combination to control the supply blade, they will possess an unusual
power of advancing their selling prices as they choose. I am far from
suggesting that Messrs. J. & P. Coats are to be condemned as an
extortionate monopoly. On the contrary, during 1919, when the profits
in highly competitive industries like the main branches of the cotton
and woollen trades, soared exuberantly, the record of this concern
seems to me one of distinct moderation. But the present point is that
they possess an exceptional _power_ to fix the price of sewing cotton
as they choose, and that this is attributable in no small degree to
the fact that sewing cotton constitutes an essential but relatively
trifling item in the expenses of the processes in which it is
employed.

Perhaps the point will be made clearer if we turn from the selling
prices of commercial products, in regard to which there is a strong
and not ineffective public sentiment against "profiteering," to the
remuneration of different classes of labor. With an instinctive
disposition towards megalomania, it is often claimed in Great Britain
that the miners, being a very numerous and well-organized body of
workpeople, were in a stronger strategic position than most workpeople
for exacting the remuneration they desire. It is quite true that a
stoppage of work in the coal industry causes us a high degree of
inconvenience, and temporary concessions may thereby be obtained which
might otherwise have been refused. But this is a dubious advantage,
and we grossly exaggerate its real importance. The truth is that the
strategic position of the miners in regard to wages questions is by no
means strong. For their wages constitute a very large percentage of
the cost of coal; and the price of coal in its turn is a most
important element in the costs of many of the industries which are its
principal consumers. Great Britain, moreover, is far from possessing