Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/277

1, M] being tampered with by all sorts of influences which at present do tamper with it constantly. The discovery of gold in California tampered with the standard of value ; the cyanide process of extracting gold tampered with it, and so did the abolition of bimetallism, the introduction of the gold exchange standard, the rapid growth of bank deposits, and the inflation of the currency in war-time. At first sight the plan seems to many people a plan to change the dollar, while in fact it would keep the dollar from changing. It would change the present system, the fault of which is that it lets the value of the dollar change. The plan aims at an invariable dollar. If preventing the dollar from changing is tampering with the standard of value then the Bureau of Standards is constantly tampering with weights and measures.

One sarcastic objector asks: "Why not change the weight of a pound of coffee?" If the dollar served the purpose merely of a unit for weighing gold, it would be as absurd to alter it as to alter the number of ounces in a pound of coffee. A unit of weight ought certainly to remain invariable in weight. But we do not need the dollar as a unit of weight. We need it as a unit of value, and the trouble is that its constancy in weight makes it inconstant as a unit of value.

M. "Changes in the weight of the dollar cannot affect its value because only Government fiat can fix the value of money." Can any one believe that if the weight of a dollar were increased from the present twentieth of an ounce to an ounce, or a pound, or a ton, or the entire mass of gold in the world, that the dollar would buy no more than it does at present? If any one by taking a ten-dollar gold certificate to the Sub-Treasury or Assay Office could get with it a cartload of gold, would that certificate not command more, not only of gold, but of things in general than it does now?

As to Government fiat, the mere calling pieces of paper by certain names without reference to the amount