e wealth of another for a given amount of
his own wealth._" Simmer this down to its essence, and we have simply:
_Competition is selfishness._ To the other evident faults of the
definition we need not allude. It is a much more satisfactory definition
which Webster's Dictionary gives us, for it includes the idea that
competition necessitates two or more parties to exercise it:
"_Competition is the act of seeking the same object that another is
seeking._" But this is too broad a definition for our purpose. It takes
in competitions for fame, social standing, etc., with which we have
nothing to do.

Failing to find a satisfactory definition, let us make one, as follows:
_Competition is that force of rivalry between buyers or between sellers
which tends to make the former give a greater price for the commodity
they wish to secure, and tends to make the latter offer better
commodities for a less price._

That competition _is_ a force, even in the popular estimation, is
evidenced by such common expressions as "the pressure of competition,"
"a strong competition," and indeed, "the force of competition." But
these very expressions show us as well, what we have already found to be
true in the preceding chapters, that it is not a constant force but a
variable one. What, then, are the laws of its variation?

Let us see what we can learn by a study of three typical examples of the
force of competition. Let us take first the business of growing corn.
There are perhaps three million farmers in the United States engaged in
producing corn, and each one of these competes with all the others. Is
this doubted? We have defined competition as a rivalry that tends to
make the sellers offer better goods for a less price. Now at first sight
it may seem that there is no rivalry at all. Neighboring farmers work
together in all harmony; and no man thinks that because his neighbors
have raised a large crop of corn, he is in any way injured. And yet this
_tendency_ to give better goods and lower prices exists and is plainly
felt. Suppose a new and superior variety of corn were introduced, which
buyers preferred. Some farmers would at once begin to raise it, so that
they might be more sure of a market and perhaps of a better price, and
other farmers would be obliged to follow suit to meet the competition.
Again, consider that the supply and demand adjust themselves to each
other through competition. For suppose, at the ruling price, the demand
to