Eddy, Arthur Jerome: The new competition: an examination of the conditions underlying the radical change that is taking place in the commercial and industrial world ; the change from a competitive to a cooperative basis (New York [u.a.], 1912)

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THE NEW COMPETITION

We have, then, three well-defined cooperative move-
ments :
1. Consolidations—partnerships, corporations, trusts
■—to more effectively compete by lowering costs and prices.
This is the only cooperative movement the direct object of
which is to serve the consumer by giving him what he wants
at lower prices, though they may also be for the purpose of
securing control temporarily and exacting for a time arbi-
trarily high prices.
2. Unions of labor and unions of farmers—to lessen
competition and advance prices.
3. Associations of competing manufacturers and deal-
ers to lessen competition and advance prices—to do exactly
the things unions of labor and of farmers seek to do.

X
It is plain from the bare statement that consolidations
(1) stand on a very different footing from unions (2) and
associations (3). They have nothing in common with the
latter; in fact, may be antagonistic to them.
A consolidation the prime object of which is to secure
results at lower costs, naturally stands in opposition to or-
ganizations the object of which is to advance both costs
and prices.
So long as the public demands quantity at a low cost it
should promote the formation of large producing units,
simply exercising such supervision over their operations
that they will not be permitted to take advantage of any
temporary monopoly to arbitrarily advance prices.
If, as is so commonly assumed in speech and print, the
public were made up of buyers—i. e., consumers exclu-
sively—then it should be friendly to (1) consolidations and
opposed to unions (2) and associations (3), but the “pub-