108 CREATIVE INVOLUTION 



lives. In it I find both concentration of myself and 

 escape from myself, in a word, I find Salvation." 



H. G. WELLS: First and Last Things. 



" The problem of living in this modern world is the 

 problem of finding room in it. The crowd principle is 

 so universally at work through modern life that the 

 geography of the world has been changed to conform 

 to it. We live in crowds. We get our living in crowds. 

 We are amused in herds. Civilisation is a list of cities. 

 Cities are the huge central dynamos of all being. The 

 power of a man can be measured to-day by the mile, 

 the number of miles between him and the city; that is, 

 between him and what the city stands for the centre 

 of mass. 



" The crowd principle is the first principle of produc- 

 tion. The producer who can get the most men together 

 and the most dollars together controls the market; and 

 when he once controls the market, instead of merely 

 getting the most men and the most dollars, he can get 

 all the men and all the dollars. Hence the corporation 

 in production. 



" The crowd principle is the first principle of dis- 

 tribution. The man who can get the most men to buy 

 a particular thing from him can buy the most of it, and 

 therefore buy it the cheapest, and therefore get more 

 men to buy from him ; and having bought this particular 

 thing cheaper than all men could buy it, it is only a step 

 to selling it to all men; and then, having all the men 

 on one thing and all the dollars on one thing, he is able 

 to buy other things for nothing, for everybody, and sell 

 them for a little more than nothing to everybody. Hence, 

 the department store the syndicate of department 

 stores the crowd principle in commerce. 



