The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-05-05
MR.. POWDERLY AT HOME.
His Views on the Strikes, the Eisht-Hour Sys-
TEN, and Some Other Matters Now agitatinS
the Laborins People of the Country.
From the New York Star.

the Laborins People of the Country.
(From the New York star.)
Although General Master Workman
Powderly Of the Knights Of Labor is an
advocate of a reasonable share Of rest for
the worlds workers, he deems the entire
twenty-four hours too brief for his own
daily task The click of the typewriter
is heard late into the night in the cozy
little back Office of his unassuming resi-
dence in the Hyde Park section of the
city where the labor chief makes his
home. When the correspondent of the
Star called to see the master workman
he found him hard at work in this Office.
The way was led by a modest, courteous,
attentive and intelligent little lady, who
stands Between the labor chief and
the hundreds who are continually calling
to see him. This is Mrs. Powderly, and
she is a wonderful assistance to her hus-
band in the performance of his exacting
duties. Having introduced the visitor,
she withdraws, and the folding doors
which separate the front parlor from the
Office library are closed. The workshop
in which the general master workman
labors is crowded with books and papers,
but neatness, order and method arc APP
parent in the arrangement of every
article, from the glass paper weight to
the pile of bound volumes that contain
copies of all the important letters he has
written in the discharge of his official
duties during the six years that he has
been at the head of the greatest labor
organization in the world. A mass of
letters, brought in one days mail, rises
from the carpeted floor almost as high
as the chair upon which he is seated,
and Mr.. Powderly is carefully going
through these and making such notes of
their contents as he thinks they deserve.
s'You must receive as large a mail as
the average exchange editor said the
correspondent after the first friendly
greetings were over.
"Well, don't know how much OF
mail an exchange editor generally gets"
said Mr.. Powderly, ''but this is a fair
specimen OF what comes to me every day
through the mails, and my telegraphic
correspondence is not much less. As a
general thing the assemblies of the
Knights of Labor select intelligent secre-
taries, and their letters are always in ex-
cellent shape, but I receive some epistles
that would puzzle an expert calling for
decisions on knotty questions that would
stagger Solomon himself. There is work
enough in my Office to keep six men fully
employed, and yet I am expected to do
it and at the same time have sufficient
leisure for philosophical essays on scien-
tific and economic problems that would
tax the wisdom and scholarship of John
Stuart Mill. Then it is astonishing how
quickly I am taken to task for the use of
some learned phrase or expression that
conveys the most direct meaning I can
think of at the time. l am always anx-
ious to give my IDEAS the simplest form
Of expression possible, so that there may
be no misunderstanding Of what I say OF
write. Such simplicity requires study,
and as have no time for study OF refec-
ton, the thought must be taken on its
own merits without regard to the setting.
What with sickness, worry and work I
have had busy time Of it lately. and [
see no let up in the near future. Onr
order is increasing with amazing rapidi-
ty, and as a general thing new members
are more likely to misunderstood its mis-
sion than the old ones. It ought to be
generally known that the order of the
knights of Labor is emphatically op-
posed TO strikes until all othermeans :;
securing settlement Of tt!i.c matters in
dispute have failed. But I find that some
Of those who want to join us have quite
a different impression, and appear to hcc.
ieve that We are organized toi the pur
pose Of conducting Instead Of preventing
strikes
:sWas the general executive board cog
infant of the fact that there was going to
be strike in the Southwest prior to the
strike taking place."
eve knew that themen there hat giie-
vanccs, but we were not quite certain that
the matter would culminate in 4 strike.
There was great dissatisfaction among the