Great as are the technical difficulties in the way of the latter policy, the real reason for its lack of advocates would seem to lie in the partial efficiency of the various ancient and highly socialised codes of professional ethics. Competition in the economic world has not been similarly safeguarded from within. With the breakdown of the guild system and the sudden changes introduced by the industrial revolution business found itself upon an uncharted sea. _Laisser faire, laisser aller_ seemed perfectly obvious in this spacious time of untouched world markets, but latterly distances have dwindled, density has increased, and collisions with social norms have become increasingly frequent. Too often and too easily competition has been pushed beyond the limits of social safety. In the economic struggle the “twentieth mean man” has been able to wield compulsory power over his nineteen decent competitors and to force them on pain of bankruptcy to adopt his own lower standards. The professional “mean men,” on the other hand, knew from the start that they were derogating from the ethics of their fellow practitioners, and in many cases were brought quickly to book for it. Here rather than in any differences of personal integrity must be found the reason for the higher moral reputation enjoyed by professional as compared with business men. It is impossible to believe that of the brothers of the family the black sheep always went into business and the good boys into medicine or the ministry. Finally we may expect the general immunity of the professions from state regulation to continue just so long as they develop progressively their own police systems. In this connection it is significant that that one of them which has been most frequently and severely accused of abetting corruption in economic and political fields, namely the law, is precisely the one which has shown the most concern recently in the reformation of its code of ethics.[42] Obviously such sanitary processes may be materially hastened by the pressure from without of a forceful and honest popular feeling in opposition to abuses which have grown up in professional practice. * * * * * The greatest immediate influence upon public opinion is exerted, of course, by journalism. The question of its corruption or corruptibility is, therefore, one of prime importance. Accusations against the press on this score are common enough, but few of them are so sweeping as the following attributed to the late John Swinton, formerly of the New York _Sun_ and _Tribune_.[43] At a banquet of the New York Press Association in 1895, in response to a toast on “The Independent Press” he is reported to have said: