The Washington times., 1934-07-14


wages paid, the
better business &
will be.
Some people Lswi" H"nsy
seem to think that wages can be
created by law-or that somehow
and somewhere there exists an un-
limited fund for paying wages.
SO, they say, if we just put more
and more men on the payrollS,
purchasing power will be created.
They want shorter and shorter
hours, apparently for two rea-
sons: % more persons will be
''given" some work, and ~ these
persons will have more leisure for
spending.
But IL all this were logical,
the thing t. do would be to stop
work altogether, and at the
same time raise wages indef-
initely-say to $1OO . day. Then
everybody would have leisure,
and plenty Of money to spend.
II suppose that we would then
raise taxes to enable the pay
ment of wages, since labor it.
self would be producing n0thing.)
Again many people seem TO
think that anything can be
money, and that money does not
have to have any value in itself.
The notion that government by
fiat can "give" anything a "mone-
fary value, is widespread. just
"'pass q law" and we can make
money out of silver, paper, hay,
or dirt.
This notion assumes that money
is not really a measure of value,
but is Just a means Of juggling
price quotations. You see, when
we use a yardstick to measure dis
tance with, we have q definite
length of stick which everybody
can see, use, and agree upon. The
stick itself has length. Just so, if
money is to measure value, it
must have definite value itself.
And that cannot be given to it by
government any more than the
value Of wheat or cotton can be
''fixed."
To reduce the value of the
dollar is exactly like reducing the
size of the bushel basket. If we
were to do the latter, we would
not increase the quantity of wheat
in the country. We could not
make the farmer any better
off-unless he could fool the
miller for a while, and get as
much for a small buShel as for a
large one.
Just so, If we devalue the gold
dollar, or substitute 35-cent silver
dollars for it, or otherwise cheap
en- it, we will find that we have
no more values in the country.
-"'PriceS" (meaSured in the smaller
dollars) will rise, but it will take
more dollars to buy things. No
one but a few SPECTATORS will be
any better off.
Then there is the notion that
prices need not correspond to real
value, but can be fixed at will.
Many people seem to think that
prices are not the result Of de-
mand and supply, but can be
made the cause Of demand and
supply.
You would think, to hear them
talk, that prices came into the
world first, and that sometime
later on people began to produce
things (Supply) and to consume
them demand. So they say,
"Let us fix a price Of $1.OO on oil,
16 cents on cotton, and 8 cents on
copper: then what producers turn
out at those prices is the supply,
and what consumers buy is the
demand"
But that is putting the cart
before the horse; since price, if
real, mus measure value, and
value can be known only by al
lowing supply and demand to
work out a balance.
According to the price.fixing
notion, one could fix any price
on anything-say $1,000 a pound
for common dirt. Why not?
All this Is "wish thinking" It
Is selecting the results we would
like, and passing a law" re-
gardless Of casual conditions.
Who is to draw the line be-
tween work and leisure, cheap
money and bad money, real
value and high price? If re-
cent schemes are logical, why
not 60 ahead and stop all work,
pay everybody high "wages"
by taxation, reduce the dollar
to 1 cent, print $1O0, 100000
900, and fix all prices-say oil
At $40 . barrel, and cotton and
copper at 81 q pound?
Do you really believe that logic
Is out Of date, that results don't
have causes, and that legislation
can replace the laws Of nature?
MnnnY'c pANc