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

this system by arbitrarily rejecting bids it thinks below
cost and letting work to the bidder whose bid it thinks is
fair; that would lead to conditions still worse. It may even
be true that all the Government can do is accept the lowest
bid, but it should not accept any offer that appears to be be-
low cost without calling the attention of the bidder to the
figures and securing from him the assurance—with, if nec-
essary, some demonstration—that he can furnish the goods
or do the work at the price and make money.
If he cannot give the assurance, or make the demon-
stration, his offer should be rejected.
And it should be open to every higher bidder to chal-
lenge the lowest bidder’s ability to do the work required at
the price and get out even.
The practical difficulties in the way of the Government’s
taking the initiative are obvious, but the work can be done,
and done effectually, by open price associations, if the law
would permit. Such associations would have no trouble
whatsoever in checking up bids and disclosing those that
did not cover cost plus a fair profit.