Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-10-05
POWDERLY'S MISTAKES.

The selection of the city of Richmond,
Virginia, as the place of meeting for the
knights of Labor in annual convention,
was fraught with more trouble to the
Order than it could we'll foresee, and is
likely to result in damage to the work
hoped to be accomplished there. Grand
Master Workman Powderly made bad
break when he alluded to the equality of
all men in the Order, for the reason that
custom and precedent both, hold the
colored man alooffrom his white brethren
in all social intercourse, the line being
drawn even in places of public amnse-
ment, and extending through all
grades OF societies and organiza-
tons, even to the Masonic fraternity.
Not all the benefits promised by thor
ough equipment for working of the
Knights of Labor in the South can be
equivalent to the deep p-seated race preiu-
dice held by the white people of the
South against their colored fellow citi-
zens, and such a keen mind as that of
Powderly's should see that it is idle for
the X. of L. to hope to do, what only time
and necessary intercourse can bring
about. A negro couple on the floor of a
ballroom, occupied by whites in Rich
mond, aor any other city in the South,
would be the signal for most of the |
whites to leave, and all the reasoning in
the book cannot change this condition of
the Southern mans feelings Powderly
erred again in launching his bolt at mo-
nopoly in the South, and especially when
he said /:
1T sends its agents abroad and brings
nerds OF uneducated and desperate men to
TINS country. 1t imports ignorance and
scatters 1T broadcast throughout the land.
1t, and it alone, is responsible for every
manifestation of anarchy that ever the
country has witnessed. All men NAV not be
willing to admit that this statement is true.
but when monopoly dies no more Anarchists
VIII be born IN this country, for anarchy is
the legitimate child of monopoly While | !
condemn and denounoe the deeds of violence
committed IN the name of labor during the I
present year, am proud to say that the I
hlgnts or Labor, as an organization, is not
In any way responsible for such conduct"
The majority of the delegates from
the South are of the very class he stig- q
matlzes, and were brought out by capital
lists to develop the great iron industry in y
Alabama, around Admission, Oxford, Ok =
ana, and on through the belt to Birmrng
ham, in which territory lies the greatest $
and richest deposit of iron in the world u
The working of this find was undertaken
alter the war, when men were
scarce in the South, and as if
'equlred skilled labor, thousands of men ID
we're imported from Europe to do the 81
work. These men sat and heard Pow al
ierly say these hard things against them
md they could not like it. In fact Pow 4
lerly has changed his manner marvel m
usly In the past year, and seems to be tn
rowdlng onto that pernicious pronoun /. ia
4 such manner as to give his admirers tn
larm. As the DEMOCRAT understands hi
ne organization of the Knights of Labor. to
owderly has no power other than execu- do
We, and that is given him only through pc
he executive board, hence it is dificult un
see the application of the following: clr
Ii was only when the threat was made pie
stop every wheel in the United States the
lat raised my voice against it," bo,
r, Powderly also speaks of his rec
lsh that the Order would select some the
her man to take his place, and the fact pro
lat he has done this same thing several tior
mes before, makes it look like childish me
ca Tor compliments. The Order and its TIM
terests are now in such a condition that
be success, its leader must pull wide
en IRON all personal matters, and be =.
truth as well as in name, devoted edit
lely to the good of the Order, holding Dut
i to be secondary consideration. gres