traint of
competition are void, so often appealed to nowadays, has really but
slight power. It merely prevents the parties who make an agreement to
restrain competition, from enforcing such agreements in court. Attempts
have also been made to apply this principle to secure an annulment of
the charter of corporations which engage in monopolistic combinations.
Even if this be successful, the only result probable is that private
parties instead of corporations will carry on the monopolies in a few
cases, while in most cases the competition-destroying agreements will be
made so secretly that it will be impossible to prove their existence.

It is thus plain that the action of the government in declaring the
restriction of competition to be illegal is wholly ineffectual to check
the growth of monopoly. And, further, the fact is that it is hardly
possible for the government to take any more extreme stand in the
matter. Let us suppose that it does declare, not only that these
combinations are against public policy, but that they shall be punished.
Then would it be a punishable offence for two country grocers who had
been selling sugar below cost to agree that henceforth they would charge
a uniform price and make an eighth of a cent per pound! It is to be
remembered that _competition_ necessitates _action_. Can the government,
therefore, _compel_ a man to compete, to cut prices below his neighbors,
or to carry on his business at all, if he does not choose to do so? Such
a law would establish the government's right to regulate the conduct of
purely private business to a degree never before known. Such a law to
protect the theory of individualism would be a most flagrant
infringement of the rights of individuals. It is plain, then, that
government cannot possibly keep up competition by direct action.

Whether it is possible to do so by indirect means is a much harder
question. Monopoly results, as we have found, from the intensity of
competition. If it is possible to modify the intensity, to keep the
candle from burning itself out too quickly, so to speak, it is possible
that competition may be kept alive by legislative enactment. So far,
practically nothing has been done in this direction, and it remains yet
to be seen what remedies of this sort may accomplish.

A pertinent example of an attempt by the government to keep competition
alive is the Interstate Commerce law. Before its passage the railway
companies had a patched-up