Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/534

530 with the progress of industry an increasing amount—of capital was required. So from the first those that possessed capital had a superior claim to the control of the surplus source, and as industry developed the validity of this claim increased. Those that had labor alone to offer were consequently compelled to work for wages for those who had capital to contribute; but if from their wages the laborers could save enough, they too might become capitalists and enter upon the competitive struggle on their own account. Nor among the capitalists were the conditions of the contest entirely equal. For the development of some surplus sources more capital was required than for the development of others; and again, though as far as the surplus source itself was concerned, small capital could compete with large capital, still by reason of the economy of great organizations the small capitalist might nevertheless be at a disadvantage. So from the first the large capitalist had a superior claim to the control of the surplus source, and with the development of industry the validity of this claim also increased.

From this it is evident that the competitive system must result in the gradual elimination of the weaker competitors until in the end only the strong survive. Indeed, this movement has already gone so far as to be unmistakable, particularly in this land of ours where the competitive system was given the fairest chance to prove its economic efficiency. As the competitive field was gradually restricted, the laborers naturally were first excluded. Though they continued to save, as time went on they found that more and more capital was required to enter into business for themselves, either because the industries in their neighborhood were already absorbed by large capitalists, or because the industries they might still embark upon with their small capital were far removed from their neighborhood. The next to be excluded from the competitive struggle were the small capitalists. As some capitalists secured control of the natural monopolies and others succeeded in establishing artificial monopolies, the small producers were unable to hold their own on the market and one by one they have either been extinguished by or absorbed in the larger concerns, until now, as a matter of fact, only the few strong competitors remain.

Properly interpreted this modern movement so familiar to us all means simply this: the gradual monopolization of the sources of the industrial surplus. Formerly these surplus sources were too widespread to be monopolized, hence the passing existence of the competitive system; but nowadays the ramifications of capital are nearly as widespread as the surplus sources themselves, hence, as I see it, the inevitable recrudescence of the coercive system. By the opening up of new lands through colonization and by the development of fresh surplus sources through invention, this movement has been stayed time