Page:Earle, Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty, 1920, 125.jpg

Rh appertaining to the manufacture of that commodity. The mathematical problem reduces itself to this question: "What price must a man ask for sugar, which, after the deduction of many other sums which cannot possibly be stated, will leave a remaining sum that will satisfy any jury that no more than a reasonable profit has been made?" This problem reminds us of the teasing questions put to children beginning arithmetic, such as: "If a boy had thirteen marbles and his sister gave him a plate of ice cream, how many crows would it take to eat up the corn which his father was going to plant?" Well has the Supreme Court said that such guessing is not a judicial function, that: "To compel men to guess on peril of indictment what the community would have given for their wares, if the continually changing conditions were other than they are, to an uncertain extent; to divine prophetically what the reaction of only partially determinate facts would be upon the imagination and desires of purchasers, is to exact gifts that mankind does not possess."

Of course, the contention as to the Lever Act is that men have so far lost their freedom under it that these "reactions" are no longer to be permitted to take place—an unthinkable proposition to any one familiar with the world of business. We may well ask with Supreme Court, in United States vs. Trans-Missouri Freight Association: "What is a fair and reasonable profit?  That depends sometimes upon the risk incurred.  * * *  It is quite apparent, therefore, that it is exceedingly difficult to formulate even the