PERILS. — WEALTH. 175 



now exists, and to divide society into only two classes — 

 the rich and the comparatively poor. In a new country 

 almost any one can do business successfully, and broad 

 margins Avill save him from the results of blunders 

 which would elsewhere be fatal. But, with growing 

 population and increasing facilities of communication, 

 competition becomes severe, and then a slight advan- 

 tage makes the difference between success and failure. 

 Accumulated capital is not a slight, but an immense 

 advantage. " To him that hath, shall be given." There 

 will, therefore, be an increasii^g tendency toward the 

 centralization of great wealth in corporations, which will 

 simply eat up the small manufacturers and the small 

 dealers. As the two classes of rich and poor grow more 

 distinct, they will become more estranged, and whether 

 the rich, like S\^dney Smith, come to regard poverty as 

 " infamous, " it is quite certain that many of the poor 

 will look upon wealth as criminal. 



We have traced some of the natural tendencies of 

 great and increasing wealth. It should be observed 

 that these tendencies will grow^ stronger, because wealth 

 is increasing much more rapidly than population. Re- 

 markable as the growth of the latter is, it being four 

 times the European rate of increase from 1870 to 1880, 

 and three times that of England or Germany, the multi- 

 plication of wealth has been even more remarkable. In 

 one generation, 1850-1880, our national wealth increased 

 more than six fold, and, notwithstanding the growth of 

 population, the wealth per caput increased nearly three 

 fold. There is reason to believe that this rate of increase 

 will be sustained for years to come. If it is, the danger 

 from mammonism, materialism, luxuriousness, and the 

 congestion of wealth will be a constantly increasing 

 peril. 



It remains to be shown that the dangers of wealth are 

 greater at the West than at the East. There is more of 

 mammonism there. With rare exceptions, the West is 

 being filled Avith a selected population, and the principle 

 of selection is the desire to better their worldly condi- 



