230 SUPER-ORGANIC EVOLUTION 



amount of rent. The house is not sanitary. Good, 

 but " What does it matter ? " the owner will say ; 

 "it brings me in my rent, which is the only 

 question." 



There are places where mortality is criminally 

 excessive : " What shall we do ? " say the authorities, 

 with folded arms. 



There are cities, districts, houses, hotbeds of 

 infection, causing the deaths of thousands of our 

 fellow-creatures. In these cases there are local 

 authorities that have passed laws and regulations 

 of health and sanitation ; but these laws cannot be 

 complied with, for they would entail an amount of 

 expense injurious to capital. Hence arises a con- 

 flict, in which the authority fulfils its mission in 

 taking the side of the stronger. 



Manufactories and workshops are guilty of the 

 same original sin, a point which I cannot stop to 

 analyse, as this would be mere waste of time. 



Suffice it to say that cities and all their buildings 

 in their present state are the result of an absurd 

 social organisation, that revolutions should not 

 rely upon any of these resources of present society, 

 for they are unsuited to a society based on natural 

 laws. In a word, the whole of the present social 

 medium is incompatible with the society of the 

 future. A new social machine requires new organs. 



