Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-11-05
POWDERLY SPEAKS.
HE DENouNcEs CLEVELAND AND
HIS ASSOCIATES.

Knights of Labor Advised to Vote Against
Democrats Chairman Harrity, Govern
or Flower and Governor Pattison Also
Denounced.
The Knights of Labor are up in arms
against the Democratic candidate for
the presidency and his friends and mana
gers. General Master Workman Pow
derby and others have advised working
men to vote and work against the De-
mocracy for various reasons, but espe-
cially in regard to the treatment of the
organization by Chairman Harrity and
Governors Flower, of New York, and
Pattison, of Pennsylvania, in the case of
John Hughes, member of the Knights
of Labor, who, in June, 1891, was tried ii
Rochester, N. Y, on charge of extor-
ton. After being out twenty-three
hours the jury stood seven to five for ac-
quittal. They were taken to the Ma
tional hotel for breakfast. On their re-
turn to the court house they found YER
dict of guilty within five minutes.
Hughes was sentenced to year at hard
labor in the penitentiary. An appeal
was taken, and bail was required in
$4,000. The judgment of the lower
court was sustained by the supreme
court, and Hughes went to prison.
Commenting on this, General Lecturer
Wright, at public meeting in New
York, said:
The governor of this great state rejected our
petitions for pardon, spurned our representa-
lives. What we going to do about it?
Well, the executive board of 23l will remain in
executive session until after this election. We
are going to issue documents showing how the
laboring men have been treated by the DEM
ocratic governors of Pennsylvania, Tennessee
and New York. We will get even with Ma
tional Committeeman Harrity and his party.
The Knights of Labor is a political organiza-
ton this yea, as the Democratic party will
learn on election day.
General Master Workman Powderly,
at the same meeting, showed how Hughes
was arrested in Pennsylvania without
warrant and in spite of protests by
workingmen. Mr.. Harrity, the present
chairman of the Democratic executive
committee, acting in his capacity az
secretary of state of Pennsylvania, re-
fused to aid them in the least Talking
VI tll0 lldUltI, NIL L OWuoIIS Sdlus
Harrity was there in Harrisburg at the time
as secretary of state. He held all the papers
In the case. He lent no aid to the Knights.
There stood that Rochester combine" And
now this man Harrity stands here in this city
of workingmen daring to ask its toilers, the
fellow workers of James Hughes, to vote the
Democratic ticket! Lately we have asked fer
another favor from another Democratic exec
utive. We have gone to him in the attitude of
Iiro r,tS haf Ia h.,
been insulted and spurned.
On Oct II wrote to Governor Flower ask
ing him to intercede in behalf of Hughes, and
| depressed regret that he misunderstood the
language of the petition sent to him, telling
him that the word demand" was used unad-
visedly and thoughtlessly, and that nothing
more than request was intended. Flower
chose to ventilate his anger against the labor
organizations in an outrageous interview given
to the press. If every American workingman
felt as | do over this conduct of the governor
of the state of New York, such man as Flower
would never again sit in the executive chair at
Albany.
Those who were instrumental in putting
Hughes into a felon's cell claim that their
party is the party of the poor, of the working
men, Of the common people! The Democratic
party cannot fool US longer We made Flower
the Democratic governor of a Republican
state. If you workingmen do your duty here
you will teach the Democratic party that they
must treat you as men and American citizens
when you ask justice; you will teach Flower
that you, as sovereign people, must not be in
suited and scorned; you will teach men like
Harrity that you possess intelligence and
cannot be deluded into voting for your enc
mics. Icannot say one good word for the Dem
ocratic party, and am unable to understand
how any workingman can vote for its candi-
dates.
Mr.. Powderly was frequently loudly
applauded for his vigorous denunciation
of the Democratic party.