“Mr. Midith, will you please give us an account of your monetary
system?” asked Mr. Uwins, as the whole family were enjoying the green
lawn, after our first stroll.
“With the greatest of pleasure,” said Mr. Midith, apparently enjoying
a high sense of satisfaction. “But, before I proceed with the monetary
account, allow me to say that this door-yard picture, as we are here
now, reminds me of a miniature Marsian family. All appear healthy,
happy, intelligent, clean, amiable and courteous. I can not help
feeling grateful toward you for your kind hospitality, and shall always
remember you, whether I shall ever be able to return to my beloved
native home or not.”
“Mr. Midith, you owe us no debt of gratitude; but, on the contrary,
we owe you,” said Mrs. Uwins. “I have never before been so intensely
interested in anything as I am in your Marsian narrative. Your social,
industrial, and domestic arrangement seems to be so perfect, and yet
there is nothing miraculous in it. It is all human. With a little more
intelligence of the masses, we can easily do what the Marsites have
already done. With a little additional knowledge, we ought to be able
to live in large families and build our houses in lines, and the rest
will naturally follow.”
“Now the account of your monetary system,” said Viola with a pleasant
smile on her countenance. “I am anxious to know whether the Marsites
are in pursuit of money as eagerly as we are, and how _ladies_ and
_children_ get their money.”
“Before I shall be able to give you a clear understanding of our
money, or medium of exchange, I shall have to give you a description
of another public apartment in the ‘big-house,’ for this commercial
apartment, as we call it, is intimately connected with our monetary
system; in fact, it is so closely connected with it that you can not
understand our money system without a knowledge of the function of this
apartment.
“The wall and partitions of this commercial apartment are all furnished
with fine book-shelves. The shelves are set off so closely by vertical
partitions that only one large blank book fits in each division, which
are numbered consecutively. Every man, woman and child of the family is
represented in this commercial apartment by one of these time-books, in
which each records the time of his or her labor performed. On the back
of each book is the owner’s name, and a number corresponding to the
shelf-division. In this manner each individual has his own book, and
each book its own shelf-division.
“Let me tell you right here that we have no surnames, as you call them.
We have only what you call Christian names; such as John, James, Mary,
Viola, etc., the philosophy of which you will see hereafter. But, in
our system of naming, every individual can be so described that it can
mean no other person than the one intended. For instance, Mary, B 4,
F 23, C 84 of Goben. Mary is her name; B 4 means that she keeps her
record of labor in book No. 4 in the commercial apartment; F 6 stands
for family number 6 of a certain community; C 84 stands for community
number 84 of the country of Goben. There can be but one person in our
world that answers to this description.
“This commercial apartment contains all the conveniences for
book-keeping, fine desks, counters, chairs of all kinds, writing
material and everything one may want to keep a neat, first-class record.
“As I have said, each individual keeps his own record in his own book,
of all the labor he performs for the community; also the kind (the
labor census is compiled from this record) of labor, and the date
when he performs it. The record-books are large enough to contain the
labor-record of a person’s whole lifetime. This labor-record, kept in
this commercial apartment, is the basis upon which we issue our money,
or labor checks, or medium of exchange, or whatever else you may call
it. We have seen that all wealth is produced by productive labor,
and a day’s, or an hour’s, or a minute’s productive labor produces,
in an average, so much wealth; and the individual who performs the
labor should receive _all_ the money or labor checks, which represent
the wealth he has produced. I might say right here that we have no
coin; this fact, stated in the beginning, might aid you in better
understanding of what follows, for as a rule the vast majority of the
people seem to think that coin is absolutely necessary to a successful
medium of exchange, but this you will find to be an error.
“There is one other point to which I must call your attention before we
proceed with our main subject, and that is our method of keeping time.
If we issue our money only for productive labor performed, it naturally
follows that we should have a good method of measuring the time of this
labor, and this we have.
“Our clocks divide the day on the decimal scale, but I shall not
confuse your minds with our division of time. I shall always interpret
our time in terms of yours, and content myself by just giving you a
brief description of our method of keeping it.
“Every apartment, public and private, is furnished with one or more
time-pieces. All the clocks in the ‘big-house,’ as well as all the
‘big-houses’ in the whole community, are connected by a subterranean
electric wire, which causes the pendulums of all the clocks to vibrate
simultaneously. The wires of the communities within certain degrees
of longitude are likewise connected. By this method all the clocks
within that longitude of the country keep exact time with the central
regulator, which is regulated astronomically.
“Now we are prepared for the main financial question. In business, when
you say I want so many dollars, cents and mills for an article, we say
I want so many _days_, _hours_, _minutes_ and _seconds_ for it. Of
course, our working day, as I have told you several times before, is,
in an average, less than two hours, or less than one-fifth as long as
your day, which is generally more than ten hours.
“Now let us see if I can make you understand our money system, or
our medium of exchange. It is indeed extremely simple for one who is
familiar with it.
“We have seen that each individual man, woman and child, keeps a
time-book in the commercial apartment; and at the close of each month
each individual closes his own book account of the labor he performed
during that month and makes a copy, a fac-simile of it, on paper
provided for that purpose. This copy is at the close of each month sent
to the mint department of the ‘Com.’ Here, in order to avoid error, the
labor records are carefully examined by expert accountants. If they are
found correct mathematically, the amount of money, or time bills, for
each individual, are issued and put in a kind of pocket-book, sealed
and addressed to the individual owner who receives the pocket-book in
his mail box. Thus we notice that each individual man, woman and child,
practically issue their own money; that is they can work as much as
they like during the month, and at the end of the month they report to
the minter or money stamper at the ‘Com’ the amount of labor performed.
For their labor performed in the community they receive labor checks,
or money as you call it, on the negotiable wealth of the community; and
as all communities are highly reliable, every community will take the
labor checks of any other community. This enables a person to buy in
any community he desires. The laborer, in an average, always produces
the wealth before he receives his money for it. Hence failure, under
ordinary conditions, is impossible.
“Let us notice, then, that the ‘Com’ issues the money; that every
person who handles money for the family or community remits it daily
to the ‘Com,’ where all the bills of the families and community are
paid. A _family_ never remits the money for the bill of goods it has
purchased. When a family buys a bill of goods for its store, etc.,
the selling community makes out a duplicate bill, one of which the
purchasing family sends to the ‘Com’ as soon as the goods are found
satisfactory and the bill is correct. If the bill is not correct, it is
first corrected by the purchasing family. The ‘Com,’ immediately upon
the arrival of the bill, remits the money to the selling community. You
want to keep in mind then that the family buys _what_ and _where_ it
pleases, but that it daily remits all the money taken in to the ‘Com,’
which pays all the bills for the community and for all the families of
the community.
“Our money, or labor checks, or medium of exchange, or whatever else
you may wish to call it, consists of stamped paper bills of different
sizes, according as they represent _days_, _hours_, or _minutes_ and
_seconds_.
[Illustration: (Fig. 4.)
C 24 stands for community No. 24. 6 D stands for six days’ labor. 23486
is the number of the bill. Goben is the name of the country.]
“Figure 4 represents a bill of six days’ value (called six days),”
said Mr. Midith as he outlined a Marsian labor bill. “Besides the
ornamental stamp which the bill contains, it bears the date of its
issue, the number of the community which issued it, the country, or
grand division, in which the community is located, its number, and its
representative value of six days’ labor. We have bills of three sizes:
One size representing _days’_ labor, one representing _hours_, and one
representing minutes and seconds.
“Now let us see whether we can understand the circulation of our
labor-money. We have seen that every person, at the close of each
month, sends his own labor-record to the ‘Com,’ the only place in
the community where money is issued, and money is _never_ issued on
anything else than these individuals’ monthly labor-records. So that
all the money that is ever issued goes directly to the individual man,
woman, or child, who labored for it, who produced the negotiable wealth
which the money represents.
“Now let us follow a bill in its circulation. We have seen that the
individual can buy where he wishes, in his own family store, in his
own community or out of it; he can also buy of another individual, or
of a family, or of any community. We will say, for illustration, that
Mary pays out one of her bills in any of the family stores of her own
community. The family storekeeper, at the close of his day’s business,
remits the bill to the ‘Com’ of his own community. Here it was issued
and paid to Mary for labor performed; and here it is also canceled when
it returns by stamping it on both sides, which is a mark of redemption,
after which it is filed away. This bill is canceled because Mary drew
the negotiable wealth which the bill represents out of the community’s
storehouse. That is, she took her actual wealth she produced by her
labor. When she received the money at the end of the month she took
only the _representative_ of her wealth. Bear in mind that bills are
canceled only at the ‘Com,’ not at the ‘big-houses.’
“Now let us go on further. Perhaps Mary paid out her bill in some other
community than her own. Then the bill is sent to the ‘Com’ of that
community where the purchase was made by the family which sold Mary the
goods, but the ‘Com’ of that community does not cancel _our_ bills. The
‘Com’ of each community cancels only its _own_ bills. The community
which gave Mary the commodities for her bill uses that bill the same
as it uses its _own_ bills to buy of other communities; and these
communities to buy of still others; so the bill keeps on circulating
from one community to the other until it again reaches _our_ community,
where it will be canceled, for we can not get the bill unless we redeem
it with wealth, and all bills redeemed, as we have seen, are canceled
at the ‘Com.’ Hence we may receive the money of any other community,
and all other communities will accept our money.
“Whenever the ‘Com’ needs more money to purchase with, or to pay bills
of purchase with, than what it receives as remittances from its own
families, it sells the products of the community just like your farmers
sell their wheat, etc.; but the community, as a community, can never
issue money for the purpose of paying for the community’s purchases.
Money can be issued only on the labor-records of the _individual_. This
fact we always want to bear in mind.”
“Well, Mr. Midith, how, then, do you support disable-bodied persons who
have no labor-record to send in?” asked Viola.
“They keep a book in the commercial department the same as the sound
ones, and send a monthly statement of how much money they wish and the
money is sent to them the same as to others; and they spend it just
as freely, too. We treat our cripples in every respect as equals, and
they do not feel any sense of inferiority and dependence as you make
your paupers feel. We let them manage their own affairs, draw their
money and hire all the assistance they need. In order to make this a
little plainer to you, I may say that our communities are very large
families, and that we, as members of a community, find, no doubt, even
more pleasure in caring for our disabled persons than a kind family
here on earth feels in caring for a disabled son or daughter. But you
must not forget that disabled persons are very few with us. Disease and
accident have been minimized, and monstrosities (unnatural productions)
are almost unknown.”
“But you have not yet told us how little children and babies get their
money to buy with,” said Mrs. Uwins.
“I shall give you an explanation of that under the head of sexual
relations, where you will be better able to understand it clearly,”
said Mr. Midith. “But I will say right here that every man, woman, and
child has money to buy with, and no one can buy without it.
“We have no _credit_ system, and no _interest_, as you can see at once.
For in a world where every one has all the money he wants, or can
earn all he wants at any time by an agreeable amount of manual labor,
_credit_ is unnecessary; and _interest_ is the result of monopoly, and
as we have no monopoly, we can have no interest. In our world, natural
opportunity is equally open to all individuals, all families and all
communities. Every person can work all he wants, and gets all he
actually earns. Our money can be gotten only by productive labor, or
by voluntary gift; and you must always keep in mind, too, that it is
issued directly to the man, woman and child who earned it by productive
labor, or who has it voluntarily given to him, as in the case of an
infant or disabled person.
“I have given you a brief explanation of our money system before
I pointed out any defects in _your_ system, or, before comparing
it with yours. I have adopted this mode of procedure all through
my explanations for the reason that the masses of your people, or,
at least, those who have but a narrow mental view, always accuse a
person who points out some defects of their institutions as being a
destructionist. They say he tears down, but does not build up; he is
considered _de_structive but not _con_structive. For this reason, as
well as for the fact of following the natural method of instruction, I
have first built up, constructed what I believe to be an immeasurably
more just and simple monetary system than yours is. In contemplating
a system of money, or medium of exchange, let us always keep in mind
that money, as such, is not wealth; but that its only function, its
only usefulness is to facilitate commerce and trade. Now let us compare
our money with your money. Let us put aside as much as possible of our
prejudice while we are making this comparison. First, then, let us
enumerate the several features that a _just_ and _convenient_ medium
of exchange (money) must possess, and upon what basis such a system of
money must rest.
“1. It must be made out of the cheapest, most convenient and durable
material.
“2. It must afford the greatest security to the taker.
“3. It must eliminate all credit from trade and commerce.
“4. It must maintain the most unvarying uniformity in its purchasing
power.
“5. It must least be obtainable by any other means than by productive
labor and by voluntary gift.
“6. In volume, it must be always practically equal to the value of the
negotiable wealth which it represents, and must increase and diminish
in the same ratio as the wealth does.
“7. It must not admit of being monopolized so as to make the drawing of
interest possible.
“8. It must be least liable of being counterfeited.
“9. It must give the person who possesses a large quantity of it, no
advantage or special privileges over him who has less of it.
“10. The money must be such that the _payee_ (the person to whom money
is to be paid) may _accept_ or refuse the _money_, instead of the
_actual wealth_ which the money represents.
“11. It must, in its circulation, preserve a financial equilibrium
with other parts of the world, and in proper quantities must naturally
return to its place of redemption.
“12. It must be most directly issued to the individual--man, woman,
and child--who performs the productive labor which produced the wealth
which the money represents.
“I am well aware from the experience of my sojourn on earth that the
people of earth, as a rule, are yet very superstitious, uninformed
and fanatical on the money question. The masses of your people,
as I have said before, are worked so hard, and they therefore have
very little time and desire for philosophical thought of any kind;
but notwithstanding all this, I shall attempt briefly to examine and
compare our and your money systems with the above essential features of
a just and convenient medium of exchange. Of course we all understand,
when we think for a moment, that any system of money that possesses the
features of _justice_ and _convenience_ in the highest degree is the
most perfect. Let us then begin the examination.
“1. As to material, our money or medium of exchange, as I have told you
before, is made out of paper which costs comparatively nothing, which
is very convenient commercially, and which is sufficiently durable;
while you make your money largely out of metals, the production of
which costs you an immense amount of comparatively unproductive labor,
and furthermore _coin_ is very bunglesome to handle. Two hundred
dollars in silver is almost a load to carry. Thus most of your money is
_costly_ and lacks _convenience_.
“2. As to security, our money is always secured and backed by the
immense negotiable wealth of a strong, peaceable community, and in an
average we never have more money in circulation than there is actual
negotiable wealth on hand to redeem it with, while your national
security is often very uncertain. Thousands of people lost by taking
Confederate money during the American Civil War; and if the South had
been victorious, the greenback would have been worthless. Your security
is thus very faulty.
“3. You have seen that we have entirely eliminated all credit from our
financial world. No individual, family, or community buys on credit;
all have plenty of money to buy with, while the volume of your money is
often so small and so monopolized that perhaps most of your business
is transacted on time, which involves a great deal of uncertainty and
injustice. In the first place, the business man under your credit
system is not certain of his pay; he must always be on the look-out not
to sell to poor payers, and in the second place the annual losses which
the business man sustains by failure to pay, must be taxed to the goods
he annually sells and must therefore be paid by those who _do_ pay. In
this manner a person who pays must _indirectly_ pay for the goods the
delinquent fails to pay for _directly_.
“4. As to uniformity of purchasing power, our money is nearly perfect.
The basis of its issue is a day’s productive labor, which, under free
competition, in an average, produces nearly the same quantity of
negotiable wealth at all times, taking it all over the world, while the
purchasing power of your dollar is very fluctuating. For instance, the
discovery of a rich gold mine makes the gold dollar worth less, because
it can be obtained with less labor. If silver would now be discovered
as plentifully as lead, and if you had free and unlimited coinage of
silver, a silver dollar of the present weight and fineness would have
but little purchasing power; first, because a laborer could obtain many
of them from the rich mine with a day’s labor, and secondly, because
laborers would be attracted _to_ the _mine_, and _from_ agriculture
and other productive industries, which would produce a scarcity of
commodities and raise them in price.
“Let us take another example that will clearly show the great varying
purchasing power of your dollar. In making this examination, we want
to keep in mind that the only material wealth after which we are in
pursuit is food, clothing, shelter, luxuries, and the instruments
of their production and distribution; that all material wealth is
produced either directly or indirectly by the application of labor to
land; that is, the crude material must be yielded by the earth. All
debts must ultimately be paid with material wealth, and money, or the
dollar, serves only as a medium to facilitate the exchange of material
wealth. Where there is no material wealth the dollar becomes useless.
You do not work for the dollar, as most of your people seem to think,
nor can a dollar add one iota to your physical comforts and happiness.
It is the material wealth which the dollar represents which gives
the comfort and happiness. If all the money in your world would be
annihilated or sunk in the ocean at 12 o’clock M., none of the world’s
aggregate physical comforts and happiness, other than an experience of
inconvenience of making exchanges, would be diminished. There would be,
after the destruction of all the money, just as much food, clothing,
shelter and luxuries as there was with all the money in the world. Your
meals would be just as good, because we do not eat money. Your houses
would be just as light, warm and cheerful as before. Your couch would
be just as soft and comfortable. Your land just as productive. All
your luxuries would be just as charming and agreeable. Your trains,
telegraphs, telephones and electric lights would operate just the same.
Your books would contain the same information. The only inconvenience,
as a whole, that you would experience from the destruction of your
money, would be, that you would find it more inconvenient to make your
exchanges of commodities; and to obviate this inconvenience is the only
function and use of money. Now let us exemplify a little further the
injustice of the varying purchasing power of your dollar.
“Since I came to live on earth, I got acquainted with a very
industrious and frugal person, who, in 1869, purchased, on credit, in
the state of Wisconsin, a _$6,000_ farm. It is now over twenty years
since he began to pay for it, and he has succeeded in paying about
$4,000 of the principal and over _$6,000 interest_. He, therefore, owes
still $2,000 of the principal.
“Now let us not forget right here that wheat in 1869, or thereabout,
was worth about $2.50 per bushel, and, as a whole, all other things
in proportion. This man, then, bought the farm on the basis of $2.50
wheat. At this price, it would have required only 2,400 bushels of it
to pay for the farm. But soon after he bought the farm, wheat began
to decline in price, until, in 1890, it was worth only about 60 cents
or 70 cents. Now, as I have said, in 1890 this man owed still $2,000
on his farm. To pay $2,000 with 70 cent wheat requires about 2,700
bushels, 300 bushels more than it did to pay for the whole farm in
1869. So you see this man raised wheat for over twenty years. During
this twenty years he raised and sold over 6,000 bushels of wheat, the
proceeds of which he paid on his farm. Now if the contract for the farm
had read 2,400 bushels of wheat, instead of reading $6,000, he would
have the farm paid for _two_ or _three_ times over. But as it is, it is
more difficult to pay for now than it was when he began paying in 1869.
It required more bushels of wheat, more bushels of oats and potatoes,
more pounds of cotton or pork, more kegs of nails, more tons of galena,
to pay the balance of $2,000 in 1890 than it would have taken to pay
the whole $6,000 in 1869. But that is not all the loss he sustained.
His land, under your system of farming, is probably not as productive
now as it was twenty years ago. His orchard and buildings have decayed
also.
“Now before I give another illustration on the varying purchasing power
of your dollar, I must clear up one other point concerning money. From
what I can learn, it seems that the majority of your people, when
they consider the financial question, believe that the purchasing of
commodities is the whole of a commercial transaction; but this is
only half of it and the last half, too. Let us illustrate: A farmer,
before he can pay his mortgage, his taxes, or his notes, must _buy_
his _money_ to pay them with. The mortgagee, the tax collector and the
banker do not deal in commodities--wheat, pork, wool, cotton, etc.
The first half of the transaction is to _purchase_ the _money_ with
_commodities_, and _after_ you have purchased the money, you can pay
the mortgage, taxes, notes, etc., with that money, which is the second
half of the transaction. In 1869, money was cheap because a bushel of
wheat would buy about $2.50 worth of it; in 1890, a bushel of wheat
buys but 60 cents; hence money was dear. The farmer must buy his money
with the products he raises on his farm; he must have _commodities_
before he can buy _money_. The laborer buys his money with labor, etc.
A farmer, who, in 1869, raised and sold 600 bushels of wheat, by his
annual labor, received $1,500 for that labor; while, in 1890, for
raising and selling an equal quantity of wheat, he received only about
$400.
“I am well aware that there are fluctuations of prices caused, in
your industrial world, partly by natural and partly by monopolistic
supply and demand; but of these I am not here speaking. I am here
simply endeavoring to illustrate the evils and injustice of the varying
purchasing power of your dollar. There is no injustice in the fact that
a bushel of wheat will buy $2.50, or that it will buy only 60 cents, or
that it will buy $10. It would make no difference to any one whether
you would get 10 cents or $10 for a bushel, provided all other things
correspond in price, and provided further that the purchasing power
of the money does not vary practically. The injustice consists in the
fact, as we have seen in the case of your Wisconsin farmer, that he
purchased his farm on the basis of $2.50 wheat and other farm products,
and that he had to pay for it largely with 80 or 90 cent wheat.
“Now let us be candid. Can you tell me who got that $10,000, or all
that wheat which this Wisconsin farmer raised during these twenty years
when he tried to pay for his farm? _He_ has nothing to show for it. His
farm is not as good now as it was twenty years ago, and, as we have
seen, he has to sell more products now to pay the $2,000 than he would
have had to pay the $6,000 in 1869. Some one ate all that wheat, and as
this man received nothing for it, those that ate it must have gotten it
without _actually_ paying for it. This is a truth, but not many of the
people of earth have thus far discovered it.
“I am aware that some of your zealous people will say that this
Wisconsin farmer was not a wise and prudent man for buying that
$6,000 farm on time when he had nothing to pay for it. I fully agree
with them; for, as I claim, no system of money is good which does not
eliminate all credit. It is this unwiseness which I am here endeavoring
to show, but these zealous people who condemn this Wisconsin farmer
have helped to make still worse contracts. Let us see what they are.
“In 1866 the national debt of the U. S. was $2,783,000,000; and in 1890
it was about $1,183,000,000. About the year 1866 wheat was worth about
$2.50 a bushel, and if the national debt had been contracted to be paid
in _wheat_ (instead of dollars, remember), it would have required,
in 1866, about 1,008,000,000 bushels (one billion, eight millions).
In 1890 wheat was worth about 60 or 70 cents, and the national debt
was $1,183,334,688. At that price it would have required about
1,900,000,000 bushels. Thus you see that you owed about 90,000,000
bushels more in 1890 than you owed in 1866.
“In making this comparison, I use wheat because I believe it to be one
of your foremost staples, but you can use beef, pork, oats, corn, wool,
kegs of nails or any other important staple. You will notice, then,
that it is not a scarcity of any particular commodity in 1866 and an
‘over-production’ in 1890, but that it lies in the varying purchasing
power of the dollar. In 1866 a farmer could purchase $2.50 with one
bushel of wheat (remember that the buying of _money_ is the first half
of a commercial transaction); money was cheap then. In 1890 he could
purchase only 60 cents for a bushel. The capitalists who hold the money
made money scarce, so that they could receive a large quantity of
_commodities_ for a dollar of it. Thus you see that your capitalists
are not only robbing the masses by charging interest, but also by
increasing the purchasing power of the dollar. You see, he holds the
dollar; the poor man has no dollars.
“One more brief comparison on this point: Suppose that in 1866 a farmer
stores away $1,000 worth of wheat at $2.50 a bushel, which would amount
to 400 bushels. His brother banker also puts in his safe the same
amount of property, a thousand dollars, in _dollars_, not in wheat or
any other _commodity_. Now, they have stored away an equal amount of
property. Let us see now how they stand in 1890. The farmer has his 400
bushels of wheat, which is worth about 60 cents a bushel. If he turns
his wheat into cash, he has $240, while his brother banker has $1,000
in cash. Here you see that the farmer, or any other laborer, ‘comes out
of the small end of the horn.’ Now let us see how they stand when both
turn their property into wheat. The farmer has 400 bushels. The banker
has $1,000, for which, at 60 cents a bushel, he can buy 1,666 bushels;
1,666 bushels minus 400 bushels leaves 1,266 bushels, that the banker
is ahead of the farmer, after they have converted their property into
wheat.
“I am well aware that in a few cases the varying purchasing power of
the dollar gives an advantage to the laborer instead of the capitalist.
But this advantage to the laborer is as unjust as if the advantage were
to the capitalist; and the injustice of this advantage, whether to the
capitalist or to the laborer, is what we are here considering.
“These are all _truths_, but they lie so deeply hidden that the masses
of your people do not yet see them. _Our_ medium of exchange does not
possess this grave injustice; the unit of value is based on a day’s
productive labor, which varies very little, if any, and all share an
equal part in this slight variation.
“5. As already stated, the Marsites issue money only directly to the
_individual_ on his monthly _labor-record_, that is, if the individual
is able-bodied and old enough to work; if he is disabled or a child,
he receives money in a similar manner on a _gift-record_, instead of
a labor-record. No person can get a penny by profit, interest, etc.,
because the goods are sold by the _community_ at cost, and nobody
pays interest, because everybody has, or can earn all the money he
wants. You see there is no room for a speculator and schemer in our
world, even if a person were disposed to be one; while your system
is just the reverse. With you a gold miner in a rich mine may take
out $200 worth of gold with one day’s labor; and he has produced
comparatively nothing, if the gold is coined into money; for paper is
even more suitable as a medium of exchange, if issued on the right
basis, than gold. A merchant under your system may grow rich on profit
by doing nothing. A money lender may receive a thousand dollars a
day as interest by living an idle life. He may be growing richer by
the interest he receives, so that his posterity, for generations yet
unborn, can live an idle life by living from the labor of others.
You have also seen that a capitalist may grow rich by changing the
purchasing power of the dollar in his favor. Your money system, then,
is very defective, because it is largely obtained without productive
labor. The persons who perform nearly all the productive labor have,
as a rule, very little of it, while many of your schemers, or
unproductive laborers or idlers, have, as a rule, an abundance of it.
“6. We have seen that we issue money once a month for labor performed,
and that this money is issued only at the ‘Com;’ that the money is
issued directly to the individual, who can make his purchases wherever
he likes, and that all money taken in by the families for commodities
sold is daily remitted to the ‘Com,’ where the communities’ own money
is canceled when taken in; and that the money from other communities,
for which we have given wealth, is used by the ‘Com’ to pay bills with.
Each community, then, has always a quantity of money in circulation
equal to the salable wealth on hand. If the wealth increases the
volume of money increases, for money is issued on productive labor,
which produces wealth. If the wealth diminishes the volume of money
diminishes, for as soon as the wealth is given to the producer for the
money, the money is canceled.
“The basis upon which you issue and redeem money is entirely different.
You may have a scarcity of money and an abundance of commodities, or
you may have an abundance of money and a scarcity of commodities. A
rich gold mine tends to increase the volume of money, and tends to
decrease the quantity of commodities. The more you monopolize money,
the more it conduces to the interest of the wealthy--the higher the
interest will be and the more the stored-up dollar of the capitalist
increases in purchasing power. The volume of the Marsian money, which
is based on a day’s productive labor, is always practically equal to
the quantity of negotiable wealth. Money, based on a day’s productive
labor, where opportunity for labor is always open to all, can never
be scarce. This is the case on Mars, and, therefore, we never have
a scarcity of money. With you things are vastly different. All your
institutions are partly warped by your unjust medium of exchange.
“7. Our money can not be monopolized so that it draws interest.
“Before we can intelligently discuss this feature, I shall be obliged
to make a few statements concerning our social and other economic
conditions. An earthite uses money for many purposes where a Marsite
uses no money at all. For example, a Marsite does not buy and sell
land. The individual on Mars needs no money for the construction of
his dwelling. Our dwellings are erected by the collective labor of
the members of the community. A Marsite needs no money for his tools,
his machinery, his implements, his garden, orchard, park, boulevards,
motor-lines, railroad, light and fuel; all this is furnished
collectively by the members of the community, because we found that
by co-operation it can be done with much less labor than it can be
done by single-handed effort. Above the public wear and tear and
improvements, all the labor that a community needs expend is for the
purpose of keeping its store-houses well filled. Thus you see that a
Marsite, on account of his co-operate production, never needs a large
sum of money at once. _Our individual_ buys his meals, his clothes, his
private luxuries, the furniture for his private apartment, his railroad
ticket, etc., etc.; but all this requires no large investment at any
one time. And as he can go to work at any day and earn a sum equal to
the purchasing power of ten of your dollars, he is not very likely to
borrow money and pay interest. No individual can expend $10 a day for
these _private_ purposes only, unless he becomes wasteful.
“Your social, and therefore your financial, conditions are vastly
different. Your _individual_ buys land. He builds a large factory, he
erects his own dwelling, he constructs a railroad, runs a store, builds
a ship, keeps a dairy, etc. Under these conditions your individual
needs a large sum of money at a time. Your natural opportunities are
not open to all. Thousands of your industrious men and women are forced
idlers, and millions of them have no fair opportunity to labor. In
the United States alone there are probably two millions more laborers
than there are places for labor. Thus an opportunity is offered to
monopolize money, to compel him who needs it pay _interest_, and
every cent of interest that the payee receives gives him additional
opportunity to collect _more_ and _higher_ interest, while it makes
the payer more and more dependent; for interest is money for which the
taker _gives_ nothing and the payer _receives_ nothing. All these evils
are so conspicuous and so destructive of human welfare, and yet only
a few of the earthites see them clearly; and it will, no doubt, be a
long time before the masses of the people here on earth will become
thoroughly informed on them.
“8. As to counterfeiting, I may say that in a community or world
in which a sufficient quantity of money can easily be obtained by
an agreeable, healthful amount of productive labor, money is not
liable to be counterfeited. There are causes for counterfeiting, and
whenever these causes are removed counterfeiting ceases. By making the
conditions of earning money easy and pleasant to all, we have removed
the causes.
“In a social and financial world, like yours, where so many industrious
persons are prevented to labor, where so many are pinched by poverty,
where the dollar is the highest aim of nearly all, where productive
labor is looked upon with contempt by your ‘best society,’ where money
offers special privileges to the possessor of it, where want and the
fear of want are wrecking countless constitutions, and where the poor
have to work the treadmill of toil from early youth until feeble old
age, money is liable to be counterfeited by some, who endeavor by this
means to escape these disagreeable burdens. It is no use to deny it; we
all become dishonest, as you call it, if we are only pinched severely
enough by poverty and want. This is the reason why you have so much
counterfeit money.
“9. The next feature of a just and convenient medium of exchange is,
that it must give the person who possesses a large quantity of it, no
advantage, or special privileges over him who has a less quantity of it.
“I have already told you that a Marsite, as an individual, does not use
money for many purposes that an earthite, as an individual, uses it.
We, as individuals, use it only to purchase our private personal needs.
The family and community use it for purchasing articles for public use,
both family and community. Thus an individual, as we have seen, never
needs a great amount of it at any one time. All of us have an equal
share in the public property, and are all served with like courtesy
under similar conditions. All can work as much as they like, and all
receive equal pay for a day’s productive labor; and this labor yields
more wealth than any one can spend without willful waste, if one works
from one-half to three-fourths of the days in the year. We have no
best places in our world, because they are all as good as the best,
and that is as good as human skill can make them. We have no favorite
place in our community which can be bought with money. The places in
our dining-room and parlors are all the very best, and no one place
presents a particular preference over any other. In our spacious hall
during an operatic play, lecture, or other entertainment, we take the
most suitable place _vacant_. All public apartments are equally open
to all without pay. In the location of private apartments, there is
also no particular advantage and choice other than results from mere
personal fancy. Those private apartments located on the lower floors,
for instance, are perhaps more conveniently located to the dining-hall,
but more inconvenient for the exercise-hall, etc. Thus all the private
apartments are so located and arranged that the aggregate convenience
they bear to all the public apartments are nearly equal, so that there
is no particular choice; and if there was, money could not buy it.”
“Well, Mr. Midith, I cannot see that a rich man in a republic like that
of the United States has much, if any, advantage over a poor man; at
least _I_ cannot see any such advantage or special privileges, and if
you know of any I would like to have you explain them to us,” said Rev.
Dudley as Mr. Midith finished speaking.
“Well, Rev. Dudley, if you like to have me point out some of the
advantages and special privileges the rich man has over the poor man on
earth, I shall oblige you by giving a brief explanation of a _few_ of
them. I say a _few_ because there are a countless number of them.
“With you money makes money, as you call it. The rich man receives
interest for which he gives nothing, and the poor man pays interest
for which he receives nothing. With us, nothing but productive labor
produces wealth, and on that wealth money is issued.
“Here on earth a person who has the most money can buy the best seat
in the theater, the finest pew in church. He can often buy to a
certain extent his election to go to Congress or to the Legislature,
put a ‘corner’ on wheat so as to create fictitious prices. The rich
man is honored; his word is law, and if not, he not infrequently buys
enough votes to make it a law. His employes, in order to keep their
position, are often compelled to vote according to his dictates and
his interests. By monopolistically clogging natural opportunity he is
enabled to collect profit, interest, rent and taxes. He manipulates,
as we have seen, the varying purchasing power of the dollar in his
favor. He wears the best clothes; eats the tenderest meat; lives in
a fine residence; goes to entertainments; makes pleasure excursions,
and does countless other agreeable things. While, on the other hand,
the poor man is compelled to toil early and late, live in a small,
ill-ventilated, poorly-heated, screenless house or hovel, wear coarse
clothes, eat the tough meat and small potatoes; by his toilsome labor
his step has become slow and clumsy, his form is bent, his head droops,
his shoulders stooped; his brow is careworn; he has little or no time
for amusements, education, ethical culture and personal cleanliness.
All his vitality is expended in acquiring the mere material
subsistence. He sits down on an uncomfortable chair. He has little
furniture, a bare floor, small, curtainless windows, a poor bed, a
sooty stove, and not infrequently an unclean dooryard.
“From the foregoing explanation you can clearly see that the rich man
has the advantage _everywhere_. He, by some roundabout means, which
the poor and often less-enlightened person does not understand, charms
away the products of the poor man’s labor; and the more the rich
monopolize the land, the medium of exchange and other necessary means
of production, the better his charm works.”
“You say that the rich man has the advantage over the poor man
_everywhere_, but on this point I feel quite certain that you are
mistaken,” said Rev. Dudley. “With our present system of paying taxes,
the rich man pays nearly all the taxes. On this point then, if on no
other, the poor man has the advantage over the rich. This, I think, you
cannot deny or successfully refute, Mr. Midith.”
“It may seem to you, Rev. Dudley, that I cannot successfully refute
or consistently deny this proposition; but it is the very point I do
emphatically deny,” said Mr. Midith, in a soft tone of voice. “I hold
that the rich pay scarcely any taxes. This tax question seems to be
regarded by the mass of the people on earth in nearly the same light
as the war question. The ‘praise and honor’ of victory is generally
bestowed on the _general_, who is generally at a safe distance, while
the private soldier, who does the _actual_ fighting, is scarcely ever
thought of. Just so it is with the tax question. The one who really
pays the taxes rarely ever receives credit for it. Let us exemplify
this:
“I suppose that you will agree with me that a robber, who forcibly took
$10,000 yesterday, and is assessed on that $10,000 to-day, cannot
be said to pay taxes; for by the act of robbing he has not produced
anything, and it is plain that one who does not produce anything
cannot really pay anything. We have seen that all material wealth is
in the form of food, clothing, shelter, luxuries, and the instruments
necessary for its production and distribution, and that this wealth
must be produced either directly or indirectly by productive labor
applied to land. Now your rich men, the same as the robber, are, as
a rule, not engaged in actual productive labor, and can, therefore,
not really pay taxes. As a rule, they have acquired their millions by
appropriating, in a roundabout way, the wealth of the actual producer,
and on this wealth, so appropriated from the products of the laborer,
he, instead of the actual producer, pays a certain amount of this
_appropriated_ (not earned) wealth into the treasury as taxes.
“Let us make this principle plainer by additional examples. No doubt,
you can plainly see that a burglar, who has just taken $100,000 from
the vaults of the United States treasury, cannot be said to pay taxes,
even if he gives part of this money back to the United States in the
form of taxes.
“When a saloon-keeper pays a $1,000 license for the privilege of
selling liquor, he pays this license with the money he receives into
his money drawer, for, as a saloon-keeper, he can pay it with no other
money, because that is the only means by which he receives money, and
the drinker who pays him the nickles, if the drinker earned them, pays
the license; all that the saloon-keeper does in this matter is, that
he takes the money out of his money-drawer and gives it to the license
collector.
“If each person actually produced all, or an equivalent of what he
consumed, then the consumer would ultimately pay all cost of goods,
_including_ taxes; but this is not the case. The Marsites have _two_
classes of persons who consume and do not produce, namely, _infants_
and _disabled persons_; you have _four_ classes, namely, _infants_,
_disabled persons_, _idlers_, and _unproductive and destructive
laborers_. We can easily see that all those who do not actually earn
or produce wealth cannot pay anything without they receive it in some
way from the _actual_ producer. Hence we see that the productive
laborer--the actual producer--has produced _all_ the wealth and must,
therefore, ultimately pay all cost, taxes included.
“I have already told you how many persons here on earth get wealth
without producing it; but I shall here give you a few additional
examples.
“An earthite may, by gambling at the Board of Trade, become a
millionaire without producing a single mouthful of food, and if he is
a millionaire, he may also become a pauper. A sudden rise or fall of
25 cents in the price of a bushel of wheat will make some rich and
others poor; but there is no production of wheat in these transactions,
and the transactions are more than useless, as you can easily see
by examining our commercial system. All there is in such useless
transactions is that one set of schemers succeed in fleecing another
set of schemers without producing any wealth.
“Some of your people grow rich in dollars without labor by buying a
lot, keep it for a few years, and then sell it for a thousand or ten
thousand times as much as they paid for it. You may grow rich by a
patent and a copyright; but no matter how you grow rich without labor
it is always by profit, interest, rent, taxes, gift, or the varying
purchasing power of your dollar.
“Now let me give you a few more examples showing that the rich man, as
a rule, pays little or no taxes.
“A duty on goods is paid by the consumer as far as he actually earns
what he consumes or an equivalent thereof; but, if the consumer, like
an infant or social parasite, does not earn what he consumes, or an
equivalent, the producer, the laborer, pays that proportion of it which
the consumer does not actually earn or produce.
“Now let us take a merchant and see who pays his taxes.
“Every person who buys at his store pays part of it. The price on his
goods must be such that after paying all expenses--fuel, oil, damage
of goods, insurance, interest, taxes, etc.--he must have some left
for his labor, or else he cannot continue business and live. Now,
we can all see, even the dullest, that if there were no taxes to be
paid this merchant could reduce the price of his goods and still have
as much left for his labor as when he paid taxes; and if he, under
these conditions, would not reduce the price, _others_, by means of
competition, would. Thus, you see that every person, even the poorest,
who purchases at his store pays part of the taxes on the merchant’s
goods and on his lot and store building--that is, if the purchasers
produce what they consume; if not, the actual producer pays it, for an
infant, a disabled person, a pauper and a social parasite have only
that which they have received from the actual producer. The hand of
productive labor pays for all, and that hand, as a rule, belongs to the
poor man.
“Thus you see, upon examination, that your present belief that the rich
man pays most of the taxes is as much an illusion as the belief in the
‘divine right of kings,’ the right to hold slaves, the remission of
sins by fasting, etc., formerly was, and still is to a large degree.
The fact is, that no one but a _producer_ can pay, and, as a rule, your
producers are not rich. Therefore, nearly all the taxes, as well as all
other costs, are ultimately paid by the comparatively poor persons. So
on this point, too, the poor man is ‘left,’ as you term it.”
“I know,” said Rev. Dudley, “there is a great deal said and preached
about poverty, toil and poor people nowadays. I am also fully conscious
of the fact that there are many industrious persons pinched by poverty,
but, after all, I think there is a great deal of imaginary grievance.
I personally know of a large number of foreigners who had scarcely a
dollar when they came to this country, but who are now millionaires
several times over; and I think that most any steady, frugal,
industrious person can become quite wealthy in the United States, if he
wants to be, and manages it properly.”
“I suppose you are honest in your convictions, Rev. Dudley,” said Mr.
Midith, when Rev. Dudley ceased speaking. “It is true that most _any
one_ can get rich, but not _all_ can get rich under your present social
conditions. If I throw _three_ apples into the grass for _five_ boys
to get, _most any one_ of the five boys may get an apple and some one
may even get two, but _all_ of them cannot get an apple. So it is with
your people; as long as you have two million more laborers than places
for labor, _most any one_ may become rich, but _all_ cannot be rich.
Now, Mr. Dudley, will you kindly give me the history of a particular
individual case of which you know, where a man was once poor and is now
rich? By following up his individual case, we shall be more able to see
_how_ he acquired his wealth.”
“Why certainly, Mr. Midith, I will give you the particular case of
Mr. Bremmer, a German, who had only $20 when he landed in America,
and who is now a wealthy banker. I remember his case so well because
Mr. Bremmer has often told me all about his hard labor, his judicious
management, his frugality, and how he passed from one occupation to
another as he gradually acquired more and more wealth.
“To begin with, Mr. Bremmer is a German by birth. When he landed he was
a stout, healthy young man; had a wife and two small children and only
$20 to go on. His appearance was prepossessing. He began his labor as a
section hand on the railroad, receiving $1.25 a day. During the winter
when he was not employed on the railroad, he would work at whatever
he could get to do. If he could not get $1.25 a day, he would accept
75 cents or 50 cents a day. Thus, even if many others were out of
employment, he would nearly always find work.
“After thus working and saving for three years, he had saved enough to
buy a small hundred-dollar house, with two little rooms in it. After
having his own house he could accumulate a little faster, for he was
rid of paying rent. After three more years of industry and saving,
he purchased, for $200, a small piece of land which he turned into
gardening. With his garden he made much more money than he had been
making as a section hand. In a few more years he purchased a small
store, which he continually enlarged. Now he began to pile up his
money faster and faster. A little later he purchased a factory; then he
became a land dealer; and now he is a banker, worth several millions.
This shows what industry, frugality, and judicious management will do;
and I believe that many, if they would work for the wages offered them,
could do the same as Mr. Bremmer did.”
“Well, now, Rev. Dudley, let us honestly, candidly and impartially
examine Mr. Bremmer’s case and see what he really did and _how_ he got
his millions,” said Mr. Midith.
“You say that he had $20 when he landed. That he secured a position as
section hand, earning $1.25 a day, and during the winter he accepted
other labor at from 50 to 75 cents per day. You say that it took him
about three years to save the first hundred dollars with which he
bought his little house. Just think of it, three years of toil and
saving for a little house which was hardly fit for a human family of
four and five to live in!
“You say further that Mr. Bremmer, as he gradually acquired more and
more wealth, successively changed his occupation from section hand to
gardener, from gardener to merchant, from merchant to manufacturer,
then to land speculator, and from that to banker. Of course, we all
know why Mr. Bremmer did not at first engage in manufacturing and
banking: Simply because they require a large amount of money which
Mr. Bremmer did not have. We also all know why he quit the section
business: there was too much work and too little pay. Once more, we
also all know that a section hand, _as such_, can never become rich.
You say that Mr. Bremmer saved a hundred dollars the first three
years. At this rate a section hand, as such, by his labor can never
lay up as much as $2,000. His life is too short even if he spends the
whole of it in toil and saving. Mr. Bremmer saw this and changed his
occupation as soon as possible.
“After three years of toil and saving he had saved enough to buy
a one-hundred-dollar house; after three more years, in the same
occupation, he had enough laid up to buy a two-hundred-dollar garden
spot.
“Now do you not see the inequality and injustice in your money system?
How slow and hard the section-hand acquires it, and how easy and
abundantly some manufacturers, land speculators and bankers acquire it?
What vast advantages they have?”
“But,” said Rev. Dudley, “has not every sound person an equal
opportunity for acquiring money, and then engage in those advantageous
occupations of which you speak? You see the United States is a free
country. No one is forbidden to engage in any business.”
At this Mr. Midith smiled and said:
“I beg your pardon, Rev. Dudley, but allow me to tell you that you
are widely mistaken on these points. 1. All persons have not an equal
opportunity to acquire money. 2. The United States is by no means
a _free_ country. 3. A countless number are forbidden to engage in
certain business. To illustrate this, let us take Mr. Bremmer’s case.
You said that he had $20 when he began work and that he acquired wealth
faster after he owned his house than he did when he rented. It is true,
then, that the $20 person, other things being the same, has an _equal_
financial opportunity with all other _$20 persons_; but he has not an
_equal_ opportunity with the $100, or $1,000 or $100,000 person. He
is at a disadvantage with all of them, in proportion as they have more
dollars than he has. _Before_ Mr. Bremmer, who was a $20 person, could
get rid of paying excessive rent, he had to have a $100 to buy a house
with. Now, if Mr. Bremmer, with like economy, as a section hand, could
save more money when he owned his house than he could when he rented,
either somebody must have robbed him when he rented, or he is robbing
some one now, for his income was the same in both cases.
“But mark you, now we get to the point of inequality and injustice.
If the $100 person who owns the house has a financial _advantage_,
there must be some other persons, then, who are under corresponding
financial _disadvantage_; for an advantage consists only in getting
something at the expense of another. A teamster with a heavy load can
not give one of his two horses an advantage by lengthening the end
of its doubletree, without at the same time giving a corresponding
disadvantage to the other one, by making the end of its doubletree
relatively shorter. But there are several ways by which the teamster
may make it easier for both of his horses. First, he may improve the
running capacity of his wagon. Secondly, he may unload part of his
load. Thirdly, he may improve the road; and, fourthly, he may increase
the number of his horses. Just so may your _productive laborer_
make his load of production easier. First, by improving the social,
industrial and financial system. Secondly, by unloading your burden
of superstitions. Thirdly, he may improve the road of advancement
by consciously disseminating useful knowledge. And, fourthly, by
continually refusing more and more to produce the wealth for the
social parasite, so that the social parasite must put himself into
the harness to produce his own commodities. If every person receives
exactly what he earns, or produces, or an equivalent of that, there can
be no advantages or disadvantages to any one, and a person as a section
hand could, under the same conditions, lay up as much as a gardener,
merchant or banker. But there is not a single case on record in your
entire industrial and financial world where a section hand, _as such_,
who has a family of three or four children, has ever acquired property
to the amount of $2,000. The mystery to me is, how do such large
families live from such a small income? But you all know that there are
many merchants, manufacturers and bankers that acquired millions, even
if they had large families. Why should not your social and industrial
conditions be such that a section hand can acquire wealth as easily,
rapidly and abundantly as a banker? Is his labor less useful and less
productive?”
“Well, why does he not become a banker, then?” asked Rev. Dudley.
“But if _all_ were bankers, there could be no section hands; and we can
not do without section hands, therefore, _some must_ be section hands
and must be always poor as such, while _others may be_ bankers. The
secret is, as in Mr. Bremmer’s case, _only_ those who have a hundred
dollars can own a house; _only_ those who own $200 have the privilege
of owning and working a garden spot; _only_ those who have a $1,000
can own anything of a store; _only_ those who have more than $10,000
can be manufacturers of any considerable extent; and _only_ those who
have $50,000 can engage in national banking. These are all financial
privileges and advantages then. The owner of the house is able to
collect exorbitant rent because there are too many who are unable
to buy or build houses, and too few who own houses. In this case,
gardening is more profitable than working on the section because _only_
those who have $200 can engage in it, and there are not enough people
who have $200, and so on, with the other business.
“Thus we see at a glance that _only_ those who have an equal amount
of wealth have an equal financial opportunity. All who have more have
an advantage, while all those who have less have a corresponding
disadvantage. What the Marsites contend for and what justice demands
is, that all persons shall have an equal opportunity in _getting_
the $50,000. To a Marsite, it appears much wiser, more just and less
ridiculous, to have a people make and obey a law and custom which would
vest all persons with certain advantages and special privileges who are
born with a wart on the end of their nose, claiming that such a law and
custom is just on the ground that all persons in their pre-natal state
have an equal opportunity to compete for the possession of the wart. In
this case probability would be the factor of success, while with your
money system thousands of children _are by their parental assistance
born_ with the $50,000 advantages, while millions of others are born
with the corresponding disadvantages; and while the disadvantaged poor
person is trying to get the $50,000, the advantaged rich persons, who
are already in possession of the $50,000, are by some roundabout way
charming it away from the disadvantaged almost as fast as they can earn
it, so that the poor can gain only little of nothing in the acquisition
of the $50,000.
“Now let us look at the evils of your money system under this point
from still another aspect.
“We have seen that in an average there are probably about two million
_industrious_ unemployed persons, or forced idlers, in the United
States alone, who can, as a rule, have little, if any capital or money
on hand; but who, in order to get employment, are all severely pressing
for a position in those occupations, which, as wage-workers, require no
capital, such as working on a section, mining, and all other similar
occupations. This industrial pressure, or monopolistic competition,
for a job in those occupations, which requires no capital, reduces the
wages vastly below what the laborer actually earns.
“But, as I have already shown, there can be no financial _dis_advantage
to one class of persons without a corresponding _advantage_ to another
class. From this unjust advantage and disadvantage two great evils are
produced, which cause your world to reek with poverty, crime, cruelty,
dissipation, disease, and premature death.
“The first one of these great evils is, that the advantaged class have
the power to clog up natural opportunity by monopolizing land, money,
tools, means of transportation, etc., so that the _dis_advantaged class
are forced to accept the wages which the advantaged class offer, or the
disadvantaged must starve, rob, steal, or sell themselves in some form.
Hence, under these conditions, no person in your world can ever hope to
secure himself against _want_ and the _fear of want_. They may come at
any time in spite of all his industry and providence.
“The second one of these great evils is, that too many, as soon as
they have saved a little wealth, are continually pressing into those
occupations in which, by the aid of monopolistic privileges, wealth
is made to produce wealth, as you term it. This, then, tends to
crowd too many persons into those occupations which require more or
less capital to run them; such as farming, manufacturing, mercantile
pursuits, banking, commerce, speculation, etc. And as measured by the
highest ideal, social and economic standard, it also tends to create
a vast army of not only useless, but positively injurious, persons
and occupations; such as middlemen, the gambler, the speculator, the
insurance agent, the traveling salesman, the priest, the lawyer, the
option dealer, the rumseller, the confidence man, the courtesan, the
scheming politician, etc.
“Thus you see that your occupations and professions, which require
capital, offer a premium on comparatively unproductive and destructive
labor or on idleness; and they impose a fine on productive labor--the
fine that the laborer is being robbed by the capitalist. All thoughtful
persons know that all human beings must subsist on the material
products of the actual producer, and that the day’s labor of the
actual producer, in order to produce sufficient for all--producer and
non-producer--to live on, must be lengthened in proportion as the
number of idlers, unproductive and destructive laborers increase, and
also in proportion as they become consumers or as they destroy and
waste wealth.
“To illustrate these evils more plainly, let us take an example which
will aid the ordinary mind in grasping the principles.
“Let us suppose that on an isolated island, having only twenty
inhabitants, these twenty inhabitants or islanders, the same as the
vast majority of the present inhabitants of your earth, are yet
sufficiently unenlightened to see the true principles and fundamental
aim of human conduct, and so enact human-made laws, which monopolize
land, money, tools, machinery, means of transportation, etc. On
account of these monopolistic laws, or capitalistic privileges, let
us suppose that _eight_ of the twenty islanders are idle landlords,
and _six_ comparatively unproductive bankers. Then there would be only
six productive laborers left who must perform all the productive labor
which is performed on the whole island. These productive laborers
must build the residences of the idle landlords and then keep house
for them. They must erect and maintain the costly banks and safes
for the bankers. They must raise and manufacture the food, clothing
and countless articles of luxuries for the idle landlord and the
comparatively unproductive banker. The production of all this wealth
for the social parasites by the productive laborer requires so much of
his time and energy that the poor laborers have scarcely any time and
vitality left to supply their own needs. Hence the laborers themselves,
as a rule, must remain unenlightened, live at best in small houses, or
in filthy tenements or in squalid hovels.
“Now every thoughtful person can clearly see by this illustration
that the more these twenty islanders would become non-producers, the
more toilsome the burdens of the producers would become; and if the
monopoly was so complete and effective that only the _least favored
one_ had to produce all the wealth for himself and for his nineteen
social parasites, the social and industrial conditions would be in
a very deplorable state to both the producer and the non-producers,
as compared with those conditions which would exist if the whole
twenty persons would be industrious producers, intelligent thinkers
and judicious actors. So it is with your society. The producers must
support themselves and the vast army of non-producers, which gives but
a miserable support to both classes.
“But do not understand me here that the Marsites laud and preach
poverty like many of your people do, especially the orthodox, who
claim that the poor will get their reward in heaven. The Marsites
detest poverty and its evil consequences--ignorance, crime, cruelty,
dissipation, disease and premature death. Poverty would be an
intolerable burden for a Marsite to bear. If the consequences of
poverty were as agreeable and produced as much happiness as the
consequences of plenty, then poverty would be as good as abundance, and
very likely all worlds would always remain poor.
“A Marsite then, does not object to the wealth of your wealthy class,
but he would strenuously condemn the _method_ by which they acquired
their wealth--the method of appropriating it from the products of the
productive laborers, because this vicious, unjust method, leaves the
greater portion of one’s companions and associates poor, ignorant,
uncultivated, narrow, cruel, superstitious, unjust, slavish, slovenly,
dissolute and generally invasive; and a cultivated person can feel no
safety and find no happiness in living a life under such lamentable
conditions; for this reason each Marsite finds pleasure in doing
his part in the promotion of universal prosperity, intelligence,
broadmindedness, freedom, kindness, culture, justice, order and
neatness, purity and non-invasiveness.
“This advantage, then, that the rich man has over the poor man, is the
point which we are here considering; and, no doubt, all whose sense
of equity has not been totally destroyed by vain selfishness, as you
call it, and avaricious strife, can easily feel and see this great evil
which your unjust system of money entails on the inhabitants of your
world on this point.
“10. The tenth feature of a just and convenient system of money is,
the money must be such that the _payee_ may _accept_ or take the money
instead of the actual wealth which the money represents.
“On Mars, in a country the size of the United States, there are over
20,000 communities, if all the land is settled, but which it never is,
in each of which money is issued and redeemed.
“We have seen that the only source by which an individual receives
and can receive money, unless given to him, is on his labor record.
Whenever the individual wants money he labors to get a labor record,
on which money is issued only. This he can do or not as he wishes, so
that he is free as an individual to accept the community’s money or
not; for he is free to leave the community at any time and begin to
work for himself single-handedly, as you largely do on earth; for there
is plenty of first-class land unoccupied, of which he can cultivate as
much as he pleases without paying for it. The individual may or may
not accept the money of any other individual or community. So may one
community, as a commercial body, accept or refuse the money of any
other community. Of course we are always glad to receive the money of
all other communities; but there is no compulsion about it. All who
handle money judge for themselves whether it is ‘legal tender’ or not.
There is no _fiat_ about our money. Hence our money possesses the tenth
feature in a high degree.
“On earth things are altogether different. Your ‘national government,’
a body of politicians, control the manufacture, circulation and
redemption of money. The individual has to accept that kind of money
which Congress makes legal tender. By this fiat thousands of people are
robbed on account of the varying purchasing power of the dollar.
“11. The eleventh feature of a just and convenient system of money is,
that it must, in its circulation, preserve a financial equilibrium
with other parts of the world, and in proportionate quantities must
naturally return to its place of redemption.
“From what I have already said, you are aware that the Marsites have
numerous places of issue and redemption, so that there are thousands
of fountains, one in each community, from which the money is monthly
issued to each individual in proportion to his labor performed. From
these fountains of issue, it circulates to all parts of Mars, and
the money of all other communities comes to our community; so that,
in an average, one community has as much money of all the other
communities in the world as our community has in its possession of all
other communities. Thus, in our system, an almost perfect financial
equilibrium is established and preserved.
“Here on earth, in a large country like that of the United States,
there is but one place where money is issued and redeemed. From this
one center it must reach the masses of the people. On the whole earth
only from a few centers money is issued and redeemed. This enables the
capitalists to monopolize the money, as the money is passing from this
central fountain of issue to the masses, as we actually find it is on
earth; and the facility of redemption is equally bunglesome.
“12. The twelfth feature of a just and convenient system of money is,
it must be most directly issued to the _individual_--man, woman and
child--who performs the productive labor which produced the wealth
which the money represents.
“I have already explained how, on Mars, every man, woman and child who
labors get their money issued on their labor-record at the close of
each month. Also how the disabled person gets it similarly issued on a
_gift_-record. Hereafter I will tell you how an infant gets it.
“With you, the man, or at least the husband, in general takes in all
the money the whole family produce by their united labor. Under such
an arrangement, whenever the wife or child wants any money, they are
obliged to ask the _man_ for it. This tends to make beggars and slaves
of the wife and child, and a tyrant of the man. Here the poor man is
probably as much of a monopolist over his family as a capitalist is
over him. There are, however, a few exceptions to this rule. A few
of your husbands give their wife and children free access to their
money. But it is generally expressed by you that the _husband_, the
_man_, _supports_ the wife and children, even if the wife labors
twelve or fourteen hours a day, cooking, washing, darning, nursing,
keeping house, etc. All such labor as the wife performs is, as a rule,
considered worth little or nothing by the _men_; because the man has
so shaped his financial system that the woman cannot take in any of the
money she earns by her domestic labor. Such is your financial system
on this point, the justice and convenience of which I shall leave to
any candid, intelligent person to judge for himself. But ages ago our
ancestors were just as cruel, unjust, unthoughtful, and inconsiderate
on the financial problem as you are at present, and, no doubt, just
as soon as you learn that your world will be happier by using a more
_just_ and _convenient_ system of money, which will measure up to all
of the foregoing features, all financial slavery will disappear from
your world; and all your efforts in that direction will then be crowned
with justice, success and universal happiness.”