Montana labor news., 1932-08-04
TIMELY AND UMHMELY OBSERVATIONS
By d A COALDIGGER

there is supposed to be a gold dol
lar behind every six paper dollars,
the actual value of each paper dollar
is around seventeen cents.
Now the way by which the value
of these dollars are measured is by
the intrinsic value Of the gold dollar,
which we are told, never changes.
Just what puts the intrinsic value
in gold is still a matter of dispute.
Sam ~Sourdough, old-time prospector,
claims it cost $1.23 to mine a dol
lars worth of gold dust. The way
he arrived at this figure is interest
ing. Sam says he was grub-staked
by the Miners Friend and Supply
company of Goldfield, Nevada, to
the tune of one hundred and twenty
three dollars worth Of provisions, In
Guiding a burro valued at 1928,
When Sam returned after two
months, the assayer Of the Miners
Friend and Supply company, allowed
him 500 for the fruit of his two
months labor. This left a deficit OF
s23 from which Sam deduced that
the intrinsic value of 500 in gold
is 1923. In this connection, it must
be said, however, that if Sans burrc
hadn't died, he would have come out
| even.
The Bonanza Mining & Smelling
! company, on the other hand. sets II
down in its prospectus to prospective
stockholders that over a period o.
ten years, its cost of extracting q
dollars worth Of gold was 80 cents
which leaves the intrinsic value OF
the Bonanza Mining G. Smelling
company's gold at SO cents per dol
lar. So by and large, it may he
safely said that the intrinsic value
! Of a gold dollar is whatever it costs
to produce the gold dollars, and this
in turn depends largely on such
variable factors as the cost of beans
bacon, brogans, burros, mining ma
chinery, ETC., consumer in the pro
duction of a certain quantity of gold
Now that we have established the
invariable intrinsic value of the gold
dollar, which entities it to function
as the standard measure of old
values, let's see what its effect is on
other values. For illustration, let's
take a bushel of wheat. Now a
bushel of wheat feeds so and SO
many people for so and so many
days. The food value never varies.
1t is the same the world over. But
the value of a bushel of wheat is
not measured by its food value. Nor
is it determined by the cost of beans,
bacon, br gans, mules, and machin-
cry consumed in its production as is
so clearly the case in the matter of
gold. Wheat it still measured by
the kings girth, beg pardon, the
amount of gold available at given
times for the purchase of a given
amount of wheat.
Illustration:
Germany contains Ga million hun
CRY mouths. To feed them all with
American wheat, Germany would be
compelled to export 100000 600 of
gold to America. But Germany has
barely enough gold to maintain its
precious gold standard.
Result:
(a) 100000 Germans go hun
cry.
(b) 100000 600 bushels of Amer
lean wheat remain unsold.
Co Depressing the price of all
saleable wheat to 80 cents the
bushel.
Perhaps we should console our
selves that 30-cent wheat feeds as
many people as dollar wheat. For
nothing has changed save the length
of the yard, which l admit is a little
rough on the wheat farmer who bor-
rowed a yard of dollar bills in the
reign of fat King Cal and is now
compelled to repay it with nine feet
of dollar bills in the reign of lean
King Herbert. And say, folks,
haven't we made some progress
since our fool ancestors measured