Show FATE OP FORTUNES it ie ji t take lon to scatter them in 1 I ig folt and oltan expressed concerning the concentration 01 enormous wealth in the hands of a few persons the idea being that a sort of plutocratic dynasty may be established which will tend to destroy republican institutions in and to subvert the liberties of the people tho impression is quits general says the san francisco chronicle that there is a source ot great danger to the nation in these gigantic fortunes and some reformers have even gone so far as to propose that wealth shall be limited by law the excess over a certain sum to go not to the rich mans legatees lega tees and devisees devi sees but to the state this idea however has received with general favor for it antagonizes the theory of property which seems too deeply seated to be uprooted even by henry george and his followers the danger of a dynasty of plutocrats is rather imaginary than real large fortunes become scattered in much I 1 ess time than might bo imagined or to put it as it has been already expressed by an american writer there aro not more than three generations erat ions between shirt es aid shirt sleeps this anso and fall of a fortune could hardly be expressed more tersely and epigrammatically and at the same time with more truth the representative of the first generation takes off his coat and goes to work in his shirt sleeves and by unceasing industry accumulates a competence to him succeeds his son who inherits his fathers industry and has superadded super added to that industry the gift of moneymaking money making and he dies very rich then comes his son in whom the old stock shows marked s acs of deterioration and his life is given rather to spending money than to earning it so that when he dhea the fortuna which ho m aci itce has vanished into thin air and his son lias to pull oft his coat and go to work in his shirt sleeves as did the founder of the family before him f his is reducing the case to the slimmest slim possible terms for it must be apparent that ith ft family of sons and daughters the acquired fortune will bo dissipated even snore speedily take a few figures by 11 ay of further illustration our imaginary representative of the second generation dies worth let us say but he leaves to sons and two daughters his fortune is then divided into four equal parts gang to each child should each of these children have four children tho share of each would be but OJO even if the original fortune were to remain unimpaired but out of sixteen children it is certain that at least one halt would be improvident es if bom to a fortune so it is safe a say that by the end af the second generation the fortune of would have to and that a third gen eidtson would see the money scattered far and wide krywy ry wy sty america has presented thus far but two exceptions to this rule in the families ol 01 the actors and the Vander buts and the time has lot yet fully ran to say with certainty that they are exceptions but even if they prove to be they do not destroy the force of tho proposition as a general truth that great fortunes can not be held together for a very long period but will become broken up and scattered returning to the general rass of the wealth of the country from emch they have been segregated 01 courso the absence ot tha law of primogeniture mo and of the law of entail makes this dissolution of fortune more probable in the united states than it would be where those laws prevail in great britain landed estates descended from generation to generation because so strictly entailed that successive holders have what in reality is only a life interest in the land and only one child that with us entail is practically unknown and public sentiment and in some states the law itself insists upon a division among all the children so that it is impracticable to transmit real property as it is transmitted under english law this does away with any danger of a landed aristocracy and insures the ultimate distribution of the land among the people again there is a common fallacy about groat fortunes often leads to confusion A man jay gould for example is spoken of as being worth or and we picture him to yourselves jour selves as sitting in front of his strong box and gloating on a mass of gold coin which he has v ith drawn from circulation and which ho might throw into the ocean if he pleased the tact is that his wealth is represented in the main by certain printed or written of paper called stocks and bonds having a certain negotiable value but each one of these pieces of paper while it represents a certain monthly or annual gincomo for its holder also represents avenues of industry for hundreds and thousands of the american people to whom tho greatest crumity that could befall them would be jay goulds failure and bankruptcy |