Page:Wealth and Income of People of United States.djvu/31



is a self-evident fact that the inventions and discoveries of the last two generations have revolutionized the productive forces of the American nation. In less than a century, the growth of population has changed a region consisting largely of a sparsely settled wilderness into a vast industrial empire. Our agriculture has made great advances, but the development of cities has been even more striking. All this has been so often told and retold that it has become the merest commonplace to every schoolboy. But when we come to a closer analysis of this tremendous advance, we find that even the principal features of the picture are far from clear. Everyone is aware that wealth has increased; most people feel sure that the average American of to-day is richer than the average American of fifty years ago; further than this, few can go with any degree of certainty.

But, in the present time of searching inquiry into the fundamentals of economics and politics, people wish to know more than this. They are not satisfied with the assurance that the accumulation of wealth within the nation is increasing. It is not enough to