The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-08-15
How Imitation Hurts.


If tits cheap more of it is required in making
purchases. If it is dear less is required. 1t is
the measure of values. and whatever its vol
ume all other kinds of property will preserve
the same relation to its exchanging power.
If man owns house worth $5, 900 to-day,
he will ask $4,000 for it when the volume
of money is doubled, because the money
will buy but one-half as much. But he is
no richer in reality. The house is exactly
the same; he only measures its value by
different measure. He might have thou
sand feet of lumber, and the laws might be
changed so that six inches should be reckoned
as foot. He would then have two thousand
feet, but there would be no more lumber in
the pile. The only result would be tn g price
would fall one half on a foot. In the case
of the house, the method of measuring the
common medium of exchange, instead of
the thing to be bought, has been changed;
but the result is the same. It is as though
instead of halving the foot rule with which
he measures the lumber he doubles the cur
rency in which its value is estimated. In
the one case two feet of lumber measure no
more quantity than one did. In the other
case two dollars of currency measure no
more value than one did. The end is tie
same. No matter how we measure the lam.
Der or the currency there has to be the same
exchange of values. An equivalent has to
be given. If we in effect change our cur.
rency so that fifty cents are reckoned as a
dollar it will take twice as many dollars to
buy that lumber. IT on the other hand we
reduce the foot measure to six inches it will
s.>'-' -~-rs~ boy dollars
Butthe exchangeable value Of the two re-.
main the same, and nothing Is gained in
either case.
The truth is that nothing is gained by in
creasing the volume of currency. That cur
rency has to measure all the exchanges in a
country. If it be decreased in volume it will
appreciate in value and so still be sufficient
to meet the demands upon it. If it be in
creased in volume it will depreciate in value.
and as before only measure the exchanges.
The thing necessary to be done is to secure
it from fuctuation, so that a contract
made to-day may not work hardship when
fulfilled one year or ten years hence, so that
man who promises to pay hundred dollars
i've years hence may not be obliged to pay in
dollars of twice the purchasing power that it
takes twice as much time and work to earn,
or the creditor be obliged to take his pay in
dollars that will not buy half as much as the
dollars he lent. We want standard of de-
ferred payments, so that neither debtor nor
creditor shall suffer loss.
Unless we have this standard of deferred
payments there is really continual change
of contracts. The alteration of the money
standard causes great misery and injustice.
An initiation of the currency alters that STAN
dard and causes hardship to one class. A
contrac ION of the currency is return to the
old standard and causes hardship to another
class. But there is this difference: imitation
IS the wrong, contraction the remedy. Un-
less there be imitation there will not be the
consequent contraction. Unless values have
been disturbed they will not have to be read
justed. The only cure for the evils of infla-
tion is the hardships Of contraction.
Contraction is certainly hard for debtors as
imitation was hard for creditors. The double
injustice is the sure result OF imitation. InHa-
ton leads to extravaganza and the incurring
of debt. The man who owns $1,000, in
houses or lands or other property, lives &C.
cording to his means. BY imitation the STAN |
dard by which he measured his property is
changed. Currency grows cheaper. His
property is reckoned at $4,000. He has no
more houses, no more land, but his posses
sions are measured differently. Unused to
the study of political economy or the laws Of
finance, he believes he is worth twice as
much. A man who has $4,000 can live
better than one who has $1,000. So he lives
higher, spends more, contracts debts with
greater freedom. II it was safe for him to
run in debt five thousand dollars then, he |
thinks it safe to run in debt ten thousand |
now. He acquires expensive habits and ex- |
travagant ways of living. Then the turn
comes. The old standard of value is in use |
once more. His house is again worth 5000, |
while his debts are $40, ,OOO,-for debts do not
shrink. The foregoing is the experience Of
thousands of people, and imitation is primar-
lily responsible for this sad plight; for inla-
tion led them to believe that they were twice |
as rich as they really were, and in conse-
quence they ventured upon expenditures and
incurred debts that they would never other
wise have risked. The man who thus suf-
fers is to be pitied, but the blame should be |
put where it belongs, upon an inflated, VIC
ious system of currency; and the remedy is
not to return to this vicious system, to multi
ply wrongs by further disturbances of values,
but to return to the good old sound system of
stable money.
WHILE there are many honest exceptions
in the ranks of that party, yet, as to the
great body, of Its leaders, Ex-Governor Palm
er OF Illinois, is certainly correct when, in
accounting for the growth of the greenback
idea in the Democratic party" he said:
sit seems to me that the entire movement
against hard money is relic of the copper