The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-02-04
By .. R. BRACKET

ny DAtfASIt
 NEW YORK, Feb. 4.-Alway! oil the hunt for more money. mer have made it out of everything from fishhooks and cheese to golt and faith in government. E
 Today, in some parts of Amer ica, even the promise to pay ir goods and services is being mad< into money. This is the money used by the nations unemployed in their barter and exchanges about 15O of which have been or ganized in the United States since the depression This money is scrip, simply a promise to pay the bearer goods and services.
 Yet, while the unemployed seek to make more money, the United States in recent months has had more money tn circulation thar at any time in it's hLstory-that is more coins and bills. There is more ain circulation today than there was in 1929. What is this raradox?c aud ui.s Iiielv As Prof. Ray Rogers of NeR York University points out, the paradox is simply that the money that circulates in the form of bills and coins is but a fraction of the total stuff that is used for mon s@y The major part of our money fis bank deposits. f''soiiaa q sas s9lal Nc Shortage of Money sDl On June 30, 1882, total bank de- posits stood at $4l ,963, ,0O0, 900. At the same time total bills and coins in circulation totaled about $5,5oo, 100000. If all the depositors suddenly asked the banks for their money it would be utterly impos- sible to satisfy the demand There lis no shortage of money; rather there is a shortage of circulation Of money, Rogers says @ Tass Professor Rogers explains that tfe bills and coins amount in ef- feet to the llation's change. The bank deposits are the most inn portant money
 Money wadays is baS ed largely on credit, on faith that deposits may be turned into bills --afld there is only some S12,0OO.- GOO of monetary gold in the whole world.
 Swapping Came First
 To reach this point In moneys development has been the process of thousands of years. First man simply 'swapped goods for goods or goods for services, method he has never completely ceased us- ing. ' W' se sN
 Then he tried commodity money, A bushel of wheat, for instance, may be used as a standard to value other things. Or he might use fishhooks, cheese, rock salt, | tobacco, animal skins, nails, soap, fspices, gum drops, woodpecker sca1ps and a multitude of other things which could be and were used and therefore had value in Themselves.
 After commodity money came various forms based largely on their vanity or ornamental values. There were strings of beads, tiger claws, pieces of stone, pretty glass.
 About the same time. but gen. erally somewhat later, various metals came into use; copper, brass iron, silver, platinum and gold.
 Modern Systems Developed
 Then developed the change from which modern monetary systems have grown. ra taae Governments put the metals in vaults and issued pieces of paper promising to pay the bearer in the metal. At first, each piece of paper had to be backed by an equivalent amount of metal
 Then the system became more elastic until today in the United Estates a Federal Reserve note is backed by only 40 per cent gold land bank deposits. of course, have la much smaller theoretical gold [valte. F'2 &
 l What the next step will be is a puzzle for economists. The com