St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-06-26
LABORS' DEMANDS.
Congressional w easures Which the
knights Wish Passed

WASHINGTON, June 25.-The committee
of Knights of Labor, appointed at the meet
ing of the general assembly held at Cleve-
land o., have sent the following letter to
Speaker Carlisle. Copies have also been
sent to Representatives Randolph and Nor
riSon:
Washington, D. c.. June 25.-Hon. John G.
Carlisle-Dear Sir: At special session Of the
general assembly Of the knights Of Labor,
held at Cleveland, o., May 20 to June 4, 1885,
committee Of three, consisting Of
Ralph Beaumont, James Campbell and
John j. Mccartney, were ap-
pointed to visit the capital during
the present session Of congress for the pur-
pose OF asking that body to pass laws to carry
out the principles as laid down in our plat
form Of principles, a copy Of which we en-
close you. The committee have selected q
few measures and embodied them in
Il MEMORIAL
looking to that end, and have sent out sew
eral thousands to their different branches
throughout the cou ntry for signatures and
Endorsements fir ON the people, and we ex-
pect to be able in a few days to present your
body these petitions with the Endorsements
OF at least 100000 signatures. The following
is brief summary of the bills for which they
ask the passage: First, House Bill No. 1887,
repeal1ng the timber culture, presumption
and desert land acts; second, House Bill No.
1921, for the adjustment of railroad and
other land grants; third, bills FORGETTING all
railroad land grants, the conditions of which
have not been strictly complied with;
fourth, house bill organizing the territory Of
Oklahama: fifth, senate bill opening q Dor
ton of the great Sioux reservation to settle
ment; sixth, bills prohibiting aliens from
holding land in the United States; seventh,
bill making presidential and congressional
election days holidays. and Furnishing brib-
berry; eighth, bill directing disbursements Of
at least S200,000.000 treasury surplus, and
substituting treasury notes for bank notes
reti red. The par ty of which you are men,
Der is in the majority by some forty votes,
to enact
THE NECESSARY LEGISLATION
to make these measures part of the law of
the land. In making these requests we feel
that we are not enunciating any new doc
trines, but, on the contrary, we find
the grand work of nearly everv
one of them laid down in the
Democratic platform adopted at Chicago in
1884, on which the present majority of the
dominant. party was elected. Wes find para
graph three of our memorials fully covered
by that document, as follows: 'We believe
that the public lands ought, so far as posi-
BILE, to be kept as homesteads for actual set
tiers, that all unearned land heretofore i'm
providently granted to railroad corporations
by the action of the Republican party should
be restored to the public domain, and that no
more grants of land shall be made to corpo-
rations Or be allowed to fall into the owner
ship Of alien absentees.' We also find that
the last paragraph in our memorial ought to
meet with your hearty approval, from the
following which we copy from the Chicago
platform: ''That change is necessary
is proved by an existing surplus
of more than $100,000,000, which has yearly
been collected from suffering people,"
Therefore, again we say, in requesting the
passage Of these measures we are not asking
anything from the dominant party, only to
fulfill the promises that it made
to the people when it was seek
ing their suffrages by which it obtained its
present majority. We are informed that at O
caucus of the members or the dominant
party in the house held on Thursday evening,
June "a, you were appointed one of com
mittee of three whose duty it is to shape the
legislation that is to come before the house
during the balance of this session. Hence
we present to you this letter, conveying to
you the desires of our constituencies. We do
not ask your party to support them. We
only look to you and your party to see that
the measures are brought forward and SUBJ
mitted to the house for Its action and we are
willing to trust them to the good judgment of
the members regardless of party. We re-
main yours respectfully
RALPH BEAUMONT, Chairman,
JAMES J. MCCARTNEY, Secretary.