| Show BUSINESS CHAPOS CHAOS IN EDISON FORD MONEY SCHEME expert shows how commodity money would make worse the evils it alms aims to correct MEANS SPECIAL FAVORS AND additional TAXES wo would uld open way for political meddling with business and comply eato cato the conduct of trade trad and Pl nanct tho the weaknesses ot of the tha edison ford commodity money scheme echeme to abolish the gold standard and do away with monetary instability interest charges and speculation in lann farm products are exposed by william T foster director ot of the pollack roun foundation dation tor for economic research la in an article in the proceedings ot of the academy ot of political science he ha shows that the tha only result ot of the plan would be to aggravate the evils it 11 alms alma to cure there thera Is presented herewith the first ot of a series ot of articles prepared by the american bankers association reviewing mr fosters argument the plan provides ur mr foster explains tor for government built owned and controlled warehouses to which producers might bring basic commodities raised on american soil on which they wish to borrow money A government agent would grade the pro dubers goods and hand him two places pieces ot of paper a mortgage bertul cato and an equity certificate the edison ford plan the mortgage certificate could be exchanged at any national bank tor for federal reserve notes up to 60 50 per cent ot of the average value ot of this the goods tor for the previous twenty five years in this way the producer would obtain a loan ot of money without incurring any expense tor for the use ot of the money and he would still own the goods go his equity certificate Is 18 his evidence ot of ownership mr foster says he may keep it sell it or present it at a bank as security tor for a loan he or anyone to whom he be sells it can present it at any time within a year together with the exact amount 0 ot mosi mo ey y that has been loaned and receive the goods it the goods are not removed with ta in one year the government must tell sell them tham and thuu got get back the money it has loaned this Is to prevent an accumulation ol of goods and to make sure sur that the money will be self canceling As aj soon as the farmer re repays pays the loan or tho the government sells the goods an amount ot of money Is destroyed equal to the amount that was advanced this in ill all essentials li Is the edison commodity money plan more taxes most men will be impressed by the fact act that it involves additional taxes additional corps ot of political appoint sea and a vast extension ot of government control over industry it if the special pedal privilege ol of borrowing money without interest Is really a boon and Is granted only to groups ol of producers the list hat to be changed chanced from time to ume time somebody must do cide alda who are to be the th favored troupe groups and whether that somebody li Is congress or federal warehouse directors director who are subject to partisan ap and removal the question who is s to receive tree free money will undoubtedly remain in politics and will recurrently become ot of great moment as an election day approaches mr edison contends that his bis commodity dollars will be sounder bounder than gold dollars because there in the warehouse lies the actual wealth the things we eat and wear and must con suma same to live at first he says only a few basic commodities are to be accepted such as an grain cotton wool rice legumes tats fats flax and tobacco manufactured articles ho he warns us will not be satisfactory for or this purpose if then a warehouse full of tobacco guarantees the soundness ot of the notes issued against it they must be redeemable in tobacco they are in tact federal tobacco notes the plan must mud provida in like manner for or fed oral flax notes and so on furthermore there would have to be as a many different kinds of tobacco notes as there were grades ot of tobacco everyone who used money in exchange would need to have at hand band the latest market quotations on oil all products jet accepted tor for storage as they approached in market value the established loan value in order to estimate the relative values of different kinds ot of dollart dollars salt cod notes notee would have to te observe carefully whether he had grade A herring n otes e S or grade at Y S salt cod notes it if there was a of bituminous coal miners he would board bituminous coal notes it II there WM was a sh slump mp in cotton he would try to get rid ot of cotton notes consider on the other hand band the simplicity and definiteness of a gold se oba red dollar all the world knows precisely what Is meant by the con of 0 a paper certificate into gom gold all the world accepts the gold in exchange change tx its value Is known in every market it Is readily tested stored preserved divided transported moreover there are the sold gold reserves maintained lor for the very purpose ot of conversion and tor for no other end and available on demand from one of 0 mr Edi sons authorized statements however it seems seema that his plan does oot not provide tor for federal tobacco ates federal flab fish notes and the like in fact it provides tor for no sew now kind ot of money whatever no matter what commodity the farmer deposits with federal agents he takes his bis mortgage certificates to a national bank ind and there exchanges it tor for federal reserve notes they are just like an ny y other federal reserve notes very well it if there to Is nothing more than this in the much discussed di a cussed edison plan tor for a commodity money that la Is sounder than ald money this part pan of the plan vanishes into thin air the edison money la is not sounder than gold money tor for it Is gold money |
