Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/320

266 Act and the Sherman Act for the purchase of silver, and there was the "16 to 1" campaign of 1896 for the restoration of the free coinage of silver as a means of restoring the old price level.

The same interest was displayed when the upward price movement between 1896 and the Great War was going on. There was then worldwide discussion of the "High Cost of Living" and of gold inflation as its possible cause. The newspapers were full of cartoons and editorials; and the magazines, of elaborate articles. Numerous books appeared; much legislation was proposed and some enacted; many investigations were made, both official and unofficial; ponderous reports were issued in many countries and proposals were made for an international conference on the subject. Bread and meat riots had occurred in many cities throughout the world, from Berlin to Tokio. Some people insisted that there was gold depreciation. Mr. Edison predicted that some day the southern clays would give up their gold and cause further loss in the purchasing power of the dollar. Mr. Carnegie, in making a gift of ten millions to the Carnegie Institution of Washington, stipulated that a certain part of the income should be set aside as a sinking fund against "the diminishing purchasing power of money."

This interest in the High Cost of Living reached its highest point in 1914, but was then, for a time, overshadowed by the war.

Afterward it became apparent that the war itself had put the "High Cost of Living" still higher. The result was to revive interest in the subject. We spoke of food famines and of a supposed world scarcity of goods. We had begun even to talk of the inflation brought about by issues of paper money, by expanding war loans, and by inflowing gold. Sweden practically demonetized gold. Price fixing on a vast scale was tried in belligerent countries.

Soon after the Armistice, the interest in the subject took a new start. The business world began eagerly