Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1886 — KNIGHTS OF LABOR. [ARTICLE]

KNIGHTS OF LABOR.

A Biography and a Sketch Which Will Be Read with Interest at This .... Juncture. *> ~ r '• I ..Terrence Vincent Powderly, authoritative j louder of the Knights of Labor organization I (says the New York World), was born at Carbondale, PA., Jan. 24, 1849. He went to school for six years, and when 13 years old went to work as a switch-tender for the Delaware & Hudson i Canal Company. When 17 he went into the ma | chfiie shop of the company. He went to Scranton and found employment in the shops of tho Delaware, Lackawanna & 'Western Railroad Company. In 1870 he joined the Machinists and Blacksmiths’ National Union. He soon became President, and*began to study the labor problem in the shopo z by talking to his fellow-workmen, watching the endeavors and aims of employers and employes. In 1872 Mr. Powderly married. The'trades-union was too narrow to salt his views. His father, had been a day laborer, and he learned that no labor organization could thrive until it took In every class of laboring men. The machinists did not take kindly to Mr. Powderly’s suggestion that they take in the laborers, the carpenters, painters, and every other trade. Tn November, 1874, a friend invited him one evening to some to 11 labor meeting. He went without any idea of What sort of a gathering it was. It was Local Assembly No. 88 of the Kidghts of Labor, and he at once joined it. He found there men of all trades and all crafts. It was his idea of a labor organization, and he at once entered heartily into its plans. The panic of 1873 left Powderly without employment. He went west into Ohio looking for work, came back into Western Pennsylvania, and in Oil City found a job, and Was sent by the Machinists and Blacksmiths' Union of that city as a delegat.) to the General Convention held at Louisville in September,>lß74. Scon after he was back in the employ of the Dickson Manufacturing Company at Scranton, and it was on this return that he joined the Knights He soon induced the entire union to join the Knights, and the union was disbtinded. In 1877 tbe railroad strike took many from this section, and about five thousand men wentfrom that district. Many of them were in the order of Knights, and, when they pushed on into the West, were instrumental in building up new local assemblies. Up to this time the Knights of Labor had no General Assembly, and many of the leading Knights were in correspondence on the subject. M. F. Turner, Secretary of District Assembly No. 1, Philadelphia; Mr. Griffith, of Chicago; Charles H. Idtchmon, of Marblehead, Mass.; and Mr. Thomas King, of Reading, Pa., hod been writing one to another, ana the result was a call, for the first General Assembly at Reading in January, 1878. . A constitution was adopted at this time, and Uriah 8. Stevens, the founder of the order, was chosen Grand Master Workman. At the St. Louis Convention, held in St. Louis January, 1879, Mr. Stevens was re-elected, and Mr. Powderly was chosen to the second position as General Worthy Foreman. The time of the meeting of' the General Assembly was changed to September, and in September, 1879, a convention was held in Chicago, when Mr. Stevens sent a letter declining re-election as Grand or General Master Workman, and suggesting Mr. Powderly, in strong words of praise, for the position. That choice was made, and each successive September, at tbe general assemblies, he was re-elected. He had continued to reside at Scranton, and in April, 1878, his fellow-workmen put his name in nomination for Mayor and elected him. His first act was to discharge the entire,police-force. This he did because he feared that fils enemies would seek to create disorder and possibly do damage, and he wished to have by him men In whom he' could trust to repress any uprising. In 1880 Mayor Powderly was re-elected and in 1882 again chosen on a Democratic ticket, but the labor element showed its strength by giving him a majority in several strong Republican districts. - Since his induction into ihe order of Knights of Labor, Mr. Powderly Jias given it his entire attention and a vast amount of study. He has virtually reorganized the order. He found it a close, oath-bound body, but at the Detroit General Assembly, in 1881. he urged the abolition of oaths and 1 the removal of the obligation of secrecv. Mr. Powderly has filled the position of constant instructor for seven years, and has not had a single day off, not even a whole Sunday. , ■ _ _ _ __ Mr."'Powderly in 1875 went somewhat into the study of law, and while Mayor of Scranton got a very good legal training and habit. He started the’ Labor Advocate in Scranton during 1877, but this publication, he said, “died easily while I stood by its bedside.”

By Wliat Metliocla Its Members Hope to Solve the Labor Question. Tfie District Assejnbly Is composed of three delegates from each local assembly in its jurisdiction, and is the highest tribunal within its dominion. There are what ore called “trade districts" and “mixed districts." The former, as ■the unms donates, are composed of those of any one or affiliated trades. Thus a district of printers contains stereotypers, type-founders, conqxwitors, pressmen and feeders, bookbinders and sewers, lithographers qnd plate printers. A district of shoemakers has within it every person working at that business in onv capacity. A mixed district is formed cf I assemblies of every trade having less than five locals, -which number is necessary before a trade can be organized as a distinct district. There are several trades in the order which liave national districts, and it is hoped by many u Knight that in time every national and international trade union will le covered with th < shield'of the order. It is said that if such was possible it would inure to the strength of the (r.id'e union, as it has been found that every trade is dependent on all the others.’ Local assemblies can*be formed of men and women, or men or women re spectively, of any one or more trades, or no trade whatever, excepting iwj ers, bankers, brokers, and rum-sellers, w-ho are cons dered to be drones in the human hive, or seeking always their own preferment first, last, and all the time. In every local assembly a half-hour at each meeting must be devoted to the discussion qf "labor in all its interests." It is during these moments that the “declaration of principles" is tiken up and enlarged upon by some one designat'd forthat purpbse, In locals newly founded the declaration is taken up section by section; beginning with the following paragraph- . - d'

"Tt e aMrmingslevelopment and aggressiveness of groat capitalists and corporations, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses. It is imperative, if we desire to enjoy the full blessings of life, that a check be placed upon unjust accumulation and the power for evil of aggregated wealth. This much-desired object can be accomplished only by the united efforts of those who obey the divine injunction. Tn tfie sweatof thy face shalt thou eat bread. Therefore we have formed the order of Knights of Labor, for , the purpose of organizing and directing the power of the industrial masses.'* She aims of the order are declared to be: 1. To make industrial and moral worth, not wealth, the true standard of individual and national greatness. 2. To s.ecure to the worker the full enjoyment of the wealth they create, sufficient leisure in which to develop their intellectual, moral, and social faculties; all of the benefits, recreation, and pleasures of association; in a word, to enable them to share in the gains and honors of advancing civilization. To secure these results certain demands are made upon the State and National Legislatures, in addition to which the Knights of Labor "will endeavor to associate their own labors. "To establish co-operative institutions such ns will tend to supersede the wage system by the introduction of a co-operative industrial systems to secure for both sexes equal flay for equal work; to shorten the hours of labor by a general refusal to work more than eight hours; to persuade employers to agree to arbitrate at differences which may arise between them and their employes, in order that the bends of sympathy between them may be strengthened and thnt strikes may be n ndered unnecessary. Th» Knights of Lalor have attempted to introduce in the order distributive co-operation and life insurance on the assessment plan, but thus far without any success. The credit of founding this great order is due to Uriah'S. Stevens, who died in Philadelphia in 1882. The idea of the Knights of Labor, a secret bro.herhood, was many years in dere'.op ng it. dulf. and did not take practical form until 1869, when Mr, Stevens wss working as a clothing-cut-ter. For years it w«S a strictly secret i ociety. Dr. Bessels, who is in charge of the government carp ponds, says that only about 200 out of every 1,000 goldfish spawned pass through the early stages of goldfish It is claimed that a lady in Oshkosh has » coffin for a bedstead, and every night lies down to rest with as much serenity as those who retire in the conventional manner. Master Workman Powderly worked in a machine shop in his youth, and conned his books by a candle's fitful dame. | Philadelphia proudly claims that she * has 22,000 more women than men.