The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-03-26
sTABILIzING THE DOLLAR.

STABILIZING THE DOLLAR.
Before the war began, variations in the vaiue
of money had been recognized as the cause OF
serious evils, and economists have for q long
time been interested in plans. for making the
value of money more stable.
The great increase in gold production which
began in the 'nineties had undoubtedly lowered
the value Of the gold dollar and raised commo-
dity prices.
Gold did not escape the universal law OF COM
modify values that scarcity raises values, and
abundance depresses them.
Various plans to stabilize the purchasing
power of money have been proposed for dealing
with this. Such proposals are: An international
governmental monopoly of gold mining, in which
, the British Empire and the United States would
be the chief parties; variable tax on gold min
ing, with view to regulating the output Of gold
. q variable tax on the coinage of gold, designed
to control the volume of gold money.
The plan to which the committee on purchas-
ing power has given chief attention, however,
and which it believes to be the most promising
basis of discussion, is that which was worked
out by Aneurin williams, NJ. p, and others, is
! this:
Now that the wgr is over there will surely
arise great problems of currency. Among the
chief of these will be the problem of more stable
monetary units. If a scientific solution of this
problem is not found, unscientific solution
is apt to be tried Already schemes for currency
changes are advanced which would be fraught
with danger.
The great changes in price level from which
the world has so long suffered are changes in
the purchasing power of money, rather than in
the value of the general mass of commodities.
Our dollar, 25.8 grains of gold nineteenth fine,
10 fixed unit of weight, masquerading q
fixed unit of value.
The evils of an unstable dollar are many-evils
of confusion uncertainty, social injustice, dis
content and disorder.
Those whose incomes are fixed, by previous
contracts, or by law or by custom, suffer most.
If the cost Of living doubles the real power of
dollars to purchase living is cut in two. In such
. case man who receives payment for a debt
contracted in fixed number of dollars suffers
as though he were really paid only SO cents
on the dollar with the cost of living unchanged.
At the end of this war, millions of people in
the United States will own bonds, war savings
certificates and insurance, the total value rum
ming into many billions of savings in the form
of bank deposits or in the form Of mortgages
or bonds. Any variation in the unit in which
savings are expressed affects the interest of the
owner Of those savings.
With millions Of people to be affected and hun
dreds of billions of dollars stipulated in contracts
or otherwise fixed or understood, it becomes a
matter Of grave concern to those whose word is
worth the dollar in these contracts and under
standings.
What is needed is to stabilize, or standardize,
the dollar just as we have already standardized
the yardstick.
stable dollar should always be equivalent in
value to certain amount of commodities. The
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics collects
price quotations which show that, with our pres
ent unstable dollar, given group of important
commodities costs, now more, now less than q
dollar, depending on fluctuations in supply and
demand, including especially the supply and de-
mand Of gold. The figure which indicates each
month how the price level rises or falls is the
Index number"
The gold dollar is now fixed in weight and
therefore variable in purchasing power. What