The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-11-25
EIlIs(lN REHASHES
POPULIST DREAMS
Great Inventor Has Plan For Stabilizing In.
dustry and Finance That is Renaissance
Of Sub-treasury and Other Schemes
Ridiculed by Money Powers
Thirty Years Ago

business ana breaking the BACK
bone of the high cost OF living. He
mas auth the following popu-
lar description of his theory.
~ With characteristic audacity. he
goes TO the heart of economic life.
lie 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
alidd1emen and dishonest spectla-
: scrs. By essa ablishing the govern
ment as the country's great mid
afeman ard by making ordinary
commodities as we'll as gold the
5asis of currency.
The Government on the Job.
sometime ago, at the suggestion
of Henry Ford and others Edison
devoted himself to study the causes
OF economic unrest. His solution
Of this nomentous problem is now
ander the scrutiny of the ablest
economists and business experts
at Wellesley
His plan is simple and startling.
He weuld have the government
I list some forty basic commodities,
such as cotton, cMrn, copper, coal.
wheat. aax, iron. and then taking
glle prices OF the iast twenty-five
years as a basis. establish an aver
age price sor, each This price he
would have determined in terms
Of gold and called a unit or a dol
I lay.ss
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 ware
house. who gives him a certificate
covering his whole deposit and at
she same time pays him half of
the value of the deposit, as conput-
ed on the e5-year average basis, in
cash. The government then stores
.tle. product.
When dealer wants. wheat, coal,
cattSn, or any other commodity he
buys the producers certificate on
The mar rkef: he presents it at a
warehouse. pays the government
back the: money advanced, and
takes the product away.
The government fixed average
price safeguards the producer from,
the srayages of dishonest specula-
ton. The half-value payment he re-
seives from the government affords
him q ready capital. The certifi-
cate he receiFes is put on the mar
Net subject to the ordinary laws
Of supply and demand. But the
certificate does not depend on the
gold in treasury vaults but on the
commodity in the warehouse In
one sense the Edison plan is re-
turn to the ancient system of bar
ter as far as the complexity of
modern life VIII allow.
H0w the Farmers Would Find It.
Init money in the Edison plan
is not money in the popular con-
ceptiontiat is. metal money or
raoaey with metal basis. The
day when metal furnished the most
e2rfusNely practical basis for a
aRediunf OF exchange as well as a
measure OF value has. according
to- 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 gov
ernment bins, coal in the govern
inent pits. rice in storage, cotton
in the warehouses. etc.
All PARTICLES deposited in the
warehouse. 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 farmer puts in the
warehouse 1.0o0 bushels of wheat
graded by the government as No.
Red The average price for %
Years of this grade. including high
war prices is. say s1.60 per bush
cl. The farmer is given $500 in
Unit noney-he then can hold his
wheat by means of his certificate
until he thinks the price is salts
factory and thus be independent of
spectators who now set the price
ahead months before the crop is
reaped. This certificate is bought
ON the exchange. at market price
now, say S1.i5 for No. I Red. The
farmer would get s650-as the
wheat is higher than the % year
Average. If. on the other hand. it
was selling at sc 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 period of
one year for 50 cents. In other
words. the certificate or equity
would have to be valueless to inn
pair the value OF the unit money.
The averages are changed every
year. Il new year being added and
the earliest year Of the % S drop
ped.
Backing up Cold.
IN or 5 years the % year av-
erase would be less and the three
year high war prices will bring the
average down so If wheat sold at
even 80 cents it would not inn
pair the value of the unit money.
IF person wants peanuts he