Page:The Mexican Problem (1917).djvu/173

Rh supplies which automatically check the advance.

There is perfect action of the law of supply and demand at top and bottom, but intermediately there is the law of self-interest placing the so-called trust and the independent upon exactly the same basis mutual maintenance of price and profits; with competition only in service.

The Supreme Court decisions, the regulations by state and United States governments and "anti-trust" laws, all pressing from the outside, force all producers into absolute mutual understanding without any agreement written or oral.

They absolutely boycott the government decree and that without conspiracy or combination. They understand the law, "Don't Rock the Boat."

When the government shakes its finger at the large company and tells it to compete and destroy the smaller companies and decrees aid and comfort to the smaller producing company to destroy the larger one, it makes impossible the competition which under the law it seeks to enforce.