546 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
August 10 
HOW IT IS DISTRIBUTED. 
Part I. 
True science does not deal alone with 
the soil and the natural forces and sub¬ 
stances that affect it. There are natural 
laws that affect growth of any sort, 
whether it he a potato crop or a man’s 
bank account. Wealth is as much a 
product of the soil as is lumber, or a 
horse. In fact, what we term “wealth,” 
is but the value of the soil’s products 
expressed in terms of money. The dis¬ 
tribution of this wealth is as important 
as its production. If we find that the 
n ition’s wealth has been unfairly dis¬ 
tributed among classes or individuals, 
we shall find that natural laws have 
been broken, just as when we see that 
one field produces more than another, 
we find on investigation that there is 
some wrong principle in the treatment 
of the poorer field. We, therefore, wish 
to spend a little time investigating this 
matter of wealth distribution as it has 
affected farmers. 
The people who deal directly with the 
soil, like farmers, miners, lumbermen, 
etc., have evidently produced that which 
lies at the basis of all wealth. Every¬ 
thing that lias value, came originally out 
of the earth. It may have been carried 
to other locations, and it may have been 
changed and made into new forms. This 
transportation and manufacturing may 
have greatly added to its value, but the 
basis of the whole thing—its original 
value—is due to the man who took it out 
of the soil. The time has now come in 
American history when the handler and 
the manufacturer seem to secure a larger 
share of the year's product than the 
original producer. Is this wrong, or is 
it right? If you ask men and women 
about it, you will receive many and 
varied answers. Probably the great 
majority of our people conclude in a 
somewhat vague way, that things are 
about right as they are. They have 
been taught to look at the lives of so- 
called “ self-made ” men, and read the 
lesson that in a Itepublic like ours, peo¬ 
ple with ordinary smartness get about 
what they earn, and that all things are 
possible to the resolute and pushing fel¬ 
low who is ready to seize upon all ad¬ 
vantages that are offered. Of course, it 
is easy to see that this spirit takes no 
account of the feebler and less capable 
ones who are pushed aside by the “ hus¬ 
tler.” Out of the hundreds who hold up 
the “self-made” man as a model for 
youth, there is scarcely one who sees 
the deeper meaning of the man’s suc¬ 
cess—that he organized and created a 
force out of the feebler efforts of those 
less competent than himself. Society 
has paid him a tribute in wealth for 
leading and taking advantage of circum¬ 
stances. So you will find others who 
accuse the rich of crime and fraud, and 
still others who attribute their success 
to luck and chance. There is growing 
a spirit of bitterness toward the rich 
that, be it just or unjust, is a dangerous 
thing in a country like ours. 
It is not a bad thing for us to look this 
matter calmly in the face with the same 
desire to get at the truth that we would 
have in investigating the facts about a 
farm, one part of which had ceased to 
be productive. For example, we know 
of a farm in New England that is a good 
illustration of an unequal distribution 
of fertility. It is located on a hillside 
running down into low land that was 
originally a swamp. In early times, the 
hillside was good soil, and there the 
crops were grown and stone fences were 
made. As generations went by, this up¬ 
per land was exhausted. The farmers 
of a later day left the thin hillside, and 
drained the swamps, and thus created 
new and fresh soil for the crops. You 
might say that the manure made from 
the crops grown on this rich soil, should 
have been drawn up on the hillside to 
restore the worn-out fields that had so 
long supported the family. But, no ! 
There was little sentiment in that farm¬ 
ing ; all was concentrated on the few 
richer acres, and the hillsides were left 
as pastures, and have grown up into 
woodland. To-day the old stone walls 
run through the woods—melancholy 
monuments to the useless labor of those 
who cleared the fields and built the 
walls. 
This is not a complete illustration of 
the point we hope to make; yet you 
must have noticed communities and 
whole sections that have been dropped 
out and neglected in the march of prog¬ 
ress, just as these old hillside pastures 
were left. They seem, somehow, to have 
served their purpose, and some freak of 
human progress has left them behind, 
with values, comforts and prospects all 
diminished. Of course we know that 
these situations are not entirely hope¬ 
less. Science has shown us that by the 
aid of fertilizers and irrigation, many of 
these old hillsides could be made to out- 
yield the lowlands. In the same way, 
these neglected farm lands and villages 
all present chances for renewed activity 
and business. They lack only human 
forethought and enterprise—the inclina¬ 
tion to locate capital there, and the faith 
to see ample returns for it. 
It may be fairly asked whether the old 
farm would not be better to-day if, in¬ 
stead of crowding the culture on to a few 
more favorably located acres, the whole 
had been fairly cultivated and fed. It 
is also fair to ask whether America, as a 
nation, would not be stronger and hap¬ 
pier if, instead of rushing business and 
enterprise into the city and town, the 
farm had developed with the factory and 
the railroad, and held its own in dignity 
and importance as in our forefathers’ 
time. Have we not made one-sided prog¬ 
ress ? Have we not grown rich too fast ? 
These are questions we wish to ask. We 
do not expect to answer them—they 
were suggested chiefly by a visit to 
a community of Shakers—where was 
found, perhaps, the only remaining ex¬ 
ample of a true community—where prop¬ 
erty is held in common, where there can 
be no rich and no poor, and no progress 
in which all do not share. Many good 
people have a theory that such coopera¬ 
tion is the ideal form of life. Let us ex¬ 
amine it and see what the • world 
would be like if it were possible to 
drive unfair competition out of society 
at large. 
First, how much property have Ameri¬ 
cans been able to accumulate since the 
first farmers, wood cutters and trappers 
came here from Europe and found a 
crude continent ? M. G. Mulhall, an 
English statistician has recently com¬ 
piled some statistics which are generally 
regarded as the fairest now obtainable. 
Briefly stated, he shows that our develop¬ 
ment in wealth as a nation, has been 
about as follows : 
Total value of Dollars per 
Year. property. inhabitant. 
1820.$1,960,000,000 $205 
1840. 3,910,000,000 230 
1860.16,160,000,000 514 
1880. 43,642,000,000 - 870 
1890. 65,037,000,000 1,039 
This vast amount of property has all 
been dug out of the soil. At first 
thought, it would seem that this must 
mean greatly increased prosperity for 
all the people, since there is more wealth 
per capita than ever before. That would 
be so if we were living like the Shakers 
in a community where all must share 
alike ; that is not so, however. There 
must have been something wrong with 
the distribution, for there are plenty of 
families that do not control $1,039 worth 
of property for each member. As be¬ 
tween country and town, how has 
this distribution gone on? The fol¬ 
lowing figures represent, as fairly as 
possible, the difference in the value of 
actual farm property and that in town : 
VALUE OF AMERICAN PROPERTY. 
In Towns. On Farms. 
1850.$3,169,000,000 $3,967,000,000 
1860 . 8,180.000,000 7,980.000,000 
1870.15,155,000,000 8,900,000,000 
1880.31,538 000,000 12,104,000,000 
1890.49,055,000,000 15,982,000,000 
To put it in another form, in 1850, 55% 
per cent of the total wealth of this coun¬ 
try was found on the farms, while 40 
years later only 24 % per cent of this 
wealth was to be found in agricultural 
property. The total increase of wealth 
in this period has been something almost 
beyond belief, but by some shuffle in the 
distribution, 75 per cent of it has centered 
among those who handle and manufac¬ 
ture rather than produce. 
How is this wealth made up ? Here is 
a general statement of it: 
1850. 1870. 1890. 
Land.$3,272,000,000 $7,410,000,000 $13,279,000,000 
Livestock. 696,000,000 1,490,000,000 2,703,000,000 
Railways.. 290,000,000 1.894,000,000 8,686,000,000 
Factories.. 520,000,000 1,760,000,000 3.059,000,000 
Houses.... 1,380,000,000 9,240,000,000 21,010,000,000 
Sundries.. 978,000,000 2,261,000,000 16,300,000,(XL 
The item of “ sundries ” includes many 
things, like crops on hand, personal 
property, etc., mostly held in towns. 
Observe that the heaviest increase in 
values has been in land, houses, rail 
roads, factories and personal property. 
It will be observed that agricultural 
wealth has only quadrupled in 40 years, 
while that of the towns has multiplied 
10-fold. On an average, the yearly re¬ 
turns in dollars for agricultural workers, 
have steadily declined, while, figured in 
the same way, the returns for town 
workers show a steady increase. To 
figure the thing down o a fine point, 
the statistics show that the farm prod 
ucts of our country represent a value of 
$12,000,000 for each day or $1,200,000 for 
each working hour. With something 
over 9,000,000 hands employed, the gross 
product of their labor is worth 13 cents 
an hour per hand, while the ordinary 
wages of hands at work in factories are 
15 cents an hour. It needs no further 
demonstration to show 7 that something 
has gone wrong with the distribution 
of wealth in this country—as between 
town and farm. A study of Shaker life 
may show us w 7 hat the wrong is. 
£Hi£fcUanmi;$ ^Ulrntisimb 
GOLDEN 
^flEDlCAL^ 
DISCOVERY. 
The invention of Dr. R. V. Pierce, chief 
consulting physician to the Invalids’ Hotel 
and Surgical Institute, at Buffalo, N. Y., 
has, during the past thirty years, made a 
record in the cure of bronchial, throat and 
lung diseases that fairly entitles it to out¬ 
rank all other advertised remedies for these 
affections. Especially lias it manifested its 
potency in curing consumption of the lungs. 
Not ever } 7 case, but we believe 
Fully 98 Per Cent, 
of all cases of consumption, in all its earlier 
stages, are cured by Dr. Pierce’s Golden 
Medical Discovery, even after the disease 
has progressed so far as to induce repeated 
bleedings from the lungs, severe lingering 
cough with copious expectoration (includ¬ 
ing tubercular matter), great loss of flesh 
and extreme emaciation and weakness. 
Do you doubt that hundreds of such cases 
reported to us as cured by “Golden Med¬ 
ical Discovery ” were genuine cases of that 
dread and fatal disease ? You need not take 
our word for it. They have, in nearly every 
instance, been so pronounced by the best 
and most experienced home physicians, 
who have no interest whatever in mis¬ 
representing them, and who were often 
strongly prejudiced and advised against 
a trial of “Golden Medical Discovery,” 
but who have been forced to confess that 
it surpasses, in curative power over this 
fatal malady, all other medicines with 
which they are acquainted. Nasty cod- 
liver oil and its filthy “emulsions” and 
mixtures, had been tried in nearly all these 
cases and had either utterly failed to bene¬ 
fit, or had only seemed to benefit a little foi 
a short time. Extract of malt, whiskey, 
and various preparations of the liypophos- 
phiteshad also been faithfully tried in vain. 
The photographs of a large number of 
those cured of consumption, bronchitis, 
lingering coughs, asthma, chronic nasal 
catarrh and kindred maladies, have been 
skillfully reproduced in a book of 160 
pages which will be mailed to you, on re¬ 
ceipt of address and six cents in stamps. 
You can then write those cured and learn 
their experience. 
Address for Book, World’s Dispensary 
Medical Association, Buffalo, N. Y. 
Clean it ^ 
with Gold Dust 
Washing Powder. u\ 
This great preparation \v 
cuts the grease quickly, \ 
cleans the soot from the 
burner, makes the metal 
parts brigh'. and polishes the 
chimney like crystal. This 
1 is only one of the many 
II specific uses to which 
Washing Powder 
can be put. No housekeeper who 
wishes cleanliness to reign supreme 
11 in her home should be without Gold 
‘ Dust. Your grocer will sell you large 
packages for 25 cents. 
Gold Dust Washing Powder has 
an additional value to the farmer for 
destroying insects. Send us your 
name and address and we will mail 
you an important booklet con¬ 
taining recipes for making 
kerosene emulsions, for 
spraying crops and 
trees and live 
stock. _ 
1 
The N. K. Fair bunk o 
Company, . 
Chicago, St. Louis, 
New York, Boston, 
Philadelphia. 
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25=cent Binder. 
We have been looking for years for a 
cheap, neat binder for readers of The 
Rural, so that the paper could be kept 
clean and preserved for years. Now we 
have it; we can send it, postpaid, for 
5 cpnts, or will send it to any old sub¬ 
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one new subscription. Many readers 
would like to preserve The R. N.-Y., but 
the ordinary binder is too expensive 
This one is so cheap, and, at the same 
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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, New York, 
