It is believed that there is no difference of opinion on this subject between Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, or any of the other great masters of political thought.
It must never be forgotten, also, that the reach of this question is universal. If the State can wrench the control of the prices of commodities from the hands of all the people exercising their inalienable right of pursuit through the means of free competition pursued at their free discretions, it is, of course, inevitably fixing the compensation for their services and labors. As Adam Smith has so clearly shown, in the case of sales of many commodities, recompense for labor is not only an important factor, but the predominating factor.
It must not be forgotten, also, that the Supreme Court of the United States has, again and again, determined that the freedom of pursuit is constitutionally protected, and is only subject to such limitation or regulation by legislation as can be shown to be warranted by public welfare; and that there is no disagreement among those really well informed that such attempts at regulation are, on the contrary, pernicious to the last degree; that this has been not the result of mere theorizing, but of the actual tests and experiences of centuries. That such attempts have resulted in unvarying failures, and have been abandoned, sometimes after the greatest suffering, and always after imperilling Liberty herself.
It is strange that, in view of these vital questions, practically all of the attention of the lower Courts, in respect to this Act, has been directed to but a single question relating to the "uncertainty" of its provisions. This probably is the reason why there has been such conflict of views between them; but, however that may be, the discussion of this phase of the Act throws so much light upon the question that it seems to merit the most careful examination.
