THOMAS
EDISON ON GOVERNMENT CREATED DEBT FREE MONEY Prosperity, September
2000
In December 1921, the American industrialist Henry Ford and the
inventor Thomas Edison visited the Muscle Shoals nitrate and water power
projects near Florence, Alabama. They used the opportunity to articulate
at length upon their alternate money theories, which were published in
2 reports which appeared in The New York Times on December 4, 1921
and December 6, 1921.
Objecting to the fact that the Government
planned, as usual, to raise the money by issuing bonds which would be bought
by the banking and non-banking sector -- which would then have to be paid
back with money raised from taxes, and with interest added -- they proposed
instead that the Government simply create the currency it required and spend
it into society through this public project.
This is also the
Prosperity proposal.
Thomas Edison made it plain in the following excerpt
from The New York Times, December 6, 1921 issue ("Ford Sees Wealth In Muscle
Shoals").
Here, the reporter is quoting Edison:
"That is to say,
under the old way any time we wish to add to the national wealth we are
compelled to add to the national debt.
"Now, that is what Henry Ford
wants to prevent. He thinks it is stupid, and so do I, that for the loan of
$30,000,000 of their own money the people of the United States should be
compelled to pay $66,000,000 -- that is what it amounts to, with interest.
People who will not turn a shovelful of dirt nor contribute a pound of
material will collect more money from the United States than will the people
who supply the material and do the work. That is the terrible thing about
interest.
In all our great bond issues the interest is always greater
than the principal. All of the great public works cost more than twice the
actual cost, on that account. Under the present system of doing business
we simply add 120 to 150 per cent, to the stated cost.
"But here is
the point: If our nation can issue a dollar bond, it can issue a dollar bill.
The element that makes the bond good makes the bill good. The difference
between the bond and the bill is that the bond lets the money brokers collect
twice the amount of the bond and an additional 20 per cent, whereas the
currency pays nobody but those who directly contribute to Muscle Shoals in
some useful way.
" ... if the Government issues currency, it provides
itself with enough money to increase the national wealth at Muscles Shoals
without disturbing the business of the rest of the country. And in doing this
it increases its income without adding a penny to its debt.
"It is
absurd to say that our country can issue $30,000,000 in bonds and not
$30,000,000 in currency. Both are promises to pay; but one promise fattens
the usurer, and the other helps the people.
If the currency issued by the
Government were no good, then the bonds issued would be no good
either.
It is a terrible situation when the Government, to increase the
national wealth, must go into debt and submit to ruinous interest charges at
the hands of men who control the fictitious values of gold.
"Look at
it another way. If the Government issues bonds, the brokers will sell them.
The bonds will be negotiable; they will be considered as gilt edged paper.
Why? Because the government is behind them, but who is behind the Government?
The people. Therefore it is the people who constitute the basis of Government
credit.
Why then cannot the people have the benefit of their own
gilt-edged credit by receiving non-interest bearing currency on Muscle
Shoals, instead of the bankers receiving the benefit of the people's credit
in interest-bearing bonds?"
Essential Further Reading: PROSPERITY:
Freedom from Debt Slavery is a 4-page quarterly Journal which campaigns for
publicly-created debt-free money.
PROSPERITY is edited and published
by Alistair McConnachie and a 4-issue subscription is available for £10
payable to PROSPERITY at 268 Bath Street, Glasgow, Scotland, UK, G2
4JR. Tel: 0141 332 2214; Fax: 0141 353 6900, Email: contactus AT
ProsperityUK DOT com http://www.ProsperityUK.com All
back-issues are still available.
The
40-page Report, Clarifying our Money Reform Proposals, launched at the 2006
Bromsgrove Conference, is available for £10 payable to PROSPERITY and is
essential reading for beginners.
The Grip of Death: A study of modern
money, debt slavery and destructive economics by Michael Rowbotham, [Jon
Carpenter Publishing, 1998] and Goodbye America! Globalisation, debt and the
dollar empire by Michael Rowbotham, [Jon Carpenter Publishing, 2000] and
Creating New Money: A monetary reform for the information age by Joseph Huber
and James Robertson [New Economics Foundation, 2000] are all available
from PROSPERITY.