BUSINESS ABROAD: Enemies of Free Enterprise

A few months ago a customer walked into Horace Mendelsohn's auto-accessories shop in Stockport, near Manchester, England and bought two motorcycle tires, paying seven shillings, sixpence ($1.05) below the list price. Three days later, Cut-rater Mendelsohn learned that his "customer" was a private investigator for the British Motor Trade Association. He got a summons to appear before the association's Price Protection Committee on a charge of price cutting. The committee, a private court staffed with lawyers paid by the association, weighed Mendelsohn's case carefully, penalized him by putting his shop on the "Stop List." Thenceforth, no wholesalers who belonged...

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