Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-20
KNIGHTS OF LABOR.
THEIR GREAT INCREASE IN NUM-.
BEERS AND POWER.
They Are Opposed to Strikes. but
Strike Hard When Forced
to Do So.

A gentleman in this city-who claims
that be knows whereof he speaks-says
there is movement on foot in the Knights
of Labor organizations of this State to
have the organizations in the Eastern,
Middle and Western States boycott all Cal
ifornia fruit that is picked or packed by
Chinese labor; that the petition will be
backed by such strong arguments that they
have not the least dot BIT but that it will
be adopted, and its adoption, they claim,
will make all such fruit yalueless, so far
as shipping TO an Eastern market is
concerned. All shippers, it is
said, who employ white labor
exclusively, will be furnished, free of
cost, white labor stamp, that will be pro-
tected by law, the same as are all trade
marks. The fruit packing will be under
the surveillance of proper committees. and
no producer or shipper will be allowed the
use of the white labor stamp, who, in any
capacity, employs Monaghan labor.
The Knights of Labor are organizing in
every hamlet, village and town upon the
coast. A second organization ofthe Order has
been instituted in this city within the past
few days. and already The membership is
quite large. In speaking of this rapidly
increasing organization, the Philadelphia
Record of a recent date says:
The Knights of Labor are now taking in
new Assemblies at the rate of fifteen per
day There has within few months been
a great increase of the Order in conse-
quence of the unusually large accessions of
trades unions. and other organizations
which have come in in bodies for the pur-
pose of having unity of action. Where
arbitration fails, the boycott is used to
enforce the rights of labor. This has united
the labor element and brought into the
organization many heretofore independent
societies. 1t is estimated that there are
20 600 Knights in Montreal, where a few
months ago there. was not a single one
The st. Louis district has forty five local
Assemblies and 10000 members. The
Rhode Island district has fifty locals and
District Assembly No. 80, of Massachusetts.
has over 800 local Assemblies. In Gin
cinnati ten new Assemblies have been or
gained within the last few weeks In Ten
nessee steps are being taken to organize ali
Assembly in every town and city in the
State An Assembly has been organized in
st. Joseph, Mo-, and three new Assemblies
have been recently added-one of Germans,
one of women and girls, and a third for
men. The spirit of unionism is at a high
pitch in Baltimore, and all the skilled
workmen in the city are in the Order. In
Milwaukee the Order has absorbed all the
wOrkingmen and the trades organizations
The great increase in the Order has been
followed by an unusual number of strikes.
some of the strikers joining the Order for
the ayowed purpose of getting more ex-
tended support. All of the late strikes
have been ordered by local organizations,
and not by the General Executive Com
nlIffaa TbQcQ X n rtf hax-a
learned that the general policy of the Order
is opposed to strikes.
The telegraph few days since reported
a small portion of an interview with Grand
Master William Powderly who was attend
ing meeting of the General Executive
Committee in Philadelphia. Speaking for
the Board he said:
If many of the men who are striking
would display little more common sense
and use little more patience they would
get all they are striking for. and save their
time and money, If they would exercise
proper moderation in their demands, visit
their employers and submit their claims
firmly made and properly represented to
arbitration, am sure that nine out of ten
cases which end in strikes could be salts
factorily arranged without resorting to such
an expedient. In nine cases out of ten
there would be no necessity for strike.
The time has come when the shopman,
miil-owner and manufacturer in every de.
partment of trade is ready to listen to the
demands of his men and to yield to them
when these demands are reasonable Or
ganizatlon, discipline and the law of right
and might in the case have brought about
this change"
" Arbitration, then, and not strikes. is
the theory of the order" said the reporter.
Yes, arbitration always, hen it is posi-
bile, strike only as a last resort but when
that point is reached, strike hard, strike in |
earnest, and never surrender except to Just |
concessions. Why this Board" pointing |
to the members who were listening, has |
since the LIST of January, settled by arbitra-
ton $50 cases, which would otherwise have |
resulted in strikes without the gaining of a |
single point by the strikers The Knights |
of Labor, and other organizations in SYM
pathy with its plans constitute at the pres
ent time the most powerful organization of |
workingmen ever known in the history of
the world. Its strength is increasing every
day, and its influence is felt every day in
every branch of trade in this country. 1t
can always insist upon Just demands, if fully
considered and thoughtfully suggested. 1t
cannot afford to fritter itself away upon
every little pretense of wrong, hastily
formed and -headedly insisted upon A
strike should be the last thing when every
thing else has failed, and not an everyday |
which, used as such, loses in
power as it increases in frequency. In the
old assemblies strikes were infrequent. 1t
is new and as yet not fully developed Or
CARNATIONS which, upon trivial causes,
make this final and desperate appeal. As
our organization grows there will be fewer
strikes, because there will be less cause for
them. Our power will in time be greater
that men now think. 1t will last as long
as We use il wisely. A strike is bad thing,
but a boycott is worse in its results. A
strike stops production merely; a boycott |
kills it. The strike of a week is only the |
loss of weeks business; boycott for a
week can be the utter ruin of business it
self. We have never failed in boycott |
which has been ordered by the General |
Committee. Its effectiveness is undoubted, |
but 1t is an extreme power, which we use |
with caution
Is there not danger that your Order |
may become involved in politics and then |
lose its power?
-" have no fear of that. The matters in
volved in the existence and work of the |
knights of Labor are nearer to its men, |
bers than the matters of parties in politics |
We have, as you see on the committee |
members of the two old parties, Green |
hackers with a smile) and other cranks |
like myself We are not politicians here.
We have a method of dealing with those |
who are, and some have entered our ranks |
to serve political ends. We turn them out |
We have no part in politics Ii is bread |
and butter. the rights of the employed, the |
material things of everyday life. that con- I
stitute the elements which bind us to- |
gether, and those are stronger than partisan |
political ties