“Now my happy philosophy of the matter points to the fact, that one’s natural (not his artificial) desires are in the line of his ability, duty and destiny. So that if each man and woman is left free to follow intelligently his and her desires, each will attain the true development and best use of self, for self and others. Thus, a real civil service will come about, not by expending millions of dollars and days in arbitrarily dictating ways and measures by which individuals shall civilly be serviceable, but by leaving each individual intelligently and blithely free to use self-inherent possessions in a way which will occasion a self-adjusting supply of everything to the demands of everybody. This will naturally release and distribute first, personal services; second, the commodities which fill earth, air, water and the spiritual substance-of-the-universe, and will bring into play the third element in the class of values, recognized in the system of social economics; namely, credits.” “But what will be your medium,” said Elkhorn dubiously, “of exchange?” “Time,” said Ethel simply. “For of course to meet the orderly demands of each and all, with an orderly supply, will take a great deal of time. But then we each have _all the time there is_; and this, at the start, equalizes the distribution _of that_ medium of exchange. And our bank can never fail us, for when our drafts on it are _very_ large, we will still have reserves of it in eternity. So time is the medium of exchange for the common-sense services which will release and keep in distributive-circulation the commonwealth-commodities of which earth, water, air and the spiritual-substance-of-the-universe make each of us possessed. (Silence invited her to go on.) Time is a commodity, for as we all know, ‘commodities are a class of valuables organic and inorganic, which may be fitted by human effort to satisfy human desires.’