Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-02-28

| Manton marDies recent MISSION W
Europe in the interest Of bi-metallism,
ouobt 10 oonv;nce the government and
a. Yr-.., 60. ~. "a 4.
peopio VI 'ne oni'eu @se' 'a"' - ''
useless for them to expect aid or CO.
operation in the maintenance of their
traditional double standard policy from
a.,a "A
any Iu'oPeAn ns''on' Anu s"e qaos'
tion now comes home to them, whetner,
I(l) this country shall longer play the
nAf;oawharn rola of aexnactancv.n or.
-,
W adopt tne single goiu s'anua'u re'
gardless OF consequences; or, (3) whether
considering that the money Of the world
is Il; .metajljsm. and that our forefatbers
~, ...5 .-..s. ....,,,.,,,a -.
with pfoIounu "isuoh eSsaoi'sneu ou'
double or alternative standard In har'
mony Herewith, we ought not to con-
so.n, an. ,roo,;oa 10 The wall sattlsd
~ ~ - ~.
ana thoroughly 'es'eu P'ino'p'os u 'na'
system, and adopt at once the lower
specie: In other words, make silver our
.a..I a. :. oarta;n,v ia o,r laoaI stand.
"s.'
ara, so long as !" 10 u"e io"er nho'ai'
precisely as we made gold both our
actual and legal standard prior to 1872,
when that metal, for long series OF
years was the cheaper specie.
In discussing the various phases OF
this question, | propose to go back to
first principles and test the several plans
proposed above by those principles.
What then is the true theory OF money!
Is anything like substantial agreement
on any premises possibles Let us see.
All exchange-from its simplest mani.
festation to its highest refinementI-is
only some form Of barter or dicker.
Good things, /. e., things having value
because useful or beautiful, or desirable
for some quality they possess, are ex-
changed or bartered for other good
things in definite or measured quantities.
There are two principal forms OF barter,
to wit: heterogeneous and united.
Heterogeneous barter is the original and
simplest form OF exchange. But as soci-
ETY. advances, from the primitive to the
complex, the necessity for common
measure of value by which all property
can be compared aud gagued. constantly.
forces itself on people. and they adopt
sometimes one commodity and some
times another as such common measure.
That is te say, they use the ordinary
and, as near as may be, uniform value
that one commodity happens TO have, to
measure the values OF all other COM
modities. The commodity whose value
is thus used, we call money;
but we should never forget that
lit ia its commodity value that
we utilize as money, and that 1T does
not cease to be a commodity at all be-
cause used as money. On the contrary,
its use as money is precisely and DIS
tinctively one OF It's commodity uses,
exactly in the sense that the use OF iron
for railroad tracks is one CT the COM
modify uses Of iron. And here we come
in sight of very important principle in
monetary science : important because
lfundamental-namely, that the money
use of commodity, in practice, often
becomes one OF its most important COM
modify uses; and inasmuch as its money
value depends upon its commodity value,
(the two values in potential money being
usually identical), and as the values OF
ali commodities depend more or less on
their use, it follows that the money use
of commodity becomes, itself, an inn
portant element in determining its own
value. No economic principle is more
thoroughly settled than that all COM
modities whatsoever are constantly
fuctuating in value, because all are sub
iect to varying laws of supply and de-
mand. Hence it follows inexorably that
any unit of value which may be carved
- ef ,rx, oom,ooditx and cat nm M n
standard, must be, in the very nature OF
things, variable quantity. This fact,
so generally ignored, lies at the very
foundation Of the whole theory OF
money.
The unit of extension or of weight,
when once agreed upon, is an absolutely
interchangeable quantity, whether used by
one person or by all the world; whilst
the unit Of value, being based on a
changeable commodity, never ceases to
change. Thus, to illustrate, suppose all
the world should, with one accord, CON
tclnde to adopt gold as the sole or uni
yersai money; its value as commodity
would thereby be enormously increased
probably doubled, or trebled, or quad
lrupled-and. as an inevitable conse-
lsuence, the value Of each gold dollar
and five franc piece, and OF every pound
sterling-in short the standard OF
every gold country : would be cor
lrespondingly increased. The weight
and fineness Of each monetary unit,
under such a supposition, might remain
the same; but the ratio OF value Of the
several units, in other words, Of the sew
eral Standards, to all other property
would be entirely changed. Constancy
in weight and fineness OF the unit used
as money must not be confounded with
constancy in value. which latter, in fact,
is only approximately measured by those
arbitrary symbols. 1t is, then, for this
very reason (that standard based on
any commodity is constantly changing,
that the remedy was devised OF limiting
the extremes to which all values (meas-
ured by money! should be subjected,
to the lower of two universal oom-
modities. To mitigate the evils Of
lsubjecting all property to the extreme
fluctuations OF any one commodity, Tor in
other words, to the huctustions of a
''single standard, ;" and in order to avert
the appalling rise that would be sure to
follow demand by all the world for q
single commodity as q sole tool OF ex-
change" two commodities alternately
are useed as a common measure of value.
the lower. lat an agreed ratio) being al
ways, so long as it is the lower, the true
legal measure or standard; according to
the we'll known law, that where men are
entitled to an option they will only do
that which is the easier; which is also
analogous to that other law, that motion
is along the line Of least resistance. This
is called the double or alternative stand
ard and is in fact compromise between
heterogeneous and unified barter. When
the theory on which it is based, which is
very simple, is thoroughly carried out in
practice, the result is greater steadiness
| than is possible on a single commodity