272 VALUATION, DEPRECIATION AND THE RATE-BASE 
tics compiled by the United States Department of Labor show, 
for example, that near the peak of the high prices after the war 
the cost of living was about 125 per cent greater than the average 
cost of living during the ten years 1goo to 19og, while wages at 
that time were 109 per cent greater than the wages during the 
same base period. A comparison of the changes in the cost of 
living covering the period 18go to 1919 shows the remarkable 
agreement between the cost of living and the wage scale and shows 
how quickly a change in the cost of living is followed by a change 
in wages. (See diagram, Fig. 8.) The main trouble in connec- 
tion with this matter is the fact that the change is not automatic, 
that the wage earner usually has to fight for each increase and 
that the employer throws every difficulty in the way when he 
finds that an increase of wages is in order. 
The question naturally presents itself whether means could 
not be found to eliminate the speculative feature from contracts 
involving a future transfer of money ownership from one person 
to another. Is it desirable, or necessary, in other words, to 
specify the dollar as the unit of value when a deferred payment is 
involved? The money unit is a definite quantity of some metal 
such as gold or silver of prescribed fineness. This unit is defined 
by the government and is commonly, almost universally, ac- 
cepted as a standard of value. It, however, falls far short of 
being a satisfactory standard, though admittedly a convenient 
one. Itisnot,in fact, a standard at all, or at best only a momen- 
tary standard. It lost, even in our country, as above stated, 
more than one-half of its value during the five years of the war, 
and is still now (1926) far below its pre-war value. Value ex- 
presses the measure of the desirability of anything in comparison 
with other desirable things, and this value can only be deter- 
mined and expressed by making such a comparison. Money is 
desirable because it can be exchanged for other things which are 
necessary or are desired for human comfort or pleasure. In view 
of the defects of money as a standard, having value which changes 
in consequence of currency inflation or depletion, and from other 
causes, some other less variable standard of value to supplement