The San Francisco call., 1895-11-14
Urged to Stand Together in the
Struggle Against the
Oppressor.
ARRA1GNMENT OF sECEDERs,
The Master Workman Declares the
Order Is Now Stronger Than
Ever Before.

WASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. 13.-This
mornings session of the General Assembly
OF the Knights of Labor was devoted to a
1urther discussion of the report of the
committee on credentials. There appears
10 nave been a misunderstanding on the
part OF some of the assemblies with regard
10 the representation allowed under the
new article of the constitution adopted last
year, and this resulted in the send ing of
some delegations larger than the constitu-
ton permitted. 1t has taken the better
part OF two days to straighten out this
tangle.
The question Of admitting certain dele
gaIeS whose rights to seats were contested
on the ground that under the constitution
proper apportionment had not been OBJ
served was disposed of during the after
noon by the admission ot Delegate De
Leon OF New York District Assembly No.
49 and O'Brien of District Assembly No. 80
OF Massachusetts. Both of these men are
SAID to be anti-administration delegates
and will aid in the fight to oust the ad-
mlnlstration now in power in the General
Assembly. Their admission was com.
promise.
1t appears, however, that the admins
tratlon people have a very comfortable
majority of the votes in the assem- bly,.
The report of Grand Master Workman Soy
ereign was indorsed as read. 1t was as fol-
lows
TO the Officers aud Members of the General
Assembly: In the general master workmau's
annual report read ct the General Assembly,
which convened at Indianapolis, Ind, Novem-
Der 13, 1888, may be found the following
words:
''Many causes combined to reduce the num-
bers of those who swore allegiance to the
principles of the Knights OF Labor. The cir
culatlon of false statements concerning the
strength OF the order drove away many thou
sands who regarded quantity as being superior
to quality in the makeup of the membership
OF d labor organization. When the rumors
went forth from the enemy's quarters that the
numbers were dropping down, the members
who looked to others for what they should do
themselves dropped out also.
when the divergence of opinion between
the general officers became heralded broadcast
by those who always magnifed, then the men,
bers who looked for unity among the officers,
instead of doing their duty by waiting until
they could replace these officers with Others
withdrew from the order temporarily. The
story so often circulated and SO wonderfully
magnifed, of the extravaganza of the general
officers frightened Others and they, too, stood
still until this session would assemble. In
their ranks were men whose love of self pre-
dominated whose selfish desires could not be
suppressed for the commonwea1 and on no oc-
casion would they consent to sink self for the
good OF all. The oft-told story of their griey-
ance sickened and drove many from the order"
If the cause above quoted had disintegrat-
ing influence upon the order seven years ago
in the struggle for industrial emancipation,
what could be expected as the result of we'll
directed conspiracy to destroy it, controlled
and directed by men who had served for many
years in its highest and most influential posi-
tions?
At the Gene raj Assembly, which convened at
New Orleans one year ago, there were men
who took part in its sessions by day and went
out into the shadows at night to act with con-
clave intent on dismemberment and destruc-
ton. While pretending loyalty to the order
and shedding humid, sympathetic tears for its
cause, they were plotting under cover of the
night to effect its assassination in the most
cowardly manner known to intrigue and de-
ception.
The doors of the session were scarcely closed
until letters were sent to all parts of the
country containing falsehood and vii ification
and urging local assemblies to pay no more
per capita tax to the General Assembly. Five
delegates came to that session with $500,
which they drew from their constituents, and
evidence is not wanting to convince the most
credulous that they were actuated by sinister
motives. The ex-general master workman
solicited funds from members under pretense
OF landing the present general officers in jail
end came to New Orleans with coterfe OF ex-
officers and defeated candidates to aid in the
work of disruption and death. He was not
willing to wait until officers whom he disliked
could be replaced by others, nor would he
sink self for the good of all, expressed in his
complaints against members in his report
of 1888.
He joined the clan of office-seeklng destruc-
tionists who used the virtues of the order to
cover up their devilish treachery, and COM
m1tted their crimes in the name of Knight
mood. Baf1ed in their every purpose 10 disrupt
the order at New Orleans, the band of seceders
silently stole away to secluded ambush and
organized a guerilla warfare against the order
they had sworn to support and protect. They
employed the ever-willing emissaries of pluto
cracy and the columns of the public press to
mal1gn the general officers and discourage the
loyal and confiding members. They printed
scurrllous circulars and contributed money to
SOW the seed OF discord and dissension in our
ranks, and publicly boasted that 65 900 of its
members had joined the revolt against what
they called the regime of official corruption in
the order.
thousands of loyal members were induced
py raise representations to withhold their sup
port from the general officers, and thousands
OF others went out in the gloom of hopelessness
and despair
10 say that the acts of these conspirators
embarrassed the general officers and retarded
the ordinary work assigned us general officers
is indeed a mild expression of the strain and
oistress thus imposed upon us. But no gener-
al ohcer lost heart or gave up in dismay, and
under the shield of an order pledged to
humanity, and armed with the truth, we
applied the knife of surgery to charters and
mem bership disloyal to the cause of Knight
hood, and when the virulent tumors were
exposed to the world thousands of misguided
members saw the error of their ways and
returned to the sanctuary. Seceders were sum-
III arlly eJectet from local and district assem-
Oily meetings, portraits OF seeding ex-general
omcers were thrown into the fire by local
members as an expression of scorn and con-
Tempt, and the benign influences of recupera-
tlon spread over the entire order.
To-day for the first time in many years our