Febeuaet 4, 1887.] 



SCIEIfCE. 



103 



Philadelphia on Thanksgiving day, 1869, until 

 the general assembly at Detroit in 1881 freed it 

 from many of the restrictions placed upon it by 

 Mr. Stephens, and made it so popular with certain 

 sections of the people that since that time its 

 growth has been phenomenal in the history of 

 labor organizations. Mr. Stephens's controlling 

 ideas seem to have been two, — first, that surplus 

 labor always keeps wages down (it does not seem 

 to have occurred to him that im^proving the qual- 

 ity of labor will cause wages to rise) ; and, sec- 

 ond, that nothing can remedy this evil but a 

 purely and deeply secret organization, based upon 

 a plan that shall teach, or rather inculcate, or- 

 ganization, and at the same time educate its mem- 

 bership to one set of ideas ultimately subversive of 

 the present wages system. The history of the 

 knights of labor themselves, and the action of the 

 general assembly at Detroit, are sufficient com- 

 ments on this second principle. The order grew 

 slowly at first, and, as time passed, the district, 

 and finally the general assembly, were evolved to 

 perfect and unify the organization of the local 

 assembly. The first district assembly was organ- 

 ized in 1873, and the first general assembly met 

 on New Year's day, 1878, at Reading. Mr. Wright 

 notices the various general assembly meetings at 

 Reading, St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburg, Detroit, 

 New York, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Hamilton, 

 Cleveland (a special meeting), and Richmond, 

 and characterizes briefly the action taken at each. 

 As to the strength of the order, he cites Mr. 

 Powderly's testimony before the congressional 

 committee in May, 1886, that it then num- 

 bered 500,000 members. At the time of the Rich- 

 mond meeting last October, there were one hun- 

 dred and sixty district assemblies and about nine 

 thousand local assemblies. The total membership 

 was then about 780,000. Mr. Wright believes 

 that it is to-day about one million. 



Mr. Wright mixes very little criticism or com- 

 ment with his recital of facts, and we trust it is 

 only because he wishes to avoid any appearance 

 of discourtesy to those who have materially 

 assisted him in collating his data. For, as to the 

 attitude of sound and enlightened public; opinion 

 towards the knights of labor, there can be but one 

 opinion. That there was a wide-spread sympathy 

 with the organization and its aims at one time 

 cannot be denied ; and it is just as incontestable 

 that this sympathy has been turned into disap- 



pointment and disgust by the excesses of the 

 various organizations, and the abuse they have 

 made of their power. Without this sympathy 

 and the support of public opinion, no great move- 

 ment, labor or other, can be carried to a successful 

 consummation. The spectacle of half a million 

 or even a million men arrogating to themselves 

 the title and privileges of laborers to the exclu- 

 sion of the other sixteen or seventeen millions of 

 wage-earners in the country, is ludicrous enough ; 

 but it becomes supremely so when this small 

 minority endeavors to prevent any of the majority 

 from obtaining such employment as the latter may 

 desire, at such wages as they are willing to accept. 

 It is this general principle, quite as much as the 

 various excesses that have been committed, that 

 has disgusted thoughtful men with the whole 

 movement. The cowardice of political leaders, 

 and the miscalled philanthropy of various mem- 

 bers of the community, have permitted things 

 which, without them, no organization would have 

 thought of undertaking, much less of prosecut- 

 ing successfully. 



There is no subject which has for the sani- 

 tarian more interest than that connected with the 

 great mortality among the young children of our 

 large cities. And as the principal factor in this 

 mortality is represented by the term ' summer 

 diarrhoea,' it is to diseases of this nature that 

 especial attention is devoted by those who have at 

 heart the welfare of the young. Thirty-five hun- 

 dred persons succumbed to this class of diseases 

 during the past year in New York City alone, more 

 than half of the number in the two months of 

 July and August. To diminish this mortality is 

 a task worthy of the best efforts of the philanthro- 

 pist ; and every contribution to this end, however 

 insignificant, should be gladly welcomed, and 

 made, so far as it can be, the basis for action. 

 Dr. L. Emmett Holt of New York, in a paper 

 recently read before the New York academy of 

 medicine, has made a very valuable addition to 

 our knowledge of the causes at work in the pro- 

 duction of summer diarrhoea, and to the methods 

 for its treatment. After a full discussion of these 

 points, he presents the following conclusions : 1. 

 Summer diarrhoea is not to be regarded as a 

 disease depending upon a single morbific agent ; 

 2. The remote causes are many, and include heat, 

 mode of feeding, surroundings, dentition, and 

 many other factors ; 3. The immediate cause is 



