PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION
Estimations of the wealth and income of the American people have been made in the past but occasionally and have not been very satisfactorily done. On the subject of the national wealth about the only information is what has been comprised in census reports, the most recent of which is “Estimated Valuation of National Wealth, 1850–1912” published in 1915. Dr. W. I. King in his noteworthy treatise on “The Wealth and Income of the People of the United States” went extensively into the subject of the national income and its division. He was a pioneer in this field. He did not, however, essay any independent enumeration of the national wealth.
In a monograph published in the Annalist, Sept. 13, 20, and 27, 1920, I presented the results of a study of the national wealth and income as of 1916, comparing my estimate of the wealth in that year with the census estimate for 1912, at the same time expressing doubt as to the validity of some of the census figures. Since then the National Bureau of Economic Research was organized for the purpose of the impartial study of economic conditions. The directors of that organization selected for its first subject of research the amount and division of the national income over a series of recent years. The results of this study, which are soon to be published, are in close agreement with my own as to the year 1916.
In my monograph in the Annalist I explained that its study was instituted with the intention of showing
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