Why Not A Yardstick?

Mr. Bryan professea to believe that bpcause the United States whipped Englaúd in two wars it can therefore set up a standard of Talue without regard t England or the rest of the world. That is a very shallow conclusión. There are some things that even the mightiest nation on. earth cannot do. It cannot suspend the law of gravitation. It cannot make two and two five. It cannot maintain an independent standard measure of value. If the United States, according to Mr. Bryan, can set up a 53-cent dollar as the Standard dollar and make all the rest of the world accept it as sueh, why cannot it eet up an 18-inch yardstick and mako that pass as a yard everywhere? If it were simply a matter of government fiat, that might do. Con gress could declare that eighteen inches made a yard just as appropriately as it could declare that 53 cents make a dolbr. It would be just as easy for the Legislature at Albany to créate an 18-inch yardstick and make it the standard yardstick for the state of New York as it would be for the nation to declare that a 53-cent dollar is the Standard dollar and must be accepted as such, regordi less of other nations. If every state can have its own varying yardstick regardless of every other state, then the United States can have its own 53-cent dollar as a Standard dollar, regardless of other