Chapter XIII: Money, or Medium of Exchange (2)

“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.”