Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-03-27
Gl)e Calfastcr 1ntclligenter.
LANCASTER. MARCH 81, 1886.
Praiseworthy Stand.

The head of the Knights of Labor eX-
hibits remarkable capacity to hold him.
nelf clear from the tendency of his sur
roundings and to preserve level head and
an unprejudiced understanding of the pro-
per aims of the association which he leads
He has that rarest and chiefest power of
leader which enables him to direct his fol-
lowing as they should go, instead of being
directed by them where they would go.
Mr.. Powderly's views of the relations of
capital and labor are altogether sound, and
the means by which he would accommo-
date their working together, are recon-
mended by the soundest reason. Evil
IDENTIFY he is at the head of an ele-
ment which he finds most difficult
TO lead. His organization has lately
grown SO largely that it is carried away
from its aims by the thoughtless element
that has crowded into it. So that the ex-
ecutive officers have determined that there
should be no more admissions to it while
things are in their present unsettled con-
dition. The means by which it should
reach its object are not properly under
stood by the raft of members who compose
it, and its increase needs to be stopped until
o better education is had.
Mr.. Powderly declares that it is unjust
to its old membership that they should be
saddled with the burthen of all the labor
quarrels which restless men may raise
and that the determination of the
order to avoid strikes should be
swamped under the impulse of the laborer
to use the strike and the boycott as the
ready weapons of his wrath and discomfort.
Wrath has properly no place in the working
OF an organization of sensible men. They
need to move with calmness and sense.
The knights of Labor, as their grand
master interprets their mission, propose to
give labor its fair share of the profit of
manufacture and to elevate its condition.
To this end the Organization proposes to
move by placid demonstration of its
power and by a calm and reasonahl-nS-
forcement of it, TO extrems-Heaspres
in the last extremity; whch, it rightly be.
nssgs SAedd AAsSad meyer sYse, when steady en-
ployment is the aim of both capital and
labor and can only be attained by their
harmonious working. The organization,
as Mr.. Powderly has heretofore forcibly
expressed it, seeks the strength of the
giant be used with giants gentleness.
If Mr.. Powderly, who doubtless speaks
the sentiments of the promoters and
leaders of the order, is able to impress his
views upon the organization, the Knights of
Labor will be beneficial element, tending
strongly to advance theinterests of the ma
tion which lie in the direction of
the happiness and content of the reople
1t cannot be denied that we are suffering
severely now from the unscrupulous OPP
preston of the power of capital in the
various forms in which it is welded, but
chiefly by corporations, who WELD
It's heaviest clubs. Our ancestors
sought, by laws which prohibited
the entailing of estates, to prevent the
great aggregation of capital in single
hands but our modern device of CORPORA
tions has nourished the serpent they under
took to slay until it has attained in a
few years a size that centuries would
not have given to unlimited wealth.
Against this aggregation of money power
there is absolute need that there should be
organizations of individual strength; and
the purpose of the Knights of Labor, as
expressed by their leader, will supply well
the needed counterpoise, if it can be
effected, as it is declared by him.