“But I do not wonder that this idea had a fascination for some right-minded people, in the promise it gave of doing away with the evils arising from competition, to which I have before referred.”
Thorwald paused here, as if to invite one of us to speak, if he wanted to do so. I accepted, by saying:
“I wish you would tell us a little more on that subject. Competition is said to be the life of trade with us, an accepted principle of honest business. And yet you speak of it as something that should be done away with.”
“If you could know,” answered Thorwald, “how repugnant the idea is to us of the present day, you would understand how truly you have voiced my feelings.”
“I have no doubt,” I said, “that your experience has taught you much on the subject that we do not know, but this is the way it looks from our standpoint: There is born in us a passion for getting that which belongs to others, or that which others are trying to get. In some of us this instinct is developed more than in others, and some are unprincipled enough to indulge it unjustly; but let me ask you if it is wrong to follow the leadings of such a desire if we are strictly honest in all our dealings.”
“We might differ over the meaning of the phrase ‘strictly honest,’ but I will answer your question by saying it is certainly wrong.”
“But it seems to be a part of our very nature.”
“Do you offer that as a reason for its being right? I never heard you claim that human nature was perfect,” said Thorwald.
“Then,” I returned, “in our present state, with which you are now pretty well acquainted, is it not possible to carry the principles of Christianity into business?”
“To answer that as I should be obliged to do would make me appear to you too arbitrary, and so perhaps I had better let you find your own answer in the questions which I will ask you. Is not unselfishness one of the first principles of Christianity? Now, the very essence of competition is a regard for self-interest, with no room for thought about the interests of others. In an ideal state of society the rules of life given by Jesus are fully obeyed. In such a state, would a transaction be right where each person was trying to do what was best for himself, although it might be to the damage or loss of another? It might be called honest to own slaves, and probably in the history of the earth a great many sincere Christian people have owned them, but you have now reached that condition, I think, where you can see it is wrong. So your way of doing business may be honest, but in our more ideal state we see that it is not right. Our remote ancestors, through the various stages of our development, did a thousand things with clear consciences which we could not do now. I understand your situation perfectly, and am sure your race will outgrow its imperfections.”