus becoming property- less, too, though we are unable at present to ascertain their number. Yet we may be sure of the fact, that the more propertyless families we have, the more house and farm rent they must pay to the wealthy; and hence the more rapid the concentra- tion of the wealth and more extensive slavery of dividogenesure must be caused thereby. It would also be groundless to think that the years 1898 and 1899 have altered the firmly estab- lished machinery of concentration of AFTERW97. ^^^ national wealth. No, the con- centration of wealth in these two years has undoubtedly been more rapid than in any two previous years. For the trusts, etc., have been more active, and have obtained greater net in- comes on account of the war than in any two years before. While in addition to the INCREASED. morc rapid concentration of wealth by the combines, the war revenue caused a great increase in the rates of the indirect taxes, etc, And since "these taxeg were imposed by CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 181 Congress, under the Revenue Act approved June 13, 1898," both the propertied and the proper tyless people continue to pay them up to date as a drain additional to the other losses in favor of the wealthy few. It should also be remembered that, remaining unabated, the more rapid concentration of wealth and of property rights to-day, pro- increase of the duces a still more rapid concentra- ''°of wealth"*' tion of wealth and of rights to-mor- and rights. row, because increased and concentrated wealth consolidates into interest-bearing property — the rate of interest being derived from the growing population which by hunger, thirst, and other forces is compelled to work for the mighty few. And what will be the consequence? According to Mr. J. K. Upton, special agent of the Eleventh Census, "the estimated increase of wealth from 1880 to 1890 was 49 per cent. A proportionate increase from 1890 to 1900 would indicate wealth of nearly $100,000,000,000 at the beginning of the twentieth century,"* say, at the end of 1901. And if the present situation continue, it will not be difificult to guess the time when nearly the whole nation would consist of desperate slaves of dividogenesure, and of about 1,000,000 masters distributing places of employment at will — in ac- *The World Almanac, 1899, p. 164. Mr. Upton, here, p. 27. 183 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. cordance with the highest efficiency and profitable- ness of the employed — for the cheapest remunera- tion favorable to a few multimillionaires. As exposed in this work, the situation precludes the entertaining of any better view, however desir- able it may be. For the following estimates of the increase of the people prove that the situation has even been worse than here represented. "PRESENT POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES." "According to estimates made for the World Al- manac by the governors of the States and Terri- tories for 1900,"* exclusive of Alaska and the In- dian Territory, the "grand total, January i, 1900, is 79,354,444 individuals." It is quite probable that the average family will now be at the most 4.9 members each.f If it is so, „,^ „„ then we have about 16,194,581 fam- THE PROPERTY- . ' ^^'-J LESS IN 1900 A ilics in the nation. And, disregard- GREAT NATION. • .1 ^1 i. r mg again those that were sure of losing the last pieces of their mortgaged property, we should now have about 8,958,437 families with- out real property, which would represent 43,896,- 342 propertyless individuals of multiple expendi- ture in every case. So that, paying monthly rent *The World Almanac, 1900, p. 539. tThis average would mean that in every 100 families 90 have s and 10 have only 4 members. See the decrease of family membership: foot note, p. 18. CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 183 at $9.50 each, these homeless families must pay $1,021,261,198 for the year 1900 alone. But if we admit the regular increase of the farm tenant families, we may now "sE^plfln'' have about 1,941,745 of them occu- pying rentable lands at the averages of acres and of rent previously stated, the total rent of all the ten- ants of farms and homes would, therefore, reach $1,526,114,903 for one year. And the rent will be higher the next year, although nejw rentable houses and flats are built by the speculators every year. For, with the active monopolies and combina- tions concentrating a greater amount of national wealth than the people can produce, impossibility the increase of population causes of acquiring utter inability of about 65,000,000 of """operty. individuals to acquire property.* And this very inability causes a constant rise in the average land and house rent. So that, if some years ago the average house rent was $9.50 a month per family of nearly 5 members, it may now be above $11 every month. The 8,958,437 tenant families would, therefore, pay over $1,687,367,389 of farm and *"It is interesting to remark that, while in 1893 the num- ber of the propertyless families reached over 7-millions, the national and local Building and Loan Associations having net assets of over $450,000,000, have," in 25 years, "helped to secure" only "probably over 400,000 homes," says Mr. Wright, U. S. Commissioner of Labor. The World Almanac, 1899, p. 1G8; ib.,«900, p. 172. But that inability is aggravated by the taxation unjust to the poor. See here, pp. 174-178. 184 THE IMPENDING CRISIS. house rent to the few owners of cities, towns, and of lands in one year. Thence, the phenomenal net incomes of the om- nipotent afford the ample reasons for defending by all means in their power the present situation of the nation's toiling for the few. Finally, as long as the concentration of wealth in the private monopolies, trusts and combinations not only absorbs all the yearly in- 'y^^*j,''g"^^['°'*' crease of wealth produced by the na- tion, but absorbs the wealth formerly owned by the people, it does not make a difference whether these combinations raise or lower the high prices of utilities which they speculate in upon the market, the whole wealth and the entire rights for wealth must sooner or later be concentrated in the hands of a very few families, because all the means of concentration are within their hands. Conse- quently, it is not a question whether these all per- vading combinations are beneficent or malificent in their character, as in either case they work out the same evil result. But the question is only a question of time : how long before the people with all their superior productivity and phenomenal in- crease of wealth will have neither wealth nor prop- erty, nor rights, nor sufficient means for existence? How long before they all shall in all details be absolutely dependent upon the very few specu- lators, whose unbounded fortunes the tens of mil- CONCENTRATION OF WEALTH. 185 lions of workers are constantly compelled to in- crease? See Appendix II. Again, this concentration of wealth can neither be hindered by raising the prices of the raw ma- terials and products, nor even by the raising of wages, nor by lowering the necessary. prices of consumable utilities, nor by lowering the present rents, because the rate of con- centration of wealth now surpasses all degrees of change which may be effected by such regulation, while the net profits from the nation's energy and labor are ultimately derived only by the few, who are becoming fewer. The millions of individuals must therefore free themselves from the delusive hopes of some day becoming rich; for the strong ten- dency, as we have seen, is tO' deprive • ^*^g people"' every one of his proper food and of the satisfaction of other increasing needs. In or- der to become free from the economic bondage and slavery of dividogenesure, it is necessary that the distribution of wealth should be made to bring about more equal results, and that the present means of the concentration of wealth should work in favor of all the people engaged in the numerous spheres of human activity. See Appendix III. And it is again to be hoped that the present parents in the United States would in nowise hesitate to provide some better conditions of life for their children in the far and near future, APPENDIX. I. Percentages and numbers of families in the United States in 1890, under owned and rented homes and farms, were represented by Dr. C. B. Spahr as follows: [Families Identified with Farms and Homes.] Owned: Percent. Numbers. Rented Per- cent. Numbers. In cities above 100,000 popula- tion: Homes owned . . . In cities from 8,000 to 100,000: Homes owned . . . Outside such 22.83 35.96 444,879 629,092 Rented: Rented ; 77.17 64.04 1,503,955 1,120,487 cities: Homes owned. . . Farms owned .... 43.78 65.92 1,849,700 3,142,746 Rented ; Rented : 56.22 34.08 2,374,860 1,624,433 Totals and averages (for all) owned t 47.80 *6,066,417 Rented : 52.20 6,623,785 t As we have seen on p. 116 that 1,696,670 families out of the total of the owning ones* in 1890, were in debt, having their properties under mortgage. And only 4,369,747 families out of 12,690,152 in the United States were free owners of wealth. Compare the above totals with statistical averages on p. 79. See Dr. Spahr's "Present Distribution of Wealth in the United States," 1896, p. 53. 187 188 APPENDIX. II. DEFINITIONS OF TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES. "A trust," as defined by a committee of the New York State Legislature, "is a combination" aiming "to destroy competition and to restrain trade through the stockholders therein combining with other corporations of stockholders to form a joint stock company of corporations, in effect renouncing the powers of such several corporations, and placing all powers in the hands of trustees." The general purposes and effects among them are "to control the supply of commodities and necessities ; to destroy the very possibility of competition ; to regulate the qual- ity of all commodities ; and to keep the cost to the consumer at prices far beyond their fair and equita- ble value."* Further, "Trust is" an acting scheme "where, by a device of trusteeship, various corpora- tions practically form one monopoly without losing their separate corporateness. The novel character- istic of such a trust is not in its being a monopoly, but the way in which the monopoly is attained."* Mr. Charles W. Baker in his Monopolies and the People, says: "A trust is a combination to restrain competition among producers, formed by placing the various producing properties (mills, factories, etc.) in the ♦Encyclopedia of Social Reform, p. 1346. APPENDIX. 189 hands of a board of trustees, who arc empowered to direct the operations of production and sale, as if the properties were all under a single ownership and management."* MONOPOLY IN PRIVATE HANDS. "A monopoly in industry may be defined as the control of some natural agent, of some line of busi- ness, or of some advantage over existing or possible competitors, by which greater profits can be secured than other competitors can make."t All these definitions indicate that the private monopolies and combinations have one and the same purpose or end in view : It is to find such devices and means and to establish such organization of business activity, which will enable the organizers and man- agers to obtain from the people the greatest profits for the least cost, thus concentrating the people's wealth in a few hands without paying anything to the people in return. III. On the contrary, a monopoly of the government or of municipality may be defined as a system of controlling the natural or artificial agencies of public service and utility at such a cost to the public served, ♦Encyclopedia of Social Reform, p. 1346. tibid., p. 888. 190 APPENDIX. which will merely cover all expenses necessary (to construct and) to keep these agencies in the best serviceable and available condition or state, thus leaving no room for the unjust concentration of the people's wealth in any private hands. INDEX, Average: rate per cent on debt, 123, 124; average vi^ealth of the rich, the well-to-do, the middle, and of the poor classes, 28, 29; of over 27-millions, 51, 52; average, for homes in debt, 113; for farms in debt, iii, 112; diflfer- ences in averages of different authorities, 38; — rents, see: Rent. Blocks illustrating comparison of individual wealth, 50. Bread-winners by C. D. Wright, 85. Capita: per capita wealth, 27, 38; per capita debt, 122, 123. Capital: aids to increase production of wealth, SS-S7; con- centration of capital increased, 140, 155. Cities: per cent of the homeless in, 80; cities' families in! debt, 114, 115; large cities' families in debt, 114, 115; cities belong to 24 atid 14 per cent of their population, 118, 132. Comparison of the poor and the rich by dollars' worth, •/, 8; comparison in tables, 42; of the family-groups, 39; of the U. S. with France at the time of Revolution, 16; with Rome, 17; by Crosby Hon. Inc. Reciprocal com- parison of the middle classes of two tables, 39. Concentration: of wealth in higher spheres, 153; of em- ployees, ISS, 156; 1st table of concentrated wealth, 150; 2d and final table of, 169; explanation of this concen- tration, 170; concentration of wealth increases, 180, 181; concentration of wealth greater than the total increase of it, 170, 171- Consumers' opinion on remuneration of capital and labor- ers, 97, 98; do not know the bases of justice and rights, 98, 99- Debt: on farms, in, 112; on homes, 113; increase of, 1880-89, 1 19-122; increase of public debt, 167; total debt on acres 191 193 INDEX. and lots in 1890, 121, 124-5; percentages of families in debt in cities, 114, iiS; debt of the U. S., states, counties, school districts, etc., foot note, 126; of New York, foot note, 134; amounts of, on real estate, 121; per capita, 122; extinguished debt, 12.68%, 122; interest charge against debt, 124; combined interest charge against families' debt, I2S, 126. Distribution of wealth: ist table, 28; ist R. table, 29; 2d table, 32; 2d R. table, 36; 2d Right table, 45; ist and 2d tables, 47. Table I, 6; diagrams for conclusions of Mr. Holmes, 5; diagrams for conclusions of Mr. Shearman, 12; Table 11; conclusions of Mr. Shearman, 12; dia- grams for conclusions of Dr. Spahr, 20; double table III for these diagrams, 21; conclusions of Dr. Spahr, 18; conclusions of Geo. K. Holmes, S. 6- Dividogenesure: defintion and origin of, 70; divides people into classes, 71; its tacit power of enslaving the people or expelling into the sphere of charities, 72; it enforces idleness, 73; is the main cause of misery, 74; is sister of primogeniture, 74; is a pernicious principle, 74; its fa- vorites without moral responsibility, 75; is a system of slavery distinct from any other slavery, 75, 76; the prop- ertyless are special victims of it, 92, 103-4; is a founda- tion of iniquity, 87, 88; implies degrees of hardship against its dependents, 117, 74; its hardship according to the rates of gain from each employed individual, 103-4; its rates are not wages, but pure losses, 106; differs from primogeniture, 131; future of the nation under dividogenesure, 106-7. i8i- Energy: human energy embodied in objects, 98, crystallized in articles, 99; human energy concentrates into the hands of speculators, 99, 100. Extortion: from the public by excess of selling prices over cost of production, 158, 159; by mining monopolies, 161; by stock-watering, 173, 174. Families: groups compared, 39, 42; basis of family-worth, 39, 41, 42; statistics of — occupying farms and homes, 79, — hire farms, 81, — hire homes, 81, 82; farm families in INDEX. 193 debt, III, 112; home-families in debt, 113; table of farm and home families, 116; one million of rich families, 92, 103-4; dividends of the million families, 103, 104 and 138-9; one million (families) masters, 181-2; 263,380 families of the well-to-do class included into the average of the poor of the 2d table, 32; exposed by comparisons, 39, 42; surplus million families found in the tenant group, 2d table, 32, 34, 35. Farms: acreage of, 148; rent per acre, 148-g acreage for the increased population, 164-5; rent, 165; increase of rented farms, 166; percentage of incumbered farms, 166, 167; farms in France, 49. Future of the nation (possible), 106-7. Gainful pursuits, persons engaged in, 91-2. Galileo signed Jesuit Verdict, 16. Germany, Berlin, 48, 49. Great Britain, distribution of private property, 48, 49. Herron, George (Professor dismissed from the Iowa Col- lege), 107. Holmes, G. K. U. S. Census Expert on Mortgage Statistics, 6, 14, IS, 24; not partizan, 33, 35. Holmes, G. H., view on mortgages, 132. House-Scarb defined, 8. Income: daily income from the poor, 138-9; gross incomes of the workers decreased, 143; net incomes of many trusts omitted, 151-2; net incomes of the owners of the cen- tral parts of cities, 152-3; net incomes of the manufac- ture and mechanical trades, 157-8; net incomes of the mining monopolies, 161 ; total net incomes of the natural, mortgagee, rentable house, and land monopolies, 150; total net incomes of all monopolies, etc., table, 169; ex- cess of the incomes over the total increase of wealth, 169, 170-1. Inventions: as aid to human energy, 85, 86; they are blessing and curse, 86; inventors were a blessing to humanity, 98. Landowners of England, Scotland, Holland and of Germany, 56- Logical Premises, 5; logical premises of life, 25. 194 INDEX. Losses: special of the wage-earners, 157; special of the farm- ers, 160; special of the miners, 161; loss of the previous wealth by the people, 171; total loss of wealth in 7 years by the U. S. people, 170. Mayo Smith, Prof., compares French proprietorship of land with that of England, 49. Monopolies: definitions of, Appendix II and III; profits of the mortgagee, 145; profits of the natural, loi, 145-6; profits of monopolies of the rentable homes, 146-7; profits of rentable lands, 149; the total net incomes of 4 classes of monopolies, 150; grand total of the total net incomes of the monopolies and combinations, 169; explanation of the net incomes of the monopolies, 170-1. See: In- comes, the excess of. Mortgages: statistics of, iii; development of, 119; signifi- cance of, 128; semi-optimistic views on, 128; view of Mr. E, Atkinson on, 128-132; of Mr. G. H. Holmes, 132; view of Rev. Wm. D. P. Bliss, Editor of Enc. of Soc. Reform, 133; Semi-pessimistic views: view of Mr. J. P. Dunn, Jr., Burden of Debt, 134; losses of property by foreclosure, an example, 135, 136; view of Mr. D. R. Goodloe, 136. See: Debt. Mulhall, Mr., comparison of farmers of different countries, 93. Napoleon Bonaparte, 107-8. Poor: grow absolutely poorer, 172. Population: in families, 18; in individuals, S, 12; increase of in 1897, 163, 164, i6s; in 1900, 182. Primogeniture, Great Britain and Japan, 70, 74, 136. Productivity of the Americans: on farm, 93; in industry, 94, 95, 96. Propertyless: "Less than half the nation," 18; "tenants," group 1st, 2d table, 32; causes of the increase of the propertyless, 52; propertyless is a resourceless man of multiple expenditure, 61-68-71; he is a source of multiple income for many propertied, 68; without employment, 69; pay rent or are expelled, 77-78; unseen forces com- pel him to be a slave, 76; more — than half the popula- tion, 82; made the nation in 1865, 85; could build and INDEX. 195 inhabit 33 most populous cities, 83, 84; have nothing to hope for, 86-7; number of in 1897, 179; number of in 1900, 182. Rates of interest are higher against the poor debtors, 127-8. See: Debt. Real estate indebtedness, 121. See: Debt. Rent: house rent per family, 147; house rent on farms, 149; rent paid for homes and farms by increased population, 164-S; average house rent, 147; for farms, 148-9; totals of rent paid, table, 169; according to Dr. Spahr for 1890, house and ofifice, 152-3; rent for 1900, 182-3-4. Resources: of the propertied, S3-60; of the propertyless, 61, 64-S; a semi-resourced man, 68. Rich: comparison of, 42; deeper reasons why the rich grow absolutely richer, 172-3. See: Distribution. Rome, mistress of the world, 17. Shearman, Tho. G., conclusions of, 11, 12, 24, 32; his basis of averages differ, 38; one average covers 89.4% of the entire population, 40. Spahr, C. B., Dr. conclusions of, 18, 20, 24; table, 28, 31. See : Taxes. Statistics of wealth, by J. K. Upton, special agent of the nth census, 27, 181. See: Mortgages. Steam power: increase of, 57. Taxes: proportions of national taxes, 175; indirect taxes paid, 176; decrease of national taxes, 176; unjust to the poor, 176; local taxes: proportions of, 176; local taxes less unjust to the poor, 177; local taxes paid, 178; the poor pay taxes on gross incomes, 179; total taxes paid by the rich and the poor, 178, 179; taxes increased by the war, 180-1. Tenants of farms and homes, 32; the correct number of, table, 36. See: Propertyless. Trusts: definitions of. Appendix II; development of, 154-156; incomes of some trusts omitted, 151-2; trusts more active, 180; the view of Henry Brown, Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court on trusts, 162. ■yVages; economic doctrine of the rate gf, 141; wa^es woul4 196 INDEX. be twice as low, 141; artificially kept up, 142; reports on the fall of wages, 142-3. Waite, F. C, special agent of the nth census iff charge of True Wealth: ascertained the earnings of the natural monopolies for 1890, 99, loi. Wealth: table of, 27; accumulation of, 27; True wealth, 99, loi; land is the source of wealth, 54, 55; average wealth per family, $5,125, table, 29, 47; per capita, lower table, ■27, 38, table, 51; aggregates of wealth owned by differ- ent classes, ist table, 29, 45; wealth owned by individuals, table, 51; chart, 50; concentration of wealth, tables, 150, 169 (for 1897); increase of wealth (for 1900), 181; in- crease of in 7 years, 139, 140; increased phenomenally, 140; who profits by the increase of, 144-S; concentration of in industries, 154; largest fortunes of, increase most rapidly. Dr. Henderson, 172; wealth reduced with the increased number of families, 171. See: in the tax table, 178. DATE DUE ^AP ^'i -j'S"-"""" -m4 JUn 2 J 1%/ GAYLORD PRINTED IN U S.A. HB 821 g^^™*"""'™™"y'-fbrary '''•'6 impending crisis; conditions resultin 3 1924 002 741 357