Page:Earle, Does Price Fixing Destroy Liberty, 1920, 157.jpg



If the purpose sought has been accomplished, and it is understood that free and untrammeled competition is a necessary foundation both of Liberty and plenty; that market price is but the price varying from moment to moment which results from unrestricted freedom, and without which real competition is an impossibility; that those things which men use have real value, and not the mere counters which carry on the exchange of commodity for commodity called "trade"; that men should not, as is customary, thank others when they give things of real value in exchange for the mere facility of trading called "money"; that Courts have fallen into error in deciding that an essentially wrongful act has been committed when grown men, in a bargain freely made and to their mutual satisfaction, have given a moderate amount of goods for a large number of depreciated counters; that no one ever feels any distress when the reverse takes place and a larger amount of real things is exchanged for a smaller amount of such counters;—when these foregoing fundamental principles are fully taken into account, then only can clearly be comprehended the results of a violation of these essential truths.