The Strong Trade Position of Manufacture. 11 



accurately tliat if there should happen to be a blunder in 

 the list, they will duplicate the blunder. From the fact 

 that all manufacturers print practically the same list, 

 many persons labor under the mistaken notion that there 

 is an agreement or understanding among all manufac- 

 turers, but such is not the case. 



''Xow suppose there was no large corporation to 

 establish a price-list or base-line; suppose that not only 

 all of the competitors of the so-called trust or large cor- 

 poration, and also each of the constitutent companies 

 which make up the larger corporation, were making their 

 own list-price with absolutely nothing to guide them 

 except the very imperfect data which some of them for- 

 merly kept. I have not a particle of hesitation in saying 

 that in the next three years half of them would go out of 

 business."^ 



Here we have direct evidence from a prominent mem- 

 ber of a corporation of how all those in a branch of indus- 

 try are brought into unity of action. It would take a per- 

 son capable of pointing out the difference between half 

 a dozen bushels of corn and six bushels of corn to show 

 material difference in the effect produced by this method 

 and a direct understanding. It seems everything is 

 determined by the large corporation of a branch of indus- 

 try, and these can charge for the different items of cost 

 what they please. Xor do we understand that the base- 

 line, cost of production, is identical with the figures on 

 the price-list. It is a dead-line that cannot be gone below 

 with safety. What sort of competition is this where all 

 rise and fall following the motion of the big mogul ? 



By the methods indicated, and still others, trade is put 

 in harness, free competition is prevented, and price is 



^ Quoted from paper read before Worcester, Mass., Economic Club. 



