294 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



with better articles at less expense. And they have intensified 

 competition, the railways bringing to a community similar prod- 

 ucts from factories situated remote from each other, in many 

 instances placing the output of each center of production of certain 

 merchandise in competition in all parts of the United States with 

 the output of each other center of production of that kind of mer- 

 chandise. Contributing to this result have been the efforts of the 

 salesmen of the different establishments, who, in the desire to 

 extend the sale of their products, have underbid their competitors, 

 who, in turn, have been obliged to lower their prices, this rivalry 

 usually continuing until the selling price has been lowered to 

 and sometimes below the actual cost of production. This compe- 

 tition is beneficial to a community as a whole so long as it compels 

 all the processes of an industry to be conducted with thrift ; and 

 it has been beneficial when it has forced at places the cessation of 

 certain production that could not withstand the pressure of com- 

 petition of similar production from localities more favorably 

 conditioned. But it has been injurious when, after forcing pro- 

 ducers in most favored localities to the adoption of every reason- 

 able economy, it has compelled them to dispose of their products 

 at unremunerative prices. It has been injurious when many pro- 

 ducers, each striving to dispose of the greatest possible output, 

 have placed upon the market products far in excess of the quantity 

 for which there is a natural and wholesome demand, thereby often- 

 times forcing stoppage of j^roduction, depriving men of work until 

 the excess is consumed, and oftentimes leading salesmen to per- 

 suade unwary merchants to make purchases so large that they 

 are crushed beneath their weight, or tempted to defraud their 

 creditors out of payment therefor. It has been injurious when 

 the strife for the disposition of products has become so fierce that 

 the energies of producers have been absorbed in fighting competi- 

 tion, to the neglect of the orderly and equitable administration of 

 the vital details of production ; when it has led them to make 

 misrepresentations as to the quality of their products ; when, in 

 the desire to produce cheap articles, it has led to the adulteration 

 of material and scrubby workmanship. It has been injurious 

 when it has reduced the wages of employees to a point inadequate 

 to the support of themselves and their families. Misrepresenta- 

 tion, adulteration, and inferior workmanship have often proceeded 

 from cupidity and lack of scruple, but unrestrained competition 

 feeds their noxious growth. 



As with all things else, industrial competition, when carried 

 to the extreme, meets opposing forces that bring reaction, and, as 

 with all things else, the play of mutually opposing forces tends 

 toward equilibrium. Equilibrium between the forces that affect 

 industrial competition is that condition under which industrial 



