The Washington herald., 1922-03-05

copper. too, are guaranteed Of certan gold yalne
But the gold itself. ,the material upon which our
whole monetary structure is raised is, practically
unseen. We believe the government when ii says
that the gold is in the Treasury but wsspeyer Try
10 get It. s.sgss
= Is it not strange situation that the material
upon which our currency is based upon which the
currency Of most of the world is Based and upon
which the governments Of the world still hope to
base their curencies in happier finest not useds
After all the effort and hardship expended and suf-
fered in getting gold-except for little which goes
into the artsthe gold is not really used, This is
situation which calls for thought because it sug-
gests that there is great waste somewhere.
We suggested. once, that Europe might find il
easier to establish 4 wheat currency than to get
back to gold standard Wheat asscurrency would
have certain advantages over gold, 1t would be
available in great government warehouses in time
! of famine. Because great stocks would be
kept on hand If it were used currency, its value.
with regard to other commodities would not fuc-
tuate greatly And. whereas storing gold makes inn
possible the use Of that beautiful metal for the
arts, thereby. deprivng humanity Of the aesthetic
pleasure it might have from gold, on the other
hand the only proper thing to do with wheat is to
it until used for food products. People do not
want to wheat So, a wheat standard is not inn
possible illogical
Yet there is another possibility much more
fascinating from speculative point of view and
offering much more likelihood of being the ultimate
in money That is electricity currency. The great
development of the future is undoubtedly to be
electrical development America, within relatively
few years, will be electrified Britain talks of har
Messing the tides and has other great eectpcal pro-
jects under consideration Lenin dreams of fur
nishing all of Russia with electricity. The Rhine
Main Danube canal is to furnish tremendous power.
Italy goes ahead with great projects and so does
Austria poor she is. The world is being electri
fed In times to come, money will be based on
units of electricity. Government notes will be good
for so many klowatt-hours Of electric current or
whatever other unit is adopted. All commodities
will be priced in that unit. All wages will be paid
in electricity currency. Discoveries of future forces
or methods of utilizing prisoned forees-such as
the radioactivity of the atom-will but make money
based electric energy the more necessary and the
more logical 81 >..-.,,-.. ..-s.. ... ...
When the world has electricity money, gold will
be released for in the arts and will be mined
only for truly useful purposes. Would it not be
just as we'll to stop mining gold for the purpose of
sticking it away in dark vault? If it is mined, in
the days of money based electric current, the
results of the miners labor will give pleasure to
humanity through the artistic and utitarian dis
position of gold.
How long before this new sort of money
comes? The answer is not easy. Just now. for
very practical reasons return to the gold standard
through the world is ardently to be hoped. But it
may not be very many years before the nations
of the world abolish the anachronism of gold
money or basis for money and adopt electricity
instead