THE WEALTH OF AMERICA.* Dn. WILLFORD ISBELL ICING, who holds
the post of Instructor in Statistics in the University of Wisconsin, recently wrote a paper on the "National Dividend" of the United States, which Professor R. T. Ely, of the same University, has persuaded him to expand into a volume for that useful series, " The Citizen's Library of Economics, Politics, and Sociology," which Professor Ely edits. Dr. King has taken much pains to present trustworthy statistics of the wealth and income of the American people. He frankly admits that it is not easy to obtain figures on which an absolute reliance can be placed :— "The estimates have been made, in most instances, from frag- mentary material gathered by different persons at different times and for different purposes. In some cases, the original counts (principally by Government officials) were doubtless faulty, but only when the errors were evident has the author attempted to go behind the returns and criticize the validity of Government reports. Frequently estimates have been made on the basis of assumptions that are possibly decidedly erroneous. In some cases, details were filled in by the use of careful guesses based on general information only."
* America and tha Britons; By 0. do Sumichrast. London: Duckworth I * The Wealth and Income of the People of the United Steam By Wilford It is a truism to say that statistics which are not exact are worse than useless. But, in defence of what may to some students seem a reprehensible laxity of method, Dr. King observes that " the primary value of statistics ie usually due to relative rather than to absolute accuracy." We are not quite sure that we understand the bearing of this maxim, but no doubt it lies in the application of it, as a great English statistician was accustomed to say. Dr. King's book calls for no special criticism, but we may note one or two of the most interesting statistics which he has collected. The. total wealth of the people of the United States in 1904 is given at the colossal figure of nearly 22,000 millions sterling ; and, as this showed an increase of more than 20 per cent. from 1000, we may safely assume that at the present time it amounts to at least 30,000 millions sterling. The total annual income of the inhabitants of the United States in 1910 was no less than 6,090 millions sterling—or more than the total wealth of the people of Prussia, which Dr. King estimates for the year 1908 at 109 billions of marks, or a little over 5,000 millions sterling. If it is true that "money talks," we should certainly have expected to hear a louder and more definite pronouncement from America than she has yet uttered on the recent insults thrown at her by the comparatively pauper State of Prussia. But, after all, the great truth remains that iron is stronger than gold, and the will to conquer stronger than either.
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