The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1882-05-07
THE KNIGHTS OF LAROh s
n Specimen OF Consistency
That is A musin2.

We mentioned a few dry ago the fact
that cerIa'n parties, suppO ell to be OF the
labOrng class had ATTEMPTED to effect the
organic ltion of lodge OF the above Or
der at Dallas. Since then We have read
more or less OF the plans upon which il is
sought to build up and make this one OF
the national Institutions of the benevolent
kind. We have even heard it said thar
Waco ought 10 have, and could support
Il lodge OF that class, among its labOring
classes. Curious to know vino are the
promoters, cndOrsers and hackers OF this
new benetactur of The labOring classes, we
have watched the public prints to See
what might be said for or against the
movement. We notice thar the response
BILE Journals have little 10 say OF it one way
or the other. They would hardly con
denim it If a good thing tor the laboIing
| classes and il not n good thing,they would
| probably conclude. that like an invested
| tunnel il will fall by its own weight and
| awkWarGnesS. Among the periodicals.
which reach us, we do find one which
| endorses the new movement, which causes
us to think that this order though O-ten-
sibly gotten up for the benefit of the Ia
| boring class, is at it, fountain head con-
| trolled and manipulated by schemers If
more or less capital. The journal to
which.we reler,-is the Tradesmai., pub
lished. at. Chattanooga. Tennessee, and
| claiming to have branch offices in the
| leading cities OF the country. The Trades
man is sustained totally by the great
manufacturing Institutions OF the country,
us will be seen by glancing into It's pages,
| institutions which employ thousands OF
men, women and children every year
Ill turning out this, that aud the other
product and which haYe, by slow de
| grees, ground the laborer down from fair
remuneration for his labor to starvation
! prices. Let those manufacturers and
| capitalists remove their patronage from
! the tradesman and it would cea e to
exist, and yet we find it openly advoca-
| TIM the knights of Labor" and pro-
mulg ting their platform Of principles
! 1t demands for "the tailor proper
share OF the wealth he creates and yet
1t is the exponent of that class who have
always denied this to the laborer. 1t
would look from this that the new organ
| IZatlon Is not the creation Of labor, but
rather that of capital or some set OF ex-
pert schemers who wish to still further
accumulate at the expense of the toll
ing and two often ignorant masses,
The platform of principles en-
braces much more than per-
haps half the laboring classes
can comprehend but still it is
hard to see i'll it any assurance that if all
the laborers in the land shou d become
members of it that they would be in the
least benefited thereby. The laboring
classes of Texas are happy and doing
vel, and might perhaps do better if they
were members of the knights of Labor,
and we shall not attempt to say that
they should not investigate and see
what benefits it offers if it is going to
open up for business in Ithis state,
| but at the same time 1t would be we'll To
know that rs its name implies, it is OF
the people and for the people and not
the offspring of those who have no in
terest in labor only to make money out
of it, and hold it in continual subiec-
ton. Tie efforts to establish the organ
! izatiOn in Texas may be successful, and
let US OF the labOring classes in this
state treat the new organization fairly
before applauding or condemning by
seeing who are the movers in it and
whether it means ultimately benefit or
disadvantage to labor.