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)

CHAPTER IX

THE OPEN-PRICE POLICY
I
The basis of the new competition is the open-price
policy.
II
What is meant by an "open” price?
Exactly what the word signifies, a price that is open
and aboveboard, that is known to both competitors and cus-
tomers, that is marked wherever practicable in plain figures
on every article produced, that is accurately printed in every
price list issued—a price about which there is no secrecy, no
evasions, no preferences. In contract work it means that
every bid made and every modification thereof shall be
known to every competitor for the order; it means that
even the cunning and unscrupulous competitor may have
this information. In short, the open-price policy means a
complete reversal of methods now in vogue.
Many strongly established manufacturers who make a
practice of adhering quite closely to their prices will say,
“Why that is what we are doing now.” A dozen search-
ing questions will convince them they are not, and a half
dozen crucial propositions to reform their methods along
the new lines will lead a goodly number of them to settle
back in their chairs and say, “No, no, that’s too advanced

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