Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/41

Rh offered gets a hearing. Some of these are bad. Such was "free silver" proposed in 1896 and such is much of the reckless radicalism of to-day.

16. The Loss Is General. Few gain permanently either from rising or falling prices, for the envious losers contrive in some way to balk them, e.g. by sabotage. Again when prices fall foreclosures are forced which throw the management of industry into hands often ill fitted for the task. In short, in the end, almost every one loses from an unstable dollar.

17. Conclusion. An unstable dollar is the unsuspected cause of many of the greatest events, including the greatest evils and injustices, which history records.

1. Remedies Which Have Been Proposed. The 43 remedies proposed almost ignore the money side of the problem. They aim at economy and efficiency, and concern the problem of our incomes rather than that of the purchasing power of the dollar.

2. The Dollar the Only Unit as Yet Unstandardized. The dollar is now a unit of weight, not a unit of power to purchase goods, which is what we need. We have gradually stabilized or standardized every other unit used in commerce, including the yard, pound, bushel, horsepower, volt. Formerly these were as roughly defined as the dollar is now. The yard was once the girth of the chief.

3. An Imaginary Goods-Dollar. Two commodities like gold and silver make a better standard than one and many make a better standard than two. The dollar standard should be worth a specified bill of goods such as one board foot of lumber, fifteen pounds of coal,