VALUE 



6025 



VAMPIRE 



Stuart Mill there have been numerous changes 

 in the theory of value. Mill said that value is 

 the command which the possession of a thing 

 gives over purchasable commodities in general. 

 But a coat may sell for the equivalent of 100 

 loaves of bread this year, and /or 150 loaves 

 next year; for 100 square feet of glass this year 

 and only fifty square feet next year. Mill was 

 unable to say whether the value of the coat 

 was more or less in a year's time; only if the 

 coat, for some reason, exchanged for less of all 

 commodities could we say that its value had 

 fallen. This is a cumbersome method of stat- 

 ing the fact, which is now generally accepted by 

 economists, that value is relative to a fixed 

 standard. This standard is money, and value in 

 terms of money is price. Value and price are 

 constantly interchanged in popular language, 

 but they are not the same thing. 



Value and Utility. In order to possess value 

 in this sense a commodity must have utility 

 and scarcity. Ordinarily when men speak of 

 value they mean the usefulness of an article, 

 but in economics value and utility are differ- 

 ent. The utility of an object is its value in use, 

 the measure of its necessity to man, while the 

 value of an article is measured by its power 

 to create effective demand for it, by the sacri- 

 fice which a man is willing to make to obtain it. 

 The demand must be effective ; it must be more 

 than a wish. Some commodities may be use- 

 less in the ordinary sense of the word, yet they 

 may have value beyond the power of many 

 people to possess them. Beautiful paintings, 

 rare books and gems are examples of this class; 

 Rosa Bonheur's painting, The Horse Fair, once 

 sold for $290,000, is an example ; a single book, 

 a Bible printed by Gutenberg, sold for $50,000. 



But even usefulness is not enough to make a 

 commodity valuable. For example, nothing 

 is more indispensable to man than air, but no- 

 body buys and sells air. In most parts of the 

 United States water is plentiful ; in most cities 

 and in dry regions, many people buy wafer. 

 Besides being useful, a commodity must require 

 effort to obtain it. if it is to have value. 



Supply and Demand. In one sense value is 

 found in the law of supply and demand. Other 

 factors being equal, value increases with the 

 rise in demand, and decreases with increase 

 in supply. If the commodities may be pro- 

 '1 at a constant cost, the cost of production 

 determines the value. For example, if the mar- 

 ket value is not high enough to COV.T tin- cost 

 of production, some mm ra will transfer 



their activities to other industries, thus causing 



a decrease in the supply, followed by a rise in 

 value. This is usually called the cost of pro- 

 duction theory of value. 



Labor Theory of Value. There is another ex- 

 planation of value, the so-called labor theory. 

 This theory is now not considered of scientific 

 importance, but historically it deserves atten- 

 tion. Adam Smith argued that in a primitive 

 society the amount of labor used in producing 

 an article was the measure of its value. This 

 theory was taken by Karl Marx and others as 

 the basis of scientific socialism. Labor alone, 

 said Marx, creates value, and capital merely 

 takes from labor its just fruits. This argument 

 disregards articles made, at fluctuating labor 

 cost, articles which are unique and cannot be 

 reproduced, and articles which nature supplies 

 in quantities insufficient to meet the demand. 

 That labor is necessary to create value is true, 

 but most economists agree that capital is also 

 needed. W.F.Z. 



Consult Davenport's Value and Distribution; 

 Smart's Introduction to the Theory of Value. 



VALVE, a term applied to various me- 

 chanical devices to control the flow of fluids 

 in pipes or vessels. In physiology the word is 

 applied to similar natural formations, such as 

 the heart valves. There are several forms of 

 valves, including the (1) automatic, which are 

 opened and closed by the pressure and back- 

 pressure of the fluid, as those in the hydraulic 

 press, the pump and the heart; (2) nonauto- 

 matic, which are operated by hand or some out- 

 side force, as those in the water faucet and the 

 pinchcock, or the valves of musical instru- 

 ments; (3) sliding, like those of a steam-engine 

 cylinder. 



VAM'PIRE, according to a superstition still 

 found among the Russians and the people of 

 Southeastern Europe, a corpse which comes 

 from its grave at night to suck the blood of 

 living people, especially of young persons. Ac- 

 cording to the absurd belief, so quietly does it 

 work tli.it tin- victim is not aware of what is 

 happening, hut gradually wastes away and dies. 

 Then the corpse becomes a vampire. But it is 

 not only innocent persons who have been 

 preyed upon by vampires who become those 

 horrible creatures at death; witches, suicides 

 and certain criminals also receive at death the 

 power to prey upon humanity. The only way 

 to prevent the crimes of a vampire is to dig 

 up the corpse, bum the head and heart, and 

 bury the body with a stake through it. It was 

 long the custom to bury suicides and criminals 

 with a stake driven through their vitals. 



