be less than the supply; then to increase the demand, the price must
fall; and the cause of the fall in price is simply that the farmers
compete with each other for the market, and lower their prices in order
to secure a sale for their crops. Note, however, that the rivalry in
this case never becomes a personal one. Each farmer recognizes that an
increased supply lessens the price for his goods; but his neighbor's
extra acreage is such a drop in the bucket, that he never thinks of it
as being really a rival of his own crop.

Take as a second example, the wholesale paper trade. Here are perhaps
three hundred men, each knowing personally many of his competitors and
probably hating some of them cordially. Each striving to secure for
himself all the trade possible, and to gain, if he can, his rivals'
customers. He sends out his salesmen with instructions to, "Sell goods!
For the best prices you can get, but sell them, anyhow." These
"drummers" are sharp, active business men, they might well be employed
in directing some productive process; but they go out and spend their
time in inducing customers by all the means in their power to buy their
goods. They spend money in various "treats" to secure the
good-fellowship of the man with whom it is desired to trade, and use his
time as well as their own. Another item of expense is for advertising
and for keeping the firm name prominently before the purchasing public.
All these things cost money, as any wholesale merchant engaged in a
business where there is sharp competition can testify. It may be thought
that a firm which would have the courage to do away with all these
expenses and give the money thus saved to their patrons in reduced
prices and better goods, would be able to keep its trade and even gain
over its competitors. But it is hardly so; most men are more likely to
be wheedled into taking slightly inferior goods at a slightly greater
price.

Another matter to be considered in this connection is the variation in
price. In the case of the producers of corn, we saw that prices were
practically uniform at any given place, being fixed by the ratio of
supply and demand in the chief markets of the world. But in making sales
of paper, the sharp, close-dealing buyer is generally able to secure a
better price than a buyer not posted in regard to the condition of the
paper trade.

As competition becomes more intense, its burdens become more heavy to
carry. Perhaps two of the lar