enterprise has a strict moDopoly of the supply of a given article or of a given class of services this principle applies in the unqualified form in which it has been understood among those who discuss railway charges. But where the monopoly is less strict, where there are competitors, there the competition that has to be met is one of the factors to be taken account of in determining what the traffic will bear ; competition may even become the most serious factor in the case if the enterprise in question has little or
, none of the character of a monopoly. But it is very doubtful if there are any successful business ventures within the range of the modern industries
' from which the monopoly element is wholly absent.' They are, at any rate, few and not of great magnitude. And the endeavor of all such enterprises that look to a permanent continuance of their business is to establish as much of a monopoly as may be.
' The economic principle ot " charging what the traffic will bear " in dificus.sed with gresU, care and elaboration by R. T. Ely, MonopoUe and Traits, ch. III., " The Law of Monopoly Irice. " Cf., tor illustration of the practical working of this principle, testimony of C. M. Schwab, Report of the Industrial Commission, vol. XIII. pp. 463-466.
' " Monopoly " ia here used in that looser sense which it has colloquially, not in the strict sense of an exclusive control of the supply, M employed, t.g., by Mr. Ely in iLe volume cited above. This usage U the mora excusable since Mr. Ely flnds that a ■' monopoly " in the ■trict sense of the definition practiokllj does not occur in fact, Cf. Jenka, TSt TVwl ProblMi, ch. IT.