In order to measure equitably the natural and inevitable mutations in the value of other things, money should itself be of unchanging value. That is to say, any given amount of money should, so far as human foresight can regulate it, require at all times an equal amount of sacrifice for its acquisition. Thus, in the case of a contract made to-day, requiring the payment of a dollar twelve months hence, that dollar when due should exact from the debtor precisely that amount of sacrifice, and no more, which would be required had he paid the debt the day after contracting it. No one will deny that the most important quality that money can possess is that it shall truthfully measure and state equities. As I have shown by the figures heretofore cited, gold has risen in value between 30 and 40 per cent. since the demonetization of silver. It is not therefore so faithful a measure of value as is silver, which as illustrated by a variety of examples, has maintained almost undisturbed its relation to commodities. THE VALUE OF MONEY, AS SUCH, NOT IN THE MATERIAL BUT IN THE STAMP. MONEY IS AN ORDER FOR PROPERTY AND SERVICES. The logic of the situation, and the reasoning of all the leading authorities on money, lead irresistibly to the conclusion that its value does not reside in the material, but in the stamp; in other words, on the legal-tender function impressed on that material. It is an order for property and services. Aristotle, writing of money, says: Money by itself * * * has value only by law, and not by nature; so that a change of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive it of all its value and power to satisfy all our wants. And again he says: But with regard to a future exchange (if we want nothing at present) money is, as it were, our security that it may take place when we do want something. John Locke, in "Considerations," etc., regarding money, published in 1691, says: Mankind, having covenanted to put an imaginary value upon gold and silver, by reason of their durableness scarcity, and not being very liable to be counterfeited, have made them, by general consent, the common pledges, whereby men are assured, in exchange for them, to receive equally valuable things to those they parted with, for any quantity of those metals; by which means it comes to pass that the intrinsic value regard in those metals, made the common barter, is nothing but the quantity which men give or receive of them; they having, as money, no other value but as pledges to procure what one wants or desires. Baudeau, reputed one of the most eminent of an early school of French economists, says: Coined money in circulation is nothing, as I have said elsewhere, but effective titles on the general mass of useful and agreeable enjoyment which cause the well-being and propagation of the human race.