Eurasia | Page 8

Parliament could approve and legalize all Government expenditures, it
could only recommend by a two-thirds vote the amending or creating
of any acts pertaining to the Political, Civil and Penal Codes, which had
to go before the people at the next general election, when they became
the law of the land by a two-thirds vote of the qualified voters who took

part in the election, and had a universal circulation, as the Government
owned and operated all railways, telegraphs, teleposts, telephones,
wireless telegraphy stations and levees, all water power, steamers and
boats for freight and passenger service, and, in fact, all public utilities.
Besides, the Government manufactured and sold all liquors, tobaccos,
drugs, teas, salt, sugar, coals, petroleum, lumber, iron in pigs and steel
in plates and bars. It is easy to see that the Bank of Eurasia transacted
an immense volume of business daily.
The bank coined gold in denominations of fifty dollars, twenty dollars,
ten dollars and five dollars; silver in dollar, fifty and twenty-five-cent
pieces; nickel in ten-cent and five-cent pieces, and aluminum in
one-cent pieces. All money coined with ten per cent. alloy and at
bullion value. The coinage was readjusted every ten years and silver,
nickel and aluminum coins were exchangd for gold at their face value.
The Government issued banknotes drawing two per cent. a year, and
loaned money on land and on goods in the Government warehouses
and conducted a fire insurance business, but no insurance was paid on
any property that was insured in the building where the fire broke out,
and on no buildings that were not fireproof. No life insurance was
allowed and no corporation or individual was allowed to carry on an
insurance business and no person was permitted to insure property or
life in the country in any foreign corporation, and no stock exchanges
or gambling in futures were allowed.
The Bank of Eurasia published every month in the National Gazette the
amount of money on hand, so that the people might know when it was
necessary for the Government to make a new issue of banknotes, so as
not to cripple the circulation.
I was greatly, impressed with the reply of the Minister of Finance when
I asked him why he published those statements, "We deal honestly with
the people and they trust us." In answer to my question if there were
any trusts in his country, he smiled and replied, "One trust: the People."
Corporations are allowed, but no watered stock and every stockholder
has the same vote in electing officers of the company, whether he holds

one share or any other number of shares, and any conspiracy to corner
the market or to enhance the price of any article produced or
manufactured is punished as a felony, the penalty being five years at
hard labor in prison.
CHAPTER V.
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION.
I called at the Department of Information, and when I was introduced I
realized that I was in the presence of one of the world's greatest
teachers. She gave me a warm handshake and said, "I have been
expecting you, and now that you are here, I will take pleasure in
showing you the workings of the department over which I have the
honor to preside. There are no Government or private detective
agencies in our country, but a constant watch is kept on all public
officials as well as private violators of the law, by the Government
placing for sale in every postoffice and every military station and every
prison Government envelopes with fifty-cent stamps on them, and any
person interfering in the sending or tampering with said letters is
punished by imprisonment for five years at hard labor. Steel boxes with
a slit in the lid to receive the letters were placed in every postoffice,
military station and prison, and could not be opened except by a
commissioner from the Department of Information. Any person could
buy one, for there was a printed address on them, and send it to the
President, who has at the present time three hundred secretaries (young
ladies chosen from the orphan home) to read the letters, answer them
and send a copy to the Minister of Justice who has them Classified, and
acting on the information sends orders out to bring the guilty parties to
justice, and as punishment is meted out only to the bribetakers, for it is
only acting according to the mandates of human nature for a relative or
friend to try to get a person out of trouble to offer a bribe, carried with
it no penalty, but it left the bribetaker at the mercy of the other party,
and in consequence of adopting this system very few public officials
proved untrue, and crime has greatly diminished. Our department has
charge of all