THE COMPASS, MAGNETISM, POLARITY, ETC.-1. Magnetic poles. 2. Magnetic rod (susp broken at various points. 6. Illustration of magnetic polarity. 7. Magnetizing

12. Action of amagnet at a distance. 13. Magnetization by friction. 14. Declin terrestrial sphere. 17. "Jacob's staff." 18. Magnetic inclination. 19. Inclinator 25. Magnetic variations or disturbances. 26. Surveyor's compass. 27-30. Magneto

spended).

ng iron. lination. orum.

5. Magnetic staff, II. Magnet armature. 16. Magnetism of the 22-24. Magnetometer.

3. Magnetic needle. 4. Magnetic needles with marked poles. 8, 9. Natural magnet, armature. 10. Horseshoe magnet. 15. Apparatus for determining the degree of declination. 20. Map of inclination. 21. Diurnal variation of inclination. to-electric telegraph instruments of Siemens and Halske.

Competition.

COMPENSATION (Lat. compensatio). The doctrine of C., which the law of Scotland and of most of the other states of Europe have borrowed from the civil law of Rome, corresponds to that of set-off in America. It provides that where two parties are mutually debtors and creditors, their debts shall extinguish each other, if equal, and if unequal, leave only a balance due. C. must be pleaded, as it does not operate ipso jure, but, when pleaded, it is held to operate from the period of concourse, the interest on either side being stopped from that time.

Compensatio injuriarum is a defense against actions of damages for slander or the like. It is not a bar to action, but a set-off or counter-claim. In America, it is not allowed to set-off one trespass or tort against another-a cross-action is requisite; and in Scotland, the leaning recently has been in the same direction.

COMPENSATION BALANCE. See WATCH.

COMPENSATION OF ERRORS, in physics, a method of neutralizing errors which cannot be avoided, by introducing others into the experiment or observation, of an opposite nature, and equal in amount. The compensation pendulum illustrates the principle. See PENDULUM.

COMPETITION (Lat. a seeking together) has been well defined by Dr. Johnson as "the act of endeavoring to gain what another endeavors to gain at the same time." Its most apt exemplification is a race, where all are going to the same point, and all strive to be first there, while though only one can achieve this object, some others will have the satisfaction of being nearer to success than the competitors who are behind them. The most important practical use of the word C. is in the political economy of commerce, where it is the great motive-power of production and enterprise. Peo ple work, or embark in trade, avowedly for the purpose of making money. It is the object of the law of the land, as well as of religion and morality, to prevent money making by immoral means; but within the bounds thus drawn around it, moneymaking is the object of man's exertion. When the money is made, the next point, always within the same bounds, is to make it go as far as it will. C. works through the co-operation of these motives. The purchaser wants the best article he can get at the lowest price; the producer strives to beat all his fellows, and offer the best article for the price. As sellers come into the market, prices tend to lower from increase of supply. The lower price in turn tends to stimulate demand, and so it goes on until supply and demand are adjusted by the price. The effects of competition upon price can best be traced in foreign exchange and in the wholesale market. In the retail market, custom, personal sentiment or ignorance is apt to restrict its action.

Whatever may be hereafter accomplished, what we chiefly know of the attempts to supersede C. by some other motive to exertion, is, that they have not been successful. We see every day C. increasing the necessaries and comforts of life, and enlarging the wealth of the community. It is said that there are other and better motives which should produce the same effect, but they have not yet been found. It was an object of the ruling party in the French provisional government of 1848 to abolish C., and place all workmen on a par, as some expressed it, or, according to others, to remunerate them, not according to their services, but according to their wants. A great experiment was tried at the hôtel Clichy, where 1500 tailors were employed to make the uniforms for the national guards, the price of which was to be equally divided among the workmen; but even in that climax of enthusiasm, they did not work up to the mark of the lowest paid of the Paris tailors under the competitive system. As each one felt that the value of any extra exertion would be divided among the whole 1500, instead of being enjoyed by himself, his zeal relaxed, and even the thought of "liberty, equality, and fraternity," was insufficient to rouse it. It appears wonderful that large bodies of the French people should have been so easily deceived by statements of which the fallacy, or rather the actual inaccuracy, would be at once seen through by any workingman in this country. Louis Blanc supposes three competitors for a job. A. has a wife and family; he wants three francs of wages. B. has a wife only, 24 francs will do with him. But C. is a bachelor, who can subsist on 2 francs; therefore, he gets the job, and the others starve. See the second chapter of his Organisation du Travail, the title of which is "Competition is for the People a System of Extermination." But he leaves out entirely one side of the bargain. Employers compete to get work as much as workmen compete for employment. If the work of B. and C. be worth, in the market, 3 francs, they will get that whether they have families or not, and it is not the practice of a working-man, any more than of the rest of the human species, to give his work at a third less than its value because he is a bachelor.

Competition may be restrained in various ways. Among the most common checks are custom, combination, personal sentiment, legal restraint, and the immobility of capital and labor. In regard to custom, it is a common thing for a man to deal with a certain shop merely because it has been his practice to do so in the past, and, even though he may obtain the commodity at a lower price elsewhere, he does not avail himself of the opportunity. Personal sentiment which to any extent deters a man from seeking his own economic advantage in the purchase or sale of articles, operates in the same way. For the convenience of the public — especially of travelers-rates of fares are established for cab-drivers, porters, ferrymen, and the like. These men cannot be forced to undertake such functions: they do so because it pays them. Instead of making a separate contract for each job an arrangement open to fraud and inconvenience