Editorial January 6, 1934 Issue

Dependable Currency

W. Stuart Booth

From earliest times there appears to have been some medium of exchange used by men in business. Among primitive peoples the medium of exchange was simple, but the complexities which have arisen in connection with modern business with its intertwining and interdependent credit systems, together with the expansion of international trade, have resulted in many disturbing complications in currency conditions. Statesmen of many nations are endeavoring to evolve some safe financial policy by means of which an adequate and dependable currency may be made available.

A hopeful and helpful sign of the times is noted in the increasing recognition that wrong mental conditions are responsible for the dislocations and disturbances in the business world. Several leading economists have pointed out repeatedly that selfishness, greed, injustice, and fear are responsible for the business difficulties and disasters which have been affecting practically every nation during the past few years. These economists have seen and stated that the need of the business world is not for more money so much as for confidence and unselfish coöperation. Without confidence, they state, the most ingenious human system will prove inadequate. But men's fear and their mutual distrust of each other seem to operate as deterrents to the establishment of the needed confidence.

Because there have been many evidences of betrayal of trust by men, and because mere human systems of business control have proved ineffective, it is obvious that mankind's confidence, in order to be unshaken and unassilable, must needs be based on God, divine Principle. In a brief address which was delivered to Christian Scientists in 1903, and which may be found in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 170), Mrs. Eddy said: "I would present a gift to you to-day, only that this gift is already yours. God hath given it to all mankind. It is His coin, His currency; it has His image and superscription." And then she quoted these appropriate and inspiring words from a Psalm which is credited to David: "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday."

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