The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-01-31

vast amount of theological wrangling
would have been done avoided in regard to
the origin of evil For commercial conve-
nence in the the interchange of commodi-
ties, the proper authorities have establish
cd, and carefully preserve standard weights,
measures, extension, etc. Biographies
have adopted the level of the ocean as the
standard Of mundane heights; chemists
have agreed upon hydrogen as the standard
Of chemical equivalents. For the same rea-
son, a standard OF value is needed 10 esti-
mate values.
The standard should be some commodity
Of universal and Indispensable utility, re-
curing for the production Of gwen
amount, as near as may be, UNIFORM
amount of cunJoined labor and capital
dollar, without some fixed standard of
value, would be indefinite and unmean-
ing, as would the term yard, without a
standard OF extension.
The only obstacle in the solution of the
financial problem, is to decide upon a
standard Of value. 1t is far from impract-
icable 20 use iron as the standard. 1t APP
proXlmately, and perhaps as nearly as any
other commodity supplies the requisite
conditions it is of universal and indispen-
sible necessity, and the amount of conjoin-
ed labor and capital employed in the pro
ductIon Of any given quantity of the
metal, is Of trlfilng variation, and that
variation in the future, will be effected
only by the gradual progress, or develop
ment In labor-saylng art. Let for example,
20 pounds Of pig iron be adopted as the
standar unit OF value, and there is some
thing by which all other values can be
eqmtably estimated, that is, all values
created by the Joint agency of labor and
capital. If the same amount Of Joint
labor and capital that produces % pounds
Of iron, will produce bushel of wheat,
the two are equal in value.
If given quantity Of gold is the stand
ard unit OF value, it is as absurd to make
the metal do service as a circulating medi-
um Of exchange, a. it would be iron or
as absurd as 1t would be to require by law,
that all measurements should be made by
the Identical brass rod or bar deposited at
the capital OF the nation, as a standard yard
created by an act of Congress, or the copies
II that bar deposited at the state capitals
and commercial centers. Whatever be the
standard, all comparative values may be
represented on paper. 1t is the province
OF Government to enforce or maintain
the validity Of all paper representation Of
values. The Government has been deri-
lect in not enforcing the par value Of its
paper obligations, gold standard. 1t has
deprecated its own paper by discriminating
against it in the of duties Of imports. In
equity. an action for damages resulting
from that derlectlon might be sustained.
The financial problem is not SO profound
that il may not be solved if investigated iii
the light Of elementary principles; and re-
latiOus inherent in the constitution Of
things The present condition of the con
tr1yersy respecting 1t, seems to be, whether
The dollar as unit of value is given
weight Of gold. or the ra'ue of it. That
the former was intended when the federal
currency was established, is quite certain,
but like some other arbitrary principles es
tabiished with the Federal Government,
are found in practice to be IN conflict with
inherent law, and operates to derange the
social mechanism. One principle, state
Rights, or the possibility of many indie
pendent sovereigntiese existing tremendously
within another-the aggregate of them
cost a war, only partially to correct.
In the rapid development of industrial
and commercial activities in this country,
the gold dollar theory is working in like
disastrous manner. Symptoms of harsh
and threatening arrangement in the machi
merry, already appear, and are getting out
there ominious warnings,
The financial question cannot be fully
ellucidated without considering the origin
and prerogatives of civil governments, and
the fundamental principles involved, which,
with permission, will be the subject of
another communication.
FARMER c.