SECTION D MONEY AND CREDIT 



(Hall 5, September 24, 3 p. m.~) 



CHAIRMAN: MR. B. E. WALKER, Canadian Bank of Commerce, Toronto. 

 SPKAK:ERS : MR. HORACE WHITE, New York City. 



PROFESSOR J. LAWRENCE LAUGHLIN, University of Chicago. 

 SECRETARY: PROFESSOR JOHN CUMMINGS, University of Chicago. 



OUR MONETARY EQUILIBRIUM 



BY HORACE WHITE 



[Horace White, Journalist, b. Colebrook, New Hampshire, August 10, 1834. 

 Graduate of Beloit College, 1853. Editor of Chicago Tribune, 1864-74; con- 

 nected with New York Evening Post, from 1883, as editorial writer, manager, 

 and editor-in-chief; resigned as editor in 1903, but still editorially connected 

 with the paper and president of the publishing company. Author of Money 

 and Banking, illustrated by American History; The Roman History of Appian 

 of Alexandria. Editor of Bastiat's Sophismes Economiques.] 



Two months ago a political convention met in this city to nominate 

 candidates for President and Vice-President, and after struggling 

 a day and a night over the monetary plank of its platform, it decided 

 to say nothing whatever on the subject. This action was equivalent 

 to saying that the standard of value is no longer a matter of dispute. 

 Monetary equilibrium has returned to us after a disturbance of more 

 than forty years. This is merely saying that mental equilibrium 

 has been restored on the subject of money, for the disturbance has 

 been psychological and sociological rather than economical. Every 

 person in his individual capacity in his own oixoixpia., has always 

 preferred gold to irredeemable paper; but multitudes in their 

 collective capacity have preferred the latter to the former, and by 

 carrying this preference into their political action caused the dis- 

 turbance. The dispute has been a difference of opinion as to the 

 meaning of the word " dollar," some holding that it signified a 

 fixed quantity by weight of the metal gold, while others contended 

 that it meant also the government's stamp impressed upon various 

 things. 



In this prolonged contest the borrowing and lending sections of 

 the Union were arrayed on opposite sides, as was shown by the 

 votes which they cast. The states having a relatively dense popu- 

 lation and concentration of capital adhered to the gold standard. 

 They accepted irredeemable paper as a temporary necessity, but 

 were inflexibly opposed to any lasting change in the definition of 

 the dollar. Those states in which contrary conditions prevailed 

 were in favor of cheaper materials for the making of money, because 



