Page:Earle, Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty, 1920, 096.jpg

96, and, in any event, a great deal less than in the question of the business ability of his butcher and baker and corner groceryman. It will often happen that one dealer will make two or three times as much on his invested capital as his neighbors and competitors, and yet sell his goods to the public at a lower price, or, what is the same thing, sell better goods for the same money. He will do this because he undersells his competitors. The matter is simply this: Some merchants will turn their capital over, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty, and even twenty-five times a year (in the case of some retail grocers). Others only four or five times. That is their year's sales will total five, ten or more times the sum they have invested. The Harvard Bureau, which I have quoted, found that the average turnover in the retail grocery trade was about eight times a year. But the actual range was from twenty-seven times down to less than two times. Now, here was a very remarkable fact. In the Harvard Bureau Reports, the grocery store with the lowest cost of doing business had a turnover of nearly nineteen times a year. And, in general, the higher the turnover, the lower the day's expenses, and, therefore, lower prices to the public. * * *  Natural monopolies and powerful combinations may perhaps very justly be brought under governmental control or restraint, though experience has shown that rarely, if ever, have such attempts been other than disastrous, and meant a yet higher cost to the public in the long run.  But, in the case of ordinary commodities, the action is automatic and cannot fail. * * * The price of things—alike of goods, service, and everything that money can buy—is indeed the most exquisite bit of psychology in the world. At a certain price, a certain number of people will buy a given