ed among the victims of the Black Hole of Calcutta.
Starvation has often led to cannibalism among men who would shrink with
horror from the thought of it under ordinary conditions. Society can
create conditions favorable or unfavorable to the improvement of the
individual.

The inevitable outcome of the struggle between individualism and
collectivism is the triumph of each in its own proper field.

A line drawn from the past to the present shows the trend of the future.
We find this embodying two distinct, and apparently contradictory,
tendencies--one towards greater individual freedom, the other towards a
constant extension of the principle of cooperation, or collectivism.
That is, organized society leaves ever greater freedom to the individual
in all those things that concern only him, while at the same time it
extends farther and farther its supervision and performance of those
things that pertain to the welfare of all, and which society can do for
the individual better than he can do for himself. A man may kiss his
wife on Sunday without scandal or fear of prosecution; and he may dress
in any manner he pleases within the bounds of convention, which is still
an unreasoning tyrant. He is generally glad to avail himself of the more
convenient water-supply provided by the community; but he may, if he
wishes, have a well in his yard, until, with the growth of the city,
this becomes a menace to his neighbors' health; then it must be closed.
He may still mould his own tallow candles and use no other light if he
prefers; but cooperation among consumers supplies him with a much
superior illuminant; and when this cooperation is extended to embrace
all the citizens--i.e., when gas or electricity is furnished by the
municipality, the cost is reduced, and he becomes a partner in the
profits.

Of the benefits of municipal cooperation we had a signal illustration in
the introduction of municipal sprinkling in St. Louis. Formerly, the
occupant of a fifty-foot lot paid a private contractor from $6 to $12 a
season, while he suffered from the dust blown from his neighbors'
frontage and from unsprinkled streets all over the city. Now the owner
of a fifty-foot lot pays about $1 a year and enjoys sprinkled streets
throughout the whole city. Municipal cooperation in libraries brings the
same kind of benefits. The average well-to-do reader, instead of a
five-dollar subscription fee, pays a dollar tax; and for that not only
he and his fa