you, which consist, as you see, in giving to every person the same credit
at the beginning of the year, and afterward simply recording the
withdrawals without calculations of interest or other incidents whatever.
In fact, Mr. West, so simple and invariable are the conditions that the
accounts are kept automatically by a machine, the accountant merely
playing on a keyboard."

"But I understand that every citizen has a record kept also of his
services as the basis of grading and regrading."

"Certainly, and a most minute one, with most careful guards against error
or unfairness. But it is a record having none of the complications of one
of your money or wages accounts for work done, but is rather like the
simple honor records of your educational institutions by which the
ranking of the students was determined."

"But the citizen also has relations with the public stores from which he
supplies his needs?"

"Certainly, but not a relation of account. As your people would have
said, all purchases are for cash only--that is, on the credit card."

"There remains," I persisted, "the accounting for goods and services
between the stores and the productive departments and between the several
departments."

"Certainly; but the whole system being under one head and all the parts
working together with no friction and no motive for any indirection, such
accounting is child's work compared with the adjustment of dealings
between the mutually suspicious private capitalists, who divided among