ided. Yet, at this distance of time, it is easy to
see what they were foresighted enough to envisage in the future; easy
enough to see that competition carries in its bosom the germs of its own
inevitable destruction. In words which, as Professor Ely says,[94] seem
to many, even non-Socialists, like a prophecy, Karl Marx argued that the
business units in production would continuously increase in magnitude,
until at last monopoly emerged from the competitive struggle. This
monopoly becoming a shackle upon the system under which it has grown up,
and thus becoming incompatible with capitalist conditions, socialization
must, according to Marx, naturally and necessarily follow.[95] In this
as in all the utterances of Marx upon the subject we are reminded of
the distinction which must be made between Socialism as he conceived it
and the Socialism of the Utopians. We never get away from the law of
economic interpretation. Socialism, according to Marx, will develop out
of capitalist society, and follow capitalism necessarily and inevitably.
It is not a plan to be adopted, but a stage of social development to be
reached.

II

For the moment, we are not concerned with the prediction that Socialism
must follow the full development of capitalism. The important point for
our present study is the predicted growth of monopoly out of
competition, and the manner in which that prediction has been realized.
Concerning the manner and extent of the fulfillment of this prediction,
there have been many keen controversies, both within and without the
ranks of the followers of Marx. While Marx and Engels are properly
regarded as the first scientific Socialists, having been the first to
postulate Socialism as the outcome of evolution, and to explore the laws
of that evolution, they were not wholly free from the failings of the
Utopists. It would be unreasonable to expect them to be absolutely free
from the spirit of their age and their associates. There is, doubtless,
something Utopian in the very mechanical conception of capitalist
concentration which Marx held; the process is too simple and sweeping,
the revolution too imminent. Still, by followers and critics alike, it
is generally conceded that the _control_ of the means of production is
being concentrated into the hands of small and ever smaller groups of
capitalists. In recent years the increase in the number of industrial
establishments has not kept pace with the increase in the number