Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-09-18
THEM0NEY QUESTION

THEM0NEY QUESTION
IT is SOMETHING LIKE THE YARD AND
THE YAROsTlCK.
sles the Minds Of Many Men-Necessity
for Standard Measure of vaiue-Unie
Of Value Here and in England.
Judging from the questions that are
addressed to The Times. we should
say that one fundamental misconcep-
tton that puzzles many honest minds,
to which any question of the nature
OF " money" is a novelty is similar
to that which would arise from confus-
ing the yardstick with the yard.
What is yard? A measure of
lenght containing thirty-six inches.
What is an inch? One thirty-sixth of
What is an inch? One thirty-sixth OF
a yard. We are back where we started
and must try again. A yard is the
lenght of yardstick. 1t may be, if
the yardstick is just the length of q
yard. What is yard?
A yard has been various things, as
the length of Henry LIS arm, or the
lenght of a pendulum beating seconds
of mean time in the latitude of Lon
don; at present it is the distance, at
62 degrees Fahrenheit, between two
lines engraved upon plugs of gold tn-
serted near the ends of a certain bar
of gun-metal deposited in the Royal
Observatory at Greenwich. with copies
deposited in varies other places, in
cludtng one in the custody of the de-
partment of state at Washington.
which in turn supplies to the several
states. If our yardsticks conform with
this standard they measure true yards;
II not, somebody is cheated.
1t will be observed that this stand-
ard unit of measure is quite arbitrary.
We cannot give good reason why the
yard should be just of that lenght,
and not longer or shorter, except that
1t Is SO. that common consent has ac-
cepted this standard and we cannot
depart from it now without confusion.
The French. and many other con-
tinental nations following them, have
adopted, and similarly recorded, diff
ferent unit of length, the one-ten-mill-
ionth part of the earth's meridian
quadrant, called a metre, with decimal
divisions which is about 10 per cent.
longer than yard. The use of this
measure is optional in this country,
but it is commonly necessary to trans
late it into the corresponding English
measure. AS each is exactly deter
mined. however. and their ratio is
fixed and invariable. this translation
is not difficult. and either equally
represents the necessity of fixed
standard of measure.
The necessity for standard meas
ure of value is not less evident. We
can make that standard anything we
please, and in earlier stages of civiliza-
tion. and in the infancy of commerce
the standard varied in nearly every
country, as it still varies in few
countries the least advanced. from the
silver rupee of India to the brass
''cash" of the Chinese. But by pro.
cess of natural selection the common
consent of the commercial world has
gradually settled upon given weight
of gold as the least variable, the most
durable, compact and convenient. This
has not been the result of legislation
but of the natural operation of the hu.
man mind. There has been much
legislation directed toward the selec.
tion Of some other standard or stand.
ards, but it has been always inef-
fective, and no legislation it now con.
ceivable that could reverse this near
ly universal choice. 1t is as fixed as
the metre or the yard.
Where legislation comes in is simply
in describing and defining the unit ir
which length or weight or value is ex.
pressed. Thus the unit of value ir
this country is 1922 grains of fine
gold, called one dollar, with it's decima
divisions. In Great Britain it is 113.OOl
grains of line gold, called pound
with divisions in shillings and pence
The pound is thus equivalent to $4.SGt
and the shilling to 24.33 cents. The
common measure is the standard
weight, the Troy pound of $500 grains
and this is as carefully preserved ir
the government mints as the standard
= yard.
A The price of commodity, such as {
given weight of silver at any time, /.
4 accordingly expressed in England IL
4 pence and in America in cents. bu
a this price is practically the same, an.
N slight variations being due to the ex
u penses of commercial exchange. 1
b represents the exact weight of golt
l! that will purchase this amount of sill
yer. So with the price of wheat or o
q anything else that is freely exchange,
n between two countries. The price ma,
y be expressed in different TERMS but
Il always refers to the same standard.
il We might, if we chose, make ou
81 dollar smaller, as we could make ou
yard shorter, but its value would still
be estimated by the standard, and /
!. would simply require more dollars t
make an equal value, as it would TAX
:. more yards to make an equal length
8 In either case we should have con
s s fusion and inconvenience without an,