Control of the Market; A Legal Solution of the Trust Problem (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1914 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II FREEDOM FOE FAIE COMPETITION I In any consideration of industrial problems we are confronted by the long established condition of free competition, and the still unquestionable desire for its continued maintenance. Even in these present days of elimination of competition by combination, the public policy for free competition is asserted often as vehemently as ever. For the most of men still believe, and the most of judges with them, that by the natural processes of free competition men find their highest development. Of course, there are opposed to an absolutely free competition in fact the natural barriers which necessarily accompany an industrial organization. To such social limitations men may submit themselves, however unwillingly; but in modern times legal restriction to individual advancement would not be endured in ordinary businesses. The final justification of the inevitable losses, which free competition unfortunately involves, is to be found in this well founded opinion, that fundamental limitations upon free competition are not only wholly impractical, but wholly incompatible with individual liberty. n That this is all a matter of current opinion may be established by showing that other views were formerly expressed quite as confidently by the courts of law. In the mediaeval system as we see it in our earliest law reports, restriction of competition was the prevalent doctrine. It was conceived that it was better both for producer and consumer to have a special position in the economic order assigned to every man. Each man had a right to his place in the established order according to his rank, with its corresponding duty. So long as this condition of affairs gave satisfaction to the most of men, it received the support of the most of ...