The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-08-07
Money and High Prices
BY w. w. Worthington

The man who comes to the discus
sion of the problem of the increased
cost of living with the notion that he
has discovered the one cause of it all
and therefore has a remedy that will
be all sufficient is doomed to disap-
pointment. There is, however, one
cause of high prices which, it seems
to me. is the greatest single cause and
so deserves more attention than it is
getting in the current countrywide
discussion. The cause referred to is
the falling value of money itself.
When we speak CT prices in the fol-
lowing discussion we refer to money
value only. not to costs in terms of
human labor or effort. For exam
pie, in 1896 1 could buy a bushel of
wheat for S5c while today | must pay
$1.15. The price of wheat has gone
up, but it may not be that the cost ot
wheat has gone up. That depends on
whether on The whole it is harder to
get $1.15 now than it was to get S5c
then. That is to say in the present
world which has learned to use money
in all exchanges, price is the amount
of money 1t takes to get what you
want while cost in the final analysts is
the amount of labor required to get
your money. Money represents cost
only when conditions are so stable
that given amount of labor will
purchase a given amount of goods
and certain amount of money stands
for that amount of goods. Price is
the relation of goods to money. Cost
is the relation of goods to effort.
One of the interesting things about
prices just now is the fact that not
only in the United States but prac-
tically all over the civilized world
prices have risen in about the same
proportion. And what is more, this
rise in prices has taken place all over
the world during the same period OF
time, that is, during the last sixteen
years 1t is true that in England
prices are not so high a level as they
are here, but they were on a lower
level to start with and the same is
true of Russia and Germany. If We
are to find the cause it surely will
not be in tiny merely local condition
like rising standard of living which
affects US more than the Russians or
the tariff which effects us but not free
trade England.
The only thing that is common to
all of us, the one event that has hap
pened to us all, Irish, Dutch and
Chinaman,' during the period mem
toned, Is the fact that the world has
during that time adopted ione conf
modify which serves as the standard
of prices, 81 sas. "a
Gold, which is the money of COM
merce the world over now, rises and
falls In value subject to the law of
supply and demand the same as eggs
and peaches. If there is more gold
In the world now than there was last
year 1T Will be cheaper and will not
buy SO much. There Is between SIS
and 75 per cent more gold in the
world today than there was in 1895.
The average price of commodities in
general has gone up little more than
6O per cent during the period.
Just here 1t should be remembered
that there are other factors viii IN
help to determine the value of dol
Ter besides the supply of and demand
for the gold itself. We will touch
upon those factors in moment. TIL.
trouble with using standard of value
which is itself changing in value is
the fact that the standard does not
seem to change That is to say, money
has no price. Price is value in terms
OF, money to the ordinary man. We
never. say of money itself, "A dollar
Is worth a Lox of apples" or Twenty
dollars is worth ton Of hay" A
dollar is a collar. Other things change
IN value to the ordinary observation.
The dollar remains constant, that Is,
1t seems to from the fact that the dol
lar Is the standard by which we meas
ure the value of all other commodt-
ties whatsoever. The only way to find