total value of all incomes
assessed. The increase of concentration shown by these figures is not
disputable, it seems to the present writer, when they are thus carefully
analyzed, notwithstanding the fact that the table from which they are
drawn is sometimes used to support the opposite contention.

According to the late Professor Richmond Mayo-Smith,[110] seventy per
cent of the population of Prussia have incomes below the income tax
standard, their total income representing only one third of the total
income of the population. An additional one fourth of the population
enjoys one third of the total income, while the remaining one third goes
to about four per cent of the people. The significance of these figures
is clearly shown by the following diagram:--

[Illustration:

DIAGRAM

SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME BY CLASSES IN PRUSSIA]

In Saxony the statistics show that "two thirds of the population possess
less than one third of the income, and that 3.5 per cent of the upper
incomes receive more than 66 per cent at the lower end." From a table
prepared by Sir Robert Giffen, a notoriously optimistic statistician,
always the exponent of an ultra-roseate view of social conditions,
Professor Mayo-Smith concludes that in England, "about ten per cent of
the people receive nearly one half of the total income."[111] These
figures are rather out of date, it is true, but they err in understating
the amount of concentration rather than otherwise, as the researches of
Mr. Chiozza Money, M.P., and others show.[112]

In this country, the absence of income tax figures makes it impossible
to get direct statistical evidence as to the distribution of incomes.
The most careful estimate of the distribution of wealth in the United
States yet made is that by the late Dr. Charles B. Spahr.[113] Written
in 1895, Dr. Spahr's book cannot be regarded as an accurate presentation
of conditions as they exist at the present moment, yet here again there
is every reason to believe that the process of concentration has gone on
unchecked since he wrote. It is not necessary for our present purpose,
however, to accept the estimate of Dr. Spahr as authoritative and
conclusive. The figures are quoted here simply as the result reached by
the most patient, conscientious, and scientific examination of the
distribution of wealth in this country yet made. Dr. Spahr's conclusion
was that in 1895 less than one half of