IF NOT NOW . . . ?

THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION were great men, and one evidence of this is that they mastered one of the great problems of civilized life, that a man cannot measure whatever he uses as a standard: if you measure value in gold, you cannot know whether gold is becoming more, or even less, plentiful. (Thus Spain was ruined by inflation when her fleets brought back masses of gold from South America.) Therefore they demanded bi-metallism: Congress is mandated to mint coins, and even to punish the counterfeiting of those current in the States, but they reserved to each State the power to choose coins of gold, or coins of silver, as its tender in payment of debts.

If and when gold became more plentiful, the gold States – perhaps, the “staple” States that traded largely with Britain – would have boomed, and the silver States – perhaps, the “navigating” States that traded with the Far East – would have been depressed. The citizens would have been able to recognize a purely monetary phenomenon. (Strange to relate, only three States, Colorado, Missouri and Nevada, have exercized their power, and they all allow both gold and silver – thus defeating the entire merit of bi-metallism.)

And, as we are all too painfully aware, where Congress has jurisdiction the Federal Reserve Accounting Unit Dollar is legal tender. Every business strikes a balance on January 1st. and again on December 31st. – but the proliferation of the green dollar results in depreciation being under-stated and inventory being over-estimated – the accounts are flattering! Thus the books announce expanding “profits,” even as many of us find ourselves hard pressed to make our salaries or pensions stretch to cover necessities, let alone comforts.

However, there comes a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune – and, for the other forty-seven States, the tide is flooding NOW! The F.R.A.U.D. is depreciating against those currencies which are not arbitrarily tied to it, and today it is almost equal to the Swiss Franc. THE SEVERAL STATES SHOULD, URGENTLY, ADOPT THE SWISS FRANC AS THEIR LEGAL MONEY FOR SETTLING DEBTS AND, PARTICULARLY, FOR KEEPING PROFIT-AND-LOSS ACCOUNTS.

Let us suppose that two or four or eight States did this. Nothing would happen immediately; but in three, or six, or nine months’ time, people paying rents, or premiums, or fees would be told, “Sorry, but if you’re paying in green dollars, you will need another two/five/six per cent.”

Many businesses that had been showing only low profits would find losses – and shut down. Quickly, those States would find their tax receipts falling off.

And in one State, or perhaps even in two States, the legislature would ask, “Just why do we strive to keep the taxpayers in ignorance and poverty? Let us allow them the pursuit of happiness!” We might well see an end to highways with maximum instead of minimum speed limits, to STOP signs instead of YIELD signs, to signals that are stop-on-red instead of go-on-green, to tolls that are the same at peak and off-peak hours, to double yellow lines that prevent the traffic making the best use of the lanes, to minimum wage statutes that make it difficult to start a productive career, to the gambling and sex and narcotics industries being reserved to the criminal underworld, to children being compelled to attend school, to ages of consent in the ’teens, to the combination of collective bargaining and individual remuneration, to States presuming to “correct” competent adults.

And then the greedy capitalists would recognize that their capital was safer in the hard-money States: every time the legislatures convened, more States would conform. (Next year, there would almost certainly be a serious differential between the F.R.A.U.D. and the Franc; the effect of the change on balance sheets would be very severe in the tardy States.)

Thus there is nothing inevitable about inflation; each State can allow it or can extinguish it. And the Swiss Franc would be a particularly happy choice for us. If it is not exactly silver, it is closer than the coins of our congress, or almost any other money used in international commerce. And the Swiss are republicans after our own hearts – every citizen keeps a fine modern firearm within easy reach!