truly remarkable mechanism for promoting the specialization and exchange and sound allocation of available resources on which our productive efficiency and high standard of living depend. But it is essential to recognize that the market can function properly only where a substantial degree of competition is maintained. In other words, an effective market mechanism is a basically competitive market. The checking of persistent monopolistic tendencies that may develop is accordingly of great importance, and business managements and owners should be alert to this fact and fully aware of the need for an antimonopoly public policy.

A word of warning is needed here. Some people in business and in Government seem to forget that in many situations a reasonable period of time is required for the competitive pressures inherent in the market to assert themselves. The discipline of the market is a very real and potent force to check the development and persistence of inefficient and unsound business practices, and there should be, in my judgment, a greater reliance on this force as opposed to direct Government interference. Above all the prevailing tendency in some quarters to confuse the preservation of competitive pressure with the protection of weak and inefficient producers from the rigors of genuine competition should be avoided. It also needs to be kept in mind that Government controls and supports may in themselves foster monopolistic conditions.

The best business climate is one which provides plenty of encouragement and opportunity for the resourceful, the forward looking, the innovator, the restless manager who is highly alert to the need to keep fully up to date on the technological and marketing fronts. It is such people who put pressure on the laggards to better themselves in the direction of greater efficiency and improvement of practices.

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