“To return to your first question, as to what there was wrong in their way of doing business, I want to say with emphasis that the essence of the wrong was in an undue regard for self and an almost total disregard for the interests of others. There were exceptions to the rule, notably in the direction of charity and philanthropy and in religious work, but I am speaking of the mass of the business community. It was every man singly against all the rest of the world. No man was his brother’s keeper. If one did not look out for himself, that was the end of it; there was no one else to do it.” “But the system itself made men selfish,” I ventured to say. “To be sure it did,” he replied. “But why did they not then abolish the system before it had brought upon them its long train of evils? It had to go at last.” “But,” I asked again, “was not competition a good thing for the large number of people not directly engaged in business? Did it not keep down the prices on all kinds of commodities?” “Certainly not in the main. It increased prices, because it increased the cost of everything. But let us suppose a case where it had the effect you suggest. Could a man with a heart wear a coat, for example, with any pleasure, if he knew that rivalry between the manufacturers had forced the people who made the garment to accept starvation wages? And this was done, not from humanitarian motives, to furnish the poor with cheap clothing, but for the purpose of getting more business and so of making more money.” I could hardly resist the temptation at this point of asking Thorwald if he had not been reading up on the current history of the earth, but I knew well enough that was not possible, for we had brought no books with us. And then I did not care to tell Thorwald just yet how near he was coming to our experience. But I could not endure having the props knocked from under our social structure without another effort to save it. So I said: “But were not the great majority of business men honest, and were not these instances that you have cited extreme cases?” “They were the natural results of a bad system. A great many men were as honest as their environment would permit, and they tried to convince themselves that they were not responsible for the environment.” “Were they?” I asked eagerly.