the larger number of people—­justifies everything.  Now, at the time of the coal famine of 1903, Massachusetts passed a statute licensing dealers in coal; the law for the municipal coal-yard having been declared unconstitutional.  The object of this statute was not to derive revenue or to restrict trade, but to regulate profits; and in particular to prevent the retail coal-dealers from combining to fix the price of coal themselves.  Yet in spite of this legislation, the ice-dealers of Massachusetts only this year (1910) assembled in convention in Boston upon a call, widely advertised in the newspapers, that they were holding the assembly for that precise purpose, that is to say, to fix and control the price and the output of ice.  They were, indeed, “malefactors of great wealth”; at least we may guess the latter, and the animus of a more intelligent precedent may some day hopefully be directed to such definite evils, of which our ancestors were well aware, rather than blindly running amuck at all.  The coal-dealers in Boston, by the way, made the same argument that is always made, and was made at Athens in the grain combination of the third century B.C.—­to wit, that they put up the prices in order to prevent other people buying all the coal and speculating in it; but notwithstanding that showing of their altruistic motives, the secretary of state revoked the license of the coal company in question.  The statute also forbade the charging extortionate prices, which, again, was a perfectly proper subject of legislation under the common law; but, unfortunately, was carelessly drawn, so that it resulted in a somewhat cloudy court opinion.

For the matter of uniform legislation the reader must be referred in general to reports of the National Commission.  Their greatest achievement has been the code of the law of bills and notes just mentioned.  Besides this they have just adopted a code on the law of sales, and they have recommended brief and uniform formalities as well as forms for the execution and acknowledgment of deeds and wills, and have very considerably improved the procedure in matters of divorce.

The best modern legislation concerning trade and business is, of course, that of the pure-food laws.  The Federal law has certainly proved effective, although it is in danger of being repealed or emasculated in the interest of the “special interests”; most of the State laws simply copy it.  Undoubtedly the laws should be identical in interstate commerce and in all the States; and this can only be done by voluntary uniform action.

VIII

REGULATION OF RATES AND PRICES