We read reports of a movement to prevent the large
shore in London. from buying up their small neighbours. This seems good in the abstract or at first sight. Everybody sympathizes with the efforts of the small man to keep his head above water in competition with great firms, attempted monopolies, or Trusts. But in reality do the small men suffer as a whole from the competition of the great stores ? Mr. Charles Booth, the author of that famous book Life and Labour of the People in London came to a different conclusion. He admitted that though theory pointed in one way, the facts pointed in the other. Consider, for instance, Victoria Street. The original intention of the planners of that street was that it should be residential. To-day it is largely a row of shops, It might have been supposed that the Army and Navy Stores would kill the competition of the small people, but it has not done so. In a strange and unexpected way it has attracted it.
Previous page
