Average
total       per capita
Population.         “wealth.”       wealth.

1850 23,200,000 $7,136,000,000[a] $308 1860 31,400,000 16,160,000,000[a] 514 1870 38,600,000 24,055,000,000[a b] 624 1880 50,200,000 43,642,000,000 870 1890 62,900,000 65,037,000,000 1,036 1900 76,000,000 88,517,000,000 1,165 1904 82,500,000 107,104,000,000 1,318 1912 95,400,000 187,739,000,000 1,965

[Footnote a:  Taxable only; all other figures include exempt.]

[Footnote b:  Estimated on a gold basis.]

A detailed comparison of the classes of concrete things making up the totals is possible only in the last three sets of figures (1900 to 1912), and they are here given (omitting 000,000).

                                     1900. 1904. 1912.
  1.  Real property (excepting
  some items below) 52,538 62,331 110,700
  2.  Irrigation enterprises [a] [a] 360
  3.  Agricultural equipment
  (livestock, tools, etc.) 3,822 4,919 7,706
  4.  Manufacturing equipment 2,541 3,298 6,069
  5.  Transportation agencies 11,249 14,434 22,360
  6.  Telegraph and telephones 612 813 1,304
  7.  Waterworks (privately owned) 263 275 290
  8.  Electric lighting plants 403 563 2,099
  9.  Products (still in trade)[b] 8,294 10,212 21,577
  10.  Direct goods in use[c] 6,880 8,250 12,758
  11.  Gold and silver 1,677 1,999 2,617

  [Footnote a:  No figures for these years.]

  [Footnote b:  The main items are agricultural and mining products and
  imported merchandise.]

  [Footnote c:  The main items are clothing, personal adornment, furniture,
  and carriages.]

Sec. 5. #Average wealth and the problem of distribution#.  The foregoing figures make a most satisfactory showing, and appear to indicate that mere economic problems are rapidly being solved by the growth of national wealth.  But unfortunately these figures have little significance in connection with such an inquiry, if indeed they are not badly misleading.

In the first place, the final figures of “per capita wealth” are merely averages; a per capita increase, therefore, may appear when total wealth increases, altho the total may be due to the growth of comparatively few very large fortunes.  The fact is evident that vast numbers of individuals and families are nearly propertyless and in so far as this is true there is involved one of the greatest of our socio-economic problems, that of the distribution of wealth and income among the people.  The more unequal the distribution, the greater, in all likelihood, is the discontent; and the greater the effort of many men to find some methods by which greater equality may be attained.