MR. LAWYER: That plan suits me exactly, for only recently I made a thorough study of the question of our standard of value. My investigation took me back more than 6,000 years, and I found the subject amusing often as well as intensely interesting, while the result of my research was most satisfactory. I discovered that everything from baked clay to the credit of practically every government that has ever existed had been used at some time or other, as a standard of value, or a measure of value. MR. FARMER: Mr. Lawyer, just what do you mean by a "standard of value"? MR. LAWYER: A "standard of value" is anything that may be selected by which all other things in some particular locality or country are measured. The Indians of British Columbia used haiquai shells; one string being equal to one beaver skin. In Australia tough green stone and red ochre were used. In Central Africa slaves were used. In Iceland the law made cattle the standard of value. In the Fiji Islands whales' teeth. In the South Sea Islands red feathers were used. In Mexico and Abyssinia salt was used. Agriculture has produced its standard of value; corn, maize, olive oil, cocoanuts, cocoa-nut oil, tea, tobacco, cacao, beans, wheat, rice. The pastoral life produced its standard of value; sheep, cattle, goats, horses and practically every other domestic animal, according to the time and place. The following history of American experience in the development of a standard of value cannot be better restated, and is practically a repetition of the experience of mankind in all the ages, therefore I want to read what Horace White says upon the subject: "It may be said that Virginia grew her own money for nearly two centuries, and Maryland for a century and a half. "The first settlers of New England found wampumpeage, sometimes called wampum and sometimes peage, in use among the aborigines as an article of adornment and a medium of exchange. It consisted of beads made from the inner whorls of certain shells found in sea water. The beads were polished and strung together in belts or sashes.