Under the stress of the Great War the United States government undertook to set prices on numerous articles of everyday consumption. The price of wheat was set at a figure double the average price for a term of years preceding the outbreak of the war. Immediately the price of corn began to rise, partly on account of the high price of wheat. Then wheat-growers demanded a higher price for their product on the ground that they could make more money raising corn. Here we have the inevitable result of trying to fix an arbitrary price; and undoubtedly the difficulty explains why modern society hesitates, except under the most extraordinary circumstances, to say what a producer shall receive for his product.