CHAPTER IV.
A TWENTIETH-CENTURY BANK PARLOR.
The formalities at the bank proved to be very simple. Dr. Leeteintroduced me to the superintendent, and the rest followed as a matter ofcourse, the whole process not taking three minutes. I was informed thatthe annual credit of the adult citizen for that year was $4,000, and thatthe portion due me for the remainder of the year, it being the latterpart of September, was $1,075.41. Taking vouchers to the amount of $300,I left the rest on deposit precisely as I should have done at one of thenineteenth-century banks in drawing money for present use. Thetransaction concluded, Mr. Chapin, the superintendent, invited me intohis office.
"How does our banking system strike you as compared with that of yourday?" he asked.
"It has one manifest advantage from the point of view of a penniless_revenant_ like myself," I said--"namely, that one receives a creditwithout having made a deposit; otherwise I scarcely know enough of it togive an opinion."
"When you come to be more familiar with our banking methods," said thesuperintendent. "I think you will be struck with their similarity to yourown. Of course, we have no money and nothing answering to money, but thewhole science of banking from its inception was preparing the way for theabolition of money. The only way, really, in which our system differsfrom yours is that every one starts the year with the same balance to hiscredit and that this credit is not transferable. As to requiring depositsbefore accounts are opened, we are necessarily quite as strict as yourbankers were, only in our case the people, collectively, make the depositfor all at once. This collective deposit is made up of such provisions ofdifferent commodities and such installations for the various publicservices as are expected to be necessary. Prices or cost estimates areput on these commodities and services, and the aggregate sum of theprices being divided by the population gives the amount of the citizen'spersonal credit, which is simply his aliquot share of the commodities andservices available for the year. No doubt, however, Dr. Leete has toldyou all about this."
"But I was not here to be included in the estimate of the year," I said."I hope that my credit is not taken out of other people's."
"You need feel no concern," replied the superintendent. "While it isastonishing how variations in demand balance one another when greatpopulations are concerned, yet it would be impossible to conduct so big abusiness as ours without large margins. It is the aim in the productionof perishable things, and those in which fancy often changes, to keep aslittle ahead of the demand as possible, but in all the important staplessuch great surpluses are constantly carried that a two years' droughtwould not affect the price of non-perishable produce, while an unexpectedaddition of several millions to the population could be taken care of atany time without disturbance."
"Dr. Leete has told me," I said, "that any part of the credit not used bya citizen during the year is canceled, not being good for the next year.I suppose that is to prevent the possibility of hoarding, by which theequality of your economic condition might be undermined."
"It would have the effect to prevent such hoarding, certainly," said thesuperintendent, "but it is otherwise needful to simplify the nationalbookkeeping and prevent confusion. The annual credit is an order on aspecific provision available during a certain year. For the next year anew calculation with somewhat different elements has to be made, and tomake it the books must be balanced and all orders canceled that have notbeen presented, so that we may know just where we stand."
"What, on the other hand, will happen if I run through my credit beforethe year is out?"
The superintendent smiled. "I have read," he said, "that the spendthriftevil was quite a serious one in your day. Our system has the advantageover yours that the most incorrigible spendthrift can not trench on hisprincipal, which consists in his indivisible equal share in the capitalof the nation. All he can at most do is to waste the annual dividend.Should you do this, I have no doubt your friends will take care of you,and if they do not you may be sure the nation will, for we have not thestrong stomachs that enabled our forefathers to enjoy plenty with hungrypeople about them. The fact is, we are so squeamish that the knowledgethat a single individual in the nation was in want would keep us allawake nights. If you insisted on being in need, you would have to hideaway for the purpose.
"Have you any idea," I asked, "how much this credit of $4,000 would havebeen equal to in purchasing power in 1887?"
"Somewhere about $6,000 or $7,000, I should say," replied Mr. Chapin. "Inestimating the economic position of the citizen you must consider that agreat variety of services and commodities are now supplied gratuitouslyon public account, which formerly individuals had to pay for, as, forexample, water, light, music, news, the theatre and opera, all sorts ofpostal and electrical communications, transportation, and other thingstoo numerous to detail."
"Since you furnish so much on public or common account, why not furnisheverything in that way? It would simplify matters, I should say."
"We think, on the contrary, that it would complicate the administration,and certainly it would not suit the people as well. You see, while weinsist on equality we detest uniformity, and seek to provide free play tothe greatest possible variety of tastes in our expenditure."
Thinking I might be interested in looking them over, the superintendenthad brought into the office some of the books of the bank. Without havingbeen at all expert in nineteenth-century methods of bookkeeping, I wasmuch impressed with the extreme simplicity of these accounts comparedwith any I had been familiar with. Speaking of this, I added that itimpressed me the more, as I had received an impression that, great aswere the superiorities of the national co-operative system over our wayof doing business, it must involve a great increase in the amount ofbookkeeping as compared with what was necessary under the old system. Thesuperintendent and Dr. Leete looked at each other and smiled.
"Do you know, Mr. West," said the former, "it strikes us as very odd thatyou should have that idea? We estimate that under our system oneaccountant serves where dozens were needed in your day."
"But," said I, "the nation has now a separate account with or for everyman, woman, and child in the country."
"Of course," replied the superintendent, "but did it not have the same inyour day? How else could it have assessed and collected taxes or exacteda dozen other duties from citizens? For example, your tax system alonewith its inquisitions, appraisements, machinery of collection andpenalties was vastly more complex than the accounts in these books beforeyou, which consist, as you see, in giving to every person the same creditat the beginning of the year, and afterward simply recording thewithdrawals without calculations of interest or other incidents whatever.In fact, Mr. West, so simple and invariable are the conditions that theaccounts are kept automatically by a machine, the accountant merelyplaying on a keyboard."
"But I understand that every citizen has a record kept also of hisservices as the basis of grading and regrading."
"Certainly, and a most minute one, with most careful guards against erroror unfairness. But it is a record having none of the complications of oneof your money or wages accounts for work done, but is rather like thesimple honor records of your educational institutions by which theranking of the students was determined."
"But the citizen also has relations with the public stores from which hesupplies his needs?"
"Certainly, but not a relation of account. As your people would havesaid, all purchases are for cash only--that is, on the credit card."
"There remains," I persisted, "the accounting for goods and servicesbetween the stores and the productive departments and between the severaldepartments."
"Certainly; but the whole system being under one head and all the partsworking together with no friction and no motive for any indirection, suchaccounting is child's work compared with the adjustment of dealingsbetween the mutually suspicious private capitalists, who divided amongthemselves the field of business in your day, and sat up nights devisingtricks to deceive, defeat, and over
reach one another."
"But how about the elaborate statistics on which you base thecalculations that guide production? There at least is need of a good dealof figuring."
"Your national and State governments," replied Mr. Chapin, "publishedannually great masses of similar statistics, which, while often veryinaccurate, must have cost far more trouble to accumulate, seeing thatthey involved an unwelcome inquisition into the affairs of privatepersons instead of a mere collection of reports from the books ofdifferent departments of one great business. Forecasts of probableconsumption every manufacturer, merchant, and storekeeper had to make inyour day, and mistakes meant ruin. Nevertheless, he could but guess,because he had no sufficient data. Given the complete data that we have,and a forecast is as much increased in certainty as it is simplified indifficulty."
"Kindly spare me any further demonstration of the stupidity of mycriticism."
"Dear me, Mr. West, there is no question of stupidity. A wholly newsystem of things always impresses the mind at first sight with an effectof complexity, although it may be found on examination to be simplicityitself. But please do not stop me just yet, for I have told you only oneside of the matter. I have shown you how few and simple are the accountswe keep compared with those in corresponding relations kept by you; butthe biggest part of the subject is the accounts you had to keep which wedo not keep at all. Debit and credit are no longer known; interest,rents, profits, and all the calculations based on them no more have anyplace in human affairs. In your day everybody, besides his account withthe state, was involved in a network of accounts with all about him. Eventhe humblest wage-earner was on the books of half a dozen tradesmen,while a man of substance might be down in scores or hundreds, and thiswithout speaking of men not engaged in commerce. A fairly nimble dollarhad to be set down so many times in so many places, as it went from handto hand, that we calculate in about five years it must have cost itselfin ink, paper, pens, and clerk hire, let alone fret and worry. All theseforms of private and business accounts have now been done away with.Nobody owes anybody, or is owed by anybody, or has any contract withanybody, or any account of any sort with anybody, but is simply beholdento everybody for such kindly regard as his virtues may attract."