unders of this amiable
theory never explained how the community received reparation for the
destruction of wealth which the spendthrift sons were to carry on; but
so long as the theory has failed to work in practice, that does not
matter so much.

A few years ago it was a favorite occupation of newspaper paragraphers
to estimate the Gould and Vanderbilt fortunes; but lately they seem
to have given them up as beyond the limits of even their robust
guessing abilities. Some idea of the latter's fortune may be gained,
however, by realizing the fact that the Vanderbilt railway system now
has a total extent of nearly 12,000 miles, the total value of which can
hardly be less than one thousand millions of dollars. Probably not less
than half of the securities of these companies are owned by the
Vanderbilt family, and it is well known that their investments are by no
means confined to railways. The important fact is, that this fortune
grows so fast now that it is sure to increase; and will double itself
every fifteen or twenty years, because all that its owners can spend is
but a drop in the bucket toward using up their income. But this fortune,
while the largest which is still under one name, is but one of many
enormous ones. The names of Gould, Flagler, Astor, Rockefeller,
Stanford, Huntington, and a host of others follow close after the
Vanderbilts. In the days of our grandfathers, millionaires were no more
plentiful than hundred-millionaires are to-day.

We have next to show the present and prospective evils which result from
this congestion of wealth. The first and most obvious one is its injury
to the remainder of the people of the country, by the diversion from
them of wealth which they have rightfully earned and which they would
receive were it not for the tax of monopoly. It is obvious that a
certain amount of wealth is annually produced by the industry of the
country from which the whole wants of the country must be supplied. This
amount may be greater, indeed, when a Gould or a Flagler or a Crocker
directs the enterprise; but for the most part it is indisputable that
the owners of these colossal fortunes have made them, not by any
stimulus of the production of wealth by their owners, but by a
diversion of the produced wealth in the general distribution from
others' pockets to their own. In short, all other men are poorer that
these many times millionaires may be richer. To show how these fortunes
have in many cases