The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28
THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR.
ORGANIZE FOR EDUCATION AND
ACTION.
What the knights Propose-A Peace.
full But Aggressive Campaign-An
Appeal to LabOring Men Every.
where.

When the financial condition of the
masses becomes so strained that they
are unable to maintain organization.
or are compelled by reason of their Pc
cuniary circumstances to yield to the
demand of the rich that they shall
not organize, the hope of Self-emanci-
patton will be lost until oppression ex-
hauStS its force in the gloom of an
other night. When we think of the
workers in this country who are de-
MED by their employers the right to
organize for mutual protection, and
others who have been discharged and
thrown out of employment because
they favor organization, and the num-
berS of others who have been COM
PEELED to sign contracts renouncing
their organizations as a condition of
employment, we begin to realize how
near the toiling masses are to slavery.
All the civilized nations of the
earth that ever lapsed into serfdom
went over the precipice in the same
way and through the same causes
which are forcing the workers Of
America to the very brink of the great
declivity that leads to the gulf Of
bondage.
Hope of snatching the working peo-
pie Of this country from the cliff be-
fore the fatal leap must be taken lies
in the ability of the masses to organ
ize for their own freedom and protec-
ton, and it is because corporations
and great employers of labor know
that if the masses are permitted to
organize they will free themselves and
establish justice for all mankind tina.
they resort to every device to prevent
such organization. For the same cause
every land monopolist, every money
king and every corrupt politician is
bitterly opposed to labor organization.
Especially is this opposition directed
against the Knights of Labor, because
this organization has a test of men,
bership directly opposed to all the va
rious methods now employed to rob
labor of it's just reward.
We appeal to the oppressed every
where to organize local assemblies Of
our order. Do not wait until hope:
lessly Frustrated by the eXactions of
plutocracy, class or procrastinations;
until the spirit of liberty is smothered
to death in the struggle for bread and
done while we are able to give the al
ready dormant spirit of independence
sufficient vitalizing force to arouse pa
triotism and throw off the yoke of
bondage If eternal vigilance was ev
er the price of liberty, it is now. Year
by year the millionaire classes grow
stronger, more heartless and cunning.
Their every act proves that their pur-
pose is to accomplish through diplo-
macy and stratagem what they know
in the very nature of things they
could not accomplish through the bal
lot. The art of civilizing brigandage
is to control the money Of the people
and absorb and monopolize the indus
tries of the country until the masses
are subject to the degraded condition
where they will part with the last
vestige of liberty for trivial and temp
orary considera tons.
The tide of affairs can only be turn
ed through organization and concerted
action. Every tyrannizing power that
ever rose against the rights and liber-
ties of the masses and was over
thrown, died at the hands of counter
and without counter
we are hopeless and pow
erless as were the unarmed and de-
fenseless peasants Of Rome to resist