THE STANDARD OF VALUE
called in and cannot be paid. Government and other em-
ployees are discharged. Public improvements are stopped.
Taxes are reduced. The volume of business shrinks. Capital
becomes timid. The value of the dollar goes up. Everybody
by spending less and curtailing requirements below normal con-
tributes his share to make matters worse. But hard times as a
remedy for high prices, implying the reduction of the great mass
of people to a condition in which means are lacking with which
to buy the cheapening necessaries, are worse than the feverish
condition of business activity at the other extreme when every
one complains of high prices.
Because of these possible extremes an adequate wage which
is to persist for an indefinite time can not be satisfactorily defined
in terms of money. Compensation must be fair alike to the
employee and the employer. The latter will always make it his
endeavor to secure services that are satisfactory at the lowest
possible rate. The former will contend for a living wage and in
the long run will accept nothing less. Agreements momentarily
satisfactory to both parties may be reached; but there is no
certainty, so long as money is named as the consideration, that
during the period which the agreement is to cover — generally
an indefinite future — the compensation will always buy as much
shelter and clothing, and food, fuel, education, transportation
and recreation as it would at the time when it was agreed to be
fair and adequate. This element of uncertainty, this specula-
tion in futurities, can be successfully eliminated, as has already
been stated, by reference in all such agreements to the * com
instead of the “ dollar.”
Turning now to the question as to whether it would be practical
to introduce the com to serve alongside of the money unit, the
following possibilities, subject to more or less modification during
the transition period, may serve as illustrations.
Take first an industrial establishment such as a factory with
an output which is placed on the market at the fair average cost
of production plus a profit. The labor item, rents and perhaps,
too, the cost of borrowed capital, would in this case be computed
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