There are strong indications, however, that the per cent. of the product going to the owners of land has increased considerably in the last twenty years, and that this movement will continue indefinitely. According to Professor King's calculations, the per cent. of the total product assignable as rent advanced from 7.8 in 1900 to 8.8 in 1910, which meant that during that period the national income increased only 70 per cent., while the share of the landowner increased 91 per cent.[66] It is true that a disproportionate advance in rent has occurred between other census years, only to be neutralised by subsequent decreases; but the present instance seems to include certain features which did not characterise any of the former gains in the relative share of the landowner. Since 1896 the prices of food products "rose most rapidly in the case of meat, dairy products, and cereals, which were derived directly from the land. The prices of raw materials show a like relation. Timber, grain, and other raw materials obtained directly from the land have risen rapidly in price, while semi-manufactured articles have increased less rapidly, or have decreased in price.... There is no parallel in any other field to the advance in those land values upon which civilisation most directly depends--timber lands, fertile agricultural land, and land in large commercial and industrial centres. The recent rise in land values has been little short of revolutionary."[67]
Between 1900 and 1910 the value of farm lands _per acre_ in the United States advanced 108.1 per cent.[68] During the eight years beginning with July 1, 1906, the value of land in Greater New York increased something more than one-third; in the principal cities of New Jersey, and in Worcester, Washington, Boston, and Buffalo, somewhat less; in Springfield and Holyoke, considerably more. In the most recent ten years for which figures are available (since 1900 in every case) the land values of Milwaukee, St. Louis and San Francisco averaged only a slight degree of expansion, while those of Kansas City doubled, and those of Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Seattle trebled. To quote Professor Nearing, from whose compilations these estimates have been summarised: "The total extent of the increase in American city land values may be hinted at rather than stated with any certainty. The scattering instances in which land and improvements are separately assessed led to the conclusion that in a large, well-established city, growing at approximately the same rate as the other portions of the United States, the land value is doubling in from ten to twenty-five years. In the new, rapidly growing city of the middle and far West and in some of the smaller cities of the East, the ratio of increase in land values is far greater, amounting to two-fold or even three-fold in a decade. In a few instances the rate of increase is much smaller, and in one case, Jersey City, land values over a period of seven years have actually decreased.... Nevertheless, the few available long range figures indicate a widespread and considerable increase in American city land values."[69]