Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-17
VERSUS POWDERLY.
A New Labor Organization in Chicago
to Abolish Poverty.
The Explanation of the Withdrawal of Local
Assemblies from the knights of
LabOr-Powderly Barred.
Chicago Herald .

herd1O.
A revolution of which the general pub
| lie has learned little or nothing has been
going on in the Knights of Labor orgaRi-
zation for months The movement has
changed the status of many of the local
assemblies here, but the storm did not
reach the public ear. George SchiIling
has had charge of the movement in
this city, and so carefully has he
guarded it so that no one outside of the
secret knew of it until by chance yester-
day the whole thing became known to
the Herald reporter. The astonishing
part Of the affair is that such a radical
measure could be carried TO the extent it
has, in secret The only expla-
nation for this is the fact that the basis of
the movement was a secret in itself.
Very soon after the Indianapolis conven-
ton the work of re-organizing the
Knights on secret plan was begun and
has continued until the present time.
The bulk of the assemblies, it is claimed,
have gone back to s'first principles, -
and, dropping all connection with
Powderly s general executive board have
re-organized on the secret plan.
At the indianapolis convention many
of the members felt that while they
could not endorse the wild notions of
Tom Barry neither could they accept
Powderly's administration Some of
those in attendance got together, and
after attempting to discover what was
wrong and to devise a remedy, they
came to the conclusion that the whole
trouble lay in the fact that the
order had departed from its original prin-
ciples of secrecy, and that the only
remedy was in q return to those prin-
ciples. Almost Immediately after the
convention there WAS Il secret conference
of these men in New York, and again,
not many weeks ago, they gathered in
Cincinnati. At the latter conference a
plan was proposed by George Sehilling
which was agreed to- 1t was to the
effect that local assemblies of the
knights all over the Emitted States
and Canada should, as far as possible,
be induced TO reorganize on the Sc
eret plan, throwing off utilization with
the general executive board and sitting
up under modus operandi that should
be unknown outside of the order The
Cincinnati conference appointed provis-
lonal executive board and named a new
general master workman, and the latter
was authorized TO send out TO trustworthy
seekers for information regarding the
character of the new movement a private
circular, from which the following ex-
eerpts have been taken:
Founders Order of the K. of L.
DEAR SIR-In reply 10 your letter of -. |
beg 10 state that II Is not intention found
new order for the purposes which you state in /
your letter, but H~e have refounded the original
order. That order was founded nearly twenty /
years ago. ana l, was organized for the purpose Of
securing 10 the workers two objects, as you state
them, VIZ To abolish poverty and 10 place in
dustry on scientific basis -
The objects for which the order was founded /
we ind, after nearly twenty years OF experience
have been diverted from their original intent and
their early purposes are gnored.
1t IS therefore simply our intention and deter
miaation TO return to the fundamental princi- /
pies, the primary objects. the first intentions /
and the original work OF the order.
we started out with the intention of
comprising three thingS-hIst, to agitate; /
and fellow Aor kinglnen. We consider the first /
OF these purreses has alone been Accommodated: /