LAWSON MONEY SYSTEM

REPRINTED FROM ALFRED LAWSON’S SURPRISING
NEW COPYRIGHTED BOOK ENTITLED KNOW BUSINESS
Memorize this article and recite it word for word to everybody who will
listen. Don’t argue about it, just see how well you can present it to others.
The Lawson Money System is the result of nearly seventy years of thought upon Economics by its author. His books were copyrighted in 1904, 1923, 1931, 1935, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941.

CHAPTER 16

 The reason the people of the world have made such a mess of their money system is because it has been used as a skin-game.
 The money sharks have used money solely for the pur­pose of defrauding the people out of their properties and earnings.
 To try and improve a system that is based upon fraud is like putting plasters over a cancer.
 So, the Lawson money system is just the opposite from the scheme operated by the financial swindlers. It is a practical plan that will give fairness to everybody and take advantage of nobody.
 The Lawson money system is balanced as the equa­e­ver­poise so that it can be utilized as a trade convenience by everybody without loss to anybody. All people will de­rive equalized benefits from the utilization of it.
First this money system will be owned, controlled and operated by the people themselves under the man­age­ment of their trustee — the government.
Second money will have no value at all but will merely act as a measure for the value of land, pro­ducts or labor.
Third the money will be loaned to the people by the government, acting as trustee, without any charges for its use whatsoever.
Fourth the government will have the power to re­call the money instead of having to redeem it.
Fifth as money will have no value in this system the quantity of it issued will not effect its purchasing power.
Sixth as the quantity issued will not effect its pur­chas­ing power, money, according to the Lawson sys­tem, cannot be inflated or deflated. It cannot be stretched or shrunk in the measurement of value any more than a yard can be stretched or shrunk in the measurement of distance.
Seventh money under this plan will be made to spend and not to hoard or sell.
Eighth to prevent hoarding of money the gov­ern­ment will recall it at specified times and exchange new money for it. The old money will then become worth­less and have no purchasing power.
Ninth a supply of ready money will be kept on hand at all times by the government in sufficient quan­ti­ties to meet all trade requirements so that industry can­not be held up for the want of it under any cir­cum­stances.
Tenth paper money will be used most ex­ten­sive­ly as the trade convenience, although copper, nickel and silver will be used for small coinage. Paper money is the most convenient for handling purposes as well as being the least expensive and quickest to make.
Eleventh as security for its money the peo­ple will pledge the entire wealth of their country which will give it a backing equal to its utilization.
 Now, as soon as Direct Credits for Everybody be­comes a Law the government will issue new money in suf­ficient quantities to meet all trade requirements and loan it to the people without interest. All old money will be traded in for the new money at its face rate.
 This new money will not belong to the borrower but will be merely loaned to him for trading purposes and must be paid back to the government whenever it is re­called. As an example: Manufacturers wanting money to buy material and pay for labor will borrow the required amount for the purpose from the government without interest. The money that the manufacturers pay to the workmen in wages will be spent with the merchants, who in turn will pay the manufacturers for their pro­ducts with it. Then the manufacturers will use the same money to pay back their loan to the government from whom they borrowed it in the first place to pay their workmen.
 So you see that as far as money is concerned all trade transactions are squared up through this process while at the same time a lot of real wealth has been produced and distributed for the benefit of everybody. Fur­ther­more, everybody received full Justice and nobody was defrauded by tribute collection.
 From the foregoing example it can readily be un­der­stood why, under the Lawson system, money has no val­ue but is merely used as a trade convenience in various transactions during the production and distribution of wealth.
 It is the wealth that contains value, not money.
 Under Direct Credits Law in America the dollar will be­come the unit of measurement through which the value of products will be gauged just as the foot is the unit of measurement by which distance is gauged.
The dollar bill, backed by all of the wealth of the Unit­ed States, will remain constant and the fluctuations in values will be in the land, products or services and not in
the money.
  Foreign countries can fix their own money stan­dards and certain exchange rates can be agreed upon be­tween dif­fer­ent countries for trading purposes, ac­cord­ing to the value of the products exchanged.
 Under Direct Credits Law every debt that has been law­fully contracted for will be paid in full. But under the Lawson money system, after interest has been abo­lish­ed, the wheels of industry will turn so fast and wealth will be produced so quickly that paying the back in­debt­ed­ness will not take long. It is the ever increasing in­ter­est upon in­ter­est that devours the vital organs of man­kind and produces periodical depressions to afford time for the financiers to take over the properties of the peo­ple in lieu of unpaid interest.
 To quote from my book “Direct Credits for Every­body”, Copyrighted in 1931:
 “There are three important things a country must do after it has made it unlawful to use gold as money. They are (1) the government, not privateers, must issue and con­trol money; (2) it must issue a quantity of money suf­ficient for all trade purposes; and (3) it must put the en­tire wealth of the country back of its paper money for se­curity to assure everybody of its ability to honor it at face value whenever presented in trade transactions.
 “The reason the interest graft grew to such awful pro­por­tions is because there has never been enough money in circulation for trade purposes, which made it easy for schemers to gain control of the meager supply and tax every­body for the use of it.
 “The lack of money also limited everybody’s pur­chas­ing power which reacted as a brake, causing trade stagnation and great loss of wealth to both capital and labor.
 “Now the truth is, the greater quantity of money that is issued for trading purposes, the greater will be the trade and general production of wealth and prosperity. Always providing, of course, that the money issued is backed up by the country’s wealth sufficiently to guar­an­tee its stability and integrity, and no interest charges on it.
 “Plenty of money will mean plenty of buying power. Plenty of buying power will mean plen­ty of trade. Plenty of trade will mean plenty of production. Plenty of pro­duction will mean plenty of employment.
 “There can be no general over production of wealth as long as everybody has plenty of money to pay for every­thing they want. So prosperity can be made to travel a­round in a circle without end, as long as nature abun­dant­ly supplies the raw materials to which everybody must affix their labor to make wealth.
 “The continuous circle of prosperity consists of: The increasing wants of everybody; plenty of money to pur­chase the things wanted; plenty of employment for every­body to earn the money to pay for the things want­ed by every­body; plenty of machinery to produce every­thing that is wanted.
 “The increase of the country’s supply of money must keep pace with the increase of population and the in­creas­ing demand of everybody for a higher standard of living, and the greater needs of money for free trading purposes.
 “The practice of trade hereafter must be based upon the needs of everybody and then enough money must be put into circulation with which to meet those needs.
 “The employers must have enough money to pay lib­er­al wages and make enough of everything that every­body wants, and the employees must earn enough mon­ey to be able to purchase liberally of the products of the employer. For both em­ployer and employee to be suc­cess­ful they must both work for the benefit of each other and for everybody.
 “With $100,000,000,000 in circulation in this coun­try everybody would have money to buy new things. The merchants would be kept busy advertising, displaying and selling new things. The manufacturer would be kept busy making new things. The railroads and other means of transportation would be kept busy carrying raw ma­ter­i­als and manufactured products everywhere. Pub­lish­ers of newspapers and magazines would have their pages crowded with paying advertisements from suc­cess­ful merchants and manufacturers.
 “Everybody with plenty of money would want better homes, so real estate dealers and builders would be kept busy furnishing them. Contractors with raw materials, and plumbers, plasterers, carpenters, bricklayers, paint­ers would be kept busy by building constructions.
 “Then work for everybody to meet these demands would be at a premium. There would be more vacant jobs than people to fill them.
 “Prices for labor and executives would soar high and workmen would receive enough money in payment for their services to buy everything the merchant had to sell and the manufacturer could produce. People would have money for more travel and recreation and en­ter­tain­ment, so railroads, steamships, busses and airplane carriers, also theatres and the film industry would be more pros­perous than ever before.
 “In short, the abolition of money interest, the a­dop­tion of Direct Credits for Everybody, and the putting into circulation enough money for trading purposes, would be the means of electrifying the people and ma­king a new and greater life for mankind.”

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