President Van Hise advocates the regulation policy in a modified form. In substance his view is that, while no corporation should be permitted to control the greater part of any product, monopolistic price-agreements should be sanctioned and regulated by law. No amount of restrictive legislation, he maintains, can secure universal competition in the matter of prices. Experience shows that the destructive results of cut-throat competition compel the more powerful competitors to make price agreements in some lines of business.[185] For example; all the retail grocers in a city are often found selling certain staples at a uniform price for long periods of time. Agreements of this sort should, in the opinion of President Van Hise, be formally permitted by law, with the proviso that a government commission should fix the maximum and possibly the minimum limits. And he contends that the task of fixing fair maximum and minimum prices would be much less difficult than is commonly supposed, and that it would be much simpler and easier than the task of regulating railway freight rates. Whatever may be the merits of this plan, it is not likely to be embodied in legislation in the near future. So far as we can see now, the American people are committed to the policy of endeavouring to restore genuine competition by prohibiting those predatory practices to which the great monopolies mainly owe their existence. The attempt will be made to give competition a fair opportunity to prevent both monopolistic control of products and monopolistic fixing of prices. Competition has not enjoyed any such opportunity during the last quarter of a century. If this attempt should fail after a thorough trial, the time will be at hand for the regulation of prices by the government. Until that time has arrived (let us hope that it never will arrive) the State will not, and should not, embark upon such a large and difficult experiment. FOOTNOTES: [165] Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Petroleum Industry, II, 40, 41. [166] Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Tobacco Industry, II, 26-34. [167] Report of the Commissioner of Corporations on the Steel Industry, I, 51. According to F. J. McRae, the expert accountant for the Stanley congressional investigating committee, this concern secured 40 per cent. on the _cost_ of its property. [168] Hearings Before the Interstate Commerce Committee, U. S. Senate, Part XVI, pages 1146-1166. [169] _The Journal of Political Economy_, April, 1912, p. 366. [170] "Concentration and Control," p. 20. [171] Page 621. [172] _The Journal of Political Economy_, April, 1912, p. 363. [173] Report on the Petroleum Industry, II, 74. [174] Report on the Tobacco Industry, II, 27. [175] Cf. Van Hise, op. cit., pp. 140, 149, 153, 159. [176] Final Report of the Industrial Commission, pp. 660-662. [177] Report on the Petroleum Industry, I, 328-332. [178] Cf. Lehmkuhl, "Theologia Moralis," I, No. 974.