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)

84

THE NEW COMPETITION

tions of secrecy and jealous distrust, and the bid of each
is based upon his own needs; if he has considerable work
in hand he names an arbitrarily high figure on the long
chance he may get it; if he is badly in need of work he
names an absurdly low price to the detriment of himself
and his creditors—in either case there is no true, healthful
competition.

V
It is this false or pseudo competition that prevails in
the contracting and manufacturing world.
It does not prevail in those sections of the labor world
controlled by unions. The unions fix and make known rates
of wages and conditions of employment. It is only with
unorganized labor that the employer is able to say truth-
fully or untruthfully “You ask too much, I can hire any
number of men as good as you for less.”
But even with unorganized labor the prevailing scale
of wages in any given employment is soon known. A man
may go to work for two dollars a day but if he learns that
others doing the same work get two and a half, he soon
demands more or quits. Employment bureaus, even those
run by unscrupulous proprietors, are so many effective
agencies for the dissemination of knowledge regarding
work and wages. It is impossible to employ a cook or a
maid at less than the prevailing wage. Unhappily, a poor
cook asks and gets as much as a good, not because she is
worth it, but because she has been told what others get and
will not work for less.
In the labor world, organized and unorganized, wages
do not fluctuate greatly. There may be a general and
steady advance as of recent years or slight recessions from
time to time, but there are no violent fluctuations.
Twenty-five per cent, of the labor employed in a given