Omaha daily bee., 1895-11-14
BRANDED THEM AS TRAITORS
Sovereign Bitterly Denounces Those Who
Split Off from the Knights.
LABOR is DRIVEN INTO A CORNER
Must stand United or he Ground nc-
tween the tpper and neither
Miiistones-Boycotto on Bank
Currency.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13.-The chief public
interest in the meeting of the knights Of
Labor today was in the address of General
Master Workman Sovereign and General
Worthy Foreman Michael j. Bishop Much
of Mr.. Soveregn's address was devoted to
the alleged treachery of those who headed
the revolt against the general officers Of the
order during the past year He reviewed
what he termed their "devillsh treachery"
and their efforts to disrupt the order" He
claimed that they had exhausted all their
power maligning the general afIiCers through
the columns of the press and dscouraging
the loyal and confdng members through
secret agencies. They had publicly boasted
that $4,000 members had Joined the revolt
He explained the methods which had been
used to weed out the district assemblies. and
said the assembly for the first time presented
to the world solid and unbroken front,
battling for the brotherhood of man and the
freedom of labor from the thraldom of
greed.
Labor is now between the devil and the
deep sea-" he continued. Capital has mo-
nopozed the elements of production, aud labor
Is in competition with itself for the right to
live.
the last vestge of individual liberty. Con-
struction by Judicial authority is already
gwen TO law, placing all labor organizations
in the category of criminal conspiracies Mis-
demeanors of the most trivial character have
been raised to felony without sanction of
law and used to imprisOn representatives of
labor organizations ard injunctions. followed
by charges Of contempt have been usad to
condemn labor leaders to the fe' on's c=ll with
out evidence of guilt or trial by jury. The
associated banks have declared war on the
money of the people and the whole plutoCratc
fraternity has invaded the realm of free gov
ernment and constitutional security"
BOYCOTT OF BANK NOTES.
He made some suggestions as to the
methods of strengthening the order, but the
principal feature Of the address was his
appeal to the general assembly to give to
his recent order bOyCOttng national bank
notes, its official sanction. He denounced the
action of the bankers convention, held at
Atlanta. and said; after carefully reviewing
the wreck and ruin wrought by the money
power and the designs of the sound money
clubs, which propose bonds and gatling guns
Tor a solution of the labor question. | issued
a boycott on the notes of national banks and
II | were to die tomorrow, | would declare
1t the most righteous act of my life. 1t ex-
posed the unsOund money of the sound money
advocates, threw plutOcracy on the defensive
and forced the national banks into humiliat-
ing confession of their preposterous acts of
bad faith with the people: and now | urge
this general assembly to endorse that boycott
and give it every possible force of official
sanction. The conflict between the working
people and the idle holders of Idle capital is
inevitable. The wealth of the many is gravi-
tation to the few with increasing ratio, and
the labor is drifting toward serfdom faster
than ever before"
The address of General Worthy Foreman
Bishop also dealt with the attacks made
upon the knights of Labor by the revolving
but contained little of general i'm
portance beyond an appeal for stronger labor
because OF the abnormal
progress made by concentrated wealth and
the fact that it is constantly more firmly
itself behind barriers which
every day became more difficult to over
throw"