Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1917-10-12
PROF. IRVING FISHERS HITCHCOCK
LECTURES ON PRICE MOVEMENTS
(By Prof. Irving Fisher Of Yale University

has greatly intensified these evils and
there is every prospect that il will intensi-
fy them very much more.
So far a. we subscribe to our war loans
out Of money borrowed M the bank, that Is
out of an increase of deposit currency, and
not out Of real savings, We are a. has been
said. merely adding TO initiation. raising
the cost Of living and making the poor
pay for the war, even though they be not
nominally taxed. Paper money has been
well called a "forccd loan and deposit in
%flation amounts to the same thing.
We have all become, against our will,
spectators in gold and, although in every
gamble. some one j. bound to win. the net
efefct. a. in all gambling. j. a distinct loss
Ia the community. Price movements,
, whether downward or upward. produce a
subtle but great and unjust shift of wealth
from one class 10 another.
SOME EXAMPLES.
An example or two will help u UNDER
: stand the Injustice. Consider a servant
Girl who put a hundred dollars in the saw
ing bank in 1896. Today if she has al
lowed il to accumulate Mt 31-3 per cent
interest she has two hundred dollars. But
when she tries 10 spend her two hundred
dollar. she finds that everything costs
double what il did in 1896. Thus, she gets
for her entire two hundred dollars today
only ~ much a. she could have bought for
one hundred dollars at the beginning. Where
j. her interest, She has been without the
intention Of anybody cheated out Of her
interest. through the depreciation Of the
| dollar in terms Of which her savings bank
account ha~ been kept.
The bond holder reaches n similar re-
suit. Ii h chas been living on his interest
the purchasing power If hi> principal has
been decreasing 20 that he has really been
living on capital. To keep his capital un-
IMPAIRED he would have had TO %rcinvest
all his interest.
Ii j. very cold comfort TO the bond
holder. the savings bank deposition. the
~alaried man. the wage-carncr and the
other losers to assure them that the aver
age man has not lost: that some classes
have gained III the expense OF hrs class or
that. once upon Il time. namely ctwcen
1873 To 1896 hi father and grandfather
and Others Of his own class were the gain
err.
I Ii will do no good. of course. TO rail at
the lucky winners in the lottery. The
fault l. not theirs. While they have. in a
sense. picked their ncighbor>' pockets
ncithcd they nor their victims understand
the fact.
Discomfort.
Nevertheless the great ignorant down
troddcn mass of people. not being able to
could BE- i~niurinc them and helping others.
are growing daily more suspicious and
nursing 4 .rudgc against the world. Hence
We find secondary evils springing from
this Observation-Disclosures unrest. strikes.
class hatred. riots and reckless legislation
much of which H. not only useless but in
furious.
Moreover price fluctuations cause alter
nate crises and deprcS~ionS. An upward
price movement u apt to end in a crash
after which there i u long fall. causing an
industrial depression followed by another
climb To- the next crest. Social Justice de-
mand~ that W put 4 stop 10 y monetary
situation which i To blame for 30 many
GREAT iniu-tirr~ and evils