Omaha daily bee., 1889-09-11
JENKINS AND TBE KNIGHTS.
State Master Workman Helvey Takes
Fart in rho Discnaainn

The following communication, relative TO
the protest OF the North Platte Knights Of
Labor to Deputy Commissioner jenkins
methods OF dong business, has been issued
by State Master Workman Helvey;
NEBRASKA CRY, Neb. Sept 9--John Jen.
kins, ESQ.,, Deputy Commissioner of Labor
Bureau of Nebraska-Dear Sir: IL was with
feelings little short of blank astonishment
that read an open letter in yesterdays
edition of The OMAHA BEE, addressed TO
you by local assembly No. 3343, knights of
Labor, of North Platte, Neb. Had tho
letter borne the signature of some arch
enemy of labor's cause it would have been
an intelligent assembly of Knights of
Labor is to me well-nigh mex
plcaole; reform, be the cause what
it may, is never consummated until public
opinion has crystalzed iu its favor, and pre-
sents solid front against which the ole-
meuts of error and wrong rush to their GER
tain destruction. Public opinion is formed
only by practical demonstration aud in
controvertible fact, and slowly then. Now
to the case in point For years our speakers.
writers and lecturers have claimed publicly
and privately, and we have all lent our
feeble voices to the same assertion, that the
working man was steadily crowded into a
situation where the returns for his labor
would barely support animal life, and
often then only under the
most degrading and disgusting con-
ditions, and we have as constantly asserted
that If the people would establish bureau
for the investigation of these matters we
would prove it by facts and figures that
would simply be astounding in their conclu-
slveness and bring at once TO our aid the po-
tent weapon public Opinion" with which
we could successfully attack the foundations
of any abuse, no matter how deeply grounded
in our social or political fabric. The people
have listened to our demand and given us
the opportunity to prove our position by es-
taolishiny the bureau for us, when 10! at the
first call for proof, the first witness we
ask to TESTIFY for our cause, friend
though we thought him to be, comes forward
and says: ~ refuse to make a statement
that will show what spend for bread and
what spend for beer.' Listen; may we
not detect in that the keynote of the compo-
sitiona While calling attention to the mote
in the oppressors eye, may we not have over"
looked the beam IN our owni In other
words may it not be possible that we have
spent too much for beer in proportion to
what we spent for breadl If so, let us
know 1t, that the mistakes of this year may
be the wisdom of the years to come; IL not,
the investigation will have but added
strength to our demands. 1t is imperative
that we should be as ready to correct our
own shortcomings as to call for the correc-
ton of faults in others. That you have ex-
ceeded your authority or devoted your
energies to a trivial matter, is
to me in no wise apparent. We have re-
reaches the public that we could prove
certain facts, were we given the opportunity,
by the cold, hard logic of verified statistics.
Now that we have the opportunity in the
state bureau OF labor, believe your idea of
the account blank" that our North Platte
friends find so Objectionable. to be thor
ough, systematic and comprehensive method
of proving conclusively how very little the
Workin gman has with which TO purchase
either bread or beer or education, or any one
of thousand things tnat mark the contrast
of the human being and the brute. Your
critics say, "You are directed by law es-
pecially to examine into the relations be-
tween capital ana labor, and herein is opened
up tremendous field for the exercise of your
talents as a statistician and, in snort,
we conceive it to be our business to gather
statistics that will educate us as to the
production and distribution of wealth in this
state' How it would be possible to devise
a more simple, rational and successful means
of collating and compiling the very informa
tion called for in the above extracts, than by
means of the blank you have prepared and
sent out, and which is criticized so severely
by L. A. 3343. is, l must confess, beyond my
comprehension.
That your efforts, in the dill ecton you have
taken, are iudcious and will result in posi-
tive advantage to all labor in the state, or
dent fact, and l look forward with much
hope for the day when labor forces will all
be your assistants in your work, and the
only dissensions be found in the broken and
dlsmembered ranks of labor's enemies
Yours truly, FRANK b. HELyEY.
State Master Workman, Knights of Labor
of Nebraska.