RELATED TOPICS 275 
various devices, but when an attempt is made to control 
the other elements, the reverse is probably nearer the 
actual facts. We should therefore be cautious in accept- 
ing such a simple view of the problem. 
The efficacy of the policy rests on two assumptions :— 
1. Can the public authority determine what shall 
be a ‘‘reasonable’’ price? 
2. Can the administration of the Act be enforced 
rigidly enough to make evasion impossible? 
In many industries which have reached the monopoly 
stage these two assumptions are both realised. Thus, in 
fixing railway rates, the policy is efficacious. Again, in 
the coal industry or other mining industries, there is 
no reason to see why such a system should not be 
effective, if monopoly conditions are in evidence. We 
must therefore arrive at the conclusion that the public 
control of prices under certain conditions is possible. 
The attempt at price fixation by the Government 
during the last quarter of 1914 in the wheat industry 
was of a nature very different from the problems dis- 
cussed above. Monopoly conditions were not prevalent 
in that industry, and a ‘‘corner’’ in wheat or flour was 
scarcely possible, since our millers are divided into two 
hostile camps. The fundamental object of the Govern- 
ment’s action was to protect the consumer at a time 
when the high prices consequent on an anticipated 
scarcity were being aggravated by the general appre- 
hension which was felt during the initial stages of--the 
War. How far such action attained its object is at 
once obvious. Had the Government been able to main- 
tain the first price fixed (4s. 9d. per bushel), the 
consumer could not have grumbled at the unreasonable- 
ness of the price. But at the very time the price was 
fixed, wheat was being sold at 5s. 3d. per bushel, and 
in the period during which prices were fixed, as we shall 
see, the law was being evaded. The rise of the maximum 
