The Census Bureau of the United States admits that within
the ten years ending 1870 the value of all property assessed to taxa- tion within the Union has been stationary, while the average- wealth of individuals has declined one-fourth. The total value- of such property in 1860 was 12,100,000,000, and in 1870. 12,600,000,000. From this last the debt of 1500,000,000s must be deducted, and the value of property will then be shown to have been stationary, while the number of people has increased by 25 per cent. The only kind of property which has greatly increased in value has been real estate, landowners there, as elsewhere, profiting though tho people- suffer. The bulk of the loss has, of course, fallen on the- South, where 50 per cent. of all property has been swept away but some of it, particularly the loss in the shipping trade, is due to the inability of the American people to understand that a pro- tected trade is a trade which takes money from the many to give- it to the few, in order to induce the few to waste their energies ire unprofitable labour.
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