The City’s Scrip Solution

The question which has come home to every state in this country is what can we do publicly and privately to help tide honest unemployed labor over this time of severe trial for both capital and labor? The honest, intelligent workingman must see that all are in the same boat. Large employers are obliged to reduce their force or close their doors. The general public distrust and hoarding of money makes money very scarce. Here is the city of Seattle, a flourishing community of over 60,000 with excellent credit, and yet it cannot today get any offer for its bonds. This compels the city to halt in its public works. The question has been raised, however, as to whether the city cannot go forward with its public work and issue scrip in payment for labor and materials. If the scrip could be maintained at a fixed price and made acceptable to merchants in place of currency, it would make a substantial addition to the circulating medium. It would be absolutely necessary, however, to take proper precautions to prevent the scrip from being depressed in price by selfish speculators. If the city authorities employed only actual residents of Seattle, all danger of an undue influx of the unemployed from other localities could be averted.