That would be ungentlemanly,
and in Altruria every man is a gentleman and every woman a lady. If you
will excuse me here for being so frank, I would like to say something by
way of illustration which may be offensive if you take it personally."
He looked at our little group, as if he were addressing himself more
especially to us, and the banker called out, jollily: "Go on! I guess we
can stand it," and "Go ahead!" came from all sides, from all kinds of
listeners.
"It is merely this: that as we look back at the old competitive conditions
we do not see how any man could be a gentleman in them, since a gentleman
must think first of others, and these conditions _compelled_ every man to
think first of himself."
There was a silence broken by some conscious and hardy laughter, while we
each swallowed this pill as we could.
"What are competitive conditions?" Mrs. Makely demanded of me.
"Well, ours are competitive conditions," I said.
"Very well, then," she returned, "I don't think Mr. Homos is much of a
gentleman to say such a thing to an American audience. Or, wait a moment!
Ask him if the same rule applies to women.
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