Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1899-09-28
VALUE AND STANDARDS.

rxnndieucy, = ID recenb ISSUE VI tHe
rrsarning Post, you stated that tho
iinited States Supreme Court held,
On' Constitutional grounds, that there
ou no such thing as a standard OF
V W, that neither % $40 grains of
'.andard gold, nor any other substance,
shonld Of could be a unit Of value, be-
wa value was an ideal thing. This
e''''v rot a mere obiter dictum. 1t was
N, g"' basic principle upon which the de-
csion rested, :
;,a 10 this decision are eminently sound |
~. ", uroper, and it appears incredible
a hat such body of men could dis
,asard their high office so wilfully as to
While or to render decision at
Ts,;ance with ordinary common sense.
+ I'ha IA members of the Supreme Court re
,sive n salary Of $40, 900 year apiece,
+ Sgl 80 grains of fine gold Iexcepting
ia Chief Justice, who receives 80, 800, ]
which is the amount at which the gov
.,rment "yalues'' their services. Yet,
II there is no such thing as value, /"
thclr decisions can have no 'valne," SO
Thy should they be employed by the
QoyprnmentY
ii, 10 your opinion. the following,
though depressing somewhat from the
snbiact in question, is closely enough
connected with it to merit place in
tbe columns of the Evening Post,
pIease publish it 10 the interests of
sound money.
Value expresses the relative worth Of
ANYTHING in terms of something else;
ior all values are relative. And, be-
cause they are relative, it is absolutely
necessary to have standard by which
the worth of the various commodities,
including labor and professional knowl-
edge, shall be estimated, and also, q
unite OF value for the purpose of cal
Cuating and expressing in uniform
way tho worth of stated amount OF
ANYTHING that may be exchanged; it is
necessity caused by the requirements
Of trade.
Both the standards and units of value
are entirely arbitrary, which is evil
denced by the fact that different
cations of the world have chosen diff
ierent substances for their standards of
value and different amounts or qualities
Of these substances for their units of
value. Such of these nations as are
commonly conceded to he the most en-
lightened and are the most prosperous
commercially, have chosen gold as the
substance best suited for standard OF
value; yet very few of them have
chosen the same amount of this stan
dard rs their unit of value; and it is
largely because of this variation in the
exchange value money value) of these
different units. and the lack of knowl-
ege on the cart of the public at large Of
the one underlying principle which
governs them all, that there is so much
confusion of thought regarding money,
even among those who ought to know
tetter.
This underlying principle is simply
the fact that, under free coinage, tne
money vaue of legal tender coins is alb
solutely and precisely the same as thai
Of an equal amount of the same meta
in the form of bullion. Many people
will deny this, but only because the,
are blind ,wilfully, sometimes) to thu
real facts.
Such people will, also, claim tina
gold does not fuctuate in value be
cause it is always worth s20.67 pc
ounce: or else they say the Bank o
England fixes its value because tina
Institution Of inquiry (?) will pay e.
lis lOlsd. per ounce for it (less sinai
coinage charge). They claim, TOO, tina
a dollar" and a pound sterling" ar
definitely fixed values or purchasin
lowers when,. as matter of fact, the
are simply definitely fixed weights of
commodity that have constantly chang
Ing purchasing powers,
To illustrate, the dollar OF the Unite
States is 25.S grs. of standard gold
which Is $40 fine, hence it contain
1922 grs. of pure gold, and. therefore
anonnce is said to be as many dollars
as % - are contained in 4S0 grs. / OF
troy Or 2067 "dollars;' an ounce {
hue gold is commonly said to be wort
2G7 dollars" Cor $40. 67) but this
done simply because it is 20. CT times {
much gold as is contained in one "do
lar"
Similarly, the British coinage WI
require that 20 pounds troy of standaI
gold ill-12 fine) shall be coined I'M
@4l9 soyereigns pounds sterling; hem
Il is 1927 grains Of standard gol'
or lib grains Of fine gold. and
sovereign is worth" "a. Sc, simply al
solely because it contains A. Sc times
much gold as is contained in one dc
lar %. 22xi. sc equals 113) and in pa
Ing "a. Sc for el, one simply exchang
gold for gold, weight for weight, c
which is the same thing in CONNIE
clal sense, one exchanges gold value I
gold value in the proportion in viii
gold is contained in the two kinds
coins
In proof of the fact that gold coin.
We'll as gold bullion, fluctuateS in 9
change value, an ounce of gold, or 20,
dollars, will today buy only about
ION OF iron; whereas, year or
since, it would have bought two ton
hence, as compared with iron, gold
only worth half as much now as 1t "
year ago. This is also true in
greater or less degree if it is compar
with copper, lead, tin, zinc and sol
other commodities; still, it would SCI
mat the supreme Court of the Unit
States should admit that it has lit
value even now.
:. BY following out the above princlp
N%i'l be found that the gold coins
each nation are valued in terms of
gold coins of the other nations precis
IN proportion to the gold contents
each coin, and that the exchange va
Or purchasing power Of any gold coin
precisely the same as an equal amol
OF gold in the form of bullion. 4
stamp of the mint adds nothing VIII
eyer to its purchasing power. Hen
me money value Of gold coin is
actly the same as its commodity val
,Now,i we substitute the free coin
OF silver for the free coinage Of 20
We will have a similar condition
affairs for tho c;lu.r N c,,nh coins
be worth as money only what
bullion.
As an illustration, silver in Mexic'
Morth Sl.27 per ounce: and yet, ~
mo fILafa tho, r,..,...,.i tb