Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-06-30
KNIGHTS DEMANDS.
The Result of the Cleveland Conference
Presented to Speaker Carlisle
Changes in the Land Laws-Dfckering
with the Oollars-A Big Petition.

The committee of Knights of Labor
appointed at the meeting OF the gen.
eral assembly, held at Cleveland, o.,
have sent the following letter to
Speaker Carlisle. Copies have also
been sent to Representatives Randall
and Morrison:
cat q special session of the general
assembly of the Knights of Labor,
held at Cleveland, o., May 70 to June
4, 1886, g. committee of three, con-
sisting of Ralph Beaumont, James
Campbell and John J. Mccartney were
appointed to visit the capital during
the present session of Congress for the
purpose of asking that body to pass
laws to carry out the principles as
laid down in our platform OF primer
Piles, q copy of which we enclose you.
The committee have selected g. Few
measures and embodied them IN q
memorial looking to that end, and
. have sent out several thousand to
their different branches throughout
the country for signatures and en-
dorsements from the people and we
expect to be able in few days to pre-
sent to your body these petitions,
with the endorsements of at least
100000 signatures. The following is
brief summary of the petitions they
ask the passage of:
81. House bill No. 1887, repeating
the timber culture presumption and
desert land acts.
"2. House bill No. 1921, for the
adjustment OF railroad and other land
grants. !,
"3. Bills FORGETTING all railroad land
grants, the conditions of which have
not been strictly complied with.
ss4. House bill organizing the Terri
tory of Oklahoma.
IS. Senate bill openinga portion of
the Great Sioux reservation to settle
ment.
SO. Bills prohibiting aliens from
holding land in the United States.
's7. Bill making presidential and
congressional election days, holidays,
and Furnishing bribery.
SO. Bill directing the disbursement
of at least 100000 treasury surplus
and substituting treasury notes for
banknotes, retired.
''The party of which you are amen
Der is in the majority by some forty
votes, and we, therefore, look to the
majority party to enact the necessary
legislation to make these measures g.
part of the law of the land. In max
ing these requests we teel that we are
not enunciating any new doctrines,
but, on the contrary, we find the
groundwork of nearly every one oil
them laid down in the Democratic
platform adopted at Chicago in 1884,
on which the present majority OF the
dominant party was elected. We
find that paragraph three of our
memorials is fully covered by that doc
ument as follows:
1--WE believe that the public land ought, SO
far as possible, to be kept as homesteads
for actual settlers; that all unearned lands
heretofore improvidently granted to rail-
road corporations by the action Of the Re-
publiran party should be restored to the
public domain; and that no more grants of
land shall be made to corporations, or be
allowed to fall into the ownership OF alien
absentees.
1--WE also find that the last para
graph in our memorial ought to meet
with your hearty approval, from the
following, which we copy from the Chi
cago platform:
''That change is necessary is proved by an
existing surplus of more than one hundred
million dollars (S1OO, 900, 00O), which has
yearly been collected from suffering people.
Therefore, again we say IN request
ing the passage of these measures, We
are not asking anything from the dom
inant party, only to fulfill the promise
that it made to the people when it was
seeking their suffrages, by which it OBJ,
tanned its present majority. We are
informed that at caucus of the mem
bers of the dominant party in the
House, held on Thursday evening,
June "a, you were appointed one of a
committee of three, whose dutyit 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 de-
sires of our constituency. We do not
ask your party to support them. We
only look to you and your party to
see that the measures are brought for
ward and submitted to the House fol
its action, and we are willing to trust
them to the good Judgment of the
members, regardless of party"