ons, indeed, was long a
criminal offence, as we have pointed out more fully in the chapter
devoted to that subject. It must be said, too, that the principle has
come to be generally, though rather blindly, understood by the masses of
men. It is recognized, though perhaps not very clearly, that competition
lowers the prices of goods, and that this benefits every consumer. Let a
proposition to build a competing railroad line, or a competing
electric-light plant be submitted to popular approval, and, under the
impression that they are benefiting themselves, hard-working men will
cheerfully assume heavy burdens of taxation to aid the new enterprise.
So blind and unreasoning indeed, is this popular abiding faith in the
merits of competition, that it has been responsible for some of the
greatest wastes of wealth in unproductive enterprises that have ever
been known.

We have now examined the theory of universal competition as commonly
accepted at the present day, and it is rightly considered a fundamental
principle of society. It is the practice of most economic writers of the
orthodox school to lay great stress on the importance of this
fundamental principle, and enlarge upon its various manifestations. The
many attempts to limit and destroy competition, which we have studied,
they consider merely as abnormal manifestations which are opposed to
law, and so not worth while considering very fully. But we have seen
clearly to what extent the destruction of competition has gone on; and,
with this knowledge, the question almost inevitably occurs to us: Is not
this decay and death of competition, this attempt to suppress it under
certain conditions, too wide and general a movement to be treated as
merely a troublesome excrescence? Is it not likely that there are
certain fixed laws regarding competition which determine its action and
operation, and sometimes its death? If this be so, it is of the highest
importance that we find and study these laws; and to that purpose we
will devote the following chapter.

XI.

THE LAWS OF MODERN COMPETITION.

Thus far in our study, we have assumed that we knew what competition
was. Now, however, as we are to study it scientifically, we are in need
of an exact definition, that we may know just what the term includes.
Prof. Sturtevant, in his "Economics," says: "_Competition is that law of
human nature by which every man who makes an exchange will seek to
obtain as much as he can of th