The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-31
CONTROLLING TEE MEASURE OF
VALUES.

behalf Of the Federation of Labor, to
the letter addressed TO him by Secre-
tary Gage, is Interesting not only as
the expression Of a man who wishes to
be temperate and fair minded, as he is
unquestionably honest and sincere,
but also as giving form to one of the
most significant misconceptions that
the human mind can entertain At the
very outset Of his epistle Mr.. Gompers
objects to Mr.. Cages plan as one "for
weakening the control of the national
government over that most important
Of all measures, the measure of values. -
If we can once eXtirpate from the pub
lie mird the deep-Tooted fallacy, with
out a fact or even an analogy to rest
upon, that it is within the power of
government to control" measures of
values in any way Whatsoever, we
shall have cut the Gordian knot Of the
currency question. The sentence used
by Mr.. Gompers should have suggested
tc him the impossibility of main
tanning his position. 1t refers the
mind of the reader at once to that
clause of the federal constitution which
confers upon congress the power to
coin money and regulate the value
thereof, and to fix a standard Of
weights and measures" That is all the
power that any legislative body can
have, because nothing short of a fiat of
the lob IA
power to control but to fix" In
other words, measures, whether of
value or of anything else, are not made
originally, or controlled after they are
made, by congresses or courts or any
other body short of the common con-
sent and common usage of the people
A glance at the connection in which
the words occur stamps this fact at
once beyond denial Congress has pow
er to fix a system CT weights and meas
ures. Does that give it the power to
control or regulate or in any other
manner to vary the Specification of
yard, pound or a gallon? 1t has just
as much control over the term dollar"
as it has over any other of these units
and no more. Congress can by enact
ment tomorrow. if it pleases, say that
the word pound shall hereafter be
construed in all transactions as mean
ing eight ounces. This will not change
In the slightest degree the common con-
ception of the word pound" but will
cause contracts to be drawn differently
and alter the conditions of barter.
That any act Of legislation can
make the pound other or less
than what it is by the common
consent of the public is an idea as fall
lacious as that man, by taking
thought, can add a cubit to his stature.
The control of congress over a measure
of value, or of any other measure,
ought to be limited to discover what is
the unit in universal use and to define
it by law. This simply gives precise
ness to the terms of the agreement, and
with that the legislative authority
should be content
Mr.. Gompers is an intelligent man,
the cessation Of silver coinage by the
United States alone produced a fall Of
prices. He does claim that this came
about as q consequence of the action
of the principal commercial nations Of
the world If this be granted as true,
it then follows that, if the restoration
of previous conditions be desirable, 1t
can be accomplished only by the same
agencies that wrought the change; that
is to say, as the G l o b has so many
times urged, to put silver back to the
place in coinage and commerce which
it occupied in 1873 would require the
consenting action of all the nations
which at or about that time dropped it
from the list. Laying aside this as not
the main point under discussion, we do
hope that public attention will fix itself
earnestly and sustainedly upon the
main and open fact, that no hui
man authority can juggle with conclu-
sions which have been reached by evo-
lutionary processes and accepted by
great masses of people.
If for any reason. because of the dis
covery of solid mountains of gold in
Alaska, or because of the mere belief
that such discoveries had been made,
although they had not, the mass of
the people should be convinced tomor-
row that the bullion value of the gold