Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/198

 1 84 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

gone to the masses. The average of earnings of each man in this country has been more than doubled in the last forty years.

We have to go back only a few generations to find in Euro- pean countries the toilers living on the brink of starvation. Passing down through recent decades, we find in England and this country unmistakable improvement in the condition of the masses. The wages of almost all classes have risen, and the purchasing power of money has, with a few temporary excep- tions, increased; the hours of labor are fewer, and the conditions surrounding work have been made more pleasant and healthful ; the means of education, amusement, and recreation are greatly extended. Savings banks depositors and deposits have shown a steady growth. The houses in which the masses live are better, and are constantly increasing in comfort and value. Children, generally, pass to a higher grade of labor than that of their fathers. The voting power of the poorest man is equal to that of the richest. Political power is in the hands of the masses.

While wages have greatly advanced, the rate of interest on capital has decreased nearly one-half. Mr. Goschen, the Eng- lish financier, has announced that the interest rate on consols will be 2% per cent, by 1904. Some of the recent issues of the United States securities pay less than this ; at current market quotations they now pay only about I fa per cent. less than one-half the rate paid twenty-five years ago.

In regard to the deplorable destitution and misery in our large cities, statistics, careful investigations, and observations show that the percentage of the very poor has not increased in the last few years, and that their conditions are not worse, although a few, contrasted with the well-to-do, may appear to be so. In London the population has tripled in the last seventy years, while the number of paupers remains about the same. The population of Chicago has more than tripled since 1876, and the number of the very poor and destitute has less than doubled. In the consideration of this vital question agitators, and sometimes charitably disposed persons, overlook the welfare