"Then you want me to conclude that the fact that they want to do the thing makes the thing right?"
"You don't understand——"
"Precisely; and so I mean to learn."
"You can't learn. No matter how closely you study this whole matter, you can't learn, Marian. How can a clean-hearted, clean-lived American girl ever get the point of view of these low-down, low-browed foreigners? It's the sort of thing they're used to."
"Before they begin it?"
"It's the survival of the fittest."
"Then can't some be made more fit to survive?"
"It's the law of life, and it can't be stopped."
"So was negro slavery the law of life. It couldn't be stopped either—until we stopped it."
"That is all theory, Marian; it won't work out in practice. The great point is that these unfortunate women, whether they become unfortunate through the dance-halls or anywhere else, are simply not our sort of clay: they're not Americans."