The impending crisis : $b conditions resulting from the concentration of wealth in the United States — John Shaqi
The impending crisis : $b conditions resulting from the concentration of wealth in the United StatesBouroff, Basil A.
History
The impending crisis : $b conditions resulting from the concentration of wealth in the United States
Bouroff, Basil A.
Trusts, Industrial; United States -- Economic conditions; Wealth
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 [SN: RUSH OF THE NATION.] 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. Consequently, 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 fundamental [SN: LOGICAL PREMISES FOR THE YEAR OF....]
measure, no rational remedy, no serious means appear for delaying it in
the future. While the Logical Premises[17] for revolution and bloodshed
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
individual 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.[18] The distribution
of the national wealth among families, therefore, was expressed as
follows:
“_Less than half the families in America are propertyless; nevertheless,
seven-eighths of the families [SN: HALF THE NATION.] hold but one-eighth
of the national wealth_,” and vice versa. “_While one per cent of the
families hold more_ (wealth) _than the remaining ninety-nine_,” says Dr.
C. B. Spahr.[19]
At last we have struck in these conclusions a piece of more serious
reality. “Less than half the families in the United States are
propertyless.” Here you are! “Less than half.” [SN: CONCLUSIONS OF
REALITY.] Yet even here, we are far from the fulness of truth. It seems
as if the statisticians themselves were afraid to reveal the full truth
to the people. And there are many intelligent persons who believe that
the pure and complete truth should be known only to God Omniscient,
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
[SN: RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PEOPLE.] rests upon a majority of its people,
this people ought to know not particles, 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 conclusions, while leaving
the two others for later discussion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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