People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1897 — Untitled [ARTICLE]

D—Do you mean to say I am a slave? A—Not at all: you are free, and your partner knows that his only claim on your services lays in the fact that you believe his ,money is necessary to your business. D —But you can’t do business without money, that’s impossible. A—ls you sell me ore car of lumber for goods and merchandise that will be doing some business without money. Your partner sees that, and knows that if he does none of the work, and furnishes none of the necessary means to do the business, he would have no right to claim any of the profits, hence he would reasonably object to such an arrangement, for that would leave you free and independent of him which would cost him lib per day. D—But you can’t do business without money. One car of lumber would not amount to much. Three or four hundred dollars would furnish me all the goods and merchandise I* Would consume in a year. A—Each of your employes would need the same amount of goods would they not? D—Perhaps they would, but when their wants are all supplied what would we do? A—When everybody has all that they want for immediate use you will have to sell what lumber you have left for money unless we find somebody else that wants something, and bring them into our employment. D—Supposing everybody gets to doing business in that way, what will become of us? A—When everybody gets to doing business in that way they just keep on till everybody has everything they want. D—But how will we wind the business up in the end? who will redeem these orders at last? A—ls we cannot redeem them with lumber, we will sell the lumber for cash and redeem them with that. D—So you see you have to come back to money at last, I told you you could not do business without money. A—At least you will admit that we stand a better chance to get one dollar of money than we do to get twenty-four. D—Do you mean to say that $1 is all the money that will be needed to do 124 worth of business?

A —Experience demonstrates that il is all that is necessary to do 124 of business in this country. D—When has the experiment been tried in this country? A —lt is being demonstrated every day. Statistics show that the banking clearance houses of the U. S. settle 78 million dollars of accounts each day with three millions of money.| D—rl would like to understand this thing. It does appear like something of that kind might be done. A—Let me illustrate its workings: Ist, Suppose I buy a car of staves, agreeing to pay for them in groceries, and give the stave maker S3OO in orders which for convenience, we will call “scrip.” 2nd, I sell the head ing to the cooper and agree to take my pay in barrels. 3d, I sell the barrels to the miller for hominy. 4th, I sell the hominy to the wholesale grocer for groceries at wholesale prices. sth, I sell the wholesale groceries to the retail dealer agreeing to take my pay in groceries at retail prices. D—But how are you to keep track of all these things? A—lst, The stave-maker gives the scrip (which is divided into 5, 10, 25, 50c and SI denominations for convenience) to his hands. 2d, The hands buy groceries with it in such quantities as they wish giving it to the retail dealer. 3d, The retail dealer gives it to the wholesaler for goods to replace his stock. 4th, The wholesaler gives it to the miller for hominy. sth, The miller gives it to the cooper for barrels. 6tb, The cooper gives it to me for staves, and the whole business is settled without a cent of money. * T) —But where do you get your pay from? You can’t afford to do all this for nothing. A—First, you will notice all I have done in the whole transaction(af ter the necessary arrangements have been made), is to count the scrip out to the stavemaker, and count it back from the copper, all of which has required not one hour’s time. I have no books to keep, hence can do the business very cheap, and still get well paid for my trouble and labor.

D—But where does your pay come in at I can’t see. A—That is a secret which I will tell you to satisfy you there is no swindle in it, nor need there be. The cooper sees how readily I gold my barrels, and he proposes to pay me five per cent if I will sell his for him. The same thing happens with other business men and I get about all I can do and make fair wages. D—That would work if everybody was honest, but men are not honest; you can’t trust them. A—This is the only business in the world where you are not obliged to trust You have your hands all the time and a»b*>ot 'obliged to foreclose any m an %ages to collect your bills. D—Please explain fab# that can be. A—The scrip is nevqr parted with till you have got the value in your own hands. To illustrate: I only give the scrip to the miller when I get hominy. The miller never gives it to the cooper till he gets the barrels, and the cooper gives it to me when he gets his staves. Each man receives his values as he goes. D —But who knows but what you may run away, and leave us all in the lurch? A —l couldn’t carry more than one car load of staves with me, and the stave-maker will have gotten his goods before I could get away very far with his staves. D —But where is the beginning of this thing, where does it start? A—Like a circle it has no beginning [ and we must make a starting point, and in order not to shock anyone with a startling proposition we begin with the dollar, and when we end, we wind up with the dollar. Our object is to make II do 125 worth of business.

D—Please explain how you can make $1 do 125 worth of business.

A—Let us take S3OO, and invest it in staves. This gives us something which the cooper, in his regular business has to have, and which he would prefer to pay for in his products, rather than collect money to buy them with, hence the difficulty of selling our staves would be lessened if we could sell the staves for the cooper’s barrels. In other words, 8300 worth of staves will buy 8300 worth of barrels. For the same reason S3OO worth of barrels will buy S3OO worth of hominy. For the same reason 8300 worth of hominy will buy 8300 worth of groceries from the wholesale grocer. Three hundred dollars worth of goods at wholesale will buy S3OO worth of groceries at retail. Three hundred dollars worth of groceries at retail will buy S3OO worth of labor in making staves. This completes the circle and leaves us free to start around again. Now what amount of business have we done with our three hundred dollars? Let us recapitulates: 1. Staves $300.00 2. Barrels 300.00 3. Hominy 3C0.00 4. Wholesale groceries 300.00 5. ltetall groceries 300.00 6. Labor, making staves 300.00 All this business has been transacted with S3OO in money. D—But who has made anything by all these transactions? A—The cooper has not been compelled to borrow money to buy staves, for he has paid for them with labor, and hence he has saved the interest on three hundred dollars. 2nd, The miller has paid for barrels with his products, and hence he has not been forced to borrow money. He has saved the interest on 8300. 3rd, The wholesale grocer has not been obliged to borrow money for his transactions, and he has saved the interest on S3OO. 4th, The retail dealer pays his wholesale bills with goods, and saves the interest on S3OO cash. sth, Stave maker has paid for his labor in staves and hence he has saved the interest on S3OO. Here are five transactions in which the producing classes have saved S3O in interest.

D— Surely no one could object to that kind of a business, when once understood. A—Yet you are sure your partner would object. Can you not now see that men who live by lending out money on interest are about all there are to lose by this system of business, and that they have a powerful motive for discouraging any effort in that direction. D—l see now that those who depend on money to earn their living for them would naturally object to doing business without their money. A—Would not the lawyer, whose business it is to foreplose mortgages and collect debts, also look with disfavor on a business which would render his services unnecessary?

D —What difference would this make with the lawyer’s business? A—Suits are brought to enforce contracts, collect debts, or settle disputes. Under this arrangement each transaction is settled on the spot, 60 there can be no misunderstanding, hence there will be no dispute to settle, and no business for the lawyer. D—This might, work on a small scale, but once it grew into such proportions as to be felt by the money lender,he would bring the law in force to suppress it. The law prohibits banks, individuals, corporations, or firms from issuing notes, bills of credit, etc., to circulate as money. A—Not if the parties issuing the same pays the requisite tax, which is but ten per cent, on the amount circulated. This the extreme limit to which we can be forced under existing laws, and if this proves to be insupportable, by the time we have reached that point in our development, the people will have been educated on the value and importance of a sufficient volume of rational money to do the business of the country, cash. Then this plan will be no further necessary. D—Then you do not calculate to make this system universal. A—We need not anticipate either its magnitude or its future difficulties. The proposition I make to you at this time is to exchange goods for one car of lumber. If this trade w.orks out satisfactorially we can repeat it, if not satisfactory, our business relations will cease.

D—There is another objection. There seems to be no cohesiveness to this thing; nothing to base it on. It is like a rope of sand; nothing to bind it together. A —ln other words, every person is perfectly free. But instead of that being urged as an objection, freedom is one of the conditions we are striving for. It seems that you are frightened at the shadow of the very thing you are clamoring for— freedom —and are satisfied to accept a condition of dependence, though you realize that it costs you 816 per day, rather than accept liberty free. D—We must have something to bind us together. A—Our personal interests are the bond that must bind us together. I have something you want; you have something I want. By exchanging, each of our wants are supplied. Self interest would prompt us both to repeat that experiment until we have no further wants. This natural desire for our own selfish gratification is the strongest motive that can prompt us to act, and this fact will remain unchanged throughout life. D—But you complicate this system of barter with a peculiar device you call scrip, and you so mistify the people that they are deterfed from making the exchanges. A—lt is not difficult for you to comprehend tha use of the scrip in the proposed trade I offer you. You deliver the lumber to me and take my receipt for it, in this scrip. You give the scrip to the grocer and take his goods. When you part with my receipt you lose all claim you have on me for the lumber. D—But suppose the grocer comes back on me for the value of the scrip? A —Then you come back on me for the value of the lumber. D—But suppose you are not worth it?

A—Suppose I gave you count erfeit dollars and you gave them to the grocer, and he should come back on you? D—Then I should go back to you and either recover my lumber, get good dollars from you, or put you in prison for counterfeiting. A -Just w.hat you would do in this case—recover your lumber, get pay for it, or put me in jail for embezzlement of your money. D—After all this scrip must be endorsed by every man that transfers it to another, when I give it to the grocer I go its security that the grocer can get value for it. A —ls not that true of the dollar as well? You can urge no objection to this method that is not with greater force applicable to the present system. Archery teaches us a system that the banker has heretofore mpnopolized.