Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1875 — Estimating Men’s Wealth. [ARTICLE]

Estimating Men’s Wealth.

One of the points iii regard* to which great numbers of people are apt to be venpositive is the amount of property owned by other persons, and especially ‘by men of wealth. We repeatedly hear it asserted that one man is worth $500,000, another $250,000, another SBOO,OOO, another sl.500.000, and so on. Sometimes these estimates allow considerable room for incomplete data; as, for example, when it is said that Mr. A. or Mr. B. is “ worth between two and three millions.’’ But in most cases the statement is more definite. though generally in round numbers. Indeed, it is remarkable how many men there are whose property, according to these reports, would, if turned into money, make exactly even change. The numlter of individuals in the city, for instance, who are said to be worth’ just $1,000,000 is very surprising. And what is, if possible, Stillmore wonderful is the circumstance that some of them have for several years, amid all the fluctuations in the value of property, remained worth the precise sum. How anyone could continue.to keep the gauge of his property so steady for even one week, not to speak of a series of years, is a problem to which the persons affording the information do not fleel called upon to furnish a solution. If the statements we sp often hear about the amount of this or that man's property were confined to men who were put of business, and, to use a familiar expression, were “living on their means,” they would even then be often rather absurd. If, indeed, an individual lias all his property invested in Government

loans, first-class railroad bonds and other securitieswhich have a definite and steady market value, and if he lias no objection to conversing freely about his affairs, bis neighbors mvjht be abledo form a distinct anff correct i lea as to the value of his possession-. But the property <‘f com 1 - parativdly few persons, especially men of igntaf wealth*, is invested in this way. The great majority of rich men, even when not eng'aged ‘in active business, would find it very difficult to say within a very considerable percentage wliat tiny themselves are worth. And of the estimate fliey are able to' form they are by I no means always willing to communicate I the figures to everyliody of their acquaintance. I But the reports of which we are speak- , ■ iirg are apt to be made about men 1 0.0 [*Fot»erty i«-rm : vested in their business as in regard to anyone else. It is not uncommon to hear an exact statement - of how - much a mer-'l chant that he has large liabilities, while his means are subject to vicissitudes respecting which no one can with certainty calculate.” It would sometimes almost seem I as if the.more fluctuating and uncert ai h j in its very-nature nn mriiyrlxTnl’s'budness ! is, the more precise ami positive are the I reports as to the amount of his property. There is many a man who would be exceedingly glad to be able to estimate in his own mind what he himself is worth as definitely as some of his acquaintances feel able to'state it; It need scarcely be mentioned here that ordinary reports of the property of individuals, especially of those who are considered wealthy, are apt to be greatly exaggerated. It is no unusual occurrence, when a man dies, to find, even in ca.*-es where his affairs were not all complicated, that his property is less than one-half, or even one-fourth, what it was supposed to be. And who that has had any opportunities of observation in such matters has not known many melancholy instances of men who had- been considered very rich, whose widow and children, when the e-fate'xvas finally settledyfoum! themselves almost penniless - ?' Cases sometimes, indeed, occur of persons whose deaths disclose the fact that, they were much richer than they had the reputation of being; but where there is onecase of this sort there are at least twenty of the opposite kind. It is to this tendency to exaggerate the amount of property owned that wc wish particularly to call attention. This kind of gossip, although not, indeed, generally malicious, is by no means always harmless., Great injustice is often thus done” by charges of parsimony and want of liberality which would be greatly modified if the real state of affairs were known. But this is not the only evil connected with the practice under consideration. It is very strange how often pecuniary credit is given almost entirely on the strength of unfounded popular reports of an individual’s wealth; and given, too, not unfrequently, by shrewd businessmen, who, it might naturally be supposed, would have known better. The experience of the community for the past two yekrs has, indeed, taught some terribly severe lessons on this point. It is earnestly to be hoped that the effect of these lessons "will be : -mOTe-permanentthan-tluit-of-tliete;u:h.ings. of business reverses usually prove themselves to Tie after ‘returning prosperity.— AL F. TVmea.