History shows us that this is precisely what has happened. Instead of becoming a means to progress, the competitive system, through lack of control, has resulted in a form of unlicensed competition which, as J. J. Welsh asserts (“Socialism, Individualism and Catholicism,” p. 19), may be “rightly described as commercial cannibalism.... It delivers up weak, unorganized labor into the hands of organized and omnipotent capital.... Without regard for the skill of the worker, the value of his labor, or the requirements of a decent human life, the competitive principle justifies the capitalist in paying the workman the least, which, in the circumstances, he can compel him to accept. The employer shelters himself under the law of supply and demand, as though that were the supreme regulator of the remuneration and conditions of labor. There is no savor of morality in such a principle. It gives an unfair advantage to the few rich, who control the instruments of production, over the defenceless masses, and it makes a question of strict justice--the remuneration and the actual subsistence of the toiler and his family--depend upon a trial of strength between two contending parties.” There is no right-minded man who is not ready to join the Socialists in their condemnation of the effects of the operations of this principle of unrestrained competition. Were we compelled to believe that there was no way by which this system could be changed, but that the human sorrow and merciless injustice resulting from the exploitation of the weak by the strong must continue unchecked until our system of production and distribution has been completely overthrown, there are comparatively few of us who would not go still further and urge the adoption of the collective methods of industry. It is because we believe that it is our unregulated competition, and not the principle of individual ownership itself, which is destructive of right and justice, that we do not and cannot join hands with the Socialists. As we shall see, it is possible to bring about a correction of the abuses from which countless thousands have suffered and are still suffering. As we shall see, there are instruments within our reach with which we may check the unbounded lust of greed which has made this generous earth a vale of woe and mourning for the poor. While we do not agree with socialistic principles, therefore, we recognize the justice embodied in the Socialist protest; and, much as we deplore the spirit which has exaggerated our evils with a view to inciting class hatred and a revolution that can result only in violence and bloodshed, we should be blind if we did not appreciate the fact that it is this protesting sentiment that has been to a marked degree responsible for the moral awakening that will eventually set things right.