i68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



classes, or those who are more distinctly physical as opposed 

 to mental laborers, are striving to offset the corruption and 

 abuses of the very wealthy by a system of organized aggressive 

 action. They have accomplished nothing, so far, but harm 

 to themselves, and diffused disturbance to the great mechanism 

 of trade through which the entire people live. The general- 

 ization we have tried to establish furnishes the key to this 

 difficulty. 



The interest of the " laboring class " so called, as well as of 

 the whole community in America, is purely industrial. The 

 laborers are the product and symbol of industrial growth. No 

 good, therefore, can be worked for them save through industrial 

 appliances. Now, if we inquire into the character of the organi- 

 zation known as the " Knights of Labor," we find it to be as 

 purely militant as the name it bears. It displays absolute autoc- 

 racy of government ; complete loss of individual freedom ; the 

 gospel of class hatred and strife preached in the place of the co- 

 operation and sympathy of "industrialism"; and, finally, the 

 natural outcome of all militant tendencies, a resort to physical 

 violence for the attainment of ends. The " Knights of Labor " 

 are a militant organization applying militant means to the 

 betterment of industrial conditions. What wonder that they 

 fail ? 



And, withal, the industrial means to the attainment of all 

 legitimate ends that they may seek are ever at their disposal. 

 What abuses could the rich few perpetuate in free America, if 

 the poor many chose to use the ballot-box to crush them out ? 

 None. And if, as appears to be the case, it is a grievance that 

 the able and hard-working triumph over the foolish and lazy in 

 the struggle of life, the reconstitution of man, not of society, 

 will alone remedy it. Is there not here a hint for Messrs. 

 Powderly and George ? 



In an essay on " The Swarming of Men," Mr. Edward Courtney assumes tiat 

 emigration is controlled by a force which operates as strongly and uniformly as 

 any natural law. By it, whenever men find it too hard to make a living, they 

 are induced to move themselves away, either to places within their own country 

 where work is more plentiful, or to places beyond the sea. " An examination 

 of true centers of life," he says, "leads us inevitably to connect the shifting 

 points of maximum increase with the development of some industry, tlie dis- 

 covery of some local springs of activity, a new appreciation of previously un- 

 recognized facilities for the application of more efficient processes of labor. 

 Some change makes it possible for more life to be sustained at a given spot, or 

 to be more favorably sustained than elsewhere, and immediately more life ap- 

 pears there." 



