y be made secure; but the propensities are so far from
originating in legislation that no legislation which seriously
interfered with them would be tolerated. Socialists themselves have
continually admitted this very thing. The Italian socialist, Giovanni
Rossi, for instance, who attempted about fifteen years ago to found a
socialistic colony in Brazil--an attempt which completely
failed--attributed its failure largely to this particular cause--namely,
the impossibility of inducing the colonists to conform to any rules of
the community by which family life was interfered with. Here we have an
example of democracy in its genuine form, rendering powerless what
affected to be democratic legislation. We have the cumulative power of
similar human characters compelling legislation to limit itself to what
these characters spontaneously demand. And now let us go a step--a very
short step--further. The family propensities in question show their
dictatorial power, not only in the limitations which they impose on
positive laws, but also in the character which they impose on the
material surroundings of existence, especially in the material structure
of the dwellings of all classes except the lowest. All are constructed
with a view to keeping the family group united, and each family group
separate from all others. Further, if the natural family propensities
thus affect the structure of the dwelling, other propensities, more
various in detail, but in each case equally spontaneous, determine what
commodities shall be put into it.

And this fact brings us back to our own more immediate subject--namely,
the power of the few and of the many in the sphere of economic
production. The man of exceptional industrial capacity becomes rich in
the modern world by producing goods, or by rendering services, which
others consume or profit by, and for which they render him a return.
But, in order that they may take, and render him this return for what he
offers them, the goods and the services must be such that the many
desire to have them. All the highest productive ability that has ever
been devoted to the business of cheapening and multiplying commodities,
or rendering social services, would be absolutely futile unless these
commodities and services satisfied tastes or wants existing in various
sections of the community. The eliciting of such wants or tastes depends
very often, and in progressive communities usually, on a previous supply
of the