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)

THE OPEN-PRICE POLICY

111

for us.” The writer’s experience has been that the men
who are loudest to insist they follow the open-price policy
are the last to adopt it. What they want is a “fixed”’ price
policy.
Ill
The secret price is the mark of the old—false competi-
tion.
The fixed price is the mark of the illegal combination—
suppressed competition.
The open price is the mark of the new—true competi-
tion.

IV
The secret price must go, it has had its day, it does not
belong to the twentieth century, it is part of the old order
of things that is giving way to the new.
Men are just beginning to learn that it is easier to make
money by straightforward methods than by devious, that
truth is a commercial asset.
Before the days of steam and electricity men had plenty
of time for lying. The slower the means of communica-
tion the greater the opportunity for deception—a letter is
an excuse; a telegram an answer; a telephone a fact.
Many a man declines to use the telephone because it is
devoid of opportunity. Many a woman exclaims in annoy-
ance, “Why did she invite me over the phone? I just had
to accept. I could not think of a thing to say.”
More business is done to-day by word of mouth than
ever before. Men have no time to make contracts, draw
up memoranda, call in lawyers; it is “yes” and “no,” and
millions change hands.
In the great world of finance, of stock and grain deal-
ings, of big transactions rarely does a man “go back on his