property it is the same thing in effect. The proposal, if adopted, would simply extend the range within which the banks could control the fluctuations in prices by alternately increasing and diminishing the volume of money in existence and available for business.

443. The Multiple Standard.-In order to avoid the injury done by such fluctuations in the value of money it has been proposed to establish, instead of either the single standard or double standard, what is called the multiple standard. This proposal is that the average price of a large number of articles in the market shall be depended on to fix the volume of money, and that the government shall issue as much money, or have authority to retire at any time, as much money as may be necessary to maintain this standard of average prices. If the price of a single article varies there may be some reason relating to the methods of its production or to the nature of the season, or to the demand for its use, to account for the change, but if the average price of a large number of the articles most in use varies in a free market, this can be accounted for only by too much or too little money. In this way it has been thought that a sufficient basis could be found for the effective guidance of congress in their responsible control of the volume of money.8

infinite complexities, giving extent and importance to financial enterprise.

"It would be marvelous if those who became initiated into all the mysteries of financial manipulation did not learn with the rest how to absorb a large amount of these various representations of value. No field of speculation offers such temptations, and, while a lack of tact and cunning is sure to be attended with ruin, the successful are loaded with wealth. Such a field is never without its organized monopolists, who do nothing but watch their chances to sweep down upon the fruits of human toil and with a stroke of the pen brush into their money drawers the patient labor of years. Though a somewhat hazardous one, speculation in paper obligations is an extensive business, a successful mode of acquisition, and a dangerous monopoly."-Ward: Dynamic Sociology, Vol. I., pp. 592-3.

8. "It appears to be a natural law that when social development has reached a certain stage, and capital has accumulated sufficiently,

It is evident that under such an arrangement the relation of the volume of money to average prices could be controlled, but it is equally evident that the average prices themselves could be seriously affected by the action of the trusts which control so large a number of the leading articles of the market.

444. Summary.-Part I.-No Solution Under Capitalism. It is contended, then, that under capitalism there is no possible solution of the money question, and this for the following reasons:

1. A national paper currency would be absolutely arbitrary in its relation to exchange and would depend on congress to fix its volume, and hence its value, without any possible means of otherwise maintaining a stability of average prices. An act of congress changing the volume of money, at any time, would change average prices. Every variation in average prices is an injury to someone.

2. The cost of producing gold and silver, either or both of them, varies from time to time and the volume of gold and silver as related to the volume of business is constantly changing, and each such change affects average prices. Every variation in average prices in an injury to someone.

3. The hoarding of gold changes the volume of money as related to the volume of business, to the benefit of the creditors, just as the coming of new gold from the gold fields tends to the debtors' relief. There is no way by which the volume of the new gold can be fixed. It depends on the fortune of the mines. There

the class which has had the capacity to absorb it shall try to enhance the value of their property by legislation."-Adams: Law of Civilization and Decay, p. 29.

9. "The pursuit of an ideal money which is unchangeable in its relations to other things is as idle as the search for the philosopher's stone, or the attempt to find a fixed point in the solar system."Charles A. Conant, in Journal of Political Economy, June, 1903, p. 414.

is no way by which to prevent the hoarding of gold, both new and old. It depends at one time on the fears and at another time on the rascality of those who have it. Every change in the volume of money as related to the volume of business affects average prices. Every variation in average prices is an injury to someone.

4. Bank currency, authorized by law, whether secured by national bonds or any other kind of assets, simply places the business of the country in the hands and at the mercy of a private corporation. The management of such a corporation would have to be more thoroughly disinterested than any like group of men the world has yet known or they would use their power to manipulate the volume of money expressly for the purpose of affecting average prices. Every change in average prices which would thus be brought about would be to the injury of the industrial world for the further profit of its money masters.

5. The multiple standard would be no solution of the money question. The theory is mathematically faultless. It depends for its effectiveness upon an average of prices created and continued, in a free market, by dealers engaged in an effective competition with each other. There is no such market, and unless human life is to be simply a horse race, managed solely to see which one can get ahead of all the rest, no such market is to be desired. Under the market as it is and as it is likely to remain, even with the multiple standard in force, if that were possible, the prices of trust-controlled articles could be continuously changed, arbitrarily and without reason. Every such change would affect the average of prices, and under the multiple standard the volume of money, and so again the prices of articles not in the trust would fluctuate by the action of the trust and the power of the trust not only to arbitrarily advance its own prices, but, through controlling

the money, disastrously to affect the prices of articles of trade not otherwise subject to trust control, and hence, would defeat the purposes of the multiple standard.

And, therefore, there is no solution of the money question under capitalism which does not leave the power of money in the hands of those who gamble with loaded dice and whose stakes involve the welfare of the world.

445. Summary.-Part II.-Socialism Will End the Controversy.-On the other hand it is contended that Socialism will abolish exchange for profits and will dispose of the use of money of intrinsic value and subject to private manipulation as an essential in exchange, and so make an end of the money question by providing a way by which each may exchange his own labor power for the products of all others, practically on a basis of exact and equal justice to all, and this for the following reasons:

1. Under capitalism one's ability to get things out of the market depends on his possession of money, which is always an uncertain and imperfect record of someone, somewhere, some time, having put something into some market. Under Socialism the record on which one will depend for his power to draw things from the public stores will be definite and certain. It has been seen that the real thing exchanged is labor power, and under Socialism the record of labor power expended will be direct, simple and certain. No one can predict what the details of the distribution of the future will be, but it does not matter whether labor certificates, pass books, or whatever the device may be by which the credits for labor will be made available for daily use. The money now in existence could be so used. But whatever is used the certificates or the dollars will come into circulation because of the performance of labor; they will go out of circulation by being

surrendered for goods to be used. They will make a record of production in one instance and of consumption in the other. Their volume will depend on the labor performed, and the extent of their claims will always be limited by the goods actually in store. These goods can be obtained only on account of labor performed, or because of childhood or old age or disability, so that the receiver of them will always be an immediate producer or a social charge, and not a social parasite.

2. As the total labor of all will be the sole claimant against all of the products of all of the workers, the only measure of value, that is of power in the market, will be labor itself. If things have any power to exchange themselves for other things, it would necessarily be at the cost in labor of producing the other things, for when the cost in labor could procure the other things by surrendering certificates of labor for them, none would exchange their goods at any other rate than the general average of the labor cost of producing them. The only power over the things in the market would be the labor which put them there. Then, as now, only the expenditure of human life can put things into the market. Then, but not as now, only those who put some share of their lives into filling the market could have any share in emptying it. Only those who gave something of life in the creation of goods could secure something of life in the form of goods.

3. Under Socialism there will be no need of loans for the purchase of productive plants. They will be owned in abundance by society for the free use of the whole body of its workers. There will be no need of loans for the purchase of goods for private stores. There will be no demand for private stores. There will be no occasion for personal loans. The able-bodied