Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1886 — POWDERLY AND GOULD. [ARTICLE]

POWDERLY AND GOULD.

The Former Reviews the Latter’s Course Throughout the Preeeat Stride. Who .Railroad King Replies Defiantly— Interesting Correspond* TL--.. eaee. Posrdcrtjr ts Uoald. The following manifesto was written by General Master Workman Powderly on the 11th Inst.: “Scrvnton, Pa., April 11, 1886. “To Jay Gould, Esq., President Missouri l’acifio 1 Railway, New York: “DBAH fttnr Theerents es the pAet forty-eight hours must have demonstrated to you the absolute necessity of bringing this terrible struggle in tbe Southwest to sr speedy termination. You have the power, thq authority and tho moans to bring the strike to an end. I have done every*tliing in m.lt power end the strike. The gentlemen associated with me on the General Executive Board of tho Knights of Labor have done the game. Everything consistent with honor and manhood lias pegji done in the interest of pi ace. No fulse notionof irrtde or dignity has swayed us in our dealings with you pr the gentleman associated with you. In the conference with you on Sunday, March 28, I understood you to mean t at arbitration would be agreed to. Tho oulv method of arbitration that was discussed was in lino with that suggested in tho letter which I sent to you in the name of our board the day previous. There was nothing particularly agreed upon, as you well know. Y'ou said that In arbitrating tho matter tho damages sustained by the company during the strike ought to receive consideration. I said to you tlfat it would not be the part of wisdom to bring that, quostiou up in the ‘ settlement of the strike. When I called on you that evening you had prepared as the result of your understanding of the morning's intervie w a letter which you intended to give me. That letter included a telegram tf> be sent to Mr. Hoxie, and in that telegram you said that the damages sustained by the company would be a proper subject forthe Arbitration Board to discuss. This latter part of the letter or telegram you agreed to strike off. After we had talked the matter ' oyer for some time, I left you as you were about to go«to your room to rewrita the letter, which you afterword placed iu tho hands of Mr. McDowell to be given to me, for I had to leavo at that time in order to keep an appointmi nt at the hotel where I Stopped. The statement which you have since then made, to the effect that you had prepared that letter before I called, is not quite correct, or, if you did have it prepared, you changed it after we had talked the matter over for some time. This, I believe, vou will admit to be true. In the conference held between the members of our Executive Board and the directors of the’Missottri Pacific Company on March 30, you said you understood me to sav that the men along your lines would be ordered back to work at cnee. I then reiterated the statement which I made to you. and I now repeat it: ‘The men out along the lines of your railways can be order'd back to work, but if they are given to understand that they are deserted, that we do not take any interest in them, it will not in any way mend matters ; on tho contrary, it will make things worse. There ore all along the roads out thero a great many men who have no regard for organization or law ; men of hardy spirit, energy, and daring. Such men as have left the East and have taken up their homeß out in a wild country, will not submit so quietly as the men they'have left behind in the East. They are apt to do rasher things than they would do elsewhere, and I have no doubt we have some of them in onr order.’ “Both you and Mr. Hopkins heard me make that statement, and I believe the latter agreed that was his experience also. "The danger of the strike spreading was also discussed, and 1 said to you that it would not spread; that an effort had been made to have the men of the Union Pacific take a part in it, but that the Knights of Labor on Hint road had a standing agreement with the management of the road that there was to be no trouble or strike until the last effort to effect a settlement had failed, and not then until, the court of last rosort had been reached. ' “It was my firm belief when I left you that night that you meant to have the entire affair submitted to arbitration at tbe first possible moment. That belief is shared in by Mr. McDowell, who was present during the entire interview. When you sent the telegram to Mr. Hoxie, you sent it as President of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company. You sent it »as the chief sends bis message to an inferior officer, and it meant as much to a sensible man as the most imperative order could possibly mean. When I, as-the chief officer of the Knights of Labor, send a message Such as that, it is understood to be my wishes, and those wishes are respected by the subordinate officer to whom they are sent. It is not his place to put a different construction on them and give them his own interpretation. His duty is to obey the spirit of the instructions. The man in power need not bo an autocrat in order to have his wishes respected. “I would like to see it done.’ comes with as great a force from the man in authority as ‘I must have it done.’

“You can settle this strike. Its longer continuance rests with you, and you alone. Every act of violence, every drop of blood that may be shed from this time forth must be laid at your door. The Knights of Labor were not founded to promote or shie’d wrong-doing, and to-day the ordpr of the Knights of Labor stands between your property and ruin. We are willing to absolve the men along your railways from their allegiance to our order ;we leave that to themselves. Wo will not allow any claims which the order may have on them to stand between them and their restoration to their former positions. The order of the Knights of Labor asks of no man to remain a ipember if it is not to his interest to do so. You may deal with them as citizens if you will. We will surrender our right to claim these men as members if they wish, hut we will not suirender our right to see this affair thoroughly investigated. You* have-said that the order of the Knights of Labor was a conspiracy, a secret menace, etc. I am willing, as its chief officer, to lay .everything connected with our order bare to the world if you will, on the other hand, lay -open to the public the means and methods whereby you have piled up the wealth which you control, and. allow the tribunal of public opinion to pass judgment on the "two —and- say which is tjhe conspiracy. Do you accept the challenge? You have instructed your legal adviser to proceed against every man connected with the Knights of Labor for the damages sustained since the strike began®- Two weeks ago I said: ‘Do not do thisto-day I say begin at once; lay claims for damages in every court within whose jurisdiction a knight exists. Proceed at once, and in everv State where you can recover damages do so if tne law sustain yon in it. It is just and right that it should be so. We are willing to face yoa before the luw; we will fight you with no other weapon. 44 There are people who say that thi3 straggle is the beginning of the wax between capital and labor. That statement is false. This certainly means war, but it is a war between legitimate capital, honest enterprise and honest-tabor on the ono hand and illegitimate wealth QU the other hand. This is a war in which we court the fullest investigation of onr acts. Do you dare to do tho same? This war means no further strike, no shedding of blood. It is a war mi winch every business man, every Commercial man, every every workingman will he invited to enlist. It will not he a war- upon the innocent, and - the battlefield upon which it will be fought out will be* before the. courts of law, and that wlfich makes law, public opinion. There will be no mobs in this supreme hour to'silence any man’s opinion. No converts will be made by physical force. ‘That flag which floats over press or mansion at the bidding of a mob, disgraces both victor and victim,’ and under such a flag as that we will not wage the battle ; but this battle of the people against monopoly may as well be fought, out now as ten years from now, and what field bo eminently proper in which to fight it out as before the courts? Let us know whether laws were made to be obeyed or not, and if they- were not so framed then thev people must make laws that will be obeyed. No man, whether he be rich or whether he be the poorest of the poor, shall in future shftk the reaponsibilitv of his acts and shield himself behind the courts. It was to see that the laws were obeyed that the drder of the Knights of Labor was founded, and if the dev has come to make the trial, so let it be. “You have been wafned that your life is in "danger. Par no attention to snob talk - net man who has the interest or his country at heart would harm a bain in your head, but the system which reaches out on all sides, gathering in millions of dollar* of treasure and keeping them out of -the legitimate channels of trade avd commerce must die, and the men whose money is invested in. tho enterprises which stock gambling hais throttled muat uiake comnion cause with those who have been denied the to earn enough to provide the merest necessaries of life for home and family. ‘When I say to you that we will meet you in the courts I do not speak rashly or ill-advisedlv. I have taken counsel from the best legal minds at the tTnited States. We are prepared to face you before the courts, and now await your action in the matter. This is no threat. I play no game of bluff or chance. I speak for 600,090 organized

men, who ore ready to pay oai the last farthing in order that justice mav prevail. You have it in your power to make friends of these men by acting the port of the man - by taking tins matter in your own hands. Willyou dp so, And end*’ thW strife th the ihWfloift tis h'iinaHTty iniT our # common country ? It is your duty to brush aside every obstacle, assent your authority, and take this matter in your own hands, settle every grievance, restore every man to his place except those who have been engaged in tbe destruction of propertv, or who have broken the laws. Will you do this? Aina can then make rules ahd agreements with your men which will forever preclude the possibility of another such disastrous conflict os this one has proved Itself to be. I remain, very truly, yours, t j “T. V. Powdkblx, G. M. W. K. of L.*