lower classes, and the middle class least. It shows, accordingly, that the social class differences, inasmuch as they depend upon the size of the income, have increased.”[199] The Prussian income-tax assessments of 1908 show that there were 104,904 taxpayers with an income of more than 9,500 marks, representing a total income of 3,123,273,000 marks. Among these were 3,796 with an income of more than 100,000 marks, representing a total income of 934,000,000 marks; 77 were enumerated with an income of more than a million. The 104,904 taxpayers, or 1.78 per cent., with an income of more than 9,500 marks, represented the same total income as the 3,109,540 (52.9 per cent.), with an income of from 900 to 1,350 marks. In Austria about 24 per cent. of the assessed net income devolved upon approximately 12 to 13 per cent. of the taxpayers having incomes of from 4,000 to 12,000 crowns. If the incomes up to 12,000 crowns are taken together, this group comprises over 97 per cent. of the taxpayers and 74 per cent. of the income. ~The remaining 3 per cent. of the taxpayers control 26 per cent. of the assessed income.~[200] The minimum exempt from taxation is higher in Austria than in Prussia--1,200 crowns, or 1,014 marks. The small taxpayers having an income of from 1,200 to 4,000 crowns formed 84.3 per cent. of all taxpayers in 1904. The number of richest persons having an ~income of more than 200,000 crowns was 255 in 1898, and in 1904 it was 307, or 0.032 per cent. of all taxpayers~. In Great Britain and Ireland, according to L. G. Chiozza Money, half of the national income (over 4,150,000,000 dollars) belongs to one-ninth of the population. He divides the population into three groups: The rich, with an income of more than 700 pounds sterling; the wealthy, with an income of from 160 to 700 pounds sterling; and the poor, with an income of less than 160 pounds sterling. Including Income in Class Persons families pounds sterling Rich 250,000 1,250,000 585,000,000 Wealthy 750,000 3,750,000 245,000,000 Poor 5,000,000 38,000,000 880,000,000 According to these figures, more than one-third of the national income belongs to one-thirtieth of the population. The investigations of Booth for London, and of Rowntree for York, have shown that thirty per cent. of the entire population lead an existence of direst life-long poverty.[201] For France, E. Levasseur compiled the following figures, on the basis of the statistics of inheritance: “Two-fifths of the national wealth are owned by 98 per cent. having less than 100,000 francs; about one-third is owned by a small group of 1.7 per cent., and a quarter of the entire national wealth belongs to a wee minority--0.12 per cent.”[202] All these figures show how great are the numbers of the non-possessing masses, and how thin the strata of the possessing classes.