The justification for pooling as a partial corrective of scarcity is that it" prevents hardship falling unequally on the poorer part of the community. Without it any deficiency in a commodity might mean the disappearance from the market of the cheaper proprietary brands but not necessarily of the more expensive. Many makers of branded goods would themselves, no doubt, prefer their own and all other makers' pro-duets to go into a common stock rather than see some brands, but not their own, remain on sale. If supplies of a commodity are short, there is much to be said for substituting one standard grade for all others, and fixing a price within the pi chasing power of the general public. But unless there is a real deficiency there are, on balance, serious objections to pooling; and the desire to adopt the system for its own sake, if that desire has existed, cannot be given play without doing grave harm. it wipes out competition, the great safeguard for high quality and low price. To substitute for competition a system so restrictive of trade creates an immense disturbance, only to be excused by stern necessity.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.