cases, being within its power, is presumptively correct to such a degree that nothing short of clear proof can abrogate it. It will thus be seen that this reduces the matter in these cases to a simple question of burden of proof and adequacy of evidence. There is nothing else involved.
On the other hand, when we come to consider the production and sale of common commodities, the production and sale of which are open to anyone, without State grant or assistance, and there being no danger of this monopolistic taxation, it has been proven through the centuries that they will always, and inevitably, seek the "natural" or "normal" price that will tend to fair exchange with other commodities, and that absolutely no other method was ever tried with any success. That prima facie, the market price, that is to say, the price that is ever resulting from freedom in competition, is the right price; the one that will restrict over production and at the same time stimulate the needed production in times of scarcity. So the matter is reversed and the "free" price becomes irrefutably the "fair price," and, therefore, in such case the burden of proof having shifted and the duty of showing the contrary by sufficiently clear legal evidence, resting upon those who question it, the attempt to supplant it by criminal statute, to supplant it not only in face of the continuing presumption of innocence, but by evidence that establishes every essential fact, becomes impossible. It is beyond all possibility to prove that a matter is not what it is, and always has been.
It is manifest that in cases of a monopolistic nature, a decision in favor of the Government price is not necessarily a decision that the price fixed is reasonable, much less reasonable beyond all reasonable doubt (the Supreme Court is ever pointing out how uncertain and
