[Letter] Nov.26,1886,Smith College [to F.H. Giddings]

Nov. 26, 1886, Smith College.

Dear Mr. Giddings,
          Prof. Smith assents
cordially to the suggestion that
we prepare an article jointly.
I hope to see you on Monday
in regard to it but will say
that I had in mind to
divide the work in this
way; I would speak
of the natural limits of compet.
somewhat as indicated in
the Chapter on Dist. in 'Phil.
of Wealth', draw out more fully
the contrast between the state
of things implied in Cairnes' theory and the state
of things which seems to me
to exist in the actual field
of industry, incidentally upset
(if possible) Cairnes' theory
of value, and then show
that the lines of competition
are the lines of combination.
The fields for producers'
unions, labor unions, and
capitalistic unions in opposition
to labor organizations are those
bounded by the parallel lines
of the diagram in the book.
I had in mind to say something
like what I did at the club
the other evening about the
conditions which develop
combinations, and those which
result in a Darwinian
struggle, and to show that
what prevents a combination
from being formed is liable
to break it after it is formed.
As I have no rejoinder, after
your article, as I should have
had in case we had written
the extended symposium for
Work and Wages, I must, I
think, anticipate one objection
and answer it, viz. that
founded on the impossibility
of making a combination that
shall cover all forces of a
particular utility. You remember
I base demand and supply on
utilities, not commodities. A
combination should control the
production of a given utility
in all materials from which
it can be made in order
to be an effective combination.
This covers the residual
compet. between silk and wool,
linen collars and paper collars,
&c. I should try not to get
into your field however which,
as I conceive it, is the
presentation of special kinds of
competition which combination
is, in the nature of the case,
debarred from touching.
Moreover I would, if you
preferred, leave to you the
development of the subject
of the necessary imperfections
of combinations themselves,
and the fragments of
ordinary competition which
escape the effects of them
and survive, in spite of
efforts to suppress them.
One or the other of us
had better deal considerably
with the part of the subject
which we spoke of assigning
to Dr. Bemis, viz. facts
concerning existing combinations,
and whoever does this will
have a valuable point in
the way of making his
article readable and useful.
I believe you are better
fitted to handle this part
of the subject, since some
little original enquiry from
manufacturers, &c. would be
necessary, and since you
have made studies of
railroad combinations.
Please tell me with perfect
frankness one thing, namely
whether the scheme above
laid out strikes you as
appropriating too large a
part of the field for myself,
and encroaching on territory
necessary for you. I have
left, in the proposal, a little
indefinite the boundary
between the treatment of the
formation of combinations
and the discussion of
the modes in which they
are broken. Here is a
region where you could
enlarge your province if
need were. As I recall your
various discussions I seem
to see a large and quite
distinct province not
touched by the entire scheme
of my discussion as above
given. Please, however do
not fail to speak in the fullest
manner on this point. I
conceive of the two parts of the
discussion as showing
respectively, (1) that Ricardian
competition is crowded out of
the greater part of the field
to which natural conditions
originally confined it. Fragments
of it survive; (2) that
competition, in the broad
sense, is a permanent economic
fact, and the non-Ricardian
forms are of higher quality
and adapted to the better
social state which is, as we
think, developing. I have
accepted Bemis' invitation to
tea Monday, and go to Springfield
at 2.20, in order to transact a little
business. I can see you for full
conversation before or after meeting. Meanwhile
write, if you have time, your impressions.

               Yours Very Truly,
                     J. B. Clark