The law of competition is the survival of the fittest. It seems a brutal law to some people, and it is often held responsible for much deceit and misrepresenta tion. For example, some critics hold that competition inevitably leads to food adulteration, shoddy clothing, unsafe tenement and apartment houses. We will not stop to discuss this criticism here. The important point now to note is the fact that competition is in exorable and compels the business man to do his best or go down. Competition inevitably brings to the top the strongest men who take up business, the men who know the most about the principles of business and are the most skilful and energetic in their ap plication.
That competition has been called tbe "life of trade" is not at all remarkable. Every man knows by ex perience how indifferent to his customers' opinions is the average man who enjoys monopoly. Frequently a tradesman's monopoly is due to his location. He is in a small town the trade of which does not tempt a competitor. He lets his stock run low, is frequently out of articles called for, and bas no patience with the whims of his customers. In other words, he runs a poor store. Let a competitor enter the field, and signs of life in tbe first store will quickly begin to appear.
5. Unfair competition.—Not only does our busi ness man. have to compete on equal terms v.-ith men like himself—we will assume that he is an honest and an honorable man, anxious to make a profit by render ing real service to his customers—but also with men who will not "play fair." The man who takes ad vantage of his customers' ignorance and palms off on them second quality goods as if they were first quality, is no better than a thief. He takes sometliing for Nvhich he gives no equivalent. Such men never achieve great success in business. They are usually found out. And even tho they reform and cease to cheat and misrepresent, people refuse to believe in them. Nevertheless, our real business man must meet much unscrupulous competition and it will give him a lot of annoyance.
Some of the enemies of competition, notably the socialists, maintain that it tends to drag business down to the lowest level. The honest business man, they hold, cannot do business honestly, for then he will be undersold, or apparently undersold, by the liars and conscienceless. Undoubtedly there is danger here and many weak men have succumbed to temptation, jus tifying their moral lapse on the ground of necessity.
But anybody familiar with business developments dur ing the last two generations, especially in the United States, does not doubt.that there has been a steady lift ing of business standards. Almost no other fact con nected with business has received so much comment in recent years.
Unfair competition is undoubtedly one of the foes which an honest business man must overcome. For tunately it is not the "life of trade" and it leads to the death of the unfair competitor. It is opposed to eco nomic interest and to moral sentiment and must grow relatively less formidable as buyers become more in telligent.
We will make no attempt here to describe the vari ous tricks and schemes which are considered unfair competition. Recent court decisions in cases against alleged monopolies have listed certain practices which are considered unfair, but these are treated more prop erly in Volume 24 of the Modern Business Texts. The purpose of this section is to make the reader see that unfair competition is a real peril in the path of the business man who would play the game honestly.
6. Building an us suppose that a man has control of sufficient capital for the estab lishment and conduct of a business large enough to permit the reduction of costs to a minimum. His first important task will be the building of an organization. He must find men upon whom he can rely to do the work lie wants done.
Even tho our business man has had abundant ex perience and is equipped by training as well as by ability for the management of large affairs, his task of finding competent and trustworthy lieutenants will be a difficult one. He will need men who command large salaries, men of his own type, men who k-now as much as he himself about this or that side of his busi ness. Such nien are not out of work. They already have positions and are reluctant to give them up to work under a boss of whose temper and character they do not feel certain. Our business man, since he has had experience, doubtless knows many of the best men connected with his line of business and is able to base his selections of men on first hand knowledge. Even then his task is not easy, and he frequently will be un able to get for some important post the man whom he has decided upon as being the one best fitted for it.