The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-14
GAN HONEST DOLLAR"

Mr. Bryan has favored his Indiana au-
diences with his own definition of an hon
est dollar He scouts the notion that it is
| a. dollar which has a dollars worth of
metal in it, and is good the world over for
the value that is stamped upon 1t. AN
honest dollar" says Mr.. Bryan in an out
burst of that glittering rhetoric which
spares neither the facts of science nor the
emblems of religion, lis one that has the
same general purchasing power, yesterday.
to-day and forever"
In other words, an honest dollar is one
that will always purchase the same
amount of anything. If it required a dollar
to buy a bushel of wheat twenty or thirty
years ago, a bushel of wheat ought to sell
for dollar now. If it fails to do so there
must be something wrong with the dollar.
| There is never anything wrong with the
wheat. Something, therefore, ought to be
done with the dollar to make it worth the
same quantity of wheat yesterday, to-
day and forever" Instead of the dollar
being used to measure the value of wheat,
| the value of the dollar would, in this way,
be measured by wheat. 1t would, conse-
quently. become the measure of value in
stead of gold and silver.
But wheat is not the only commodity.
There are many other commodities, and
each of them has a value which may be
expressed in the terms of another ire
spective of any fixed standard of value.
Some Of them manifest an apparently un-
controIable tendency to ascend at the pre-
else time that the inclination of others is
downward. In late years wheat has fall
en-, while labor has risen. The exchange
able value of commodities is not always
the same. Although a bushel of wheat
may be worth three bushels of corn in one
year, the relative production of these COM
modties in another year may be so
changed as to bring about an entirely diff
ferent ratio between them. We might adj
just the value of our dollar to the huctua-
tons in the value of commodities by re-
course to a system of averages based upon
observations OF their rise and fall during
specific periods of time. A national board
of experts might be appointed for the pur-
pose Of determining the value of our dol
lar from one day to another. in accord
ance with these observations; and their
conclusions might be published in our
newspapers for the guidance of the COM
mercial and financial world like other mar
ket quotations, or the weather reports
of the government Something of this sort
has been proposed by economists under the
name of a multiple or tabular standard of
value, but it was originally designed for
use in fixing the amount of deferred pay
ments. Its use was limited to the regula-
ton of the debt-paying instead of the pur-
chasing power of the money. If used for
regulating its purchasing power it would
be measurement of commodities by the
commodities themselves; and it is difficult
to understand whore it properly belongs in
any system of bimetalIism.
1t is more likely that, in order to MAIN
| tain anything like consistency and uniform
ity in the purchasing power of dollar.
| 1t will be necessary for Congress to fix
| the price of every commodity. Under our
present standard of value the prices of all
| commodities are automatically adjusted.
In accordance with the laws of supply and