If he demands too much, we shall buy from another; he
knows this, and the knowledge forestalls the excessive
demand. The tacit recognition of the presence of
several buyers, on the one hand, and of several sellers,
on the other, is a substitute for much argument. In
retail traffic bargains are made with a minimum of
"higgling"; the competition preceding actual purchases
takes away the root of strife.
66 THE ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL SERVICE.
It is where the efforts of rivals to outdo each other
in serving the public are wanting that strife ensues.
Without the steadying effect of true competition a
bargain becomes a contest of strength in which one
man's gain is another man's loss, a transaction which
is liable to strain the personal relations of the partici-
pants, and even to render them surly or desperate, in
cases where vital interests are involved. The deter-
mining influences in such crude adjustments of value
are shrewdness and ultimate endurance ; and a man
does not take a defeat by either method with equa-
nimit3^ Still less do classes of men do so when the
issue determines their means of livelihood and comfort.
