Sources for America’s History: Printed Page 427
17-2 | | Industrial Brotherhood Counters Excesses of Capitalist Power |
TERENCE POWDERLY, Thirty Years of Labor (1889) |
The Knights of Labor emerged in the 1880s as a major labor organization. Knights were dedicated to the idea of uniting the “producing” classes in cooperative efforts to advance workers’ interests and counter the power of capitalists, whose outsized wealth they saw as a threat to America’s republican traditions. Terence Powderly was the national leader of the Knights of Labor, who tried to unite skilled and unskilled workers and opened membership to women and African Americans. The group’s inclusive vision, expressed here in its platform, was quickly eclipsed by craft-based unionism promoted by the American Federation of Labor.
The recent alarming development and aggression of aggregated wealth, which, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses, render it imperative, if we desire to enjoy the blessings of the government bequeathed to us by the founders of the republic, that a check should be placed upon its power and unjust accumulation, and a system adopted which will secure to the laborer the fruits of his toil; and as this much desired object can only be accomplished by the thorough unification of labor, and the united efforts of those who obey the divine injunction, that “in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread,” we have formed the INDUSTRIAL BROTHERHOOD, with a view of securing the organization and direction, by co-operative effort of the power of the industrial classes, and we submit to the people of the United States the objects sought to be accomplished by our organization, calling upon all who believe in securing “the greatest good to the greatest number,” to aid and assist us:
T. V. Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor, 1859 to 1889 (Columbus, OH: Excelsior Publishing House, 1889), 116–120.
READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Analyze and evaluate the Knights’ platform for evidence of the union’s point of view toward the federal government. What role does it see for the state in regulating the relationship between workers and employers?
Imagine Carnegie’s reaction to the reforms advocated by the Knights of Labor in their statement of principles. Which specific statements might have elicited the strongest reaction and why?
From the union’s platform, what conclusion can you draw about the status of labor in industrial America? What obstacles and challenges do Powderly and his fellow Knights identify as stumbling blocks to the equitable society they sought?