Clarksville evening chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn) 1886-1890, 1888-12-18
RELIGION
Likely to Cause a Division in the
knights of Labor.
CATHOLICS CANNOT BE MEMBERS OF
SECRET ORGANIZATIONS,

Hence the Probabilities of Split-POw-
derly Has Tried to Avoid 1t and Yet He
Has Been the Sole Cause of the Trouble,
The Protestants of Pittsburg Likely to
Spring the Issue. s''
PIrrsBuRG, Dec 1s For long time the
Knights Of Labor have, bsezs hh5Ys-ing on the
outskirts Of question that was bound 20
make clash. -ani I,uaf f s 81 g8
Ever since Powderly began to lose prestige
the order has been In danger Of a religious
war! Powderly has in one way tried to stavs
it OF and If possible to kill it, In another
way he is the sole cause Of it. When the or
der was formed it was secret organization.
AS many Of its members were Roman Catho-
lies, it was soon discovered that either the
law of the order must be changed or its Cath
olic membership must choosej between it and
the Roman Catholic church. Powderly
solved the problem in his own way He un-
bosomed himself to the church and the church
soon knew quite as much about the Knights
Of Labor as the latter did about themselves,
perhaps more The Roman Catholic knights
did not object to Powderlys proceeding, as it
showed them way out of the quandary.
The Protestant knights did not look upon
Powderly's action with somuch complacency.
They had entered the order without taking
any church into consideration--prom
solely by business motives. ,,t.. t.,t....
Thomas B. Barry was the first knight ruled
out by the Roman Catholic church. He had
suffered for his temerity. He had wide
acquaintance in the order, for, as knight,
he had Travelled the country from Maine to
Texas He knew as many Catholic as prot
estant knights, probably, and among the
former he found as many as he did the latter
who were seeming, at least for change.
Barry thought he saw his way clearly, but
did not make issue between himself and the
general master workman in a religious war.
He permitted, unintentionally, of course, the
other side to do that. When he made his
fght he found, as he should have expected,
that the Roman Catholics, almost to man,
were on Powderly's side, II i that the prot
estant knights were divided. The latter had
not given the matter much thought and
acted asif religious issue had never been
considered Their opponents showed no
signs of having it in mind, but thought of
little else. Barry was whipped, and some of
his friends have since been thinking that per-
haps it would be we'll tc follow the example
of his enemies and combine.
Their first effect is evidently to be made at
Pittsburg, which has always been one of
Powd4rly's strongholds and the stronghold
of the order also. The present master work
man Of District Assembly No. 8, of Pitts
burg, is John Doyle He would not object
to being reelected. He and James Hooper,
worthy foreman, are Roman Catholics, and
Hooper, like Doyle, wants to be master
workman of the assembly. Had Doyle or
Hooper been the only candidates religious
fght--certain as it was to come some time
would probably have snoldered, but as both
were candidates it evidently occurred TO the
other side that the time had come for spring
ing the issue. Recording Secretary L. N.
Ross is spoken of as the candidate of the anti
Catholics Both Doyle and Hooper are
recognized as Powderly men, as much on
account of their religion as for any other
reason. Ross is a Protestant If the
Protestants in No 3 expect to slip in their
man between two Catholics, they ore
rating the intelligence of their opponents too
low.
1t only wanted fight of this kind to com
pletely sprag the wheels of the Knights of
Labor car The knights have had many
difficulties to contend against, but none ex-
cept this was insurmountable. They might
survive the rule of incompetent and extrav
agant leaders, for it was always possible to
kick such men out of Office, if not out of the
order. The disappointment of finding the
treasury empty, that should have been full,
could have been overcome Loss of member
ship from variety of causes might have
been remedied. But to build up an order
that has been so shamefully mismanaged,
while it has a religious fight on its hands, is a
task that even so great a man as Powderly
considers himself to be will find it impossible.
Men who are in the fight here know that it
does not concern the order in Pittsburg
alone. They have simply fired the opening
gun, and they are listening for the answering
signals from every state in which there are
Knights of Labor.