Evening star., 1933-01-01
BY ]. r.. BRACKETT

| (Copyright 1888, by the Associated Press)
NEW YORK.-A new money" an
exact. invariable token Of exchange
based on energy. Is one Of the tenta-
tive proposals Of Howard Scott, direc-
tor Of technocracy, as q need of this
economic system.
But why a new money? Because,
in the eyes Of Scott, the present sys-
tenn of exchange, coupled with other
attributes of the price system such as
debt, interest and the dollars vari-
ability as a measurement of wealth,
interferes with the machine and social
progress.
This is part of the paradox OF
poverty in the midst of plenty, wherein
huge factories lie idle, willing and
physically able to produce. but pre-
lack Of purchasing power among the
people-a lack partly accounted for,
according to Scott, by the concentra-
tion of money In the hands of the few.
Says price System" Finished.
Does Scott propose the total abo-
lition of the price system, of banks, of
interest, of mortgages and finally of
the dollar itself?
The present system is finished, tech
nocracy says, and the country must
realize that the price system will no
longer work.
Neither Scott nor Technocracy has
publicly explained fully what new
system of direction would include, so
far as the replacement of the present
exchange system Is concerned
A unit of value" under the price
system, as Scott describes it, Is q
"certifcation of debt'-a lien, the
oretically, against q physical entity.
Under chronological control, a unit
Of measurement" would be a seer
tification of available energy produced"
Instead of trying to value goods in
terms of dollars of variable purchasing
power, democracy would measure the
energy produced-so to speak, would
measure the income instead of the
capital-in calories, ergs, foot-pounds,
British thermal units, horsepower or
with some of the other terms for energy
measurement which are theoretically
exact and which would be used up.
This, democracy holds, would pre-
vent debt and huge accumulations of
wealth. The individual would receive
proportionate share of the energy
produced. He would spend it in GER
tain ways for the things he desired.
The energy unit would not be measure
of desire as is the dollar. but measure
ment of what actually was available
and might be economically given to
the people. All Of this implies central
distribution of income and a more
rigid control of the division of goods
Soule Attacks Proposal.
Economists are critical of such pro-
posals George Soule, economist and
associate editor of the New Republic,
says If the Nation could have such
control as this, present old-fashioned
money would do quite well.
As for Scott's statements that en-
ergy units would furnish exact meas
urements, an economist for a Wall
street financial house points out that
the amount of energy produced from
coal oil and waterpower is variable and
that the measurements of it are also
variable. Unless technocracy proposes
absolute control of the entire economic
system, this economist says. the more
efficient user of fuel would receive
more income and would accumulate
things. again unless the State pre-
vented such accumulation.
Bootleg Energy Money
Another economist holds more or less
facetiously that energy money" could