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.