In an ancient village there once stood a gold clock, which, ever since
the invention of clocks had been the measure of time for the people of
that village. They were proud of its beauty, its workmanship, its
musical stroke, and the unfailing regularity with which it heralded the
passing hours. This clock had been endeared to all the inhabitants of
the village by the hallowed associations with which it was identified.
Generation after generation it had called the children from far and wide
to attend the village school, its fresh morning peal had set the honest
villagers to labor; its noon-day notes had called them to refreshment;
its welcome evening chime had summoned them to rest. From time
immemorial, on all festive occasions, it had rung out its merry tones to
assemble the young people on the green; and on the Sabbath it had
advertised to all the countryside the hour of worship in the village
church. So perfect was its mechanism that it never needed repair. So
proud were the people of this wonderful clock that it became the
standard for all the country round about, and the time which it kept
came to be known as the gold standard of time, which was universally
admitted to be correct and unchanging.
In the course of time there wandered that way a queer character, a
clockmaker, who being fully instructed in the inner workings of
time-tellers, and not having inherited the traditions of that village,
did not regard this clock with the veneration accorded to it by the
natives. To their astonishment he denied that there was really any such
thing as a gold standard of time; and in order to prove that the
material, gold, did not monopolize all the qualities characteristic of
clocks, he placed alongside the gold clock, another clock, of silver,
and set both clocks at 12 noon. For a long time the clocks ran along in
almost perfect accord, their only disagreement being that of an
occasional second or two, and even that disagreement only at rare
intervals, such as might naturally occur with the best of clocks. But
the Council of the village, in their admiration for the gold clock,
passed an ordinance requiring that all the weights (the motive power) of
the silver clock, except one, be removed from it, and attached to those
of the gold clock. Instantly the clocks began to fall apart, and one
day, as the sun was passing the meridian, the hands of the gold clock
were observed to indicate the hour of 1, while those of the silver clock
indicated 12.15. At this everybody in the village ridiculed the silver
clock, derided the silver standard, and hurled epithets at the
individual who had had the temerity to doubt the infallibility of the
gold standard.
Finally, the divergence between the clocks went so far that it was noon
by the gold standard when it was only 6 a. m. by the silver standard, so
that those who were guided by the gold standard, not withstanding that
it was yet the gray of the morning, insisted on eating their mid-day
meal, because the gold standard indicated that it must be noon. And when
the sun was high in the heavens, and its light was shining warm and
refulgent on the dusty streets of the village, those who observed the
gold standard had already eaten supper and were preparing for bed.
But this state of things could not last. It was clear that the
difference between the standards must be reconciled, or all industry
would be disarranged and the village ruined.
Discussion was rife among the villagers as to the cause of the
difference. Some said the silver clock had lost time; others that both
clocks had lost time, but the silver clock more than the gold; while
others again asserted that both clocks had gained time, but that the
gold clock had gained more than the silver clock.
While this discussion was at its height a philosopher came along and
observing the excitement on the subject remarked, "By measuring two
things, one against the other, you can never arrive at any determination
as to which has changed. Instead of disputing as to whether one clock
has lost or another gained would it not be well to consult the sun and
the stars and ascertain exactly what has happened."
Some demurred to this because, as they asserted, the gold standard was
unchanging and was always right no matter how much it might seem to be
wrong; others agreed that the philosopher's advice should be taken. Upon
consulting the sun and the stars it was discovered that what had
happened was that both clocks had gained in time but that the gain of
the silver clock had been very slight, while that of the gold clock had
been so great as to disturb all industry and destroy all correct sense
of time.
Notwithstanding this demonstration, there were many who adhered to the
belief that the gold standard was correct and unchanging, and insisted
that what appeared to be its aberrations were not in reality due to any
fault of the gold clock, but to some convulsion of nature by which the
solar system had been disarranged and the planets made to move
irregularly in their orbits.
Some of the people also remembered having heard at the village inn, from
travellers returning from the East, that silver clocks were the standard
of time in India and other barbarous countries, while in countries of a
more advanced civilization gold clocks were the standard. They therefore
feared that the use of the silver clock might have the effect of
degrading the civilization of the village by placing it alongside India
and other barbarous countries. And although the great mass of the people
really believed, from the demonstration made, that the silver standard
of time was the better one, yet this objection was so momentous that
they were puzzled what course to pursue, and at last advices were
consulting the manufacturers of gold clocks as to what was best to be
done.
Now our gold standard men are in the position of those who first refuse
to look at anything beyond the two things, gold and silver, to see what
has happened, and who, when it is finally demonstrated that all other
things retain their former relations to silver, still persist that the
law which makes gold an unchanging standard of measure is more immutable
than that which holds the stars in their courses. If they will compare
gold and silver with commodities in general, to see how the metals have
maintained their relations, not to one another but to all other things,
they will find that instead of a fall having taken place in the value of
silver, the change that has really taken place is a rise in the value of
both gold and silver, the rise in silver being relatively slight while
that of gold has been ruinously great. And those who do not shut their
eyes to the truth must see that the change of relation between the
metals has been effected by depriving silver of its legal-tender
function, as the want of accord between the clocks was brought about by
depriving the silver clock of a portion of its motive power--the
weights. The only thing that has prevented a greater divergency between
the metals is the limited coinage by the United States--the single
weight that, withheld from the gold clock, prevented its more ruinous
gain.