EDITOR'S TABLE. 



271 



without imposing any check upon their 

 reproductive activity. All this is very 

 foolish. A man is either able to main- 

 tain himself or he is not. If he is not, 

 and declares himself not to be by the 

 systematic acceptance of alms, then so- 

 ciety may reasonably declare that he is 

 not fit to found or control a family, 

 and he should henceforth be assisted 

 under such conditions and restrictions 

 as should at least prevent him from 

 casting new burdens upon society. If 

 we could stop our miserable political 

 (so called) wranglings long enough to 

 take a common-sense view of the situa- 

 tion and become really interested in 

 plans for its amelioration, the difficul- 

 ties would not be found at all insuper- 

 able. Fit for civil rights or unfit for 

 civil rights? that is the question to be 

 applied to every member of the com- 

 munity. If we persist, through sheer 

 indolence and love for all that is paltry 

 in the rivalry of parties and the squab- 

 bles of public men, in according civil 

 rights to those who do not merit them 

 through an active co-operation in the 

 industrial life of the community, there 

 is serious trouble in store for us. "We 

 might as well voluntarily take diseased 

 persons into our households as keep 

 morally and economically diseased per- 

 sons on the roll of our citizens. What 

 the latter want is control and segrega- 

 tion at whatever momentary cost. We 

 simply recommend a quarantine that so- 

 ciety has the full right to exercise. It 

 would be cheaper at once to give ra- 

 tions to these people than to allow them 

 to subsist on occasional charity and oc- 

 casional stealings, while seriously inter- 

 fering with the hygienic condition of 

 the community, to say nothing of per- 

 petuating their kind. Just how they 

 should be dealt with when separated, 

 what work should be exacted in re- 

 turn for maintenance, what educational 

 measures should be adopted these are 

 questions for later consideration. The 

 " human selection " that is required is 

 primarily a selection that will put aside 



those members of society who in moral 

 character or in the power of self-help 

 fall below the requirements of decent 

 living. This can be carried out as soon 

 as we have sense enough to attempt it ; 

 and when once such a separation has 

 been effected, and we have no longer 

 in the heart of society a perennial 

 spring of baseness and incapacity, the 

 march of improvement in all directions 

 will be rapid ; while year by year the 

 burden thus assumed by the state will 

 diminish. 



ANNO UNCEMENT. 



We have the pleasure of putting be- 

 fore our readers in this issue of the 

 Monthly the first of a series of articles 

 which will give a comprehensive view 

 of the evolution of each of the great 

 manufacturing industries in America 

 since the time of Columbus. They will 

 be written in the popular style which 

 has always characterized the Monthly, 

 avoiding mere technical details and 

 wearisome columns of statistics. At 

 the same time, the writers have had 

 long acquaintance with the practical 

 side of the industries which they de- 

 scribe, and this complete command of 

 their subjects enables them to present 

 just those features which the general 

 reader demands. Mr. William F. Dur- 

 fee, who opens the series with an arti- 

 cle in the present number, is known to 

 the iron and steel men all over the 

 country as a man of wide experience in 

 the building and operation of iron and 

 steel works, and is at present General 

 Manager of the Pennsylvania Diamond 

 Drill and Manufacturing Company. Our 

 history of the cotton manufacture will 

 be furnished by Mr. Edward Atkinson, 

 who needs no introduction to the read- 

 ers of this magazine. Mr. S. N. D. 

 North, Secretary of the National Asso- 

 ciation of Wool Manufacturers, is the 

 author of our account of the woolen 

 manufacture. The development of glass- 

 making will be described by Prof. C. 



