“Mr. Midith, will you please give us an account of your monetary system?” asked Mr. Uwins, as the whole family were enjoying the green lawn, after our first stroll.

“With the greatest of pleasure,” said Mr. Midith, apparently enjoying a high sense of satisfaction. “But, before I proceed with the monetary account, allow me to say that this door-yard picture, as we are here now, reminds me of a miniature Marsian family. All appear healthy, happy, intelligent, clean, amiable and courteous. I can not help feeling grateful toward you for your kind hospitality, and shall always remember you, whether I shall ever be able to return to my beloved native home or not.”

“Mr. Midith, you owe us no debt of gratitude; but, on the contrary, we owe you,” said Mrs. Uwins. “I have never before been so intensely interested in anything as I am in your Marsian narrative. Your social, industrial, and domestic arrangement seems to be so perfect, and yet there is nothing miraculous in it. It is all human. With a little more intelligence of the masses, we can easily do what the Marsites have already done. With a little additional knowledge, we ought to be able to live in large families and build our houses in lines, and the rest will naturally follow.”

“Now the account of your monetary system,” said Viola with a pleasant smile on her countenance. “I am anxious to know whether the Marsites are in pursuit of money as eagerly as we are, and how ladies and children get their money.”

“Before I shall be able to give you a clear understanding of our money, or medium of exchange, I shall have to give you a description of another public apartment in the ‘big-house,’ for this commercial apartment, as we call it, is intimately connected with our monetary system; in fact, it is so closely connected with it that you can not understand our money system without a knowledge of the function of this apartment.

“The wall and partitions of this commercial apartment are all furnished with fine book-shelves. The shelves are set off so closely by vertical partitions that only one large blank book fits in each division, which are numbered consecutively. Every man, woman and child of the family is represented in this commercial apartment by one of these time-books, in which each records the time of his or her labor performed. On the back of each book is the owner’s name, and a number corresponding to the shelf-division. In this manner each individual has his own book, and each book its own shelf-division.

“Let me tell you right here that we have no surnames, as you call them. We have only what you call Christian names; such as John, James, Mary, Viola, etc., the philosophy of which you will see hereafter. But, in our system of naming, every individual can be so described that it can mean no other person than the one intended. For instance, Mary, B 4, F 23, C 84 of Goben. Mary is her name; B 4 means that she keeps her record of labor in book No. 4 in the commercial apartment; F 6 stands for family number 6 of a certain community; C 84 stands for community number 84 of the country of Goben. There can be but one person in our world that answers to this description.

“This commercial apartment contains all the conveniences for book-keeping, fine desks, counters, chairs of all kinds, writing material and everything one may want to keep a neat, first-class record.

“As I have said, each individual keeps his own record in his own book, of all the labor he performs for the community; also the kind (the labor census is compiled from this record) of labor, and the date when he performs it. The record-books are large enough to contain the labor-record of a person’s whole lifetime. This labor-record, kept in this commercial apartment, is the basis upon which we issue our money, or labor checks, or medium of exchange, or whatever else you may call it. We have seen that all wealth is produced by productive labor, and a day’s, or an hour’s, or a minute’s productive labor produces, in an average, so much wealth; and the individual who performs the labor should receive all the money or labor checks, which represent the wealth he has produced. I might say right here that we have no coin; this fact, stated in the beginning, might aid you in better understanding of what follows, for as a rule the vast majority of the people seem to think that coin is absolutely necessary to a successful medium of exchange, but this you will find to be an error.

“There is one other point to which I must call your attention before we proceed with our main subject, and that is our method of keeping time. If we issue our money only for productive labor performed, it naturally follows that we should have a good method of measuring the time of this labor, and this we have.

“Our clocks divide the day on the decimal scale, but I shall not confuse your minds with our division of time. I shall always interpret our time in terms of yours, and content myself by just giving you a brief description of our method of keeping it.

“Every apartment, public and private, is furnished with one or more time-pieces. All the clocks in the ‘big-house,’ as well as all the ‘big-houses’ in the whole community, are connected by a subterranean electric wire, which causes the pendulums of all the clocks to vibrate simultaneously. The wires of the communities within certain degrees of longitude are likewise connected. By this method all the clocks within that longitude of the country keep exact time with the central regulator, which is regulated astronomically.

“Now we are prepared for the main financial question. In business, when you say I want so many dollars, cents and mills for an article, we say I want so many days, hours, minutes and seconds for it. Of course, our working day, as I have told you several times before, is, in an average, less than two hours, or less than one-fifth as long as your day, which is generally more than ten hours.

“Now let us see if I can make you understand our money system, or our medium of exchange. It is indeed extremely simple for one who is familiar with it.

“We have seen that each individual man, woman and child, keeps a time-book in the commercial apartment; and at the close of each month each individual closes his own book account of the labor he performed during that month and makes a copy, a fac-simile of it, on paper provided for that purpose. This copy is at the close of each month sent to the mint department of the ‘Com.’ Here, in order to avoid error, the labor records are carefully examined by expert accountants. If they are found correct mathematically, the amount of money, or time bills, for each individual, are issued and put in a kind of pocket-book, sealed and addressed to the individual owner who receives the pocket-book in his mail box. Thus we notice that each individual man, woman and child, practically issue their own money; that is they can work as much as they like during the month, and at the end of the month they report to the minter or money stamper at the ‘Com’ the amount of labor performed. For their labor performed in the community they receive labor checks, or money as you call it, on the negotiable wealth of the community; and as all communities are highly reliable, every community will take the labor checks of any other community. This enables a person to buy in any community he desires. The laborer, in an average, always produces the wealth before he receives his money for it. Hence failure, under ordinary conditions, is impossible.

“Let us notice, then, that the ‘Com’ issues the money; that every person who handles money for the family or community remits it daily to the ‘Com,’ where all the bills of the families and community are paid. A family never remits the money for the bill of goods it has purchased. When a family buys a bill of goods for its store, etc., the selling community makes out a duplicate bill, one of which the purchasing family sends to the ‘Com’ as soon as the goods are found satisfactory and the bill is correct. If the bill is not correct, it is first corrected by the purchasing family. The ‘Com,’ immediately upon the arrival of the bill, remits the money to the selling community. You want to keep in mind then that the family buys what and where it pleases, but that it daily remits all the money taken in to the ‘Com,’ which pays all the bills for the community and for all the families of the community.

“Our money, or labor checks, or medium of exchange, or whatever else you may wish to call it, consists of stamped paper bills of different sizes, according as they represent days, hours, or minutes and seconds.

“Figure 4 represents a bill of six days’ value (called six days),” said Mr. Midith as he outlined a Marsian labor bill. “Besides the ornamental stamp which the bill contains, it bears the date of its issue, the number of the community which issued it, the country, or grand division, in which the community is located, its number, and its representative value of six days’ labor. We have bills of three sizes: One size representing days’ labor, one representing hours, and one representing minutes and seconds.

“Now let us see whether we can understand the circulation of our labor-money. We have seen that every person, at the close of each month, sends his own labor-record to the ‘Com,’ the only place in the community where money is issued, and money is never issued on anything else than these individuals’ monthly labor-records. So that all the money that is ever issued goes directly to the individual man, woman, or child, who labored for it, who produced the negotiable wealth which the money represents.

“Now let us follow a bill in its circulation. We have seen that the individual can buy where he wishes, in his own family store, in his own community or out of it; he can also buy of another individual, or of a family, or of any community. We will say, for illustration, that Mary pays out one of her bills in any of the family stores of her own community. The family storekeeper, at the close of his day’s business, remits the bill to the ‘Com’ of his own community. Here it was issued and paid to Mary for labor performed; and here it is also canceled when it returns by stamping it on both sides, which is a mark of redemption, after which it is filed away. This bill is canceled because Mary drew the negotiable wealth which the bill represents out of the community’s storehouse. That is, she took her actual wealth she produced by her labor. When she received the money at the end of the month she took only the representative of her wealth. Bear in mind that bills are canceled only at the ‘Com,’ not at the ‘big-houses.’

“Now let us go on further. Perhaps Mary paid out her bill in some other community than her own. Then the bill is sent to the ‘Com’ of that community where the purchase was made by the family which sold Mary the goods, but the ‘Com’ of that community does not cancel our bills. The ‘Com’ of each community cancels only its own bills. The community which gave Mary the commodities for her bill uses that bill the same as it uses its own bills to buy of other communities; and these communities to buy of still others; so the bill keeps on circulating from one community to the other until it again reaches our community, where it will be canceled, for we can not get the bill unless we redeem it with wealth, and all bills redeemed, as we have seen, are canceled at the ‘Com.’ Hence we may receive the money of any other community, and all other communities will accept our money.

“Whenever the ‘Com’ needs more money to purchase with, or to pay bills of purchase with, than what it receives as remittances from its own families, it sells the products of the community just like your farmers sell their wheat, etc.; but the community, as a community, can never issue money for the purpose of paying for the community’s purchases. Money can be issued only on the labor-records of the individual. This fact we always want to bear in mind.”

“Well, Mr. Midith, how, then, do you support disable-bodied persons who have no labor-record to send in?” asked Viola.

“They keep a book in the commercial department the same as the sound ones, and send a monthly statement of how much money they wish and the money is sent to them the same as to others; and they spend it just as freely, too. We treat our cripples in every respect as equals, and they do not feel any sense of inferiority and dependence as you make your paupers feel. We let them manage their own affairs, draw their money and hire all the assistance they need. In order to make this a little plainer to you, I may say that our communities are very large families, and that we, as members of a community, find, no doubt, even more pleasure in caring for our disabled persons than a kind family here on earth feels in caring for a disabled son or daughter. But you must not forget that disabled persons are very few with us. Disease and accident have been minimized, and monstrosities (unnatural productions) are almost unknown.”

“But you have not yet told us how little children and babies get their money to buy with,” said Mrs. Uwins.

“I shall give you an explanation of that under the head of sexual relations, where you will be better able to understand it clearly,” said Mr. Midith. “But I will say right here that every man, woman, and child has money to buy with, and no one can buy without it.

“We have no credit system, and no interest, as you can see at once. For in a world where every one has all the money he wants, or can earn all he wants at any time by an agreeable amount of manual labor, credit is unnecessary; and interest is the result of monopoly, and as we have no monopoly, we can have no interest. In our world, natural opportunity is equally open to all individuals, all families and all communities. Every person can work all he wants, and gets all he actually earns. Our money can be gotten only by productive labor, or by voluntary gift; and you must always keep in mind, too, that it is issued directly to the man, woman and child who earned it by productive labor, or who has it voluntarily given to him, as in the case of an infant or disabled person.

“I have given you a brief explanation of our money system before I pointed out any defects in your system, or, before comparing it with yours. I have adopted this mode of procedure all through my explanations for the reason that the masses of your people, or, at least, those who have but a narrow mental view, always accuse a person who points out some defects of their institutions as being a destructionist. They say he tears down, but does not build up; he is considered destructive but not constructive. For this reason, as well as for the fact of following the natural method of instruction, I have first built up, constructed what I believe to be an immeasurably more just and simple monetary system than yours is. In contemplating a system of money, or medium of exchange, let us always keep in mind that money, as such, is not wealth; but that its only function, its only usefulness is to facilitate commerce and trade. Now let us compare our money with your money. Let us put aside as much as possible of our prejudice while we are making this comparison. First, then, let us enumerate the several features that a just and convenient medium of exchange (money) must possess, and upon what basis such a system of money must rest.

“1. It must be made out of the cheapest, most convenient and durable material.

“2. It must afford the greatest security to the taker.

“3. It must eliminate all credit from trade and commerce.

“4. It must maintain the most unvarying uniformity in its purchasing power.

“5. It must least be obtainable by any other means than by productive labor and by voluntary gift.

“6. In volume, it must be always practically equal to the value of the negotiable wealth which it represents, and must increase and diminish in the same ratio as the wealth does.

“7. It must not admit of being monopolized so as to make the drawing of interest possible.

“8. It must be least liable of being counterfeited.

“9. It must give the person who possesses a large quantity of it, no advantage or special privileges over him who has less of it.

“10. The money must be such that the payee (the person to whom money is to be paid) may accept or refuse the money, instead of the actual wealth which the money represents.

“11. It must, in its circulation, preserve a financial equilibrium with other parts of the world, and in proper quantities must naturally return to its place of redemption.

“12. 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 am well aware from the experience of my sojourn on earth that the people of earth, as a rule, are yet very superstitious, uninformed and fanatical on the money question. The masses of your people, as I have said before, are worked so hard, and they therefore have very little time and desire for philosophical thought of any kind; but notwithstanding all this, I shall attempt briefly to examine and compare our and your money systems with the above essential features of a just and convenient medium of exchange. Of course we all understand, when we think for a moment, that any system of money that possesses the features of justice and convenience in the highest degree is the most perfect. Let us then begin the examination.

“1. As to material, our money or medium of exchange, as I have told you before, is made out of paper which costs comparatively nothing, which is very convenient commercially, and which is sufficiently durable; while you make your money largely out of metals, the production of which costs you an immense amount of comparatively unproductive labor, and furthermore coin is very bunglesome to handle. Two hundred dollars in silver is almost a load to carry. Thus most of your money is costly and lacks convenience.

“2. As to security, our money is always secured and backed by the immense negotiable wealth of a strong, peaceable community, and in an average we never have more money in circulation than there is actual negotiable wealth on hand to redeem it with, while your national security is often very uncertain. Thousands of people lost by taking Confederate money during the American Civil War; and if the South had been victorious, the greenback would have been worthless. Your security is thus very faulty.

“3. You have seen that we have entirely eliminated all credit from our financial world. No individual, family, or community buys on credit; all have plenty of money to buy with, while the volume of your money is often so small and so monopolized that perhaps most of your business is transacted on time, which involves a great deal of uncertainty and injustice. In the first place, the business man under your credit system is not certain of his pay; he must always be on the look-out not to sell to poor payers, and in the second place the annual losses which the business man sustains by failure to pay, must be taxed to the goods he annually sells and must therefore be paid by those who do pay. In this manner a person who pays must indirectly pay for the goods the delinquent fails to pay for directly.

“4. As to uniformity of purchasing power, our money is nearly perfect. The basis of its issue is a day’s productive labor, which, under free competition, in an average, produces nearly the same quantity of negotiable wealth at all times, taking it all over the world, while the purchasing power of your dollar is very fluctuating. For instance, the discovery of a rich gold mine makes the gold dollar worth less, because it can be obtained with less labor. If silver would now be discovered as plentifully as lead, and if you had free and unlimited coinage of silver, a silver dollar of the present weight and fineness would have but little purchasing power; first, because a laborer could obtain many of them from the rich mine with a day’s labor, and secondly, because laborers would be attracted to the mine, and from agriculture and other productive industries, which would produce a scarcity of commodities and raise them in price.

“Let us take another example that will clearly show the great varying purchasing power of your dollar. In making this examination, we want to keep in mind that the only material wealth after which we are in pursuit is food, clothing, shelter, luxuries, and the instruments of their production and distribution; that all material wealth is produced either directly or indirectly by the application of labor to land; that is, the crude material must be yielded by the earth. All debts must ultimately be paid with material wealth, and money, or the dollar, serves only as a medium to facilitate the exchange of material wealth. Where there is no material wealth the dollar becomes useless. You do not work for the dollar, as most of your people seem to think, nor can a dollar add one iota to your physical comforts and happiness. It is the material wealth which the dollar represents which gives the comfort and happiness. If all the money in your world would be annihilated or sunk in the ocean at 12 o’clock M., none of the world’s aggregate physical comforts and happiness, other than an experience of inconvenience of making exchanges, would be diminished. There would be, after the destruction of all the money, just as much food, clothing, shelter and luxuries as there was with all the money in the world. Your meals would be just as good, because we do not eat money. Your houses would be just as light, warm and cheerful as before. Your couch would be just as soft and comfortable. Your land just as productive. All your luxuries would be just as charming and agreeable. Your trains, telegraphs, telephones and electric lights would operate just the same. Your books would contain the same information. The only inconvenience, as a whole, that you would experience from the destruction of your money, would be, that you would find it more inconvenient to make your exchanges of commodities; and to obviate this inconvenience is the only function and use of money. Now let us exemplify a little further the injustice of the varying purchasing power of your dollar.

“Since I came to live on earth, I got acquainted with a very industrious and frugal person, who, in 1869, purchased, on credit, in the state of Wisconsin, a $6,000 farm. It is now over twenty years since he began to pay for it, and he has succeeded in paying about $4,000 of the principal and over $6,000 interest. He, therefore, owes still $2,000 of the principal.

“Now let us not forget right here that wheat in 1869, or thereabout, was worth about $2.50 per bushel, and, as a whole, all other things in proportion. This man, then, bought the farm on the basis of $2.50 wheat. At this price, it would have required only 2,400 bushels of it to pay for the farm. But soon after he bought the farm, wheat began to decline in price, until, in 1890, it was worth only about 60 cents or 70 cents. Now, as I have said, in 1890 this man owed still $2,000 on his farm. To pay $2,000 with 70 cent wheat requires about 2,700 bushels, 300 bushels more than it did to pay for the whole farm in 1869. So you see this man raised wheat for over twenty years. During this twenty years he raised and sold over 6,000 bushels of wheat, the proceeds of which he paid on his farm. Now if the contract for the farm had read 2,400 bushels of wheat, instead of reading $6,000, he would have the farm paid for two or three times over. But as it is, it is more difficult to pay for now than it was when he began paying in 1869. It required more bushels of wheat, more bushels of oats and potatoes, more pounds of cotton or pork, more kegs of nails, more tons of galena, to pay the balance of $2,000 in 1890 than it would have taken to pay the whole $6,000 in 1869. But that is not all the loss he sustained. His land, under your system of farming, is probably not as productive now as it was twenty years ago. His orchard and buildings have decayed also.

“Now before I give another illustration on the varying purchasing power of your dollar, I must clear up one other point concerning money. From what I can learn, it seems that the majority of your people, when they consider the financial question, believe that the purchasing of commodities is the whole of a commercial transaction; but this is only half of it and the last half, too. Let us illustrate: A farmer, before he can pay his mortgage, his taxes, or his notes, must buy his money to pay them with. The mortgagee, the tax collector and the banker do not deal in commodities—wheat, pork, wool, cotton, etc. The first half of the transaction is to purchase the money with commodities, and after you have purchased the money, you can pay the mortgage, taxes, notes, etc., with that money, which is the second half of the transaction. In 1869, money was cheap because a bushel of wheat would buy about $2.50 worth of it; in 1890, a bushel of wheat buys but 60 cents; hence money was dear. The farmer must buy his money with the products he raises on his farm; he must have commodities before he can buy money. The laborer buys his money with labor, etc. A farmer, who, in 1869, raised and sold 600 bushels of wheat, by his annual labor, received $1,500 for that labor; while, in 1890, for raising and selling an equal quantity of wheat, he received only about $400.

“I am well aware that there are fluctuations of prices caused, in your industrial world, partly by natural and partly by monopolistic supply and demand; but of these I am not here speaking. I am here simply endeavoring to illustrate the evils and injustice of the varying purchasing power of your dollar. There is no injustice in the fact that a bushel of wheat will buy $2.50, or that it will buy only 60 cents, or that it will buy $10. It would make no difference to any one whether you would get 10 cents or $10 for a bushel, provided all other things correspond in price, and provided further that the purchasing power of the money does not vary practically. The injustice consists in the fact, as we have seen in the case of your Wisconsin farmer, that he purchased his farm on the basis of $2.50 wheat and other farm products, and that he had to pay for it largely with 80 or 90 cent wheat.

“Now let us be candid. Can you tell me who got that $10,000, or all that wheat which this Wisconsin farmer raised during these twenty years when he tried to pay for his farm? He has nothing to show for it. His farm is not as good now as it was twenty years ago, and, as we have seen, he has to sell more products now to pay the $2,000 than he would have had to pay the $6,000 in 1869. Some one ate all that wheat, and as this man received nothing for it, those that ate it must have gotten it without actually paying for it. This is a truth, but not many of the people of earth have thus far discovered it.

“I am aware that some of your zealous people will say that this Wisconsin farmer was not a wise and prudent man for buying that $6,000 farm on time when he had nothing to pay for it. I fully agree with them; for, as I claim, no system of money is good which does not eliminate all credit. It is this unwiseness which I am here endeavoring to show, but these zealous people who condemn this Wisconsin farmer have helped to make still worse contracts. Let us see what they are.

“In 1866 the national debt of the U. S. was $2,783,000,000; and in 1890 it was about $1,183,000,000. About the year 1866 wheat was worth about $2.50 a bushel, and if the national debt had been contracted to be paid in wheat (instead of dollars, remember), it would have required, in 1866, about 1,008,000,000 bushels (one billion, eight millions). In 1890 wheat was worth about 60 or 70 cents, and the national debt was $1,183,334,688. At that price it would have required about 1,900,000,000 bushels. Thus you see that you owed about 90,000,000 bushels more in 1890 than you owed in 1866.

“In making this comparison, I use wheat because I believe it to be one of your foremost staples, but you can use beef, pork, oats, corn, wool, kegs of nails or any other important staple. You will notice, then, that it is not a scarcity of any particular commodity in 1866 and an ‘over-production’ in 1890, but that it lies in the varying purchasing power of the dollar. In 1866 a farmer could purchase $2.50 with one bushel of wheat (remember that the buying of money is the first half of a commercial transaction); money was cheap then. In 1890 he could purchase only 60 cents for a bushel. The capitalists who hold the money made money scarce, so that they could receive a large quantity of commodities for a dollar of it. Thus you see that your capitalists are not only robbing the masses by charging interest, but also by increasing the purchasing power of the dollar. You see, he holds the dollar; the poor man has no dollars.

“One more brief comparison on this point: Suppose that in 1866 a farmer stores away $1,000 worth of wheat at $2.50 a bushel, which would amount to 400 bushels. His brother banker also puts in his safe the same amount of property, a thousand dollars, in dollars, not in wheat or any other commodity. Now, they have stored away an equal amount of property. Let us see now how they stand in 1890. The farmer has his 400 bushels of wheat, which is worth about 60 cents a bushel. If he turns his wheat into cash, he has $240, while his brother banker has $1,000 in cash. Here you see that the farmer, or any other laborer, ‘comes out of the small end of the horn.’ Now let us see how they stand when both turn their property into wheat. The farmer has 400 bushels. The banker has $1,000, for which, at 60 cents a bushel, he can buy 1,666 bushels; 1,666 bushels minus 400 bushels leaves 1,266 bushels, that the banker is ahead of the farmer, after they have converted their property into wheat.

“I am well aware that in a few cases the varying purchasing power of the dollar gives an advantage to the laborer instead of the capitalist. But this advantage to the laborer is as unjust as if the advantage were to the capitalist; and the injustice of this advantage, whether to the capitalist or to the laborer, is what we are here considering.

“These are all truths, but they lie so deeply hidden that the masses of your people do not yet see them. Our medium of exchange does not possess this grave injustice; the unit of value is based on a day’s productive labor, which varies very little, if any, and all share an equal part in this slight variation.

“5. As already stated, the Marsites issue money only directly to the individual on his monthly labor-record, that is, if the individual is able-bodied and old enough to work; if he is disabled or a child, he receives money in a similar manner on a gift-record, instead of a labor-record. No person can get a penny by profit, interest, etc., because the goods are sold by the community at cost, and nobody pays interest, because everybody has, or can earn all the money he wants. You see there is no room for a speculator and schemer in our world, even if a person were disposed to be one; while your system is just the reverse. With you a gold miner in a rich mine may take out $200 worth of gold with one day’s labor; and he has produced comparatively nothing, if the gold is coined into money; for paper is even more suitable as a medium of exchange, if issued on the right basis, than gold. A merchant under your system may grow rich on profit by doing nothing. A money lender may receive a thousand dollars a day as interest by living an idle life. He may be growing richer by the interest he receives, so that his posterity, for generations yet unborn, can live an idle life by living from the labor of others. You have also seen that a capitalist may grow rich by changing the purchasing power of the dollar in his favor. Your money system, then, is very defective, because it is largely obtained without productive labor. The persons who perform nearly all the productive labor have, as a rule, very little of it, while many of your schemers, or unproductive laborers or idlers, have, as a rule, an abundance of it.

“6. We have seen that we issue money once a month for labor performed, and that this money is issued only at the ‘Com;’ that the money is issued directly to the individual, who can make his purchases wherever he likes, and that all money taken in by the families for commodities sold is daily remitted to the ‘Com,’ where the communities’ own money is canceled when taken in; and that the money from other communities, for which we have given wealth, is used by the ‘Com’ to pay bills with. Each community, then, has always a quantity of money in circulation equal to the salable wealth on hand. If the wealth increases the volume of money increases, for money is issued on productive labor, which produces wealth. If the wealth diminishes the volume of money diminishes, for as soon as the wealth is given to the producer for the money, the money is canceled.

“The basis upon which you issue and redeem money is entirely different. You may have a scarcity of money and an abundance of commodities, or you may have an abundance of money and a scarcity of commodities. A rich gold mine tends to increase the volume of money, and tends to decrease the quantity of commodities. The more you monopolize money, the more it conduces to the interest of the wealthy—the higher the interest will be and the more the stored-up dollar of the capitalist increases in purchasing power. The volume of the Marsian money, which is based on a day’s productive labor, is always practically equal to the quantity of negotiable wealth. Money, based on a day’s productive labor, where opportunity for labor is always open to all, can never be scarce. This is the case on Mars, and, therefore, we never have a scarcity of money. With you things are vastly different. All your institutions are partly warped by your unjust medium of exchange.

“7. Our money can not be monopolized so that it draws interest.

“Before we can intelligently discuss this feature, I shall be obliged to make a few statements concerning our social and other economic conditions. An earthite uses money for many purposes where a Marsite uses no money at all. For example, a Marsite does not buy and sell land. The individual on Mars needs no money for the construction of his dwelling. Our dwellings are erected by the collective labor of the members of the community. A Marsite needs no money for his tools, his machinery, his implements, his garden, orchard, park, boulevards, motor-lines, railroad, light and fuel; all this is furnished collectively by the members of the community, because we found that by co-operation it can be done with much less labor than it can be done by single-handed effort. Above the public wear and tear and improvements, all the labor that a community needs expend is for the purpose of keeping its store-houses well filled. Thus you see that a Marsite, on account of his co-operate production, never needs a large sum of money at once. Our individual buys his meals, his clothes, his private luxuries, the furniture for his private apartment, his railroad ticket, etc., etc.; but all this requires no large investment at any one time. And as he can go to work at any day and earn a sum equal to the purchasing power of ten of your dollars, he is not very likely to borrow money and pay interest. No individual can expend $10 a day for these private purposes only, unless he becomes wasteful.

“Your social, and therefore your financial, conditions are vastly different. Your individual buys land. He builds a large factory, he erects his own dwelling, he constructs a railroad, runs a store, builds a ship, keeps a dairy, etc. Under these conditions your individual needs a large sum of money at a time. Your natural opportunities are not open to all. Thousands of your industrious men and women are forced idlers, and millions of them have no fair opportunity to labor. In the United States alone there are probably two millions more laborers than there are places for labor. Thus an opportunity is offered to monopolize money, to compel him who needs it pay interest, and every cent of interest that the payee receives gives him additional opportunity to collect more and higher interest, while it makes the payer more and more dependent; for interest is money for which the taker gives nothing and the payer receives nothing. All these evils are so conspicuous and so destructive of human welfare, and yet only a few of the earthites see them clearly; and it will, no doubt, be a long time before the masses of the people here on earth will become thoroughly informed on them.

“8. As to counterfeiting, I may say that in a community or world in which a sufficient quantity of money can easily be obtained by an agreeable, healthful amount of productive labor, money is not liable to be counterfeited. There are causes for counterfeiting, and whenever these causes are removed counterfeiting ceases. By making the conditions of earning money easy and pleasant to all, we have removed the causes.

“In a social and financial world, like yours, where so many industrious persons are prevented to labor, where so many are pinched by poverty, where the dollar is the highest aim of nearly all, where productive labor is looked upon with contempt by your ‘best society,’ where money offers special privileges to the possessor of it, where want and the fear of want are wrecking countless constitutions, and where the poor have to work the treadmill of toil from early youth until feeble old age, money is liable to be counterfeited by some, who endeavor by this means to escape these disagreeable burdens. It is no use to deny it; we all become dishonest, as you call it, if we are only pinched severely enough by poverty and want. This is the reason why you have so much counterfeit money.

“9. The next feature of a just and convenient medium of exchange is, that it must give the person who possesses a large quantity of it, no advantage, or special privileges over him who has a less quantity of it.

“I have already told you that a Marsite, as an individual, does not use money for many purposes that an earthite, as an individual, uses it. We, as individuals, use it only to purchase our private personal needs. The family and community use it for purchasing articles for public use, both family and community. Thus an individual, as we have seen, never needs a great amount of it at any one time. All of us have an equal share in the public property, and are all served with like courtesy under similar conditions. All can work as much as they like, and all receive equal pay for a day’s productive labor; and this labor yields more wealth than any one can spend without willful waste, if one works from one-half to three-fourths of the days in the year. We have no best places in our world, because they are all as good as the best, and that is as good as human skill can make them. We have no favorite place in our community which can be bought with money. The places in our dining-room and parlors are all the very best, and no one place presents a particular preference over any other. In our spacious hall during an operatic play, lecture, or other entertainment, we take the most suitable place vacant. All public apartments are equally open to all without pay. In the location of private apartments, there is also no particular advantage and choice other than results from mere personal fancy. Those private apartments located on the lower floors, for instance, are perhaps more conveniently located to the dining-hall, but more inconvenient for the exercise-hall, etc. Thus all the private apartments are so located and arranged that the aggregate convenience they bear to all the public apartments are nearly equal, so that there is no particular choice; and if there was, money could not buy it.”

“Well, Mr. Midith, I cannot see that a rich man in a republic like that of the United States has much, if any, advantage over a poor man; at least I cannot see any such advantage or special privileges, and if you know of any I would like to have you explain them to us,” said Rev. Dudley as Mr. Midith finished speaking.

“Well, Rev. Dudley, if you like to have me point out some of the advantages and special privileges the rich man has over the poor man on earth, I shall oblige you by giving a brief explanation of a few of them. I say a few because there are a countless number of them.

“With you money makes money, as you call it. The rich man receives interest for which he gives nothing, and the poor man pays interest for which he receives nothing. With us, nothing but productive labor produces wealth, and on that wealth money is issued.

“Here on earth a person who has the most money can buy the best seat in the theater, the finest pew in church. He can often buy to a certain extent his election to go to Congress or to the Legislature, put a ‘corner’ on wheat so as to create fictitious prices. The rich man is honored; his word is law, and if not, he not infrequently buys enough votes to make it a law. His employes, in order to keep their position, are often compelled to vote according to his dictates and his interests. By monopolistically clogging natural opportunity he is enabled to collect profit, interest, rent and taxes. He manipulates, as we have seen, the varying purchasing power of the dollar in his favor. He wears the best clothes; eats the tenderest meat; lives in a fine residence; goes to entertainments; makes pleasure excursions, and does countless other agreeable things. While, on the other hand, the poor man is compelled to toil early and late, live in a small, ill-ventilated, poorly-heated, screenless house or hovel, wear coarse clothes, eat the tough meat and small potatoes; by his toilsome labor his step has become slow and clumsy, his form is bent, his head droops, his shoulders stooped; his brow is careworn; he has little or no time for amusements, education, ethical culture and personal cleanliness. All his vitality is expended in acquiring the mere material subsistence. He sits down on an uncomfortable chair. He has little furniture, a bare floor, small, curtainless windows, a poor bed, a sooty stove, and not infrequently an unclean dooryard.

“From the foregoing explanation you can clearly see that the rich man has the advantage everywhere. He, by some roundabout means, which the poor and often less-enlightened person does not understand, charms away the products of the poor man’s labor; and the more the rich monopolize the land, the medium of exchange and other necessary means of production, the better his charm works.”

“You say that the rich man has the advantage over the poor man everywhere, but on this point I feel quite certain that you are mistaken,” said Rev. Dudley. “With our present system of paying taxes, the rich man pays nearly all the taxes. On this point then, if on no other, the poor man has the advantage over the rich. This, I think, you cannot deny or successfully refute, Mr. Midith.”

“It may seem to you, Rev. Dudley, that I cannot successfully refute or consistently deny this proposition; but it is the very point I do emphatically deny,” said Mr. Midith, in a soft tone of voice. “I hold that the rich pay scarcely any taxes. This tax question seems to be regarded by the mass of the people on earth in nearly the same light as the war question. The ‘praise and honor’ of victory is generally bestowed on the general, who is generally at a safe distance, while the private soldier, who does the actual fighting, is scarcely ever thought of. Just so it is with the tax question. The one who really pays the taxes rarely ever receives credit for it. Let us exemplify this:

“I suppose that you will agree with me that a robber, who forcibly took $10,000 yesterday, and is assessed on that $10,000 to-day, cannot be said to pay taxes; for by the act of robbing he has not produced anything, and it is plain that one who does not produce anything cannot really pay anything. We have seen that all material wealth is in the form of food, clothing, shelter, luxuries, and the instruments necessary for its production and distribution, and that this wealth must be produced either directly or indirectly by productive labor applied to land. Now your rich men, the same as the robber, are, as a rule, not engaged in actual productive labor, and can, therefore, not really pay taxes. As a rule, they have acquired their millions by appropriating, in a roundabout way, the wealth of the actual producer, and on this wealth, so appropriated from the products of the laborer, he, instead of the actual producer, pays a certain amount of this appropriated (not earned) wealth into the treasury as taxes.

“Let us make this principle plainer by additional examples. No doubt, you can plainly see that a burglar, who has just taken $100,000 from the vaults of the United States treasury, cannot be said to pay taxes, even if he gives part of this money back to the United States in the form of taxes.

“When a saloon-keeper pays a $1,000 license for the privilege of selling liquor, he pays this license with the money he receives into his money drawer, for, as a saloon-keeper, he can pay it with no other money, because that is the only means by which he receives money, and the drinker who pays him the nickles, if the drinker earned them, pays the license; all that the saloon-keeper does in this matter is, that he takes the money out of his money-drawer and gives it to the license collector.

“If each person actually produced all, or an equivalent of what he consumed, then the consumer would ultimately pay all cost of goods, including taxes; but this is not the case. The Marsites have two classes of persons who consume and do not produce, namely, infants and disabled persons; you have four classes, namely, infants, disabled persons, idlers, and unproductive and destructive laborers. We can easily see that all those who do not actually earn or produce wealth cannot pay anything without they receive it in some way from the actual producer. Hence we see that the productive laborer—the actual producer—has produced all the wealth and must, therefore, ultimately pay all cost, taxes included.

“I have already told you how many persons here on earth get wealth without producing it; but I shall here give you a few additional examples.

“An earthite may, by gambling at the Board of Trade, become a millionaire without producing a single mouthful of food, and if he is a millionaire, he may also become a pauper. A sudden rise or fall of 25 cents in the price of a bushel of wheat will make some rich and others poor; but there is no production of wheat in these transactions, and the transactions are more than useless, as you can easily see by examining our commercial system. All there is in such useless transactions is that one set of schemers succeed in fleecing another set of schemers without producing any wealth.

“Some of your people grow rich in dollars without labor by buying a lot, keep it for a few years, and then sell it for a thousand or ten thousand times as much as they paid for it. You may grow rich by a patent and a copyright; but no matter how you grow rich without labor it is always by profit, interest, rent, taxes, gift, or the varying purchasing power of your dollar.

“Now let me give you a few more examples showing that the rich man, as a rule, pays little or no taxes.

“A duty on goods is paid by the consumer as far as he actually earns what he consumes or an equivalent thereof; but, if the consumer, like an infant or social parasite, does not earn what he consumes, or an equivalent, the producer, the laborer, pays that proportion of it which the consumer does not actually earn or produce.

“Now let us take a merchant and see who pays his taxes.

“Every person who buys at his store pays part of it. The price on his goods must be such that after paying all expenses—fuel, oil, damage of goods, insurance, interest, taxes, etc.—he must have some left for his labor, or else he cannot continue business and live. Now, we can all see, even the dullest, that if there were no taxes to be paid this merchant could reduce the price of his goods and still have as much left for his labor as when he paid taxes; and if he, under these conditions, would not reduce the price, others, by means of competition, would. Thus, you see that every person, even the poorest, who purchases at his store pays part of the taxes on the merchant’s goods and on his lot and store building—that is, if the purchasers produce what they consume; if not, the actual producer pays it, for an infant, a disabled person, a pauper and a social parasite have only that which they have received from the actual producer. The hand of productive labor pays for all, and that hand, as a rule, belongs to the poor man.

“Thus you see, upon examination, that your present belief that the rich man pays most of the taxes is as much an illusion as the belief in the ‘divine right of kings,’ the right to hold slaves, the remission of sins by fasting, etc., formerly was, and still is to a large degree. The fact is, that no one but a producer can pay, and, as a rule, your producers are not rich. Therefore, nearly all the taxes, as well as all other costs, are ultimately paid by the comparatively poor persons. So on this point, too, the poor man is ‘left,’ as you term it.”

“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 disadvantage 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 disadvantaged 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.