The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-11-14
Accommodating Wealth and Ma
chimes Are Doing 1t.
LIBERTY VANISHING.
The Money Oligarchy is Fast
Wiping it Out.
Treachery in the Z. of L. is
Condemned.

WASHINGTON, Nov. IA. -Ehe ch1eI
public interest in the meeting of the
Knights of Labor yesterday were the
addresses of General Master Workman
Sovereign and General Worthy Fore
man Michael J. Bishop. Much of Mr..
Sovereign'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 ''devilish treachery," and their
efforts to disrupt the order" He
claimed that they had exhausted all
their power maligning the general
officers through the columns of the
press, and discouraging the loyal and
confding members through secret
agencies. They had publicly boosted
that Us, 900 mem bers had joined their
revolt.
He explained the methods which
had been used to weed out the district
assem- blies, and said the assembly for
the first time presented to the world
solid and unbroken front, battling for
the brotherhood of man and the free
dom of labor from the thralldom of
greed. Labor is now between the
devil and the deep sea-" he continued.
OdDICd1 has LuOHOi'C1lZS0 I1C GtC-
ments of production, and labor is in
competition with itself for the right
to live.
money oligarchy is fast wiping out
the last vestige of individual liberty.
Construction by judicial authority is
already given to law, placing all abor
organizations in the category of Grim
inal conspiracies. Misdemeanors of
the most trivial character have been
i 81 81 E
law and used to imprison representa-
tives of labor organizations, and in
functions, followed by charges of con-
tempt, have been used to condemn
labor leaders to the felon's cell with
out evidence of guilt or trial by jury.
The associated banks have declared
war on the money of the people, and
the whole plutoeratic fraternity has
invaded the realm of free government
and constitutional security"
He made some suggestions as to the
methods of strengthening the order,
but the principal feature of the adj
dress was his appeal to the general
assembly to give to his recent order
boycotting national bank notes its
official sanction. lie denounced the
action of the bankers convention held
at Atlanta, and said: After carefully
reviewing the wreck and ruin wrought
of the sound money clubs, which pro-
pose bonds and Calling guns for a So
luton of the labor question, l issued a
boycott on the notes of national banks,
and if l We're to die tomorrow would
declare it the most ghteous act of
my life.
at exposed the unsound money of
the sound money advocates, throw
| plu tocracy on the defensive and forced
| ha homie int 10 i1,cr
confession of their prepos ferrous acts
of bad faith with the people; and now
l urge this general assembly to in
| dorse 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
inevita BILE. The wealth of the many
is gravitating to the few with increas-
ing ratio and labor is drifting toward
serfdom faster than ever before"
The address of General Worthy Fore
man Bishop also dwelt upon the
attacks made upon the knights of
Labor by the revolving mem bers, but
contains little of general Importance
beyond an appeal for stronger labor
organizations because of the ''abnOr-
NAL progress made by concentrated
wealth, and the fact that it is con-
stantly more firmly entrenching itself
behind barriers which every day be-
come more difficult to overthrow"
He called attention to the evolution
of machinery during the last few
years, and the elimination OF human
skill from all forms of productive in
dustries.
This has gone on" he said, ''until
the typographical compositor, the
LOGON Motive engineer, the skilled worker
in wood, and other craftsmen, hitherto
considered safe from the general dan
ger, have this year seen the final
quietus of their hopes. In the neal
future common laborer' will be uni
versal appellation."