ruption; and one of the consequences of civic administra~
tion by ignorant and vicious politicians, is that preventable
diseases kill off half our population. And even if science
were allowed to try, it could do little, because the majority
of human beings are not yet human beings at all, but simply
machines for the creating of wealth for others. They are
penned up in filthy houses and left to rot and stew in
misery, and the conditions of their life make them ill faster
than all the doctors in the world could heal them; and so,
of course, they remain as centers of contagion, poisoning
the lives of all of us, and making happiness impossible for
even the most selfish. For this reason I would seriously
maintain that all the medical and surgical discoveries that
science can make in the future will be of less importance
than the application of the knowledge we already possess,
when the disinherited of the earth have established their
right to a human existence."

And here the Herr Doctor relapsed into silence again.
Jurgis had noticed that the beautiful young girl who sat
by the center-table was listening with something of the
same look that he himself had worn, the time when he had
first discovered Socialism. Jurgis would have liked to talk
to her, he felt sure that she would have understood him.
Later on in the evening, when the group broke up, he
heard Mrs. Fisher say to her, in a low voice, "I wonder if
Mr. Maynard will still write the same things about Social~
ism;" to which she answered, "I don't know -- but if he
does we shall know that he is a knave!"

* * * * *

And only a few hours after this came election day -- when
the long campaign was over, and the whole country seemed
to stand still and hold its breath, awaiting the issue. Jur~
gis and the rest of the staff of Hinds's Hotel could hardly
stop to finish their dinner, before they hurried off to the
big hall which the party had hired for that evening.

But already there were people waiting, and already the
telegraph instrument on the stage had begun clicking off

[[410]]

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