The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-03-20
THE KNIGHTS or LABOR.
State Master Workman Sovereign
Delivers . Remarkably Able
Address at the 1arShall.
town Convention.
Il 10 one That Should be Carefully
Read, Not Only by Workingmen,
but by ALI Others.

It is one That Should be Carefully
Read, Not Only BY Workingmsn,
but BY All Others.
To tie I0nn State assembly
KNIGHTS OF Labor:
Since the annual session OF this
state Assembly, one year ago, the
Christian world has been startled by
the Indulgence Of American labor.
During this short period Of our ma
tons history, in which we boast ofho
king to rule, no great standing army
to burden and no relics Of feudalism
to Cypress, charity has been invoked
to sustain the lives Of more than two
hundred thousand OF our laboring
people-the result OF a declining mar
ket, low wages and partial employ
ment.
The rapid increase Of business fail
ures and the enormity Of their aggre-
gate liabilities has filled the CONNER
cial world with alarm and distrust,
while many Of our richest productive
industries valued Mt more than two
hundred million dollars have passed
into the hands Of foreign money
power whose history il one OF muir
der and oppression. Nor has this
short period marked any decline in
the rapacity of domestic combina-
tions. A sugar trust, as merciless a.
the Cilician pirates Of old, has been q
prey upon us. In fact, rs we meet
to-day to legislate for the welfare OF
our order and the diffusion OF its
principles, we find nearly every ne
cessity OF human life controlled by
speculative combinations whose ex-
tortionary methods have caused great
disparity Of fortune, driving thous-
ands of our laboring people to power
ty, beggary and crime.
1t is the latent principle OF death
embodied in the structure Of the ma
ton. 1t is the inonopolization OF
natural bounties and the unjust dis
tribution of the products Of labor
that hover like a nightmare over the
republic.
When we direct our thoughts to
this land of plenty, cleaning with oil
the natural lights of gay and gilded
pleasure and think of this golden age
OF material growth, and see the lives
of benighted millions filled with want
and suffering, and tears, we are COM
PEELED, ia whatever yicissitudss OF
life we may walk, to concede for all a
common cause; that cause a funda.
mental social wrong.
Civilization has revealed the hidden
forces OF nature and enlarged the
field of human enterprise; it has brid.
led the steam to drive the machinery
and the commerce of the world; II
has called the lightning from its home
among the clouds and made it pulsate
with human speech over the land
| and under the sea: it has frozen ice
under the equator and caused How
ers to bloom in northern winters; Il
has changed the darkness OF mid
night to the brilliancy Of nOonda,
and elnbellished the earth in art AMI
beauty. So marvellous has been on
material growth and SO prodigiou
the development of art and science
that to make the soil supply tn
wants and comforts OF the human
family is no longer question Of pro
duction, but a question of distribu
ton, involving the philanthropi'
administration OF government.
1t would seem to every thoughtful
mind that as inventions multiply ant
science advances, labor would be ele
waited and and poverty eradicated
But for this we have looked in vain
Poverty, with its train of sad and ter
rible evils is still the fountain tina
penetrates and supplies the derange'
and poisoned pools Of civilization, fer
menting the passions of hatred an
discomfort that bubble in the caul
dron of society.
Il On the very spot where Gods bles
sings are the richest, is just wher
Gods toiling children are the pool
est. There the coal miners groa
and starve for want of bread; ther
, the farmers bnrn their corn as POI
. sible refuge from the grasp Of COZ
trusts and transportation monops
: lies. This is truly a time Of great r.
sponsibilities, for all writers upo
: economic questions agree that whe
demand and supply, the great equa
izer SO essential to the unification {
capital and labor, is broken dow
: and ruined by opulence on the or
: hand and peunry on the other, it r
0 duces the prospects for work an
i bread to millions of dependent tot
t ers; it holds the necessaries of Ii
r from distribution and opens the floo'
gates of jealousy and causes the n
& ton to Murlnur with confusion an
the whole social order to throb wit
e the couyulsioas Of social feuds.
!: sure as the aristocracy Of Rome ga,
: birth to the vandalism that destro
: ed ancient civilization, will our sOci
3 inequalities and industrial SLAYER
Z exasperate the army Of the disco
= tented to over run the few, and lea'
d the nation in smoking desolation.
!, What is to be done; what is the d
e ty of the hour: what will avert Il
!. impending dangerg Fling out t
1t banner Of knighthood, and court Il
e, warmest and closest association wi
u the Farmers Alliance and all kindr