At present there is little recourse but to carry distrust into all purchasing, learn to be canny, and to recognize differences in quality in all articles needed.  But the average man cannot become an expert purchaser; he buys furniture which breaks down prematurely; he pays a high price for clothing which proves to have no wearing quality; he buys patent medicines which promise to cure his physical ills, and is lucky if they do not leave him worse in health than before.  Jerry- building, and the doing of fake jobs by contractors, especially for municipalities, is one of the scandals of our times. [Footnote:  See Encyclopedia Britannica, article, “Adulteration.”  E. Kelly Twentieth Century Socialism, book ii, chap. i.  For a notorious case of tampering with weights, see Outlook, vol. 92, p. 25; vol. 93, p. 811.  For cases of adulteration, Good Housekeeping Magazine, vol. 54, p. 593.  F. W. Taussig, Principles of Economics, chap. 45.]

(2) Another duty, less generally recognized by even the more honorable businessmen, is to sell their goods at fair prices.  The strangulation of competition by mutual agreements or the formation of trusts, aided often by an iniquitously high tariff, has put many a business for a time on a par with those natural monopolies which, if unregulated, can always exact exorbitant prices for what the public needs.  Rich profits have been made by the tucking of a few cents on to the price of gas, or coal, or steel, or oil, or telephone service.  Enormous fortunes have been made, at the public expense, by the practical cornering of staple commodities.  These hold-up prices should be clearly recognized for what they are-a form of modern piracy.  No business man or corporation is entitled in justice to more than a moderate reward for the mental and physical labor expended; the excessive incomes of monopoly are largely at the expense of the public, who, by one means or other, are being compelled to pay more than a fair price for the article. [Footnote:  For cases, see C. R. Van Hise, Concentration and Control, pp. 109,145, 149.]

(3) Finally, all business must be looked upon as a form of public service, and the convenience of customers scrupulously consulted.  Where there is competition this tends to regulate itself; but our public-service monopolies have too often followed the “public- be-damned” policy.  The long-suffering community puts up with inadequate and crowded streetcars, inconvenient train service, a bungled and high-handed telephone system.  Railway managements have sometimes been criminally indifferent to public safety, finding it less expensive to lose occasional damage suits than to install safety appliances.  Efficiency in serving the public has likewise been sacrificed to dividends; and courtesy, where it is not recognized to have a cash value, tends to disappear.  Such indictments point to the widespread existence of the idea that men and corporations are in business for themselves only, and not as fulfilling a public need.[Footnote:  For concrete illustrations, see Outlook, vol. 91, p. 861; vol. 95, p. 515.  World’s Work, vol. 23, p. 579.]