(either over the " high cost of living " or unemployment) and economic crises and depressions.
Hitherto there was ample excuse for the unstable monetary units of various countries. No instrument for measuring their aberrations had been devised. Likewise, until weighing scales were devised, weights could not be standardized, and until instruments for measuring electrical magnitudes were invented, electrical units could not be standardized. But for many years the " index number " of prices has provided an accurate in- strument for measuring the value of the dollar in terms of its power to purchase goods. An " index number " of prices is a figure which shows for a specific period of time the average percentage increase or decrease of prices. One of the most sug- gestive signs of the times is that this instrument for measuring changes in the purchasing power of money has recently been utilized in adjusting wages and salaries to the high cost of living, i.e. to the depreciated dollar. A number of industrial concerns and banks, and some official agencies, have amended wages by the use of an index number of the prices of commodities.
It has been contended by some economists that this principle may be utilized in the future more generally to safeguard agree- ments made at one date to pay money at another date. Such corrections of the dollar would gradually break down the popular superstition that " a dollar is a dollar "; for every time we correct the dollar, we convict it of needing corrections; and ultimately the correction might be applied, not, as at present, as a patch on the dollar from the outside, but by incorporating it in the dollar itself. Various methods for accomplishing this have been pro- posed. The one perhaps best known is Prof. Irving Fisher's proposal to vary the weight of the gold dollar so as to keep its purchasing power invariable. Instead of a gold dollar of con- stant weight and varying purchasing power, what is needed, he contends, is a dollar of constant purchasing power, and, there- fore, of varying weight. It is not proposed, of course, to remint gold coins, but simply to count an ounce of gold bullion as being the equivalent not always of $20.67 ( as at present) but of as much more or less than that sum as is required from time to time in order to keep the purchasing power of the dollar constant. In other words, the proposal is to vary the price of gold according to its worth relative to other commodities, instead of, as at present, keeping it artificially constant at $20.67 an oz - pure or 3 173. iojd.anoz.il/i2nne. In this way, Professor Fisher contends, we can control the price level, lowering it, raising it, or keep- ing it from fluctuating much, if at all. Thus, if Mexico should adopt the dollar of the U.S. (instead of its present dollar of half the weight of gold), the price level in Mexico would be disastrous- ly cut in two. Again, if the U.S. should adopt the Mexican dollar, the price level in the U.S. would be disastrously doubled. That is, the more gold in the dollar, the greater its buying-power; and the less, the less. If, Professor Fisher contends, this prin- ciple be admitted, it follows that we hold, in the hollow of our hand, what the dollar's buying-power shall be that is, what the level of prices shall be. It can be kept from changing greatly just as easily as it could be made to change, simply by period- ical adjustments of the price of gold, each adjustment being made in accordance with the index number of prices. By this method, in conjunction with any of the sound systems of bank- ing, Professor Fisher contends, variations of more than one or two per cent could easily be prevented except under the most extraordinary conditions. (I. F.)
DONALDSON, SIR JAMES (1831-1915), British scholar (see 8.406), died at St. Andrews, March 9 1915.
DONNAY, CHARLES MAURICE (1859- ), French drama- tist (see 8.417), wrote several fresh plays after 1910: Le Menage de Moliere (1912); Les Eclaireuses (1913); L' Impromptu de Paquetage (1916); Le Thedtre aux armies (1916). He also published some war-time essays and addresses: La Parisienne et la Guerre (1916); Premieres Impressions apres (1917); Leltres a la Dame Blanche (1917); Pendant qu'tts sont a Noyon (1917); La Chasse a I'Homme (1919).
DOUGHTY, CHARLES MONTAGU (1843- ), British ex- plorer and writer, was born in 1843, the youngest son of the Rev. C. M. Doughty of Theberton Hall, Suffolk. In 1875 he made an adventurous journey through northern Arabia, remain- ing nearly two years in the country, and, after many hazards and hardships, finally emerging at Jidda (see 2.257). He published the results of his observations in a work since recognized as a classic worthy to rank with the records of the Elizabethan voyagers. Travels in Arabia Deserta, issued by the Cambridge University Press in 1888, received at first little recognition and brought its author no material reward. But gradually its fame spread amongst travellers and lovers of literature until the rare copies of the first edition were scarcely procurable at any price, and in 1921 a facsimile reprint of the two volumes was issued at 9 os. The value of Doughty's work as a traveller had by that time secured universal recognition; nothing was left for any future explorer to study between Damascus and Mecca which Doughty had not already closely studied, and in 1912 the Royal Geographical Society bestowed on him its Founder's gold medal. He had done other work previously, and he pub- lished several volumes; but he remains, in the estimation of the literary world, the author of one book. It should, however, be noted that in 1866 he brought out On the Jostedal-Brae Glaciers in Norway, and a collection of inscriptions copied by him in Arabia was published by the Academic des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres in 1884. His later years were devoted to poetry and poet- ic drama. In 1906 he published an epic in six volumes The Dawn in Britain, followed by Adam Cast Forth (1908), The Cliffs (1909), The Clouds (1912), The Titans (1916) and Mansoul, or the Riddle of the World (1920).
DOVER, England (see 8.453). PP- (1911), inclusive of the garrison, 43,645; estimated civil pop. (1920) 41,408. The municipal boundaries were extended in Nov. 1921 so as to include an area of about 70 ac. in the River Ward destined for housing purposes; at the same date the various piers and jetties of the harbour were brought within the municipal area. A new general post-office was completed in Biggin St. in 1914. Two new churches have been erected Charlton church, a large building in the early English style which takes the place of a small church dating back to the Middle Ages since demolished, and St. Barnabas church, built between 1890 and 1912. The Duke of York's Royal Military School was transferred from London to Dover in 1907, an extensive series of buildings of the bungalow type having been erected on the Eastern Heights near Fort Burgoyne. The Connaught barracks near the castle with accommodation for an infantry battalion were completed in 1915. The Dover Patrol memorial obelisk on the cliffs E. of the town was unveiled by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales on July 27 1921.
The Dover harbour scheme in addition to the construction of piers and a breakwater to enclose the Admiralty harbour with a perimeter of about 4! m., completed in 1909 included the reclamation of about nj ac. upon the harbour (eastern) side of the Admiralty pier, to provide for a new marine station and berths for the continental mail packet steamers and other vessels. Both these projects were sufficiently completed in time to be of service during the World War.
The reclamation wall is 2,260 ft. long, and the landing-stage upon the Admiralty pier extension, 792 ft. long and 20 ft. wide. Altogether six berths are provided. The stage is built on open pile work and double decks to suit levels for the passenger steamers spring tides rise 18 ft. 9 in., neap tides 15 ft., and range II feet. Reinforced concrete piles support the foundations of the passage to an inset landing-stage, and also the foundations of the marine station. At the outer end is a lighthouse 85 ft. above high-water level, the light visible for 14 miles. As at Chatham, large colliers drawing four fathoms can berth alongside the pier to unload into railway trucks.
To provide railway communication to the Prince of Wales' pier, and to the harbour quays, the Harbour Board, in 1904, constructed a new swing bridge to carry passenger trains as well as ordinary vehicular traffic; during the war this bridge proved indispensable in the transport of material.
The Harbour Board acquired parliamentary powers, in 1920, to construct, by arrangement with the Government, an enclosed wet-dock upon the Admiralty harbour side of the Prince of Wales' pier, having an area of 21 ac. and depth of 34 ft. at high-water of spring tides. The entrance lock is to be 100 ft. wide, and additional quays, transit sheds, coal-tips, and connexions to the inner dock basins will be provided.
