Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Current Economic Affairs (1924).pdf/162

148 as being of an average value of $2,880, including the land on which they stood, giving a grand total of 57.6 billion. My estimate for the value of other urban real estate was 24.7 billion. With the aid of the census figures we may proceed further with the analysis. Of the 57.6 billion in houses, about 31.6 was owned by landlords. Of the 26 billion remaining about three-eighths or roughly 10 billion was mortgaged. Inasmuch as mortgagees are generally indisposed to lend more than two-thirds the value of real estate we may conjecture reasonably that the total of mortgages on the homes occupied by owners in the United States was about 6⅔ billion dollars.

Dr. L. C. Gray of the U. S. Department of Agriculture at a meeting of the American Economic Association in December, 1922, presented a compilation and analysis of the wealth and indebtedness of the farmers of the United States. He estimated the total farm capital at about 95 billion dollars, of which he reckoned about 73 billion dollars as belonging to farmers who owed about 11 billion, making the net worth of the farmers proper about 62 billion. Dr. Gray estimated that nearly half of the total farm property not owned by farmers was held by retired farmers. It may be conjectured that the remaining ownership of farms is largely by local merchants and bankers. These data are not seriously out of tune with my own estimates.

It will be perceived that Dr. Gray’s estimate of the net worth of farmers is about 21 per cent of my estimate of the total national wealth, while his estimate of the farm capital is about one-third. This in itself is an important thing upon which to fix attention, for it is well known that the “rich” class that is especially the