368 THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY. 



ure of value, fluctuations do not seriously affect individuals 

 in their cash transactions. But when debts are to run a long 

 time, as usually in tiie case of mortgage loans, the change in the 

 value of money may become very distressing either to credit- 

 ors or debtors, according as prices rise or fall. The change in 

 the value of United States money which occurred between 1861 

 and 1863-64 worked great hardship to creditors; those which 

 have been taking place since have worked great hardship to 

 debtors. In the case of public debts, usually running for a 

 long term of years, the difference may become very great. It 

 would, in 1898, have required the sale of forty per cent more 

 commodities to pay the national or any private debt than 

 would have paid debts to the same amount in 1870. It is 

 really over money as a standard of deferred payments that 

 political controversy principally rages. 



We are continually speaking of money as a "standard." 

 Now a "standard" is supposed to be something which does 

 not vary, and as a matter of fact it is claimed by some that 

 money, or at least gold, does not vary, but that the variation 

 of prices is merely an indication of the variation of the value 

 of commodities. There must be some way of settling this 

 preliminary matter or we can not get on at all. It is evident 

 that gold and silver are "commodities," as much as wheat or 

 iron, for they are constantly bought and sold in the market as 

 bullion, without reference to their use as money. It is claimed, 

 however, that on account of their great value they are care- 

 fully preserved, that the waste is small, and that the accumu- 

 lations of ages have now become so enormous that the annual 

 additions, however large, have but a trifling effect on the total 

 volume. Wheat, on the contrary, is consumed almost as fast 

 as produced, so that price is immediately and greatly affected 

 by the annual supply, and that as to iron, while comparatively 

 indestructible, it is so cheap, and used in such enormous quan- 

 tities for purposes for which demand is constantly changing, 

 that this, also, constantly varies in value. Taking these as 

 illustrations it has been claimed that, while perhaps not 

 actually stable, the precious metals, and especially gold, are 

 so much more stable than any other known substance as to 



