Omaha daily bee., 1888-11-17
MR.. PoWDERLY,S MANIFEST UN-
FRI NESC

n II Az IIocs
The general report made by Powderly
to the Knights OF Labor sitting in con-
vention at indianapolis will but con-
firm the opinion entertained by a few
friends of labor reform outside of the
order, that he is a thoroughly lncom-
petent man. This judgment was passed
upon him at the time OF the Missouri
Pacific strike, and more recently the
Burlington strike, when it was in his
power to render great service not only
TO his order but TO the general cause of
labor. He is unfit for a leader, and he
is unfit for figure head. He has no
tact, he has no comprehension of cir
cumstances, and he is utterly unable to
catch the drift OF public sentiment, and
OF the feelings of those workingmen
who are not knights. Like all weak
men in high position, he intcrprets
dissent from his policy to be treacher y
to the order. His annual report is
simply series of excuses and COM
plants for the diminished numbers of
the knights. Nothing could be in
worse taste or more foolish.
Mr.. Powderly should be the last man
TO discourage the order because its un-
wieldy mass has been shrinking away
from various natural causes. He ought
to know enough to know that the
promiscuous recruiting of men OF all
grades and ranks into the order was
sure to drive out of it the wage-working
class. Any man with thimbleful of
brains who has kept abreast with labor
movements would have foreseen that
the professional knights who have in
vaded the order for personal and politi-
cal ends would form a wedge to split
the order unless they were excluded by
the reorganization of the order on a
strictly workingman's basis.
Mr.. Powderly has shown him
self to be man of
shallow mind, ready TO embrace and
advocate theories that are utterly i'm
practicable and at variance with the
natural laws that govern the labor
market as they do the wheat market.
The mission of the knights is not, and
should not, be to fight the trades unions,
nor yet to dominate them, and Powderly
has done both. Such actions cannot but
be detrimental to the cause of labor, and
naturally have tended to disintegrate
the knights. Their strength lies in the
fact that they by their organization can
bring into harmonious action with the
trades unions the men, and the women
workers, too, whose labor cannot well be
organized. Not only can they do this,
but they could be a potent factor in as
sisting the trades unions in their disa-
greements with non-union men. Moth
ing can be clearer than that in all con-
tests with capital the trades unions are
badly handicapped by the dead
weight of unemployed labor. This
unemployed labor can be gathered
under the banner of the knights and
might be so handled that capital could
not in future rely upon it. AT present,
whenever there is a strike capital lies
back confidently, and calls this element
to its aid. With q general master work
man in control who understood things,
matters might be so managed that the
knights could organize these men in
such a way that they would act with the
trades unions-not against them. Hith-
erto the policy of the knights, at least
us far as outsiders have been able to
Judge, has been to endeavor to utilize
unorganized labor to enable them to
dominate the trades unions. Nothing
can be more detrimental to the interests
of the order than such an attempt, which
is diametrically opposed to the common
sense of workingmen, and has been pro-
ductive of very bad results. This policy
grew out of the disease of the big head,
which seems to have been fatal to gen
eral master worllmen generally. If any
knight has been taught or has led him
self to believe that his organization was
destined to take the place of the trades
unions he is deceived, and the truth is
not in him. The trades unions must
ever be the basis of all labor organiza-
tions, and the knights can never be
more than supplementary order,
which will pass into desuetude when
the battle has been fought and the vic
tory has been won.
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