El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1920-02-03

MUCH Of trouble today IS due mainly the fact
w that most Of the people economically Ignorant
Frank A. Vandep, late president Of the National City
bank Of New York put It One Of the features
economics people inrequentIy understand is "value
The value of commodity what It is worth in meeting
human needs The price Of thing is whatever person
get for what he has for sale, in terms Of money.
Whenever certain commodity, wheat for instance is
produced in such large quantities that there is twice
Of it in the world the world needs for its me-
date the price down. but the actual value Ct the
wheat in meeting human needs remains static Il
Wheat, whether there be one hundred bushels OF a
billion bushels contributes Just much IN the way Of
nourishment One bushel VIII contribute and
less the number Of bushels be greater Therefore,
its value IS constant equally paatable Just
easily prepared and nourshing it would be
valuable than wheat as food although its price might be
entirely different.
when the supply of wheat diminshes to point where
there IS barely enough to meet the demand of onethrd
Of the esrhs inhabitants its price becomes great because
its value would be greater In fact its value to society
as whole would be less anything for the that
all could serve.
There is too another phase of price which distinguishes
It from value That the uctuaton Of the buying power
Of money The only value in money Of course is in what
It viii buy. IF have for example, billion pounds
Of marketable commodities in the world and billion
dollars money, including credit Instruments then the
average price Of those commodities would one dollar
pound. But if the amount Of money doubled It
would require two dollars to do the work Of onehs for
the reason that there would be limited amount Of things
to spend money foT The price would double but the value
would not double.
One Of the reasons Why have inflated our currency
thrice over IS that there are many things to
buy that have either luxury value speculative value
The supply Of actual uecessares has not materially IN
creased It has decreased in proportion to the population
If anything
Tbs fact that more money was needed to finance the
var made credit Necessary It possible to finance
the with the amount of currency IN existence This
credit which served the purpose of money rendered less
powerful IN its purchassbty the currency that existed
But It did not increase the value Of what was to be
bought Initiation bound remain at its present pro
artificial
substitutes for money BY production Hurting impreea-
tons AZ the shrinking dollar viii not benefit
Profit IN its simplest form is the production Of
than we actually need, leaving balance for investment
for exchange purposes saving against day when
can't produce. Profit offers the best incentive
to make more than living It is this that the So
east would take from the ground that the profit
made By the productive Of deprves the less eff
Gent or the non-produeer Of a living.
The Socialist has the mistaken idea that profit IS
form Of loot Of which there only much and that the
tersst form Of profit at which the Socialist rails
fortisso. Rent IS merely form of interest When
another mans money, either make money with it
accomplish the equivalent BY saving ourselves the sk
Of investment or the trouble Of production
It IS legitimate and economically moral that give
the other fellow the benefit his savings lust as would
out making interest charge for its and TO the
consequent sk Of its being lost would be to encourage
the nonprodueer It is wrong to benefit BY the other mans
toll and savings without TeTzrding him.
The with a net income Of 100000 many Of Us
say should either market his particular mental material
product at lower figure the bulk of his IL
come back into production by distributing It among his
employees Possibly that should be done sometimes to
certain extent but there two things to be considered
here First he required to do that to the extent
that be received than his highly paid
poyes his incentive would be lost Such would then
prefer 20 employee and thus get nd of his response
bty and his assumption risk Secondly, the large net
not boarded N tn cans but put back into
circulation further development Of industry thus pro
mi niv r1nr unnd Int r7nre