A terrible story is reported from America. Four or five
men, arrested for wrecking trains on the New York Central Railway, have, it is stated, made a full confession. They say they were engaged in plots for wrecking trains, one at least of which succeeded, and that they were encouraged by men connected with the huge Trade-Union known as the "Knights of Labour," the greatest workman's Association in the States. One of these men, according to the Daily News' correspondent, has fled to Canada, where, we fancy, there will be no hesitation about his surrender. The men's story requires, of course, investigation, but it is accompanied by details of the attempts which can be tested, and it has, according to the same correspondent, destroyed all sympathy with the "Knights of Labour." As we have argued elsewlmre, there is no antecedent improbability in the tale, crimes of the kind rather increasing than diminishing; but it should be added, in justice to an immense and unpopular Association, that it is impossible the members, who number nearly a million, should have known anything of such plots, and most improbable that they will condone them. If the charge is proved, the Americans are not likely to let the law act with its usual extreme slowness.
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