Philippine
Chile. Islands,
Hawaii.

_Actual bimetalism._--It is necessary to caution against supposing that the
use of both gold and silver as currency in any country implies true
bimetalism, nor is it at all certain that the making of either gold or
silver legal tender at option touches the question of bimetalism. Only the
issue by free coinage at the will of the owner of both metals shows a
distinct attempt to maintain bimetalism. The actual maintenance of both
standards has always been, and always will be, by alternation, when the
ratio of the two metals as to value is established at very nearly the
market value of the two metals in bullion.

Popular demand for a return to the old ratio in the United States is
founded in part upon misconception of commercial principles and largely
upon a misunderstanding of current events during a financial crisis. The
supposed dangers from a single standard of value are largely exaggerated
from confusion of standards with currency in exchange. It is quite
conceivable that gold may still serve as a standard unit of value, while
90 per cent of exchanges have no other use for gold beyond its furnishing
terms of comparison. We must measure value by value, and the unit of value
must be true to its name, just as we measure length by something long. But
the number of yardsticks in actual use in a store may have no constant
ratio to the number of yards of cloth sold by that measure. The folding of
calico in yard folds relieves the yardstick, but does not change the
nature of the yard. So gold, or silver, is relieved of many functions in
exchange through banking systems without materially affecting its use as a
standard unit.

_The multiple standard._--It is proper to mention in connection with units
of value a theoretical device for overcoming the necessary fluctuation in
all articles of value. This is sometimes called the multiple standard. The
plan, in brief, is to appoint a committee of experts, whose record of
current prices, in some general market, for a hundred or more staple
articles of commerce, shall be compared from week to week, or day to day,
in such a way as to indicate how far above or below the average the price
of any article may be. If, then, gold is made a legal tender, a comparison
of its price with the average of all prices will show how much weight of
gold must be given on any day to actually return a