The Hawaiian gazette., 1889-01-01
THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR.

iscs H4euth WIG 4ace CoAs cAAStCe .. cS4A
Gus loss of membership, with correspond
ing impairment of financial ability. At
the session of the General Assembly of
the Order, held in November, the Gene
raj Treasurer presented his report which
showed that according TO the receipts
from taxes, which is simply another
name for dues, the membership
had decreased about 100000 during the
past fiscal year. 1t also appeared that
the receipts were not sufficient to cover
the necessary expenses. To meet this
emergency the Treasurer recommended
certain changes and retrenchments,
which it is estimated will reduce the ex-
penses TO an amount within the probable
income.
Whether this serious impairment OF
numerical and financial strength is to
run on into settled decadence and end
finally in the extinction of the Order, or
whether it is to act as timely and forci-
BILE reminder OF the mistakes that have
been made, and so serve as salutary
means of discipline and instruction for
the future, remains to be seen. The re-
suit will depend upon the amount of
wisdom which may chance to reside in
the remaining membership.
The fundamental danger besetting this
as well as similar organizations, the rock
upon which they all alike are liable to
come to grief is one and the same, viz. !:
an inability on the part of those compos-
ing them to distinguish between the
practicable and the impracticable, to dis
criminate between aims and methods
which are desirable and attainable, and
those which are chimerical and whose
prosecution can only end in disappoint-
ment and loss. Men who honestly be-
lieve that they have a grievance, and
who are convinced that they and others
in the same walks of life do not receive
as large share of the worlds wealth as
their services in producing that wealth
fairly entitle them to, frequently and in
deed generally fail in securing the OBJ
jects they set before themselves, from
failure to realize that commercial and in
dustrial matters are regulated by natural
laws which it is useless to ignore, and
from whose consequences it is impossi-
BILE to escape. BY natural laws, we
mean laws arising from the constitution
of nature and the make up of the human
mind. The failure TO understand the
nature and scope of these laws, or even
to realize the existence of such obstacles
to their plans, is by no means confined to
labor reformers, but crops out with equally
disastrous results among those who, with
more zeal than knowledge, are proposing
to reform the finances, extirpate intern
perance, radically and Immediately re-
construct the land tenure and make
everybody yirtuous, rich aud happy by
Act of Parliament.
The organized efforts OF any class of
people to improve their condition by
legitimate means are always entitled to
sympathy and respect, and as no one is
likely to ever learn to swim by keeping
away from the water, so the wage earn
ers will have to learn, as mankind at
large, in all the ages, has had to learn
by constant experiment and repeated
failure what objects are best worth striv-
ing for. and what are the most practical
bic means by which those objects can be
secured.
The Knights were an Order having a
vast membership and welding an inn
mense power. There were some broad
and generous features about the organ
ization which seemed to put it on a dis
tinctly higher plane than the trade
unions and other organizations which
had preceded it. 1t had in it the promise
and the possibility of great good. In SO
far as it has failed in accomplishing the
more worthy portion OF its mission, the
failure has been due to the causes indi-
Gated above. The more violent and I'M
reasonable portion of its membership
were able to gain sufficient control over
the machinery of the organization to use
its great power in the furtherance of
their own foolish ideas, and in the carry
ing out of measures which were not only
unvise, but unjust, illegal, tyrannical
and outrageous The result has been a
loss of public sympathy and respect and
serious detection in its own ranks.
The ultimate results to the Order cannot
be positively foreseen. Although the
supposition may not be capable of inn
mediate verifcation, it seems every way
probable that those who have with
drawn consist largely of the more mod
crate and conservative members. In
this case the organization would, of
necessity, fall more than,ever into the
hands of the violent and INSCRIPTIONS,
and the result be the entire ruin of the
Order at no very distant day. Although
this seems probable, our wish and hope
is that the outcome may be quite diff