“There is a dictate of nature more imperious and more ancient than any bargain between man and man, that the remuneration must be enough to support the wage-earner in reasonable and frugal comforts,” says the Pope. “If, through necessity or fear of a worse evil, the workman accepts harder conditions because an employer or contractor will give him no better, he is the victim of force and injustice.” The Socialists claim that the Marxian gospel affords the only possible relief for the victims of this force and injustice. As I have already asserted, if this were true, a great many more of us would be Marxists. As it is, however, there is a remedy which we may adopt with safety, and with every assurance that it may be applied successfully if we but get together and work together in the right way. CHAPTER XVII THE REMEDY My dear John, As we have seen, it is not necessary that we should study life through the smoked glasses of Socialism to realize that all is not well with the world. Indeed, we have no need to look further than our own everyday experiences to witness misery that is heart-rending, to see evils that imperatively demand relief. That such conditions exist, nobody can deny; and the Socialists have made good use of this fact in shaping their appeal for “universal justice.” Certainly, it is an argument that cannot fail to touch the human heart that is at all moved to sympathy. If such evil conditions exist, it is our duty to remedy them, and with as little delay as possible. Sympathy is not enough. We must act and act at once--but how? It is a question that we who are not Socialists are frequently asked. “If the Socialists are wrong,” our friends inquire, “what have you to offer as a substitute?” One of the greatest weaknesses in the Socialist position is due to the fact that it persists in looking at life from the wrong perspective. Instead of finding the right point of view, it examines life’s canvas from so close a range that it loses all sense of proportion. Assuming this attitude toward current events, the abuses apparent are magnified to such a degree as to make it appear that Marx was correct in asserting that the capitalist system is rotten to the core, and that the only hope for relief lies in collective ownership. Are the Socialist contentions true? Is everything in this country tending towards hopeless bankruptcy?