72 



IV. G. Lang-worthy Taylor 



A mistake 

 of an indi- 

 vidual, in a 

 matter under 

 organic con- 

 trol of society, 

 cannot be 

 twisted into a 

 case of 

 injustice. 



The ethics of the situation may be tested by the hypothesis of 

 a debtor and creditor who have calculated entirely erroneously as 

 to the course of prices, and as to the fluctuation of the com- 

 modity in which the debtor, for instance, deals. The consequence 

 of this miscalculation is that one of the parties to the bargain is 

 grievously prejudiced and that the other receives an unexpected 

 acquisition of wealth. The naive theory, which undoubtedly is 

 present in the mind of the man who votes for cheap money, and 

 of the professor who offers a fine-spun system of keeping the 

 price level even, is that, under the circumstances, a grave in- 

 justice has been done. 



However, in sound morality, nothing of the sort is true. Men 

 are social beings, living under the institutions of society, and 

 free to act within certain limits. The rate of interest, un- 

 doubtedly, is a prevailing fact, and so is the price of potatoes. A 

 dealer in potatoes can neither obtain nor be forced to give a 

 price departing widely from what is known as the " market price." 

 When potatoes are $i.oo a bushel, the housekeeper doubtless feels 

 aggrieved; but that does not constitute a case of injustice, from 

 any social point of view. The potatoes were cultivated under 

 circumstances that were looked upon as fair. Their high price 

 was probably due to a short crop. If the railroad company has 

 suddenly put up the tariff on potatoes, that may be unfair; but, 

 in the absence of some anomaly of this sort, there is nothing 

 unjust in the mere fact that the rise in potatoes will curtail the 

 expenditure of the housekeeper in other directions. 



But that is the proposition of the " reformer " in the matter of 

 prices. According to him the fluctuation of prices, in and of 

 itself, is unfair. But a, law of the legislature scaling debts is 

 also unfair, because it applies indiscriminately to all debtors and 

 creditors, no matter what their relative conditions ; and still more 

 because it is an arbitrary interference with the calculations that 

 men make, both socially and individually. The rate of interest, 

 it is true, individuals cannot affect to a very great extent, as it is 

 a result of social action, namely, of the competition of lenders 

 and borrcnvers in the money market. Each has had his share in 

 this contest, and the organic law of society is that each must 



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