Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-04-17
PoWDERlYS ALARM TO WAR.
He Issues a Stirring and Manly
Address to the Knights
of Labor.
Gould's Specious Reply to Mr.. Pow
derly's Rather Ill.Advfsed
Letter of Warming.
Mr.. Powderly's Opinion Of the Gould
Response Expressed Tersely
In An Interview.

ST. LOUIS, April 15-TLe letter OF Gen
eral Master Workman Powderly to Secre.
tary Turner is said by the Executive Com.
mittee to be the result OF he unanimous
request upon him by the Assemblies of the
Order to place the strike upon a broad
basis, and the support OF the entire organ.
ization by formal circular. Since the ar
rival OF the General Committee, contribu-
tions are now running up to thousand OF
dollars. They have averaged over s., 900
day. All this money has been sent out to
be distributed among the strikers at every
point on the system, where it is needed,
and it has been sufficient to meet all de-
mands 80 far without calling upon the Re-
serve Fund of the Order, or ordering ASSESS
ments, but Powderly's direction for a call
for c0ntributi ms meets with the approval
Of the Board, bfcause 1t will prove to the
public that the strike has the endorsement
of the Order in general.
GOULD ANSWERS PowDERLY.
At the opening of his reply to Powderly,
Gould quotes his letter Of instructions to
Mcdowell and acknowledges the receipt OF
Powderly's s letter, the substance OF which
is given above. Gould then proceeds to
col strue Powderly's letter as an Official
declaration that the Knights of Labor had
determined to pursue him personally un-
less the Missouri Pacific Company should |
yield to it's demands in what they called a |
strike on that road. In pnswer to these !
personal threats he would say that he war |
still free American citizen. Gould then |
refers to his lowly beginning in life and to
his success through habits of temperance |
and industry, and that if, as Powderly |
says, he is TO be destroyed by the Knights
OF Lab.r, it is fortunate hehas retained his |
early habits of industry. Gould then SAYS
he ls quite content to leave b personal |
record in the hands OF his neighbors and
business associates. If they have aught to
complain OF he will be glad to submit to
any arbitration. He recounts the facts
that when the strike commenced he as far
away from the scene of the trouble and
quotes kilograms from his suhordnates
describing the difficulty and other messages
heretofore published during the early part
OF the troubles. The last dispatch quoted
is one from A. l.. Hopkins to Powderiy,
urging that the strike is
UNJUST TO BOTH SIDES,
az the road is in the receivers hands.
This dispatch" says Gould, Twas never
This correspondence places the !
continuance OF the strike on your shoul- {
ders. You sat still and were silent after
Mr. Hopkins urgent appeal and allow ed
the cOnpany's property to be forcibly
seized and the citizens Of four States and
one Territory to be deprived of their right
iul railway facilities. Thus forced, the
board OF directors before m, return placed
the matter into Mr.. Hoxies hanos by .
it has never been changed" Gould then u
enters into a long review of the features of y :,
the difficulty already published and repub- =
lished, maintaining that the company's :.
offer to take back thestrikers who had not
destroyed property would be strictly lived
up to and that the company will stand
ready to live up to it's agreement in that e.
egard.
In conclusion, Gould says: 'In the face n
II all this you notify me that unless by S Ct
''clock personally consent to do some ~
oDal conseque: ces OF a sort vaguely ex- ci
ressed, but il
NOT HARD TO UNDERSTAND u
itf at the hands of your order be visited
pom me. Let me again remind you that
is an American citizen whom you and
our order propose to destroy. The con- .,
st is not between your order and me, but t :,
stween your order and the laws of the y, y,
nd. Your order has already defied those ~ y:
ws in preventing by violence the company q.
ON operating It's roads. You hold then ..
Ia t the company should not operate it's ~
'ads under the conditions prescribed by ~ ~
W, but only under the conditions pre- ~ ~
ribed by you. You now declare in effect ~ ~
at hold my individual property and a.
ghts not as other men hold theirs. hut
,ly ut / he peril OF your letting loose irre-
,cably after 5 o'clock your order upon
e. II this is true Of this company and of ne
e. it is true OF other men and companies. NJ
80 you and your order are the law and
l American citizen is such only in name. re'
READY for weeks your order has in your br bu
tack upon this company not hesitated to
event it by violence from rendering it's
lty to the public and from doing ~erk r.,
I'd pay; ing VICES to men at least three
mes your own number, who, working us
ey we're by your side. are deserving OF
'ur sympathy. Having pushed this vio- A,
ace beyond even the great forbearance OF a. "a.
e public and found in this direction a.
use to hesitate, you now turn upon me 80
I'd propose that the wrongs you have w Va
therto ihflict d on the public shall now W
Inmate in an attack upon an individual.
this, az have said. the real issue ia be-
'een you and the laws of the land. It
ay be before you are through those laws da
ii efficiently advise you that even !, as an or
dividual citizc.,, am not beyond their Ur
rs. Very respectfully, an