know, are, in a great majority of cases, sure to be wrong even to the point of their ruin!
As the Nash[1] and Harvester[2] cases show, such is not the law. That which can be measured by reasonable men, with ordinary daily experience, and upon proper evidence, can be and must be so measured "in many instances," as Mr. Justice Holmes terms it in the Nash case; that which all men know can, in vital particulars, at best be the subject only of surmise, speculation, or guess, cannot be made the basis of any juridicial decision; much less could it be the basis of a verdict at the time of decision known beyond all or "any reasonable doubt." If men can be "guessed" out of Life, Liberty and Property, they will but live under a tyrannical despotism,—certainly not under the constitutional protections of a free country. Should the contrary of the Harvester decision ever be established in our land, it could not be for long, for economic reasons would make it impossible; nevertheless, it would be a first and dangerous step toward the final destruction of the Republic. This is proven by all history.
As will be shown later, political economists agree that where the rise of commodities is general, it but indicates a depreciation in the value of money,—I mean its real value,—that is, the amount of other commodities into which it can be converted. Judge Rudkin, in the Spokane case, notwithstanding his indignation at profiteering, observes that it is the people's own fault if they go to high-price stores, where there is not a general rise—that in such cases there is no occasion for relief. Of course, his greatest economic
