Omaha daily bee., 1888-10-30
TALK TO THE KNIGHTS.
Grand Lecturer Wheaton Speaks on
. the Aims of the Order.

the AIMS oil the oruer.
Metz Hall was we'll fllad last night with
knights OF Labor and their friends, who
gathered to hear Grand Lecturer Wheaton
speak on the aims and principles of the
Knights of Labor. The lecturer was intro
ducedb by W. ]. Lavender and asked for
fair and unprejudiced hearing such as he
had met throughout the country Prejudice
is the barrier to every human progress, and
is the creed of human owls who hoot out
their antipathy to any new light, but
though they hoot the light still
burns. Society is divided into three
classes, the upper crust, consisting Of mil
lionaires of whom there were only two be-
fore the war and who now number 1900; the
monopolists, trusts, cornerers, tories, shod-
dysts and the poor people who still cling to
the apron strings OF monopoly, satisfied with
the crumbs that fall from the rich mems
tables: the lower crust, consisting OF the
haters Of all law, government and progress;
and the middle class, or those who build the
steamers, the telegraph, the telephone,
that farmed the soil that worked
in the mines in the printing house,
the men that gave to the world all the civil
ization it ever enjoyed or ever will. Person
ally ne did not think much of either the up
per or lower crusts, and, like pie crust he
wished them TO be as thin as possible. He
wanted to see ignorance the exception and
intelligence the rule, and SO the knights of
Labor wished to see the 100000 children
now working in the mines and shops released
from their slavery and sent TO the schools
pl divided for them. Reviewing the history of
now were forgotten, he cited Egypt, which
had everything to make it perpetual, but
with the power vested in the hands
Of a few potentates, and the burdens were
borne by the common people, which had
passed away to state of galvanized death.
The Roman empire had shared the same fate,
because, in 1t the patricians were few and
the plebians many, and to the latter was
allotted the task of bearing the burden,
fighting the battles and paying the taxes.
When the empire was about to fall the pa
tricians made promises that were kept as
Jay Gould keeps his at the present day.
They promised to abolish cash, and granted
the plebians the right to hold office, but they
failed at last, because they instituted the
system of landlordism, and then
the empire reeled, trembled and
fell. In France history repeated
itself. but France had vitality enough to sur
vlve the terrors of the revolution. Ireland
was going through the same ordeal, but
under the leadership of Gladstone and Par
nell, it was learning to fight its own battles,
and ten years would see it freed from the
curse of landlordism and of the damnable
English rule. AS in the nations of the past,
so is it now. Monopoly well organized and
we'll otficered and with lobbyists in the halls
of congress. had laws for their own benefit
spread all over IHe drCHlVcS Ol tut nallOIi,
and not q dozen were framed for the benefit
of the working classes. OF seventy-six SEN
ators siXty-siX were lawyers, seven bankers
and one was farmer Framed on the
plan of the English house of
lords their mission was to obstruct the
measures calculated to ameiorate the con-
dition of the working classes, and it was
| only natural, for the millionaire had nothing
| in common with them. AS the monopolist
has control of the congress- so he has of the
t,tn lot, nf 10 ap
| cumulation of wealth in the hands of one
| tends to weaken the remainder for ninety
nine go empty handed and when you permit
| them to form trusts, you rob the many to
benefit the few. between the years 1870 and
| 1880, the wealth of the nation increased
| sci, COX, ,OOO, 600, and of this amount the
bankers and money lenders took
| s23, ,OOO, 100000, and the men who
earned it A,OOoD,0o0,OoO. The power
Of the wealth as used against the working
| men was apparent when the coal barons
raised the price of coal, and lowered the
| wages Of the miners, until the latter were
earning an average Of $l2.3O per month"; and
when the money lenders and trust compa-
nies were annually foreclosing hundreds of
| mortgages and reducing the small farmer to
the position Of tenant farmer.
The speaker then referred to the numerous
objections raised against the Knights of
Labor, and said they all emanated
from the monopolists, who saw in its
| regulations the downfall of themselves.
| He asked those present not to condcian the
| order because of few black sheep, al,,i
| spoke against anarchy, which was imported
| at the same time as the pauper labor of the
| monopolists. No American citizen could be
| found in its ranks, and those who had crept
| into the order in early days we're fast being
| weeded out. He then explained that the X.
| of l.. demanded that its members should
| think for themselves, should object to the
| boycott and to strikes. The two
| owed their existence to the monopolist,
| because the first was brought about by
| placing an empoye on the black list, and the
second was the outcome Of the lockout. The
| knights wanted equal wages for equal work,
regardless of sex, for the degradation of
| woman meant the deterioration Of the race
| They objected to the importation of foreign
contract labor and Il. V. Powderly had
shown how it could be prevented, by making
| any foreigner wishing to find home
| in America file his name with American con.
suls abroad, have his antecedents investi
| gated, read the constitution until he under
| stood what citizenship required, and then
take out his first papers within ten days
| of arriving in this country. Five years later
| he would have to take out his final papers OF
return home. The banking should be done
by the government direct, without the aid OF
the banks and the railroad, telegraph and
that paid for them. Land should only bt
held by actual settles who were American
citizens, and not by foreign landlords.
The remarks Of the speaker were inter
spersed with many anecdotes that kept his
audience in good humor until the close, an(
| no one left the hall throughout.