Editing Thomas Edison (section)

=== On politics ===
Edison was a supporter of [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|date=October 7, 1915|title=Edison Comes Out Unqalifiedly for Suffrage|pages=12|work=Passaic Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82682483/passaic-daily-news/|access-date=August 2, 2021|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=August 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802204721/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82682483/passaic-daily-news/|url-status=live}}</ref> He said in 1915, "Every woman in this country is going to have the vote."<ref name=":0" /> Edison notably signed onto a statement supporting women's suffrage which was published to counter [[Anti-suffragism|anti-suffragist]] literature spread by Senator [[James Edgar Martine]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=October 7, 1915|title=Edison, Harvey, Hughes and Other Leading Men Refute Senator Martine|pages=12|work=Passaic Daily News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42981945/male-suffrage-support/|access-date=August 2, 2021|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=August 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210802210059/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42981945/male-suffrage-support/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Nonviolence]] was key to Edison's political and moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval consultant for [[World War I]], he specified he would work only on defensive weapons and later noted, "I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill." Edison's philosophy of nonviolence extended to animals as well, about which he stated: "Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."<ref>Cited in [https://books.google.com/books?id=DtjWFiDKsJ0C&pg=PA37 Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America's Greatest Inventor] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624004345/https://books.google.com/books?id=DtjWFiDKsJ0C&pg=PA37&dq=%22Still+savages%22+edison&ei=KiHMSLJSiNzKBIiglYsJ&sig=ACfU3U2IXFOuvGUriygDwhEkgvqyaefwEg |date=June 24, 2016 }} by Sarah Miller Caldicott, Michael J. Gelb, p. 37.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stephen-knapp.com/vegetarianism_quotes_from_noteworthy_people.htm|title=Vegetarianism Quotes from Noteworthy People|access-date=April 5, 2016|archive-date=April 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413051510/http://www.stephen-knapp.com/vegetarianism_quotes_from_noteworthy_people.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> He was a vegetarian but not a [[vegan]] in actual practice, at least near the end of his life.<ref name="Israel" /> Following a tour of Europe in 1911, Edison spoke negatively about "the belligerent [[nationalism]] that he had sensed in every country he visited".<ref>{{Cite web|date=April 24, 2020|title=Review: Thomas Edison's life of ceaseless action|url=https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2020/04/24/review-thomas-edisons-life-ceaseless-action|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=America Magazine|language=en|archive-date=August 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210831224014/https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2020/04/24/review-thomas-edisons-life-ceaseless-action|url-status=live}}</ref>

Edison was an advocate for monetary reform in the United States. He was ardently opposed to the [[gold standard]] and debt-based money. Famously, he was quoted in the ''New York Times'' as stating: "Gold is a relic of [[Julius Caesar]], and interest is an invention of Satan."<ref name="query.nytimes.com">{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/12/06/98768710.pdf |title=Ford sees wealth in muscle shoals |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 24, 2013 |date=December 6, 1921 |archive-date=March 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210314171007/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/12/06/98768710.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In the same article, he expounded upon the absurdity of a monetary system in which the taxpayer of the United States, in need of a loan, can be compelled to pay in return perhaps double the principal, or even greater sums, due to interest. Edison argued that, if the government can produce debt-based money, it could equally as well produce money that was a credit to the taxpayer.<ref name="query.nytimes.com" />

In May 1922, he published a proposal, entitled "A Proposed Amendment to the Federal Reserve Banking System".<ref>Edison, 1922.</ref> In it, he detailed an explanation of a commodity-backed currency, in which the [[Federal Reserve]] would issue interest-free currency to farmers, based on the value of commodities they produced. During a publicity tour that he took with friend and fellow inventor, [[Henry Ford]], he spoke publicly about his desire for monetary reform. For insight, he corresponded with prominent academic and banking professionals. In the end, however, Edison's proposals failed to find support and were abandoned.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hammes |first1=D.L. |last2=Wills |first2=D.T.|title=Thomas Edison's Monetary Option|journal=Journal of the History of Economic Thought|year=2006 |volume=28|issue=3|page=295|doi=10.1080/10427710600857773 |s2cid=154880573 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hammes |first=David L.|title=Harvesting Gold: Thomas Edison's Experiment to Re-Invent American Money|publisher=Mahler Publishing|date=2012}}</ref>