The Washington herald., 1906-11-18
COMPETITION IN OUR LIFE
President Hadley, of Yale, Defends
It as a Price Regulator.
some Objections to Modern Trade
Ethics UOnsidered-Dange In
the Competitive System.

President Hadley, OF Yale University,
delivered a lecture on The Ethics OF
Trade" in New York the other day. in
which he. after outlining the history OF
the doctrine that competition is the cor
rect regulation of prices. said in part:
THE objections 70 modern trade ethics
are two. First, modern trade In its larger
forms is mere peculatioR-gambling or
something worse. Second. fair competi-
ton does not exist and cannot exist
except when buyer and seller are on equal
terms. When they are unequal, as when
a capitalist and a laborer are dealing
with each other, the weaker is crushed
by the stronger.
.duch Of the present-day speculation IS
bad. But side by side with the bad there
| is much that Is good and indeed neces-
| sary. The first essential in right specula-
/ ton is that a man must be really able to
make good his guarantee as 20 the future
! In other words, he must be ris1iug his
own money If he is making contracts
/ for future delivery on the basis Of other
I peoples money It means that the profits,
I II there are profits, viii go TO him, and
the losses, If there are losses, viii fan on
somebody else. This is not trade; it is
gambling with loaded dice. II we can
I insist that the man shall have capital 70
make good his guarantees We shall pave
/ the way for a process Of natural seleC-
/ ton by which the skillful man who can
meet the needs OF the public viii come 70
/ the front. while the unskillful man with
1 whom speculation is mere gambling viii
retire from the business as Improbable.
| I hold in regard 70 the competitive sys-
/ TEN that the good greatly outweighs the
| evil It seems TO be Undeniable that ali
through the nineteenth century the work
men as d class have been making great
! progress, and that the general standard
Of workmen's wages in each successive
generation enables him TO buy more
things and better things than his father
did
The abuses Of child labor. the sweating
system, the tenement house cigar system,
and the other parts OF our Industrial sys-
TEN which shock us most are remnants
of the old methods, not characteristics Uf
the new ones.
"One phase Of the competitive system
which seems particularly dangerous is
where unlettered immigrants with low
standard Of living take the bread out Of
the mouths Of men Of higher grade intel
leCtually and morally, with "a correspond
| ingly higher standard Of living. Yet even
/ here I am convinced that competition is
advantageous, that the number OF people
who are able to rise from the lowest
grade Of labor is indefinitely greater than
the number of those who are unable 10
do so and are crowded out Of the means
of self-support. The Irishman of 1SSJ
forced the American up and not out. The
italian Of 1850 forced the Irishman up;
and the Italian, in turn, If he remain
here for permanent citizenship. is being
forced up by the successive crowds of
immigrants from farther East 30 IN emil
nence Of which his predecessors never
dreamed.
There are serious objections 10 unre-
stricted immigration, but they are con
nected with the difficulty of assimilating
as members OF our body polite people
whose civil and moral traditions and Ian
guage are different from our own rather
than any evil economic effect which these
men will have upon production and dis
tributiOn nf the wealth OF the country"