282 VALUATION, DEPRECIATION AND THE RATE-BASE 
of the tax levy should, in this case, be acceptable as a sufficiently 
close approximation of its money equivalent throughout the 
ensuing year. In such event the salary permanently fixed in 
coms would be convertible throughout each year into money at 
the equivalent sum thus determined. Similar provision could 
be made, too, when rents and the like are to be covered in annual 
budgets. 
Public utility rates might be established as at present, but with 
the proviso that at intervals of a year these rates would auto- 
matically increase or decrease in some relation to the change in 
the value of money as measured by the com. 
It may be noted that under such a system of evaluating rela- 
tive desirability of things and services, each country would 
proceed independently. The commodity unit could be adapted to 
the local standard of living. The commodities which taken collec- 
tively will best represent value, in the sense of desire to possess, 
would, in each country, be selected with a view to their inclu- 
sion in quantities bearing a fair relation to their proportional 
contribution to the requirements of the family and the indi- 
vidual. 
As already stated, money as a medium of exchange, when the 
commodity unit comes into general use, will be as necessary as 
heretofore. The commodity unit will take a place on the list 
of the many things subject to price quotation. Would it not be 
possible, may be asked, to let the com supplant the dollar, there- 
by accomplishing what Prof. Irving Fisher would bring about — 
the stabilization of the dollar? This would involve, as Professor 
Fisher points out, the acceptance of a variable weight of gold as 
the money unit. Legislation would be required and complicated 
government control, the successful accomplishment of which 
does not appear to be within easy reach. Nor, as already pointed 
out, is it necessary. Alongside of a commodity unit, whether 
legally recognized, or not, money would be used as it is used, 
today, and would always be specified in transactions which are 
unaffected by the time element. But money would no longer 
function as the standard of value to determine the amount of a