St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-22
Responsibility to Be Brought
Close to the Rank and
File.
Manly Presentation Of the
Case by the Great Labor
Leader.
It Will be a Battle Royal Of
Muscle Against
Money.


been to them day of preparation after
the declaration and before the set-to.
Never before has Mr.. Powderly. the
head of the Knights, been personally in
the heat of contest like the one be-
lieved to be coming. He never yet
has ordered a strike. and feels
some pride in the record OF
peace. which he feels in his:
There's little doubt, however. abouth his
determination in this case. His men
say he is here to stay, and the eXecu-
tive board says it's headquarters during
the strike, if one is ordered, will be in
this city. 1t is clear that Mr.. Powderly
and his cabinet intend, if the strike is
made general, that the responsibility
shall be brought just as close as
possible to the rank and file.
This purpose underlies the Or
ders of the board to Master
Workman Lee to convene his district
assembly, also the order which has gone
up the river to Albany to convene their
district assembly OH Monday. at these
their disposition as to a general strike,
and the result will he that fair con-
census of opinion among the men may
be had. The federation's supreme
body wilt not meet till Satur-
day, and will probably commune
cate its determination to the
Knights here that night of Sunday.
The Albany district assembly, whose
action will be influential in the evident
plan laid out by Mr.. Powderly to make
the men themselves declare the strike
general, does not meet till Monday, as
stated. The fair conclusion from the
facts and circumstances is that the
grand stroke. if it is to come, will not
fall before next week. To-day MI.
Powderly has been preparing the fol-
lowing, which he makes public tonight.
PowderIey's Appeal TO the People.
For some time the management of the
New York Central & Hudson River
railroad have been discharging en-
pIoyes who have been active in labor
affairs 1t happens that all OF those who
have been dismissed are members of
the order of Knights of Labor, and have
at one time or another been officers
of the order or have served
on committees which waited on the
official with view to presenting
grievances These discharges became
so frequent and were so clearly evil
dence of settled purpose on the part OF
the company to disrupt and destroy the
organization of the Knights of Lator
upon the Central system that the eX-
ecutive board of District Assembly
No. 246, in which the Knights
of Labor upon the system are en-
rolled, found it necessary to call
special meeting in New York to con-
slider the situation. In the meantime
the general executive board, having
been apprIsed of the condition of affairs,
sent one of its members, j. j. Holland.
to New York, with instructions to use
all possible efforts to bring about
an amlcable adjustment of the diff
fculty. On his arrival in New York,
MIR. Holland after conference with the
of the district assembly,
in the course of which he obtained full
knowledge of the trouble from the
standpoint of the men, waited upon ii.
Walter Webb, third vice president and
acting manager of the company. On
being ushered into the presence of Mr.
Webb, Mr.. Holland stated that he lad
called upon him to endeavor to
Adjust the Unpieasantness
existing between the company and its
Knights of Labor employees. Mr.. Webb
denied that there was any trouble ex-
listing between the company and its EN-
ployes. Mr.. Holland told him that he,
as a member of the general executive
board of the Knights of Labor had come
at the request of the men made through
the organization to which they belonged
District Assemly 246. Mr. Webb de-
clared that he would not discuss the
matter with any one, not an employe of
the company, and closed the interview.
Finding all efforts to effect peaceabe
settlement of their grievances impossi-
BILE, and being convinced that it was
only question of time and convenience
of the company when they would, one
and all, be discharged unless they for
feited their manhood andabandoned their
privilege as citizens of a free country,
by renouncing their right to join their
fellows in an organization calculated to
protect their just rights without in
truding upon those OF others, the dis
trict executive board had no alternative
but to order a strike, which they did.
The public is already acquainted with
the details of the affair, and repetition
is scarcely necessary. The most
Earnest and sincere efforts of
the general officers to secure
a. hearing for the discharged
men were unavailing. The correspond
enee which passed between the general
master workman and II. Walter Webb, Sd
vice president of the railway company,
has been published to the world through
the columns of the daily press. Mem
bers of the knights of Labor Will find
the same in the issue of the official
journal of Aug. 81. Wednesday morn
ing. Aug. 20, John Devlin, of the gen.
eral executive board, and myself, wait
ed on Mr.. Toucey, general superintend-
ent, and endeavored to have the matter
Arbitrated or Investigated.
"Mr. Toucey was emphatic in his re
fusal. On the afternoon of that day Mr..
Webb was visited by the same gentle
men, and he reiterated what Mr.. Toucey
had SAID in the morning. 1t was sug-
gested to him that disinterested parties
hear and determine. 1t was also sug-
gested that during the investi-
CATION the strike be declared
off and the investigation pro-
ceeded with. That was refused.
Then the following proposition was
made by me: ''Mr. Webb, could you
not sit with me in the presence of the
men who were discharged and allow me
to question them in your presence so
that I might know the facts of the case
and be better able to arrive at
a decision?" This Mr.. Webb EN-
phatically refused. Mr.. Devlin then
said: do 1 understand you TO assume
that the public and the employees have
no rights that you are bound to con-
slider, and do you look uporrtlIe matter
simply as though the railroads were