will struggle again, as in the years following
the Civil War men had to struggle, with a fixed debt, a fixed rate of
interest, and falling prices. The early _post bellum_ days will be
reproduced. Entering on a policy of inflation would therefore be
inviting men again to suffer what those suffered whose hard experience
is so frequently depicted in Populistic literature. Conceding all that
is claimed as to the evil that comes from buying or mortgaging real
property while the volume of money is increasing and paying the debt
so incurred while that volume is relatively contracting, one must see
that a policy of inflation would end by inflicting exactly that evil
on new victims, unless a method can be invented by which the inflation
can continue forever. Far better will it be to endure the transient
evil which a slow change in the supply of gold will bring. Retaining
gold through all its minor variations will mean all the prosperity and
all the justice that any monetary system can insure. If we shall ever
abandon this metal, experience will make us wise enough to return to
it; but we shall have paid a high price for the wisdom.

CHAPTER XXX

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

Perpetual change is the conspicuous fact of modern life. So
revolutionary are the alterations which a few decades make in the
industrial world as to raise the question whether there are economic
laws which retain their validity for any length of time. If there are
not, we have one economic science now, and shall have a different one
ten years hence and a widely dissimilar one a century later. Of
Descriptive Economics this is true, since it changes with the world it
describes; but it is not true of Economic Theory. There are certain
principles which are equally valid in all times and places. They were
true in the beginnings of industry, are true now, and will remain so
as long as men shall create and use wealth. They are not made
antiquated either by technical progress or by social evolution. We
have at the outset stated some of these truths. They have reference to
man, to his natural environment, and to the interactions of the two,
and they do not depend on the relations of man to man. We have also
stated other economic truths which apply only to man in a social
state. They are not universal, but are so general that they are
exemplified in the economic life of every society, from the most
primitive to the most highly civilized. They are the principles o