South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-03-12
w oman Tells Why
Money Can Talk "
1t Is a Force Like Electric
ity, She Says, Because 1t
Produces Change.

ny -
but what man can explain why it
! talks. or show us how it can be made
to talk for all Of us? Echo answ ers
'Hoo-hoo." What if the answer TO
our money problems shall come-like
the answers to so many Of our other
probIems-from a woman? Why not?
Woman is essentially the teacher,
| suggester and inspirer of mankind.
And here comes the women with an
original philosophy of money that
leads naturally and apparently incon-
trovertibly to the solution of two of
our pressing problems; unemployment
and elastic currency. Miss Eleanor
| Balwin, a western journalist, is the
woman who explains money in its
true relations, under the title, Money
Talks" in Nautilus magazine. She
says in part:
Where the thoughtless drop the
subject let's take it up. 1t is true that
one of the things money does is 10
make exchanges. SO electricity trans
mits light and heat; but we know
that electricity is not light nor heat;
we know that transmitting light and
heat are some of the things that cleo
tricity does. What it is. is a different
thing; so, what money does and money
is are also two very different things
What is electricity? The juice
workers in it call it; but we know il is
! a force because it makes changes. May
a force always be known by that test?
Always. A force is that which makes
changes in either mind or matter.
Then money? next TO thought, nothing
is so potent a changer of both mind
and matter as money; everybody
knows that. Then like electricity,
money must be a force. The more you
think about il, the more you Will see
that it cannot be anything else. But.
you say, L thought money was coined
metals and stamped paper Did you
think the glass bulb, with its hairlike
enclosure of charred bamboo was cleo
tricity? or the telephone? No, you
knew the bulb was a liberatOr of cleo
tricity as light; the telephone of cleo
tricity as sound. Why then should
YOU make the mistake of suppOsing
coins and stamped pieces of paper
! were money, when they are merely
that through which the money, when
force is liberated? Let us be as logi-
cal in our study of money as we are IN
our study Of electricity.
But every force must be generated
some where by some thing. Where and
! by what is the money force generated?
Within and by human society. 1t can
be generated nowhere else; 1t can De
/
proved in my book, Money Talks IN
Four Parts.O What is human society?
1t consists of all the human units in
any given social group. Society in the
United States? Consists of all the peo-
pie living in the United States.
"But is this money generated con-
sciously with INTENT Is the electricity
that snaps in your hair on cold morn
ings generated in your body by any
conscious effort on your part! no.
Neither does the great social body, as
truly an organism as you, consciously
generate this money force. me cleo
tricitv that crackles in your hair, is
because you are, so the money force
is because human society is.
Then we have nothing to do with
the making of this force. Nothing
whatever. 1t is well for us that this IS
beyond human control. But society IS
absolutely in control of that through
which this force functions we can
give it a liberator which will enable
il to express itself beneficiently, per
forming its true function, or we can
give if only injurious, defective, mig
gardIy, and at the same time, very
costly liberatOrs through which IL Will
! express itself in misery and chaos as II
is doing now That matter rests en-
tirely with us
the money force?
eft reaches first, the mOneyless man,
because with the true transmlttef' So
cietv acknowledges its obllgauon 10
connect any who are out OF toucn win
this money force, with It, oy giving
them opportunity TO perform seIf W.
for society. The first work OF TINS
splendid true liberator of the money
! force would be TO cure once for all the
evil OF unemployment or enforced Idle
ness. because ii can reach society ohly
through service performed by lndlNlu-
Uals for the whole of society, through
it's organized activities, the govern
rnent. for example: At this time there
are said-to be in a great city l0O,OOO
men out of work wholly divorced from
the money force Estimating these men
10 he unskilled labOreTS whose WORK Is
worth 50 a day, as long as they are
idle society is losing not less thah
$500, 600 q day In service not u Iilch-
ton the fact that they must be a bur
den upon the city At this time also,
there is a bill before the house and
II senate - the NewlanSs bill - when
provides for a great countrywide sys-
! tenn of public works, covering the
middle west in the work OF hood pre-
vention. 1t is probable, that but Tor
! the opposition of some Of the big in
terests. this bill would become law
To it might be appended provision
to the effect that the government
would go into the labor market and
absorb at once these 10000 idle men:
I Da1ing them in true .transmitters OF
! ~ money force through the postal
! hanks nearest the scene Of their
lsbors These transmitters Of the
money force would always carry them
/ the guarantee of service already per-
! formed: also the further guarantee
! that the government will take them
4s-.~. Z
\ inc for society as a whole. In this way
n1iIlions of these true transmitters
wouId ind their way in the little,
marched channels OF trade, never
/ reached by the spurious transmitters
/ Of the banks.