The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-04

Law aud Order League has an organization that
is deemed impregnable At Little Rock, Ark,
where Sam Williams was shot in protecting the
Iron Mountain railroad property, the Knights
have been shorn OF 70 per cent. OF their old
strength. They endeavored to form an alliance
with the Wheel, farmers organization but a
majority of the farmers fought shy of the COM
oination, and as a political factor 1t cut very
poor figure in the last campaign. In Kansas
the Knights are doing little to strengthen their
organization. They seem to have lost interest
in the order as the workers are engaged in
making living and seem to have concluded
that they have nothing TO gain by supporting
men who brought them nothing but idleness and
its accompanying ills
Five men are in Jail at Wyandotte. They are
charged with train wreckinR and the killing OF
two men, They are TO be tried in December
and the general sentiment is in favor of hang
ing, though the expression of such opinion
is generally followed by the remark: But no
criminal is ever hanged in Kansas" Fort
Worth is the strongest Knight of Labor town
in Texas, and even there the Knights are in
the minority Their excuses during the strike
killed compassion. and men still employed in
looking for Harding, the leader of the gang who
fired on the train guarded by Jim Courtwrlght.
Three OF the men are In JAIL Nearly al! the old
strikers at this point are employed on the other
railroads that run into the town The Texas d
Pacific is no longer part of the Gould system
and it's force is largely composed of knights,
though this is the road against which the strike
was first directed and through which the Gould
system was pulled into IT. In Nebraska the
Knights are more conservative than in some of
the neighhoring States. They are pretty strong
at Omaha but as as large percentage of them
have grown up with the place and own their own
homes they show little disposition to antagoniZe
capital. The Knights who have heretofore TAX
en- a prominent part in directing the affairs of
the order have pretty generally been showed into
the background. They are without money, and
nearly all Of them are without influence.
The Southwest will be represented, generally,
at the Richmond convention by new men, but
it's delegates will not be numerous At the
special assembly held in Cleveland, in May. it
was said by members of the general executive
board that 700 delegates would attend the Rich
mond convention, and that each delegate would
represent thousand knights or a fraction of
that number. Where district assembly con-
tanned 500 members it would send one delegate
An assembly of thousand would send one dele
gate, and one of 200 would send two delegates
Unless the order in the East has grown largely in
the last six months and will be fully represented
the Richmond assembly Will scarcely contain 700
delegates as the strength of the order has been
reduced 90 per cent at least in the Southwest
since last spring The public, too, i'll the South
west has lost interest in the order and much of
it's strength in this section depends upon the
amount of attention paid to it. 1t thrived on
notoriety. The organizers who were sent from
the East with full pockets to rehabitate the or
der met with cool reception. The bulk of the
old membership were surfeited with knighthood,
and wanted TO earn some money and enjoy lit
tie peace Some of the old leaders still manage
to keep the front here They want represent
ative of the Southwest on the general executive
hoard and of course they think he should be a
ST. Louis man. The Southwest's chances of get
ting man on the board are not very strong.
The impression prevails throughout this section
that the coming assembly will be even more diff
fcult to handle than the Cleveland convention,
aud the latter managed to skip the entire pro-
gramme and, in defiance of rule, make new
one. If the Richmond assembly does not per-
form its work more wisely. than its Cleveland
predecessor, the Knights of Labor will run
down hill even faster in 1887 than they have in
the latter half Of 1886.