"Extremely so. The tendency to misrepresent, deceive, or take unfair advantage under circumstances that daily offer the opportunity of so doing, is generally too strong to resist where self-interest is the motive power of action, the conventional morality the only check. To me they appear to be opposing principles-the first of self-sacrifice, the second of self-interest."

These replies are endorsed by the manager of a firm of engineers, who writes, "Yes, frequently; and if I were a commercial traveller, from actual knowledge gained from our own traveller of the many things which have to be said and done in order to transact business with some people, I should despair of effecting the reconciliation between principle and conduct."

That these moral difficulties are not wholly confined to the transactions of subordinates and petty agents is evidenced by the two following statements. The first emanates from a cotton manufacturer, the second from the head of a branch office of a large coal and iron company :

"Yes. To one connected with an established business the difficulty constantly presents itself. To one starting in business the difficulty is intensified tenfold; it is very up-hill work, and terribly hard to stand firm to what one knows is true and honourable."

"Yes. The evasion, equivocation, and the method of making statements which in themselves may be practically accurate and yet are so misleading, generally make it so extremely difficult to apply strict principles and be successful in business."

The last opinion to be mentioned under this head is that of an artisan engaged in the calico-weaving trade, who thus expresses himself: "Speaking as a workman, one finds it extremely difficult to carry the principles of Christian teaching into all the details of practical life. The Lancashire workman suffers in this respect from three causes. He is obliged, in a great many firms, to turn out a certain quantity of work, which hampers him in attending duly to the quality of it. Then, in order to ensure good quality with quantity, the master has to put the workman under a sifting, I may say a drastic, supervision;

and between the pressure of the two, who in my own work are called the tackler' and the 'cut-looker,' the great temptation to the workman is to resort to all sorts of shady dodges to retain his position and carry on the fight for dear life. The third cause of difficulty grows out of the keen competition that has reduced the margin of profits for the master to such narrow limits, that, in scheming to make ends meet, he often supplies the workman with inferior material, and seeks to get the highest quality of work put into the finished product to make amends as far as possible for the defects of the raw material. I cannot of course, speak with any authority of the master's position with regard to the first question in your list. But I heard a story, the truth of which I could vouch for, about one of our greatest manufacturers, a member of a Christian denomination, a County Councillor, and a man of considerable public service generally, which illustrates and proves that our capitalists feel that unblemished morality and commercial success are sometimes difficult to keep hand-in-hand. Speaking to his cashier, he said 'If the Lord would let a Christian tell a lie in business, it would be a great advantage sometimes.""

2. To what extent is honourable trade hampered by unjust competition?

In regard to this question all my correspondents agree in affirming that the conscientious trader is more or less seriously troubled by the methods of less scrupulous competitors. The first six replies quoted under this division represent the opinions of men engaged, either as owners or as managing directors, in various manufacturing industries - machinery, woollen goods, cotton, varnish, confectionery, and iron-and serve to give some idea of what business men understand by unjust competition, and of the extent of the evil.

"Honourable trade is to a very large extent not only hampered, but injured, by unfair competition. Every instance of securing business by dishonourable means, whether bribing or unfair competition (such as that of a trader who starts business on credit, and after a few years goes through the bankruptcy court, pays a shilling or two in the pound, and then starts again. No

honest trader who intends paying twenty shillings in the pound can compete with a man who pays only ten shillings, which is a very exceptional dividend in hundreds of cases), helps to reduce prices down to a level at which an honest trader cannot live unless he takes to sweating either his workmen or his goods. The man who trades on too small a capital is obliged to get business somehow and at some price, no matter what the state of demand may be, or he cannot meet his bills or pay his workmen. The question of unfair competition, of commercial and financial wrong-doing, and of speculation, has a very important bearing on the labour problem. Fluctuations in trade are, to a large extent, the result of these, and with every fluctuation come demands for increase or decrease of wages, which cause strikes and lock-outs. The uncertainty and irregularity of employment, too, is demoralizing to the working classes."

"Honourable trade is greatly hampered by unjust competition, in being made to appear less advantageous than the latter to the consumer. When the dishonest trader adulterates or otherwise secretly deteriorates his goods; when he steals his competitor's ideas; or when he cheats his creditors of so many shillings in the pound, he is able to undersell his honest competitor. In the first instance, the manufacture costs less, although the goods may appear to be of equal value; in the second, he appropriates what may have cost the originator much to bring out; in the third instance, he obtains for (say) ten shillings what costs to the man who pays in full one pound."

"At least seventy-five per cent. Unfair competition presents itself in so many forms. To name a few: (a) Unjust competition is caused by those who, by paying lower wages to their unskilled labour, are enabled to place their commodities in the market at a rate to undersell those who wish to pay a fair rate of wages. Skilled labour, being as a rule well organized, can command a fair return. (b) Another cause is the action of certain firms who gain a knowledge as to how far the productions of those in the same kind of business (often the result of considerable labour and expense) are protected by registration; VOL. III.-No. 3.

Y

then, by means of imitations, just out of reach of the law and more or less worthless, which are produced at a price to tempt the public to buy, they make it difficult or almost impossible to gain a fair return for the ingenuity and cost expended on the better article. We suffer from what has been called the sin of cheapness.' (c) Gambling and speculating in staple materials, such as cotton, iron, etc., largely in use in this country. (d) Bribery and corruption in innumerable forms of the servants by customers. This prevails to an enormous extent, and is quite indefensible."

It is impossible to say definitely to what extent honourable trade is hampered by unjust competition; but there is no doubt, that it is very considerably hampered by such actions as bribery, adulteration, and cheaper means of production caused by the sweating system."

"Trade is considerably hampered by the reckless competition of people who mostly rush into business with insufficient capital, and, to meet their engagements, have often to realize goods at a loss. So easy is this that a man in now made bankrupt, who began business there some ten years ago with no capital, and has been making a loss practically every year since, has yet kept his carriage, and lived in good style all the time. And, having bought of Peter to pay Paul, at last has to pull up with affairs something like this

Total liabilities about

Of which secured (that is, by goods bought of dealers and
pledged to banks)

Assets

Short

£41,000

21,900

19,100

2,520

£16,580

So creditors look like getting half a crown in the pound. But they won't, as the available assets, we shall find, will be nearly swallowed up in costs. Now, here is a fellow who has lived in great apparent respectability on his creditors for ten years, to the tune of £1650 a year, all the time harassing solvent honest people by selling under cost. And what will the law do to him? Simply nothing. How many lies, to

cheapen their purchases, must his competitors have been tempted to tell? and how many evil thoughts have been engendered within his range by this rascal (that, I suppose, is a libel!) like this? We are in no way interested pecuniarily, but I know several most deserving firms (as honest folk as I know of) heavily hit, and have followed the case, noticing all its developments. And there are thousands such, or worse, yearly. It is wretches like this who are mainly responsible for cutting.' Of course, good firms frequently follow them up to give them the coup de grace; but credit is so easy to get that they die wonderfully hard.”

"This question naturally raises another, namely, 'What is unjust competition?' If by this is meant the trading of firms or individuals, after they are insolvent, and who continue to lose by obtaining goods and selling them below cost, the repeated Acts regulating bankrupt estates and proceedings are evidence of the widespread character and serious percentage of unjust competition. But if it means that between firms sound and trustworthy, the volume is undeterminable; for what may be unfair in one case may be perfectly legitimate in another. One firm may buy in a better market, or on more favourable terms than another, and undersell fairly without prejudice."

From a workman's point of view the question is thus answered: "My own conception of honourable trade is that of a business carried on with sufficient capital to meet all reasonable contingencies to which such business is exposed; and an expectation of profit, after paying for all kinds of labour, that the moral sense of good men acquainted with all the facts of the case would approve of. Unjust competition is that kind of competition that arises out of men of limited means hurrying into business out of all proportion to their means, and by dint of large credit and business finesse, hampering those who could place business on such sound financial lines that the public moral sense should not be offended by the well-known shadiness of present-day transactions, to which our congested trade is driving men. As thus defined, I think