Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-10-03
Dollar Today is Worth B Cents
 On 1896 Basis

St. Louis, Mo-, Oct. 2.-A dollar to- day is worth in purchasing power only 35 cents of the money of 1896, Dr. Irving Fischer of Yale Univers- ity told the members of the Amer ican Bankers association at today's session of their forty-fifth annual convention. The price level of the United States is now three-fold the level of 1896, he said, and "in mod ern slang, we may say almost liter ally that, as compared with the big gest dollar we ever had our present dollar looks like 30 cents.'
 "Stabilizing the Dollar in Purchas- ing Power" was the economists sub- ject but the great rise in the price level and the fall in the purchasing power of the dollar cannot be wholly explained in the usual way, he said.
 Profiteering is an effect rather than cause of rising prices," he asserted, while scarcity of goods cannot, in this country, be alleged as an import ant factor"
 Trading the rise of prices, he at tributed them chiefly to monetary and credit expansion of which war finance was prolific source. "On the whole," he pointed out, "the money in circulation in the United States rose from three and one-third billions in 1913 to five and one-half billions in 1918, and bank deposits from 13 to 25 billions, both approxi- mately corresponding to the rise in prices.
 Taking world wide view, the money in circulation in the world outside of Russia has increased dur ing the war from 15 billions to 45 billions and the bank deposits in 15 principal countries from 27 billions to 70 billions. That is, both money and deposits have trebled; and prices, on the average, have perhaps trebled also"
 The secret of the high prices, he explained, 'lies in the fact that the worlds war debts have been pulver- lzed into circulating media," this first occurring. in Europe but being felt Tn America long before we entered the war The rise of prices has hurt those with liked incomes" and help ed those who take what is left-the so-called "profiteers," he said.
 Tn spite of the general impression to the contrary, wages have not, on the average, kept up with the soaring cost of living" the speaker asserted.
 ignorant radicalism" is using high prices, Doctor Fisher said, as a lever TOT an attack on the economic system, put after the Civil war, when the country was suffering from the "op- posite alteration of our unruly dol lar there was likewise a radicalism expressed in "populism." This, he ssa1d' died out after prices stopped ialllng and he predicted the present uay radicalism will similarly expire when prices stop rising.
 AS remedy for price fluctuation ne suggested varying "the price of
 Tn other words let us vary the welght of the dollar. weighting it when the index number of prices is :oo nigh, and Tightening it when the hiaeX a, number of prices is too low. Ihls can easily be managed if we nave gold circulate by means of paper representatives, redeemable in what CT ere amount of gold bullion may be, a' . Inat date, the dollar.
 m this way, any change in the pa pPaice level is always in process of 1" 1nelhg corrected, the gold bullion dol .at IS always being approximated to constant purchasing power (i. e. a domstant do11snt price level), the circulating aoiaaTs certificates are redeemable ta a,la hence equal in purchasing power tIo t1 ehls amount of gold, and finally sn' sne credit structure (assuming a tWu1! tUano system) is also kept from fluc- ;I;aag ;I;a.ing Iby its relation to this stab nlzed dollar"