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 more equal distribution of wealth [SN: SOME OF THE RICH AVERAGED WITH THE POOR.] has been obtained in the 2d table. Otherwise, this table could represent a more melancholy 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, because 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 [SN: THE SAME ECONOMIC BASES OF THE AUTHORS.] over $5,000, we shall now compare these two classes of families in both tables upon their common basis. And, as this basis presents the very bottom of statistics, the comparison 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 |Aggregates of wealth |families. | in dollars. -------------------------------+----------+--------------------- First three groups of the | | 2d table[42] |11,432,532| 16,398,622,216 Last two groups of the | | 1st R. table[43] |11,169,152| 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 | Aggregates of wealth |families. | in dollars. -------------------------------+----------+--------------------- Two first groups of the | | 1st R. table[43] | 1,521,000| 55,676,863,197 The fourth group of the | | 2d restored table[43] | 1,257,620| 48,638,468,981 Differences from the 1st | | R. table | 263,380| 7,038,394,216 -------------------------------+----------+---------------------