Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-11-14
TO REDUCE COST OF LIVING
Story of EdlSOn'S Plan Submitted TO
BabSOn Institute.
WOULD CHANGE BUSINESS METHODS
Inventor Says Idea of Gold Standard is
an "Absurdity'-WouId squeIch' the
SpeeuFators.

Inventor Says Idea Of Gold Standard is
an "Absurdity'-WouId Squeloh' the
Spectators.
Wellesley Hills, Mass.-Thomas Edi-
son has submitted to the staff engi-
neers Of the Babson Institute his plan
for stabilizing business and breaking
the backbone of the High Cost of Liv-
ing. He has authorized the following
popular description of his theory.
With characteristic audacity, ;he goes
to the heart of economic life. He pro-
poses to afford the ordinary consumer
cheaper commodities, to furnish the
producer with ready capital and secur-
fty and. to eliminate such parasites as
Unnecessary middlemen and dishonest
speculators-by establishing the gov
eminent as the country's great middle
man and making ordinary commodities
as well as gold the basis of currency.
The Government on the Job.
Sometime ago, at the suggestion of
Henry Ford and others, EdisoHdevoted
himself to study the causes ofyeconom-
ic unrest. His solution of this momen-
tous problem is now under the scrutiny
of the ablest economists and business
experts at Wellesley.
His plan is simple and startling. He
would have the government list some
forty basis commodities, such as cot
ton, corn, copper coal, wheat, fax, iron,
and then taking the prices of the last
twenty five years as a basis estab-
lish an average price for each. This
price he would have determined in the
terms Of gold and called unit or
dollar.
He would have the government take
over and establish great warehouses
and storage plants. When the produc-
er is ready to market his product he
briggs it to the agent al the govern
ment warehouse, who gives him GER
tiflcate covering his whole deposit and
at the same time pays him half of the
value of the deposit, as computed on
the 25-year average basis, in cash. The
government then stores the product.
When a dealer wants wheat. coal,
cotton, or any other commodity he buys
the producers certificate on the mar
ket; he presents it at, warehouse,
pays the government back the money
advanced, and takes the product away.
The government fixed average price
safeguards the producer from the raw
ages of dishonest spec Ilation. The
half-value payment he receives from
the government affords him a ready
capital. The certificate he receives is
put on the market subject to the ordi-
nary laws of supply and demand. But
the certificate does not depend on the
gold in the treasury vaults but on the
commodity in the warehouse. In one
sense the Edison plan is return to
the ancient system of barter as far as
the. complexity of modern, life will
allow.
How the Farmers Would Find It.
Unit money in the Edison plan is not
money in the popular conception-that
is, metal money or money with metal
basis. The day when metal furnished
the most exclusively practical basis for
medium of exchange as we'll as the
measure of value has, according to Mry
Edison, gone by. His money would
still be determined in terms Of gold.
But instead of gold in treasury vaults
being its only basis, you would have
wheat in the government bins, coal in
the government pits. rice in storage
cotton in warehouses, etc.
"All articles deposited in the ware
house." said Edison, bear the same
ratio when loan of unit money is made,
only one kind of unit money is issued
together with the deposit certificate.
Suppose a farmer puts in the
warehouse 1000 bushels of wheat grad
ed by the government as No. Red.
The average price for 25 years of this
grade, including high war prices is, say
$1.OO per bushel. The farmer is given
$500 in unit money-he then can hold
his wheat by means Of his certificate
until he thinks the price is satisfactory
and thus be Independent Of the specu-
lators who now set the price ahead
months before the crop is reaped. This
certificate is now, say S1.l5 for No.
Red. The farmer would get $65O-as
the wheat is bought on the exchange,
at market price higher than the 25 year
average. If, on the other hand it was
selling at SO cents he would only get
$3.50.
but the unit money would not vary.
1t would always be the same, because
wheat would not be likely to be sold
over a period of one year for 50 cents.
ENGLISH GIRLS SOCC