The mode competition is significant in laser physics and applications. A priority frequency will suppress, in competition, a potential frequency within gain profile, and this becomes more obvious with greatly decreasing the spacing of the two frequencies. The small spacing is produced by splitting one mode into two orthogonally polarized frequencies in a 0. 6328 μm He-Ne laser with a short cavity length (150 mm long). By tuning the cavity length, the intensities of the two frequencies (e-mode and o-mode) under a ariety of frequency spacings is measured. The suppression bandwidth for the potential mode is up to several hundreds of MHz and changes with the frequency spacing of the pair of frequencies. The intensities for the two frequencies are vary oppositely.