266 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 163 



them in proportion to the quantities produced or 

 consumed. About a year ago I made an approxi- 

 mate determination of this kind, with the follow- 

 ing result : a certain collection of the necessaries 

 of life, representing a nearly fixed amount of 

 human labor, had the following values at different 

 periods : 1 — 



In 1876 the collection was worth $111.6(5 

 i. 1880 <« i. « » 98.37 



1884 " " " " 101.33 



Assuming that the absolute value of the above- 

 mentioned collection of the necessaries of life, 

 measured in terms of human labor, remains in- 

 variable, and that it is the standard dollar which 

 changes value, then we see that the latter did 

 really appreciate between 1876 and 1880, but 

 slightly depreciated between 1880 and 1884. 



Another test is afforded by the price of a house, 

 because, taking it altogether, it requires as much 

 labor to build a house now as it did ten or twenty 

 years ago. So far as I can learn, the cost of such 

 a building is higher now than it was ten years 

 ago, and has not diminished any for several years 

 past. I conclude, therefore, that house-builders 

 in general can, on the average, earn as many 

 standard gold dollars now in a day as they ever 

 did. 



A third test is afforded by the rate of wages. 

 Professor Hadley's ' Connecticut labor report ' 

 shows that in Connecticut the rate of wages was 

 the same in 1885 as in 1880 : hence Connecticut 

 operatives earn as many gold dollars now as they 

 did in 1880. 



Up to the present time we have actually had 

 the gold standard, since the value of our silver 

 dollars has been kept up to that standard by 

 restricting their coinage. Were we to make the 

 coinage of silver free on the present basis, it would 

 cause a sudden and disastrous fall of twenty per 

 cent in the standard. It is clear to me that this 

 should not be permitted. If any more silver is 

 coined, each dollar should contain a dollars worth 

 of metal, as measured by the standard which has 

 prevailed during the past ten years ; that is, the 

 dollar should contain about 520 grains of standard 

 or 468 of pure silver. I think all parties might 

 well agree on this policy for the present. But 

 they should all unite in demanding the creation 

 of a government commission, composed of men 

 wholly above the ordinary influence of politics, 

 to determine how the standard dollar is actually 

 changing when compared with human labor, and 

 to make known the results of their investigation 

 from time to time. Simon NEWCOMB. 



1 The table on which this is founded is given in my Prin- 

 ciples of political economy, p. 211. 



n. 



The so-called ' silver question ' is one of the most 

 complicated and difficult issues in our politics now- 

 pressing for solution. It has excited an immense 

 amount of debate which has been partisan and 

 ignorant, even beyond the ordinary run of political 

 discussion. This arises from a number of circum- 

 stances, two of which are especially important ; 

 viz., (1) that the decision of the matter involves 

 pecuniary interests of enormous extent, and (2) 

 that some of the most important facts necessary 

 to an intelligent decision are not attainable by any 

 means now within our reach. The lack of accu- 

 rate knowledge has led many to indulge in the 

 most unwarranted flights of fancy, while the feel- 

 ing that one line of action or the other might in- 

 terfere with vested interests has lent the personal 

 element so visible in all debates on the subject. 



I can do but little, in the space accorded me, 

 toward discussing the question in its broader as- 

 pect, and shall therefore limit myself to a criticism 

 of some of the most common arguments advanced 

 by those who oppose the re-establishment in this 

 and other countries of the so-called double stand- 

 ard. 



1. The attempt is made, by those who oppose the 

 re-establishment of the so-called double standard, 

 to cast a slur upon their opponents by representing 

 them as quacks who desire to try dangerous ex- 

 periments on the body of a healthy patient. This 

 is very good rhetoric, but very poor science. It is 

 only within about fifteen years that any general 

 experiment has been made in the civilized world to 

 substitute a single gold standard for the so-called 

 double standard. Since that time it would seem 

 as if there were but one phenomenon common to 

 all civilized nations, and that is, commercial and 

 industrial depression, — depression in which pro- 

 tection and free-trade countries, republics and 

 monarchies, small and large states, manufactur- 

 ing and agricultural communities, have alike 

 shared. Labor difficulties, agricultural ruin, com- 

 mercial decay, form the subject of numerous re- 

 ports and commissions in all European countries. 

 In a word, the patient is not in a healthy condi- 

 tion at all. In fact, it would appear, on a close 

 examination, as if he were in a very bad way in- 

 deed ; and it is not by any means clear that his 

 present sad state is not greatly aggravated by the 

 attempt which the gold doctors made some fifteen 

 years ago to discard the treatment which had 

 prevailed in this sphere for centuries previous. 

 So far, then, from being open to the charge of 

 wishing to make unnecessary experiments, the 

 silver doctors may claim that they merely ask for 

 a return to a course of life under which the in- 

 dustry of the world had developed up to 1870, 



