o far as is known, clergymen have never combined to advance
their salaries. But the medical profession has its well known code of
ethics which debars its members from "pushing their business," and has,
in certain places and times at least, prescribed a minimum tariff of
fees. It should be clearly understood, however, that this is not cited
with the intention of putting any aspersion upon the medical profession
in any way. The services which are freely rendered to the poor, and the
disgusting indecencies and insults which are thrust upon the public by
some who choose to ignore this code of medical ethics, would make us
ready to forgive very much worse things than a possible tendency among
members of the profession to refrain from "cutting under each other" in
the matter of fees.

But while the three older professions have evidently little need or
disposition to combine for the purpose of increasing their income from
the community, some of the newer professions occupy different ground.
Architecture is coming to be a profession of no small importance. The
principal architects' society, the Association of American Architects,
has a regular schedule of minimum commissions below which its members
are forbidden to go. Another singular case of professional combination
is the Musical Protective Union, a combination of professional musicians
in New York City, which fixes minimum prices that its members may charge
for their services. On the whole, however, it must be said that the
limitation of competition in the professional and intellectual
occupations is in this country still in its infancy. In England the
fixing of prices of professional service by usage is very much more
common, and in many professions the check to competition thus effected
is of no small importance. To the careful observer there are indications
of a tendency in a similar direction in this country. Is it not more and
more common in professional circles to see a slur cast on the man who
will work cheaply? There is hardly an occupation or specialty which has
not its Associations and its periodicals; and what is more natural than
that an association for mutual benefit should come to adopt that certain
method of securing mutual benefit at the expense of the public, the
restraint of competition?

Examining the remaining occupations in this division, we find that those
engaged in them form a large percentage of the whole population. There
are of laborers whose occ