and in so far it will fall short of the full realisation of that
rule of business that inculcates charging what the traffic will bear,
and also in so far the pressure which the modern system of business
management brings to bear on the common man will also fall short of the
last straw--perhaps even of the next-to-the-last. Again it turns out to
be a question not of the failure of the general proposition as
formulated, but rather as to the closeness of approximation to its
theoretically perfect work. It may be remarked by the way that vigilant
and impartial surveillance of this system of business enterprise by an
external authority interested only in aggregate results, rather than in
the differential gains of the interested individuals, might hopefully
be counted on to correct some of these shortcomings which the system
shows when running loose under the guidance of its own multifarious
incentives.

On the opposite side of the account, it is also worth noting that, while
modern business management may now and again fall short of what the
traffic will bear, it happens more commonly that its exactions will
exceed that limit. This will particularly be true in businessmen's
dealings with hired labour, as also and perhaps with equally
far-reaching consequences in an excessive recourse to sophistications
and adulterants and an excessively parsimonious provision for the
safety, health or comfort of their customers--as, e.g., in passenger
traffic by rail, water or tramway. The discrepancy to which attention is
invited here is due to a discrepancy between business expediency, that
is expediency for the purpose of gain by a given businessman, on the one
hand, and serviceability to the common good, on the other hand. The
business concern's interest in the traffic in which it engages is a
short-term interest, or an interest in the short-term returns, as
contrasted with the long-term or enduring interest which the community
at large has in the public service over which any such given business
concern disposes. The business incentive is that afforded by the
prospective net pecuniary gain from the traffic, substantially an
interest in profitable sales; while the community at large, or the
common man that goes to make up such a community, has a material
interest in this traffic only as regards the services rendered and the
enduring effects that follow from it.

The businessman has not, or at least is commonly not influenced by, any
i