, 1925-01-07

lief to the destitute; but not moral
Iy wrong. Prices are economic, not
| charitable institutions. The only
crime prices can commit is to faii
to move goods into consumption.
Prices determine who receives the
| products of industry. All markets
are much like an auction SALE the
| successful bidders take away. the
goods. In some fields, however
| price bidding has been eliminated.
II a man wants a telephone, he
takes what is given him at n es--
| tablished price. No matter how OK
| asperated he may be. he cannot get
better setvice than his neighbor by
| bidding up the price. If he rides oa
a Now York subway, he pays five
| cents. takes any seat he can got or
| hangs TO a. strap. II he burns gas,
| he burns what comes through the
| main. exactly what his %neighbor
| burns and at the anne price. He
| has no choice. Unrestricted compe-
| tition among utilities that must use
| the public highways would be too
annoying. even IL 1t were not too
wasteful. to be tolerated.
For other reasons bidding Is not
| allowed for Harvard Yale football
tickets. II they were sold as tickets
to Stepping Stones are sold all
but about seventy thousand bidders
would be eliminated. The last to
| drop out would determine the price.
| What that price would be. nobody
knows. Since price is not allowed to
decide who gets the tickets. iallot-
| ment has to be made on some other
basis. But automobiles. mah-jong
| sets, channels skins. oil paintings.
| and a hundred thousand other things
| that buyers compete for cannot be
distributed by the H~arvard!Yale
ticket plan. 1t is not possible to de-
clare everything hat is sold mon
.rausferable.' and enforce the rule
hy means of a black list for millions
Of people. Such "a plan might. re-
quire us to withdraw half our pro-
ductive workers and draft them as
government clerks. Even then we
could o do away with speculation.
This is evident from the futile at
tcmpts to prevent speculation in
theater tickets; though in this case
! the difficulties are not so great as
| they would be in the cas- of most
commodities. Consequently. official
| ly fixed prices for all things. though
they might prevent some people
from making large profits. would
merely PASS large profits along to
other people.
BY mean of price bidding. buyers
tnot only determine who gets the
available goods. but for the most
part, what goods are to be produced
in the future. The prices the,
pay today are. in effect. orders fol
future production. Leave then
alone. and they'll come home. bring
the goods behind them. Ir
order to stay In business. men mus
make what people want. And peo
ple express their wishes-cast theil
dollar votes-in the very act of buy
ing. This is a democratic means o
determining production schedules
Every day is election; every buyel
IS a voter. With his dollars. tn
buyer votes to keep in office onl,
those who make what he wants ant
olIer II at d prlcI ne ~ Niihib aA4'
] abba to pay. At this very moment
buyers are deciding which makers o
automobiles are to be allowed u
continue producing. and which o
the two hundred or more makers o
tires-five of whom could suppl,
the total demand-are to DO out o
business. Thus. the individual cit
zen has much more control over bus
mess than he has over government
Slow. indirect. ineffective .,as a rule
are the ways open to him for ex
pressing his political desires. So
often happens that his vote at tn
polls is far from being an ~effectiv
demand. His vote in tho markets
on the contrary, Is usually effective
because only those producers win