76 



JJ\ G. Langworthy Taylor 



or to combine 

 charity with 

 competition. 

 To observe 

 high business 

 standards is 

 not charity; it 

 is honesty. 



The analysis 

 of justice be- 

 tween debtor 

 and creditor, 

 so far, affirms 

 that the ques- 

 tion is one of 

 utilities rather 

 than of goods. 



tion. It leads into a broader and a better field than that of 

 economics. The lesson of the foregoing considerations is that 

 charity should not be confounded with competition. It cannot 

 be promoted by sweeping interference with the organic laws of 

 trade. General eleemosynary measures may undoubtedly be 

 taken in favor of the unfortunate, but they should be such as 

 supplement and do not interfere Avith that open contest which is 

 industry and finance. Estimable persons meet with disaster or 

 slowly sink under burdens to which they are unequal. They 

 generally are and best may be assisted privately by friends. For 

 the large classes that have no friends, uniform measures of 

 relief may be, and often are taken, fortunately, both by public 

 and by private benevolence. The first concern of the charity 

 worker, however, is to find the needs of each indiz'idiial case. 

 The principal precaution in the exercise of charity should be that 

 it should not interfere with the active world of business competi- 

 tion. For instance, the raising of laborers' wages by public 

 grant, directly or indirectly, has been found to be injurious 

 equally to laborers and to employers. 



§ 12. So much for the academic discussion as to whether, 

 without reference to the rate of interest, justice is done to debtor 

 and creditor by a return of equal utilities of some sort involving 

 a simple operation upon the level of prices. The analysis of 

 the obligation in a case of deferred payment has been correctly 

 made, so far as to say that the debtor in obedience to social, 

 organic law does tend to return to the creditor an equal value — 

 equal because privately and " freely " agreed upon, and also 

 equal because deeply influenced by the normal calculations of the 

 *' economic man." 



Right on this point, however, a diflference of opinion arose at 

 the time of the *" free-silver campaigns " when discussion was rife 

 among economists, as well as politicians, upon the question of 

 debtors' rights. Naturally, students who were most closely in 

 sympathy with the bimetallists desired such an issue of theo- 

 retical discussion as would raise prices most, while those who 

 stood more closely in touch with the gold-standard contention 

 tried to work out a plan which should raise prices as little as 



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