report of the Pennsylvania Bureau on 135 strikes, shows 45 successful, 66 unsuccessful, 13 compromised, and 11 partially successful. The census report gives the result of 481 strikes, of which 169 were successful, 227 unsuccessful, and 85 compromised. This report shows also that the workmen are more successful in strikes growing out of demands for advance than they are in resisting demands for reductions. With the exception of the census report on strikes, these statements cover a series of years, including periods of great depression in business, as well as prosperous times, and may therefore be regarded as giving fairly average results."

"Of the utter folly of many strikes," farther remarks Mr. Weeks, "there can be no question. They have been doomed to defeat from their inception; they have been undertaken in defiance of all economic laws, in ignorance of the real condition of trade, and without any just cause; they have wasted capital and decreased the wealth of the country; they have brought hunger, misery, debt, have broken up homes, severed long associations, forced trade to other localities, and driven men and women and little children into the very shadow of death."

The great strike in New York prostrated business, caused overwhelming distress, advanced the prices of coal to the injury of consumers, ended in failure, displaced men from their usual work, and threw them as an additional burden upon the community. To the rich, a strike works an inconvenience only, or at most, the loss, perhaps, of a few unmissed dollars. As to the Astors, the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, and their compeers in wealth, the strikes take not a tile from their roofs, a fiber of warmth from their clothing, nor a morsel of food from their tables. But the poor! aye, there's the rub! they suffer hunger, cold, and the pangs of premature death. Who shall say to the shades of those thus untimely cut off, "Down, down, thou canst not say I did it ?" Like Banquo's ghost, they

VOL. IX.-31.

Grant,

will not down at the bidding. The necessity of strangling a huge coal monopoly may be urged in justification of the strike. in default of knowledge of the underlying facts in the case, that there is a monopoly, as charged, a wicked conspiracy of certain coal and railroad magnates to enrich themselves at the expense of the public: the strike, the would-be remedy, does but aggravate the wrong tenfold.

But an efficient remedy is needed, must be had-what shall it be? I answer competition, competition. Let workmen go in an orderly way about their work, lay their grievances fairly before the public, and the government, State and national, and petition their redress. No doubt exists in my mind that government, State and national, would deem it right and politic to encourage by franchise and other proper means the developing of competing coal mines, and the constructing of competing railways, to be operated under salutary restrictions; nor does a doubt exist in my mind that ample capital would be subscribed with alacrity to effect the enterprise. Is it not evident that this peaceful method would place cormorant avarice hors du combat, and wrench from its greedy grasp its weapon for doing future wrong? This being true, let us depend on competition, not on strikes. Indeed, an ounce of competition is of greater value than a ton of strikes for the redressing of wrong and for the promotion of progress.

Let it not be understood by any remarks that I have made, that I am in favor of low wages; on the contrary, I am in favor of the highest wages consistent with maximum industry and "the greatest good to the greatest number." I am in favor of a live world, in favor of every American, whether native born or naturalized, being free and independent, well fed, well clothed, well sheltered, well educated in practical scientific learning, and thoroughly imbued with the principles of moral right.

Having now accomplished our purpose

of investigating the principles laid down in the effort to solve the great labor problem by the Knights of Labor, as set forth in their preamble, I submit that the investigation, while confirming most of these principles as well adapted to secure the object sought, conclusively shows that the rest of them are not only not adapted to secure this object, but will, if applied, render the solution impossible. This problem of problems requires to be solved, if solved at all, by the application of the broad and beneficent principles of peace, of good will to all, and not by the application of the principles of bullying, force, of hedging in some and shutting out others-in a word, of "Might makes right." "Whoever," tersely remarks Victor Hugo, "says to-day Might makes right' performs an act of the Middle Ages, and speaks to men three hundred years behind their time." "Peace is the virtue of civilization." "The most important objects for mankind," says a distinguished French philosopher," are security, civil liberty, property, due division of taxation, liberty of commerce and of industry."

That the Knights of Labor intend to perform a grand and noble work is expressed in their declaration that their aims are, "to

make industrial and moral worth, not wealth, the true standard of individual and national greatness; to secure for the workers the full enjoyment of the wealth they create, sufficient leisure in which to develop their intellectual, moral, and social faculties, all of the benefits, recreations, and pleasure of association-in a word, to enable them to share in the gains and honors of advancing civilization." Let their aim be to elevate and ennoble man--excluding noneto enable him by his industry to feed, clothe, and shelter, in comfort, himself and those dependent upon him; to educate in practical scientific learning, and to train in moral rectitude, his offspring, that they may be an honor and blessing to their parents, to themselves, to the community, and to their country. Indeed, there is no attribute known to mortal more divine than the desire to elevate, ennoble, and benefit man. As Leigh Hunt wrote of Abou Ben Adhem and the Angel:

"I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.' The Angel wrote and vanished. The next night He came again, with a great, wakening light, And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,

And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!" Irving M. Scott.

Henry Badger.

XI.

The Doctor was standing close to the edge of the pit, so that without turning his head or stretching forward, he could gaze directly down, into every corner of it. In all the crowd that had so lately been there, no face had borne so deep an impress of jealous envy. The majority had seemed to take the matter good-naturedly and philosophically; and there were several who had congratulated Ohio's Pride with as loud and enthusiastic applaud as though he had been their own brother -men without coats to their backs, and with the elbows of their red shirts torn into slits, rejoicing in a companion's fortune, and, for themselves, awaiting that turn of fate. which they felt assured would some day intervene in their own favor.

Events sometimes move rapidly; and one exciting scene will not be thoroughly comprehended in all its bearings before the slide will shift and new wonders be shown. At one moment the Doctor was gazing down into the claim with greedy envy depicted in every line and feature. The next moment he turned partly around with dismay and affright-with the unmistakable expression of one who might have been long expecting an attack and now felt that it had come; for a heavy hand was suddenly laid upon his shoulder and a harsh voice said,

"Where did you pick up my horse, you Scoundrel?"

It was Abel Henshaw who spoke it was his hand, that, with one flexible movement, crept up from the Doctor's shoulder and

Should any reader of the first series of the OVERLAND recognize in the closing installments of "The Puntacooset Colony" the material used in a fragmentary sketch there printed, his attention is called to the fact that this was by the same author.

held with a firm grasp the collar of his flannel shirt. Large, broad-shouldered, muscular, and alert-the captor held his victim with a close grip from which it seemed as though there could be no escape. Yet, with a sudden twist of the body, the other succeeded in extricating himself-stood for a moment free and unchecked, a passion of ungovernable fury gathering upon his facethen drew a pistol from his breast and fired.

SO.

It was the act of a madman to have done It was not the instinctive repulse of insult, which under some circumstances, even among a lawless community, might have stood justified. At the best, it did not relieve the man from the charge of theft brought against him; and if the shot had succeeded in its intended work, there would have been short shrift given to the perpetrator. But at the critical moment, Mark Redfern sprang forward, and, with a quick motion of his arm, threw up the murderer's weapon, so that the ball spent itself in the air. The next instant Abel Henshaw's heavy hand came down like an avalanche upon the aggressor's head, not wounding him, but all the same crushing him helpless to the earth, with the mere weight of the blow.

Then, startled at the pistol report, others came running up, the crowd each moment gathering in volume, as it became evident that an altercation was going on; until scarcely a moment had elapsed before fifty men were gathered around to await the issue or take part in advancing it, as might be necessary. It seemed to Mark almost like the At one moment shifting of a magic slate. he had been standing alone, trying to put into shape the bitter realizations of evil fortune that were thronging upon him; the

next, there was a crowd of excited miners pressing closely around, and in their midst the crushed and baffled centre of their attraction lying upon the ground, the smoking pistol still held in his hand. To them Abel Henshaw now again addressed himself; first stooping forward, and more this time, securely than before, fastening his grasp upon the other's collar, and so lifting him once more upon his feet; then partially relaxing his hold, since the closing in of the crowd would surely now prevent any chance of escape, even if the trembling limbs of the victim might admit of flight.

Henshaw, but now that you've got him"Should rather think it was my horse, boys. Had him stolen some thirty miles down the road three weeks ago.

him along with the mules, and went to sleep, and when I woke up the mules was all there, but the horse was gone. Didn't ever expect to see him again, but just found him a few minutes ago in front of this fellow's tent. I knowed the horse at once, and what's more, the horse knowed me."

Yes, to be sure; in course it was yourn. But now that you've got the beast back, why not let this poor devil go?"

"Nothing to me what becomes of him," responded Abel. "Let him go, if you all say so; and lucky he will be, too, for in some of the mines they would have hung him, sure."

But though the majority, moved by the

"Not so fast! not so fast! And which of them stories am I to believe?" retorted Abel, and his face now expressed the sentiment of all the rest. For the culprit had too surely betrayed himself. Either of his pleas, by itself, might have been accepted as a plausible one, for it would have given the benefit of a doubt. But to couple the two extenuations together was surely a fatal

error.

"Which of them is it, I say?" repeated Abel, letting the victim once more sink slowly to the ground. Seeing the blunder he had already committed, had he not better continue silent, and trust to chance or to pity for escape?

For the moment, indeed, it seemed as though some reliance might be placed upon the latter, for many began to be compassionately moved at that spectacle of abject terror; and, despite the prevailing ill-favor toward the Doctor, a few voices were, one after the other, raised in his behalf.

"I suppose it is your horse, sure enough,

clined to release him, there were not a few who were now in favor of hanging him, alleging that they had no grudge against the fellow, but that an example must be made, or else life and property would not be anywhere safe. These men were principally old miners, and they now quoted the example of other diggings in which they had formerly lived; some of which, owing to a rigorous execution of justice, were so purified from disorder that a man could safely be out alone with a bag of gold dust at his side, while, on the contrary, in other places, a lax code of mining law had resulted in abundant robbery, murder, and general disorder.

This being the first instance of transgression in the Gila Cañon since its opening, the question of its proper treatment assumed some importance, being not merely a matter of the punishment or release of a single criminal, but the selection of a fixed penal policy for the future. Therefore those who favored extreme punishment were listened to with calm thoughtfulness; and their number