The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-02-22
By H. NJ. wICKS.

EVERY agency of the United States
government has worked overtime
during the past few years to add its
own special contribution to the myth
of Coolidge prosperity. There is no
department of the government that
has not deliberately perverted statis-
tics for the purpose of politically
Strengthening the administration. On
innumerable occasions we have proved
that Andrew w. Melons treasury de-
partment, Herbert Hoover's depart
ment of commerce and the depart
ment of labor under James J. Davis,
have taken the lead in developing fall
sification of statistics into a fine art.
The objective of all the prosperity
propaganda was to establish the be-
lief that the ruling class of the United
States had discovered some new spe-
cific that enabled it to overcome in
dustrial depression. When asked to
explain the secret of the alleged
phenomenal prosperity the Federal
Reserve System was pointed to as
having made it possible by means of
skilled manipulation of interest rates
on bank loans. 1t was argued that
the reserve banks, by making money
plentiful, could overcome industrial
depression, avoid sharp price fluctua-
tons and eliminate unemployment.
Had this been true the present in
dustrial crisis could easily have been
overcome by the simple device of
lowering the bank rate on loans,
thereby releasing greater volume
of money.
In fact, it so happens that in 1927
the federal rediscount rate was lower
than during the greater part of the
previous year, and yet the whole of
,, 1927 was characterized by a slacken-
ing up of industry that brought the
country face to face with severe
crisis, with widespread unemployment
and misery for the working class.
FOR three quarters of a century.
= after great industrial crisis, illu-
sions were widespread that the solu-
ton for all the ills of society was to
be realized through chearening
money. These erroneous ideas arose
through widespread nisconception Of
money as a medium Of circu alton
Since in commodity exchange money
acts as the medium of circulation the
superficial observer is easily led to
believe that the circulation IF cow.
oddities. the replacement Of one com.
modify by another, can take place
only because of the existence of suf-
| ficient money to circulate them
Money appears in every exchange OF
commodities under capitalist distribu-
ton, hence it is an easy matter to
create the illusion that this ever
present circulating medium is re-
sponsible for the movement of the
commodities, instead of being merely
the expression of that circulation re-
CARELESS of the amount of money
available. AS Karl Marx said, "Thc
movement of money, as the medium
of circulation is, in fact. merely th
movement of commodities whilc
changing their FORMS"
The notion that the circulation Of
commodities is the result of the move
ment of money is the illusory founda.
ton of all cheap-money panaceas o.
the past. While all previous attempts
at money reform arose as a result OF
depression, the present money-jug-
Cling movement of the federal reserve
system arose during period of So
called prosperity. 1t is also the first
time in the history of the country
that the dominant political party orig
mated a theory Of cheap money.
The theory, however, was,originated