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)

TRUE VS. FALSE COMPETITION 89
cost if they conferred together and compared data; their
bids would not vary greatly in true competition and such
differences as there were would be normal, easily explained
and justified. But where two bidders vary so widely in
their figures that each looks upon the other, as “wild” in
his estimates, something is wrong, either the one is too
high or the other too low, the intelligent bidder in between
is the sufferer.
In false competition the honest and intelligent bidder is
always at a disadvantage when there is little demand for
work. When there is more than enough work for all it
does not matter so much what the ignorant bidder may do;
he may bid high and make more than he should, or he
may bid low and lose money, the intelligent bidder pur-
sues the even tenor of his way, knowing his costs he
makes sure of a fair profit on each contract taken.
It is in the dull times that the intelligent bidder feels
the competition of ignorance and unscrupulousness. He is
caught between two fires, that of the man who does not
know his costs, and bids recklessly in the dark, and the man
who knows his business, but bids low, with the intention of
working out a profit in some tricky way—of the two the
ignorant bidder is the more troublesome factor, his com-
petition is disastrous because blind and reckless.

IX
In transactions such as those outlined, the factors of
true competition are present—(a) work to do; and (b) a
number of parties able and anxious to do it; but some ele-
ment is lacking, some element the presence of which would
transform the false and vicious competition into true and
healthful. That element is knowledge, such knowledge of
conditions and considerations affecting the price of the