Editorial May 27, 1944 Issue

Where Does Value Reside?

Paul Stark Seeley

In a newspaper I once saw two contrasting news items. One told of a laborer who unexpectedly came into possession of twenty-five thousand dollars, and celebrated the event with so much liquor that he succumbed. The other item told of a millionaire who lost all his money except twenty-five thousand dollars, and was so depressed that he committed suicide.

The laborer was overwhelmed with exultation at receiving what to the millionaire seemed a pittance not worth living for. The striking difference in their sense of value was in their differing states of thought. Value is entirely mental. What we think of something is the measure of our value of it. Says Moliere, "Things are only worth what one makes them worth."

Gold fishhooks have been found in the old river beds in South America. Gold is no longer used for fishhooks, for a changed sense of value now impels us to dig this metal out of the earth and forthwith put it underground again in well-guarded chambers.

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