Vernon Parish Democrat., 1922-02-16
Wizard Of Electricity
Endorses Fords Money Idea
From the New York Times, December
6. 1921.


Muscle Shoals district was one of great
activity. Mr.. Ford, Edsel Ford, and
Mr.. Edison were ready at s o'clock
and were taken across the river to
Sheffield for an inspection of the great
nitrate plants there. They were ac-
companied by committee from the
local Chamber of Commerce and
number of army officials. As the par
ty went through the plant Mr.. Edison
detailed the process of manufacture.
He was immensely pleased with the
great plant and said he. would like to
wander through it all night. At this
Iplant the Government tried to develop
lnit-ates from the air by German me-
thod known at the Haber process. 1t
failed. Edison offered several suggest
ions; but, as the plant is not running,
they cannot be tried now.
! Coming back to Florence the way
led past several schools. Schools had
been dismissed and. the children were
Iall on the lawns to see Ford and Ed
ison.
Mr.. Edison will go with the party
to Detroit and from there will be taken
home to Orange, N j., in Mr.. Ford's
Ipriyate car. Within the next week Mr..
Ford will make his final report to Sec
retary of War Weeks. There will be
no change in the offer made several
months ago. 1t is expected that Sec
retary Weeks will not submit the mat
ter to Congress until after Christmas.
Mr.. Ford says that if Congress
gives him lease Of the property,
about two years will be required to
complete the dam and power house,
and that, then, the great industries
now idle will be set in operation.
Mr.. Edison reiterated his belief, ex-
pressed yesterday. that it was good
lplan and that if once the currency me-
thod is tried in raising money for pub
lie improvements, the country will new
er go back to the bond method.
Make it perfectly clear that I'm not
advocating any changes in banks and
banking" said Mr.. Edison. Banks
are mighty good thing. They are
essential to the commerce of the coun-
try. 1t is the money broker, the money
profiteer, the private banker, whom |
oppose. They gain their power through
a fictitious and false value given to
gold.
Gold is a relic of Julius Caesar and
interest is an invention of Satan," Mr..
Ford continued. Gold is intrinsicalIy
of less utility than most metals. The
probable reason why it is retained as
the basis of money is that it is easy to
control. And it is the control of mon
ey that constitutes the money question.
1t is the control of money that is the
root of all evil"
How can this system be improved
or changed?" Mr.. Edison was ask
ed.
1T can come about in several ways.
One way would be to produce so much
gold that its psychological hold would
be broken. If we all had mines in our
back yards or if synthetic gold could
be made and sold for l0c pound, you
would soon see gold disappear as the
basis for money. And we are nearing
just that day; only few days ago a |
scientist developed that lead, one of
the basic metals, and heretofore reck-
oned as an element by itself, is actu-
ally compound. We do not know
how near we are from finding that
gold, too, is a compound. All the
wealth in the world, according to our
present standards, may be rendered
worthless by the discovery that gold
can be made syntheticaIly.
In that case, people could no long
er have confidence in it. Money ought !
to be plentiful and gold is not plentiful. !
1t would be plentiful if it were mined
in as large quantities as it could be, /
but an artificial scarcity is maintained |
by those who use gold to monopollZe |
money.
THAT is one way to do it-make it
SO plentiful that it browns its fictitious
value and browns the superstition of |
the people along with it.
Then there is another way-the
method my friend Ford proposed the
other day. He proposes just to go
along and forget about gold. He says
that the Government can finance Mus
Gle Shoals without applying to mon
ey brokers for permission ,and | think |
he is absolutely right about it.
"Of course, as long as the world is
on the gold basis. we shall have to re-
n