286 VALUATION, DEPRECIATION AND THE RATE-BASE
therefore, the government has been in position to lighten the
nation’s debt and tax burdens by the simple expedient of providing
 means for the inflation of the currency — a recourse
heretofore frequently resorted to, regardless of the fact that
such a procedure is grossly unjust and inequitable.
The only method thus far pointed out which will enable the
individual to protect himself against such price changes as result
from sudden changes in the volume of currency in circulation,
and other causes, lies in the official sanctioning of the use of a
commodity unit substantially as here set forth. The com will,
thereupon, become quite as acceptable as the dollar, even though
it never be made the basis of currency as a money unit.
A suggestion that recourse should now be had to a commodity
unit for the purpose of stabilizing salaries and wages has been
prompted by the abnormal recent changes in the purchasing
power of the dollar. The plan of utilizing a commodity unit as
a norm is not, however, claimed to be new. The author has only
attempted to define a particular practical commodity unit for
this country, immediately available, and has given it a name to
emphasize its distinction from money. It will perform that
function of money for which money is least adapted, namely to
serve as a standard for deferred payments. The use of the
commodity unit for this purpose has long ago been proposed and
has been quite fully discussed by economists in the light of prewar
 conditions. The advantage, and, it will hardly be going too
far to say, the necessity, of employing the multiple standard when
the deferred payments are in the form of salaries and wages is
not yet generally recognized, obvious though it must be, to
every student of the question, that the dollar standard is inadequate,
 while the com running with the cost of living would be
fair and adequate.
There is nothing, as above shown, that will prevent agreements
 immediately being made in which the com, as here defined,
or based directly on the accepted Commodity Index Number, may
be used to supplement the money unit. It will only be necessary
 to distinctly specify that the com, however defined, shall be