People's voice., 1893-04-14
CHANGE THE STANDARD.

!
''The most important doctrine of So
cialism is that relating to omoney The
only reason for the existence of any
circulating medium is to facilitate the
exchange Of commodities. The loafers
of the world, unwilling Or unable to
produce any Of the necessaries of exist
ence, and thereby honestly earn their
/ living, have devoted their most subtle
arts and employed their most cunning
schemes in the trade in, and monopoli-
zation of, the means devised by them to
exchange the goods Of one producer for
those Of another. In strict justice, this
exchange Of the value produced by one
with another should be equal-that is
/ to say, the goods produced by the farm
er should be exchanged for goods of
equal value produced by the mechanic.
/ Were this the case the loafers of the
world;would either have to work or
starve. = =
''The whole present system of money
must be totally destroyed \ dollar
now has no basis of value; to-day it may
represent fifty pounds of -four, month
hence only twenty-five pounds; to-day
it represents twelve hours labor of a
Chinaman, nine hours labor of white
man, twenty-four hours labor of white
child and thirty seconds loafng of a
Vanderbilt
Socialists who have thought deeply
upon thia proposition, truly claim that
we must have some fixed standard Of
value whereon to base the exchange of
commodities This standard must not be
an arbitrary one, but must be created
by natural law and discovered by
science. A producer can only claim
compensation for what he produces up
on the proposition that he is entitled to
receive in return for what he produced
that which he has expended in its pro-
duction. In other words, cost must be
the limit of price. In the production
of any specified article the laborer self
evidently expends but two things, first,
his time, and second, his life-force or
energy. 1t is as self-evident that the
time occupied by one worker is equiva-
lent to a similar period of time devoted
by another; the life-force spent by one
is not, however, equivalent to the ener-
gy expended by another 1t thus re-
mains for science to ascertain rule by
which the energy of one may be equita-
bly, exchanged for the energy of
another in order to absolutely prove the
perfect justice and practicability of the
socialistic maxim-'the time and service
of one man is equivalent to equal time
and service of any other Such rule,
discovered and applied in practice upon
sOcialistic foundations, insures forever
the first economic law Of justice, that if
a man toll not neither shall he eat Has
that rule been discovered? Yes. And
so simple is it that a well-worn phrase
comprises it all That phrase is: Cost
is the limit of price. A producer is en-
titled to receive in exchange for the
life-force expended by him in produc-
ing an article any other articles upon
which an equal amount of life force has
been expended by any other producer
In order to measure this life-force an
unvarying standard should be adopted
That standard should be the average life
of the worker in the occupation where
the labor requires the expenditure of the
least life-fOrce per hour. For example,
let us say that that work is clerical
work. Statistics being taken in every
trade and every locality, it is found, let
us say, that clerk in Berlin is only
able to work for forty years four hours
a day; that a shoemaker in Berlin is
only able to work thirty years, and
that a knife grinder is only able to
work twenty years. We're all these
people paid equally at so much an hour,
everybody would want to be a clerk
and nobody would be a knife grinder.
If the hour of the knife grinder was
held equal to the hour of the clerk it
would be injustice, for there would be
no real quality between them The
knife grinder by working his whole
life would only be able to obtain two
thirds of the product of the shoemaker
or one-half of the product of the clerk,
whereas the products of all three should
be of equal value and interchangeable.
The knife grinder being only able to
work twenty years upon the life energy
he possesses, or one-half the time of the
clerk, should be credited for every
hours work with two hours, the shoe
maker with one and one-third hours,
and the clerk with one hour. This
would be absolute justice Nothing
else would Let the statistics, facts,
be gathered in every trade and in each
locality; from them, and from them
alone, can the true cost and consequent
just price for any production be learned.
Nature, science and common sense are
the founders, discoverers and promul-
gators of this law; let not the loafers
much longer defy it The time book
system of Mr. 7. f. Hagerty is the only
device of which have ever read that
would carry it into practice and sue.
cessful operation"
Here follows an illustration of the
working of the time-book system, as il
would be practiced under the socialistiC
regime.
have thus copied such appendix for
the following well defined purpose, to
wit: To show that an absolute ideal
unit of account, no matter by what
name called, expressed in paper bills,
or promises to receive, would serve
every purpose demanded and render un-
necessary the complicated and cumber-
some svstem of 'stime checl,s- or Mr.