Financial Legislation and its Limitations. 



57 



in, and consequently the standard will be adjusted favorably to 

 a corporation or monopolist in a staple, so as to correct the 

 aberrations in his product more than in anybody else's. That 

 (natural or artificial) person will be able to calculate on a more 

 steady level of prices. Reformers of the multiple-standard 

 school are playing into the hands of monopolists. If "A" deal 

 in a commodity which is not included at all in the list — and, 

 ex liypothesi, ^®%ooo of the sales in a society are of articles of 

 that description — it has had no influence at all upon the level of 

 prices. He must reconcile himself to the fiction that, by means 

 of a standard composed of a limited number of other com- 

 modities, exactly the fallibility that is occasioned by the cir- 

 culating medium has been squeezed out of all prices — the price of 

 his included. No dealer, the price of whose wares had sunk, 

 would admit the justice of having his bills payable raised by one 

 per cent., because the " standard " had risen. When men 

 realized how a tabular standard worked, it would provoke an in- 

 surrection ; the multiple standard is more crafty than the tabular, 

 but could not permanently quiet complaint. 



The interference of the Tabular-Standard Bureau is unsatis- 

 factory in that it is ex post facto. It announces : " The fluctua- 

 tion in prices has been so and so." That is, of course, for the 

 benefit of the debtor, and increases uncertainty rather than de- 

 creases it for all others. But when a dealer makes his calcula- 

 tions, he is concerned about what it is going to be. He is not 

 only a debtor or a creditor or both, but is engaged in legitimate 

 speculation, buying and selling goods and manufacturing them. 

 If this " reform" is instituted, he is not permitted undisturbed to Government 

 calculate what is to be the divergence either in the level of prices interference 

 or in the price of his wares, but must also conjecture what change certainty for 

 the government experts, follotving a statutory and hence artificial 

 rule of computation, will have agreed has occurred in prices, and 

 how that may affect dealings in his commodity. Instead of 

 simplifying business it will complicate it enormously. The whole 

 community then will be gambling upon what the government 

 bureau is going to announce has been the gain or loss. 



The plain citizen would rather take his risk under free competi- 



171 



all dealers. 



