396 PAPER MONEY AND A PROTECTIVE TARIFF. 



long, no more and no less, made of solid material that just holds its 

 own, and not of india rubber, expansible and contractible, of one 

 length to-day and another to-morrow, and nobody knows what 

 length the next time. 



This very dollar bill has fluctuated in value as compared with a 

 gold dollar all the way from thirty-five cents up to ninety-three cents 

 and a fraction; and yet, we have been calling it a dollar all the 

 while; we have been estimating our property in these dancing dol 

 lars; we have been buying when the dollar was at one value, and 

 selling when it has been at another; a bushel measure holding three 

 pecks at one time, four pecks at another time, and five pecks at an 

 other, is much more sensible than such a variable dollar, inasmuch 

 as the bushel only measures grain, while the dollar, in the way of 

 estimate, bargain, or sale, attempts to measure all values whatso 

 ever. During the year 1873 there was a variation of thirteen per 

 cent, in the value of this paper dollar as compared with gold from 

 one hundred and six and one half to one hundred and nineteen and 

 one half, and now almost back again. These constant fluctuations 

 in paper money and they are inherent in it unless the paper is in 

 stantly convertible into gold make it abominable as a measure of 

 value for everybody, and particularly for farmers. An inconvertible 

 paper money always depreciated and always variable is worse for 

 farmers than for almost anybody else; first, on the ground of its 

 depreciation, and second, on the ground of its variability. As the 

 value of money goes down, of course general prices tend to rise; 

 but, unfortunately, they do not rise equally, nor in equal times; and 

 some prices do not rise at all. For example, manufactured goods 

 are quickest to experience a rise of price owing to a depreciation of 

 the currency, because as a rule manufacturers are intelligent men, 

 and know the tendency of depreciated money to depreciate more, 

 and thus hasten to insure themselves by putting a higher price on 

 their goods. Wages rise much more slowly than goods, and never 

 proportionably, because laborers do not well understand the situa 

 tion, and never act quickly enough to insure themselves; and so 

 they are always great sufferers from a depreciated money. Heal 

 estate rises slowly and irregularly, though at times tumultuously, 

 under such money, and never on the average so high as manufac 

 tured goods rise; while agricultural products, some parts of which 

 are exported to foreign countries, scarcely rise in price at all. The 

 reason for this is, that the foreign gold price of that part which is 

 exported largely determines the home price of the whole crop. 

 There is only one wholesale price of wheat of the same grade in 

 New York city, whether it is for export or whether it is for home 

 consumption. The gold price in Liverpool determines the currency 

 price in New York just so long as any wheat is exported; and the 

 price in New York determines the price in Chicago and Omaha. If 

 the premium on gold, in consequence of the use of a depreciated 

 currency, were as high as the average rise of prices arising from 

 that depreciation, it would not be so unjust; but it never is; gold is 

 generally the cheapest thing a-going, so soon as an inferior currency 

 has demonetized it and thrown it out of demand; and the whole 

 consequence to farmers of the use of such a poor money is, that 

 they have to pay a great deal more for all that they need to buy, and 



