Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-14
GOVERNMENT To BE
BANKER FOR NATION
UNDER UNIQUE PLAN
Outline Submitted by Great
Inventor Would RevoIu-
tionize Methods of Bust
ness in United States

ness IN United States
WELLESLEY HILLS, Mass,
Nov. 13.-Thomas Edison has sub.
mitted to the staff engineers Of the
Babson institute his plan for sta
bilizing business and breaking the
backbone of the high cost Of living.
He has authorized the following
popular description of his theory.
With characteristic audacity, he
goes to the heart of economic life.
He proposes to afford the ordinary
consumer cheaper commodities, to
furnish the producer with ready
capital and security and to elimi-
nate such parasites as unnecessary
middlemen and dishonest specula-
tors-by establishing the govern
ment as the countrys great middle
man and by making ordinary COM
modities as well as gold the basis of
currency.
Some time ago, at the suggestion
Of Henry Ford and others, Edison
devoted himself to study the causes
Of economic unrest. His solution of
this momentous problem is now
under the scrutiny of the ables econ
omists and business experts at
Wellesley.
Plan Simple
His plan is simple and startling.
He would have the government list
some forty basic commodities, such
as cotton. corn, copper, coal, wheat.
flax, iron and then taking the prices
Of the last twenty-five years as a
basis, establish an average price for
each. This price he would have de-
termined in terms of gold and call
ed al unit or dollar.
He would have the government
take over or establish great ware
houses and storage plants. When
the. producer is ready to market his
product he brings it to the agent
at the government warehouse, who
gives him a certificate covering his
whole deposit and at the same time
pays him half of the value of the
deposit. as computed on the 25-yeax
average basis, in cash. The govern
ment then stores the product.
When dealer wants wheat, coal,
cotton, or any other commodity he
buys the producers certificate on
RI ha a.
warehouse, pays the government
back the money advanced, and
takes the product away.
The government-fixed. average
price safeguards the producer from
the ravages of dishonest specula-
ton. The half-value payment he re-
ce1ves from the government at
fords him ready capital. The Ger.
tlflcate he receives is put on the
market subject to the ordinary laws
OF supply and demand. But the GER
tlfIcate does not depend on the gold
IN the treasury vaults but on the
commodity in the warehouse. In one
sense the Edison plan is a return
to the ancient system of barter as
lar as the complexity of modern
The Farmers Side
United money in the Edison plan
is not money in the poular concep-
tlon-that, is metal money or money
with a metal basis. The day when
metal furnished the most exclusive
ly practical basis for a medium of
exchange as well as a measure of
gone by. His money would still be
determined in terms Of gold. But
instead of gold in treasury vaults
beng Its only basis, you would have
Wheat in the government bins, coaY
in the government pits, rice in stor.
age, cotton in the 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
graded by the government as No. L
red. The average price for Is years
OF this grade, including high war
prices is, say 81 per bushel. The
farmer is given $500 in unit money
ne then can hold his wheat by means j
or his certificate until he thinks the
price is satisfactory and thus be III
dependent of the spectators who
now set the price ahead months be.
lore the crop is reaped. This Ger.
tlflcate is bought on the exchange.
at market price now, say $1.16 for
No. 1 red. The farmer would get
S65O-as the wheat is higher than
the 25-year average. If, on the
other hand, it was selling at SO
cents he would only get $3.50.
No Variation &C.,
But the unit money would NOT
vary. 1t would always be the same.
because what would not be likely to
be sold over period of one wear
for SO cents. In other words. the
certificate or equity would have tn
be valueless to impair the value of
the unit money.
The averages are changed every
year, new year being added and
the earliest year of the 25 is drop.
ped.
I'm four or five years the 25-year
would be less and the three
year high war prices will bring the
average down so if wheat sold at
even SO cents it would not impair
the value of the unit money.
eff a person wants peanuts he
buys peanut certificates or If he
wants rice he buys rice certificates.
or anything else which the govern
ment accepts for storage. hands in