2 W. G. Langworthy Taylor 



social category. To deny that there is a general policy of 

 currency founded upon scientific generalization is as radical 

 as to deny that there is any general scientific policy of society 

 at all. It will be best, therefore, to begin with a short reca- 

 pitulation of the objections that have been offered to the 

 studies of some economists, which look toward a general and 

 final solution of the question of deferred payments. 



In the typical paper cited the commodity standard is ob- 

 jected to, not because it excludes the creditor from any share 

 in the social surplus when prices fall, but because it is impossi- 

 ble to be sure whether gold has risen or fallen with respect to 

 other commodities. It is impossible to predict what value will 

 be attached, in the future, to commodities and groups of com- 

 modities separately, while the conception itself of a general 

 rise or fall of values is questioned. 



The labor standard is objected to, not because it excludes the 

 debtor from sharing in the social surplus when prices fall, 

 but because it is impracticable to settle upon the person whose 

 labor is to form the standard. Besides, it makes a great dif- 

 ference whether the labor has been expended in an industry 

 that has been affected by improvements or not. In the latter 

 case the debtor is injured by paying in articles that have risen 

 in value. Labor can afford no standard except by comparing 

 articles produced. 



Marginal utility is rejected as of no use for a comparison of 

 the values of different periods, not because there is no such 

 thing as marginal utility, but because the moment you depart 

 from a comparison of different specific species of commodities, 

 and attempt to estimate the whole, you are deprived of your 

 material standard. Wholly deprived of material standard, the 

 investigator must fall back upon an absolute, subjective, or 

 psychologic standard; but none such has yet been invented. 

 Moreover, the final utility theory can be of very restricted ap- 

 plication in any case: in constructing a scale of effective wants, 



164 



