Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/286

232 England which, in order to get rid of the comparatively trifling inconvenience of a fluctuating rate of exchange with India, adopted this gold exchange system.

It is true that it is often better to " bear the ills we have than fly to those we know not of," But that bit of practical wisdom was never intended to blind us to the ills we do bear. These ills are not only far greater than the ordinary business man has imagined, but they are, I believe, destined in the future to become greater still. The reason for this prophecy is found in the ever-growing tendency to spread and multiply the ramifications of business contracts and understandings.

Sometimes this same objection takes the form of the innuendo: "The plan is altogether too simple not to have been adopted long ago." This is an inarticulate suggestion that, while the plan looks sound, we must beware of it; for surely our wise fore-fathers would long ago have discovered and applied anything so simple.

While this objection will seem to most people who think for themselves merely inane, it really constitutes a serious obstacle in the minds of many to whom all new ideas are suspect. They do not realize that their own attitude answers their own question. It is just because so many people like themselves distrust any change, that any change is so slow in coming.

The truth is, however, that neither the idea of stabihzation, nor its application, is as new as it seems to most people, as is shown in Appendices V and VI. To my mind, considering how slowly new ideas usually spread, the wonder is that the progress toward acceptance of the idea has been so rapid. A generation ago index numbers, a vital element in the plan, were suspect; now they are almost universally used among intelligent business men. At the beginning of the Great War the correction of wages by means of an index number was a purely academic