ibly wish, the public was not
getting such a wonderful benefit after all. Prices were not so very
much lower for oil, nor higher for seed. It was the selling expense
which had run up to a ruinous figure; and on one point all the
members were unanimous,--that if all the firms in the trade could
only work together in harmony in marketing their goods, they could
save enough in salesmen's salaries, etc., to make a great
difference in the profit-and-loss account without affecting the
selling prices in the market one penny.

Another very important matter, which we had to handle pretty
tenderly in our discussions, was that of adulteration. I must
confess that a good many firms in the trade, who used to be above
any thing of the sort, have been marketing some goods in the past
few years which were not exactly the "pure linseed oil" which they
were labelled. It's a mean business--adulteration,--but not many of
our customers ever test their purchases. The one thing they are apt
to look at is price, for they are buying to sell again; and when
rivals are selling a cheaper oil that seems just as good until it
is laid on as the pure linseed that you are obliged to ask a higher
price for, the temptation to meet them at their own game, rather
than lose your old customers, is a very strong one. Certainly, when
competition took this form, it hurt the public even more than it
hurt us. When people wish to buy pure linseed oil they ought to
have some prospect of getting it, instead of getting an adulterated
mixture of various substances; but at the rate competition was
running, there seemed to be small prospect that there would be any
really pure linseed oil put on the market in a short time. We have
often discussed the possibility of stopping these adulterations,
but it was a hard matter to cure by mere mutual agreement. How do I
know what my competitor in a city a hundred miles away, does with
the vats in his cellar after working hours, even if he has solemnly
agreed not to adulterate his goods? For I must confess that there
are a few men in our trade who are as tricky as horse jockeys.

Quite a number of improvements have been patented in linseed oil
machinery in the past twenty years. Nothing wonderful, but things
that effect little economies in the manufacture. We