LONG RUN POSTWAR ASPECTS OF PRICE CONTROL.

To recapitulate in case words have obscured meanings! I have assumed that government wartime price control will be dropped some time after the war ceases. I have assumed, too, that there will be an interval during which our industrial and marketing system will be recognizably similar to that of the prewar period. Under these conditions it seemed reasonable to assume that the interest in price control would shift from wartime government controls in order to hold prices down to a combination of private and governmental control to restrain aggressive price cutting. This interest will be derived from normal trading forces and will be nurtured and find expression through the prewar expansion of price regulation intended to protect competitors from injurious, or in general, unfair price competition. Under favorable conditions this general tendency should not in itself have serious untoward consequences so far as the general effectiveness of competition is concerned. But, under unfavorable conditions, especially if there should be serious unemployment, additional crude and short-sighted circumscriptions upon price competition might appear. This whole tendency is an evidence of industrial maturity. It remains to be seen if we shall have also the wisdom of maturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]