8o 



W. G. Langivorthy Taylor 



Idealistic 

 theories of 

 deferred pay- 

 ments are 

 derived from 

 the marginal 

 theory of 

 value, but 

 that, in turn, 

 is the natural 

 outcome of 

 the old labor 

 standard of 

 value. 



accepted at all, it must be employed in this instance. The chief 

 weakness of the total utility argument is that it professes to 

 accept the marginal utility theory of value in general, but that 

 it rejects it in this instance, and thereby commits the confusion 

 of tongue of calling the total-utility theory a process of valua- 

 tion.^^ 



§ 14. The refinements discussed, quite naturally, do not enter 

 into the more popular agitation of the question of justice in 

 deferred payments. In argumentation, more is heard concerning 

 the commodity and the labor standards. The former of these 

 has already received treatment in the chapter on materialistic 

 standards; but the latter, while in itself, perhaps, material, has 

 paved the way to the conception embodied in the idealistic 

 standards. 



The thought that equal amounts of labor are always worth the 

 same has long been a favorite one. Adam Smith showed a 

 decided liking for it. The trouble is, however, that no two 

 men's labors correspond in sacrifice, even if they do in force; 

 and then, what was the use of talking about equal labor, unless 

 it was embodied in objective goods? Hence, the more refined 

 utility theories of value. 



The search for an objective measure was for a long time 

 directed by rule of thumb. Exact writers are not exact in all 

 things, for at best they must assume many premises neither 

 previously subjected to scientific test nor within the scope of 

 immediate inquiry. But it would seem as though a labor measure 

 ivas within the field of economic theory. The best Smith could 

 do was to guess that a bushel of wheat always is worth the same 

 amount of labor. " Equal quantities of labor will at distant times 

 be purchased more nearly with equal quantities of corn, the 

 subsistence of the labourer, than with equal quantities of gold and 

 silver, or perhaps of any other commodity."^® 



Manifestly this is a rough estimate and is worth as much now 



"* See the the writer's article, " Values Positive and Relative," in the 

 Annals of the American Academy, vol. IX, p. 100, sqq., for further ob- 

 jections. 



"• Wealth of Nations, bk. I, p. 35 (Bohn's ed.). 



194 



