ABSTRACT
THE actual suppression of price-cutting is no easy matter. Protected lists, exclusive agreements, tying clauses may all be in force, and yet the " evil" may be rampant. In big industries with a relatively small number of competing firms and a range of commodities easily controlled, the breach of agreements is easier to detect than in the retail trade, where a trade association is confronted by an almost infinite number of articles and commodities which it is expected to protect. Before you hang a thief, you must catch him, but in this case you must know him before you can catch him. The trade competitors of a pricecutter may often be relied upon to furnish information and proofs, but if cutting is widespread such sources will not be exhaustive. Moreover, information must be available about the source, wholesale or retail, from which the cutter obtains his supply. This is often difficult, especially in trades such as the tobacco trade, where the channels of distribution are very numerous. 2 Again, manufacturers are sometimes accused of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds, and may seek to obscure an investigation; in such cases it is of little use to have discovered that some retailers have cut the prices if they happen to be outside the reach of the manufacturers' and retailers' associations.
