The Butler County Press

"RICH GROW RICHER" SAYS LAWMAKER

Washington.--The claim that "the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer" was proven by Congressman Rankin with federal statistics submitted to the house committee on ways and means in urging payment of the soldiers' adjusted compensation certificates.

"There has never been in all the times of written history such a concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich and powerful now represented by the great bondholders of America as in the last four or five years," said Mr. Rankin.

In 1924 there were 75 people in the United States with an annual income of $1,000,000 and over. In 1928, four years later, there were 511 in that class. In 1927 there were 290. The number had gone from 75 to 290 in three years, and from 1927 to 1928 it went from 290 to 511.

"Take incomes of $1,000 and under. In 1924 there were 344,876 in that class. In 1928 there were 111,123. While those with incomes of a million dollars a year were growing in number from 75 in 1924 to 511 in 1928, increasing approximately seven-fold, those with incomes from a thousand dollars down fell from the number of 344,876 to 111,123."

Congressman Rankin presented other figures which show that in 1927 there were 187 corporations with incomes of $5,000,000 and over. In the following year there were 229 corporations in the same class.

"The number went from 187 to 229, while those under a thousand dollars fell from 70,299 to 68,466 for the same years," said Mr. Rankin.