In America the development of the trust system is only another proof of the inadequacy of the competitive system. The supporters of the trusts maintain with very good show of reason that unregulated competition is harmful and may be ruinous to all concerned, and that they can maintain fair prices, pay fair wages, and secure a fair return to capital only by mutual arrangement among the producers. But the system obviously involves the serious objection, that the great industrial chiefs who organise and direct the trusts are thereby constituted supreme judges of their own interests and of the economic interests of the whole American people; that such combinations form a huge monopoly in so many of the leading articles of consumption, and establish an economic, social, and political power which may be a danger to American society. In short, we are driven to the result that while competition has been hurtful or ruinous to those engaged in it, the now prevailing system of regulation by capitalism in its own interests is a serious danger to the whole people. There is only one right way out of such a dilemma. A return to the competitive method is neither possible nor desirable. Monopoly is incompatible with freedom. The only course for peoples who desire to be free is to adopt some form of social ownership and control. This appears to be the lesson taught us by the development of the trusts. 8. The success of socialism greatly depends on the realisation of the two ideals, which may be regarded as the main pillars of the theory, when applied to practice. These are:— (_a_) The normal working day: the general reduction of the working day to eight hours in the immediate future, and eventually to a shorter time. Such a desirable change would be better accomplished by voluntary agreement under the pressure of public opinion than by legislation; but it would be better made by legislation than by the cruel and clumsy method of strikes. (_b_) A remuneration which will ensure a suitable standard of living; in other words, the means of a normal development. A reasonable standard of living, the competent means of a normal development have been determined by science and are no longer a matter of utopian guess-work. A fairly definite measure of fresh air, food, clothing, house comfort, recreation, and of satisfaction for the affections associated with wife and children constitute the rational needs of the average man. This is the moral and scientific basis of a rational system of distribution. The competitive wage determined by the _iron law of wages_ of the older economists should be superseded by a remuneration embodying this principle. It is the Daily Bread of the Lord’s Prayer as definable by modern science.