EVERYBODY'S MONEY. By E. McCullough. (Putnam and Sons. 9s. net.
) Mr. McCullough is an American engineer who is profoundly dissatisfied with the world's currency and its changing values in relation to commodities which result in high and low prices. The earlier part of his book is a fairly clear summary of the history of currency : he has plainly made a study of the history of English coinage. He goes on to discuss paper money, bank notes and fiat money, and points out with some sense the many mistakes of governments. Then come the two modern discoveries which, taken together, could solve difficulties, reduce debts and taxation, and make us all happy. The first is the Price Index : fluctuations in prices of com- modities can now be gauged with fair accuracy. The second is the proposal of Professor Irving Fisher, whose ardent disciple the author is. It is not the old and comparatively simple idea of a quarter of wheat as the unit, or the " rye- mark " lately discussed in Germany, but a "goods dollar" which shall vary every two months from its weight of 25.8 grains in conformity with the Price Index. This does not apparently entail any fantastic scheme of clipping or enlarging the gold dollar every two months, but the bullion in the mint will represent a different number of dollars which in turn are, represented outside by paper money. We are not convinced, that any artificial scheme of this kind will stabilize values, inside a country : applied to foreign trade, it becomes a nightmare.
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