"Not my character. My father taught me before I was able to read. Possibly I have extended his teachings!"
"Have His teachings had no part in deciding you as to your work?"
"His teachings? John Marvel's exposition of them in his life bore a part and, thus, perhaps——"
"That is it."
"Why should I not participate in the benefit of the wisdom of a Jewish rabbi?" said Wolffert, scornfully. "Did Jesus utter his divine philosophy only for you who were then savages in Northern Europe or half-civilized people in Greece, Italy, and Spain? Your claim that he did so simply evinces the incurable insularity of your people."
"What is your remedy? Socialism?"
"Call it what you will. That is a name which some prefer and some detest. The fact is, that the profit system on which all Modern Capitalism rests is radically and fundamentally vicious and wrong. Men work and strive, not to produce for use, for service, but for profit. Profit becomes the aim of human endeavor—nothing higher or better—Competition."
"'Competition,'" I quoted, "'is the soul of trade.'"
"Competition," he said, "may be the soul of trade, but that trade is the trade in men's souls, as well as bodies—in the universal soul of the people. It sets man against man, and brother against brother—Cain against Abel—and is branded with the curse of Cain."
"What would you substitute for it?" I demanded.