"Idiots, hopeless ones, we don't keep any more," she answered gently. "They are very rare now. The grade of average humanity is steadily rising; and we have the proud satisfaction of knowing we have helped it rise. We organized a permanent 'reception committee' for the whole country, one station here and one in California. Anybody could come--but they had to submit to our handling when they did come." "We used to have physical examination, didn't we?" "A rudimentary one. What we have now is Compulsory Socialization." I stared at her. "Yes, I know! You are thinking of that geological kind of evolution people used to talk about, and 'you can't alter human nature.' In the first place, we can. In the second place, we do. In the third place, there isn't so much alteration needed as we used to think. Human nature is a pretty good thing. No immigrant is turned loose on the community till he or she is up to a certain standard, and the children we educate." "We always did, didn't we?" "Always did? Why brother, we didn't know what the word meant in your time." "I shall be glad to follow that up," I assured her. "Education was improving even in the old days, I remember. I shall be glad to see the schools." "Some of them you won't know when you do see them," said Nellie. "On Long Island we have agricultural and industrial stations like--like--I think we had something like it in some of our Western colleges, which it was the fashion to look down upon. We have a graded series of dwellings where the use of modern conveniences is taught to all newcomers." "Suppose they won't learn? They used to prefer to live like hogs, as I remember." Again Nellie looked at me as if I were speaking to her from a distance. "We used to say so--and I suppose we used to think so--some of us. But we know better now. These people are not compelled to come to our country, but if they come they know what they have to do--and they do it. You may have noticed that we have no 'steerage.'" I had noticed it. "They have decent surroundings from the first step. They have to be antiseptically clean, they and all their belongings, before entering the ship." "But what an awful expense!" I ventured. "Suppose you keep cattle, John, and knew how to fatten and improve them; and suppose your ranch was surrounded by strays--mavericks--anxious to come in. Would you call it 'an expense' to add to your herd?" "You can't sell people." "No, but you can profit by their labor." "That sounds like the same old game. I should think your Socialism would have put an end to that."