thus, through bartering, to reach that normal price to which markets always tend. "Undoubtedly," said the Supreme Court,[1] "as a general rule, the seller wants to get the highest price for his property, and the purchaser wishes to give the lowest, and in that sense it may be said that an expected difference between the parties is to be implied in every case." Can a real market ever exist, where one party must trade on market conditions alone, whilst the other has this same opportunity plus a power of appealing for the aid of the District Attorney? Is the rule hereafter to be that human characteristics and methods, universally existing and applied, are all to become the basis for a charge of crime, and that the law, in attempting to reach that equality and fairness which constitute justice, is going to allow those wishing to buy commodities produced by others to beat down the prices, whilst those who have added to the world's supply are to defend their rights in bargaining by a threatened intervention by the State that may end in their ruin as well as their loss of liberty?
But let us return to our sugar case and ascertain a part of the guesses that could not be answered if such a case were fairly tried. 1. Under existing conditions, what must be the amount of taxes to be deducted, National, State and Municipal? Would it be fifty per cent. and upward, as at present, or eighty, or ninety, or one hundred? 2. What is the exact percentage of plant idleness through failure of raw sugars and materials to arrive, by reason of never ceasing strikes, embargoes and like contingencies, and the impossibility at times of procuring necessary supplies of coal? Every one knows that the cost of production not only may, but does, go
- ↑ In Omaha vs. Omaha Water Co., 218 U. S. 180 (see page 195). 1910.
