THE STANDARD OF VALUE 287
used to determine the money equivalent which the transaction
involves. Wages, salaries, rent and loans can all be defined in
terms of coms coupled of course with the mutual understanding
that some standard commodity index number shall, for the
time being, be used in determining the amount of money which
is equivalent to one com or to one hundred coms. After the
commodity unit has once been legalized by congressional action
it will automatically take its place alongside of the dollar. Both
the com and the dollar will then perform separate and supple-
menting functions. The com will best and most reliably measure
value. Money will serve, as it does at present, as the medium in
which value can most conveniently be expressed, when an im-
mediate and not a future transaction is involved. It will always
be used, too, at the consummation of every transaction in which
the com has been used in defining the measure of an obligation.
Note: The information on which the diagrams are based relating to wages per
hour and to the purchasing power or value of the dollar as shown in Figs. 8, 9, 10
and 11 from 1890 to 1919 will be found in the publications of the Bureau of Statistics,
U. S. Department of Labor. The following were consulted:
For wages per hour, 18go to 1918, see Bulletins 129, 134, 150, 218, September
1898, July 1900, and Monthly Labor Review of March 1919, and for wages in all
industries, 1840 to 1891, see Report of Senate Committee on Finance 1893, cover-
ing Wholesale Prices, Wages and Transportation.
For the cost of living as represented by index numbers, 18go to 1919, see Monthly
Labor Review of September, 19109.
For the cost of living as represented by index numbers, 1850 to 1891, see Report
of the Senate Committee on Finance 1893, on Wholesale Prices, Wages and Trans-
portation.
For the per capita circulation in the United States, 1850 to 1893, see “Gold
Production and Future Prices” by Brace, and also Statistical Abstract of U. S.
covering the years 1893 to 1918.
