Principles of western civilisation

XI TOWARDS THE FUTURE 423

left far behind in point of magnitude. Capitals of fifty millions have grown rapidly into capitals of hundreds of millions, and even these mount towards thousands of millions, the tendency towards aggregation continuing to be as pronounced as before. The powers, the resources, the aims of these combinations tend to overshadow those of the State itself. Yet what is becoming clear to the general mind is, that not only are they all exercised without any relation to the social responsibilities with which the purposes of the State are identified, but that, under existing conditions, it is an inherent law of their being that they should be so exercised. For Professor Adam’s law of the inherent necessity of the unregulated competitive process to reduce itself to the level of its lowest ruling factor meets them at every step. It is strikingly illustrated in the well-known maxim of all such organisations, that they are in business simply to make all the money they can. That it should be otherwise is not only impracticable, it is in the end impossible. That such organisations of capital should not endeavour to extract the greatest profit out of the situation, that they should not endeavour to obtain the best prices possible for their wares, would be felt to be incongruous even by their critics. ‘ The spectacle of a trust of shrewd American business men asking the benediction of its fellow-citizens upon its own philanthropy,” says a recent writer sarcastically, nevertheless with just insight, “is, to say the least, a touching testimony to the credulity of those to whom the appeal is addressed.” *

As the concentration in a few hands of the

1 Daily News, 1st April 1901.