whose name was so prominently connected with the advertisement of the glory of the System, must also stand being mentioned in connection with the criticism.
Whatever money we are said to have as the per capita in the United States, it is a false statement. The money per capita should always be figured on the basis of the money in circulation. The statistical “per capita” is not always in circulation. Less than half of it, as a rule. The rest is being juggled.
Whatever the gold in the country, the wealth is still greater. There is more wealth in the United States than there is gold in the world. One year’s products of the farms of the United States exceeds in money value all the gold in the world.
Yet, under our present system, the burgeoning bulk of the country’s wealth must pass through the narrow neck of Money. And the Money must pass through the still narrower neck of Gold. And the controller of the Gold, under our present system, controls the world. There is more wealth than there is money; there is more money than there is gold; money exists at the pleasure of gold; wealth moves at the pleasure of money. Whoever sits at the neck of money, opening or closing as he will, controls the movement of the world’s wealth. And the world’s prosperity depends on the movement of that wealth. When wealth stands still and does not pass from hand to hand, the world’s circulation has stopped; the world becomes economically sick.
The scarcity of cash in hand has led to Credit. Credit is a form of barter. It is a form of dealing by which many transactions are carried on, only the final one being cleared in money. It is a device which has its dangers, in spite of the efforts of apologists to exploit its advantages. But one thing the system of Credit indubitably does—it allows the money masters to hang on to the Cash. When the world is caught, *it is caught with