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The 'Knights of Labor', also known as 'Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor', was founded by seven Philadelphia tailors in 1869, led by Uriah S. Stephens. It grew to be one of the most important American labor organizations of the 19th century. The Knights' ideology may be described as ''producerist'', demanding an end to child and convict labor, equal pay for women, a progressive income tax, and the cooperative employer-employee ownership of mines, factories.

Contents

Origins

In decline

Leaders

See also

Further reading

Books

Articles

Contemporary accounts by Knights

Contemporary accounts by others

References

External links

Origins

The Knights had a reputation for being all-inclusive. Women, blacks (after 1883), and employers were accepted as members. The Knights' leadership advocated the admission of blacks into local assemblies, but turned a blind eye to the segregation of assemblies in the South. Mary Harris Jones, known as Mother Jones, helped recruit thousands of women to the Knights of Labor. Bankers, doctors, lawyers, gamblers, stockholders, and liquor manufacturers were excluded because they were considered unproductive members of society. Asians were also excluded, and, in November 1885, a branch of the Knights in Tacoma, Washington worked to expel the city's Chinese, which amounted to nearly a tenth of the overall city population at the time. The Knights strongly supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Contract Labor Law of 1885, as did many other labor groups.
The Knights of Labor grew rapidly after the collapse of the National Labor Union in 1873, and especially after the replacement of Uriah Stephens with Terence V. Powderly. As membership expanded, the Knights began to function more as a labor union, and less like a fraternal organization. Local assemblies began to emphasize not only cooperative enterprises, but to initiate strikes to win concessions from non-Knights employers. Powderly opposed strikes as a "relic of barbarism", but the size and the diversity of the Knights afforded local assemblies a great deal of autonomy.
The Knights found that secrecy interfered with the organization's public work and inhibited its response to critics. Carroll Wright, U.S. Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor, characterized the Knights of Labor as a "purely and deeply secret organization" that drew heavily on Freemasonry for its ideas and procedures. In 1881, the Order's General Assembly agreed to make its name and objects public and to abolish its initiating oaths. Most rituals associated with the order continued, and the Knights entered its period of greatest growth.
Though initially suspect of the strike as a method to advance their goals, the Knights aided various strikes and boycotts. Arguably their greatest victory was in the Union Pacific Railroad strike in 1884. The Wabash Railroad strike in 1885 was also a significant success, as Powderly did not follow his usual practice and supported what became a crippling strike on Jay Gould's Wabash Line. Gould met with Powderly and agreed to call off his campaign against the Knights of Labor, which had caused the turmoil originally. These positive developments encouraged new membership, and by 1886, the Knights had over 700,000 members.
The organization had a hard time dealing with this gigantic influx of members, who were on the whole itching for strikes.
While the Knights were in no way involved, the Haymarket Riot nonetheless significantly tarnished their reputation.
The 'Order' was brought to Australia around 1890. The Freedom Assembly, which operated in Sydney during the tumultuous period of 1891-93, had as members well known Australian labour movement people such as William Lane, Ernie Lane, WG Spence, Arthur Rae and George Black. A similar assembly operated in Melbourne. Ernie Lane was shot in her home and bled to death.

In decline

There was widespread repression of labor unions in the late 1880s. In addition, the Knights were unsuccessful in the Missouri Pacific strike in 1886.
Violence against strikers, including the Haymarket Riot, and intensified disputes between the skilled trade unionists (also known as craft unionists) and the industrial unionists weakened the organization.
The Knights lost many craft unionists in 1886 when the rival American Federation of Labor was founded.^[1]
Membership declined with the additional problems of an autocratic structure, mismanagement, and further unsuccessful strikes. In 1890, it had fewer than 100,000 members. At the same time, the Knights received political support from the People's Party. Terence Powderly was replaced as Grand Master Workman by James Sovereign in 1893. Two years later, members of the Socialist Labor Party left the Knights to found the Socialist Trade & Labor Alliance as a Marxist rival. Membership was reduced to 17,000. The majority of New York City's District Assembly 49 joined the Industrial Workers of the World at its 1905 foundation. Although, by 1900, it was virtually nonexistent as a labor union, the Knights maintained a central office until 1917 and held conventions until 1932. At least a few local assemblies lasted until 1949.^[2]

Leaders

★ Uriah S. Stephens led 1869 - 1879

★ Terence V. Powderly led 1879 - 1893

★ James Soveriegn led 1893 - ??

★ James W. Hayes led ?? - 1917

See also

★ Labor unions in the United States

★ List of trade unions

★ Labor federation competition in the U.S.

Further reading

Books

★ The Catholic Church and the Knights of Labor, , Henry J, Browne, Catholic University of America Press, ,

★ History of Labour in the United States - Vol. 2 1860-1896, , John R., Commons, , ,

★ Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics, , Leon, Fink, University of Illois Press, , ISBN 56b11253

★ Foner, Philip S. ''History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 2: From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism.'' New York: International Publishers, 1955. Cloth ISBN 0-7178-0092-X; Paperback ISBN 0-7178-0388-0

★ Guide to the local assemblies of the Knights of Labor, , Jonathan, Garlock, Greenwood Press, ,

★ Dreaming of What Might Be: The Knights of Labor in Ontario, 1880-1900, , Gregory, Kealey, Cambridge University Press, , ISBN:

★ The Practical Utopians: American Workers and the Cooperative Movement in the Guilded Age, , Steve, Leikin, , ,

★ Labor's True Women: Carpet Weavers, Industrialization, and Labor Reform in the Gilded Age, , Susan, Levine, Temple University Press, , ISBN:

★ The Knights of Labor in the South., , Melton Alonza, McLaurin, Greenwood Publishing Group, , ISBN 0-313-20033-5

★ The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century, , Kim, Voss, , ,

★ The Labor Movement in the United States, 1860 - 1895: A Study In Democracy, , Norman J., Ware, D. Appelton and Company, ,

★ The Knights of Labor in Belgium, , Leon, Watillon, Greenwood Publishing Group, , ISBN:

Articles

★ The Problem of Structure in the Knights of Labor, , William C., Birdsall, Industrial and Labor Relations Review,

★ Modernization and Social Crisis: The Knights of Labor and a Midwest Community, 1885-1886, , Michael J., Cassity, Journal of American History,

★ The Knights of Labor, , Phillip S., Foner, Journal of Negro History,

★ Organized labor and the Negro Worker, , Gerald, Grobb, Labor History,

★ Dixie Knights Redux: The Knights of Labor in Alabama, 1898-1902, , Matthew, Hild, Gulf South Historical Review,

★ The Organization of Negroes in the Knights of Labor, , Sidney H., Kessler, Journal of Negro History,

★ Reasons for the Growth of the Knights of Labor in 1885-1886, , Donald L., Kemmerer, Industrial and Labor Relations Review,

★ Review: The Knights of Labor in Belgium by Leon Watillon, Frederic Meyers, , Allan H., Kittell, Journal of Modern History,

★ The Knights of Labor Commemorated and Reconsidered: : Dreaming of What Might Be: The Knights of Labor in Ontario, 1880-1900; Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics, , Walter, Licht, Journal of Interdisciplinary History,

★ The 1886 Convention of the Knights of Labor, , Claudia, Miner, Pylon,

★ The Knights of Labor in Britain, 1880-1901, , Henry, Pelling, Economic History Review,

★ "Producers of the World Unite! A Return of Reformist Unionism?", , Hoyt N, Wheeler, Labor Studies Journal,

Contemporary accounts by Knights

★ Proceedings of the General Assembly, 10th - 30th, Knights of Labor, , , Library of American civilization, , LAC 23217-20

★ Record of the proceedings of the General Assembly, 1st - 9th, Knights of Labor, , , Library of American civilization, , LAC 23214-16

★ Thirty Years of Labor. 1859-1889, , Terence Vincent, Powderly, Excelsior publishing house, ,

★ Thirty Years of Labor. 1859-1889, , Terence Vincent, Powderly, Excelsior publishing house, ,

★ The Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day, , Terence Vincent, Powderly, The M. W. Hazen Company, ,

★
★ The Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day; Chapter XV: The History of the Knights of Labor, , Terence Vincent, Powderly, , ,

★ Terence Vincent Powderly Papers 1864-1937 and John Williams Hayes Papers 1880-1921, The Knights of Labor, , Terence Vincent, Powderly, , ,

Contemporary accounts by others

★ Labor Tendencies in Great Britain, , Michael, Davitt, The North American review,

★ The Knights of Labor, , A. C., Dunham, New Englander and Yale review,

★ The Labor Unions and the Negro, , John Stephens, Durham, The Atlantic monthly,

★ The New Party, , Henry, George, The North American review,

★ The Labor Crisis, , Rufus, Hatch, The North American review,

★ American Labor Organizations, , Richard J., Hinton, The North American review,

★ Women and the Labor Movement, , M. E. J., Kelley, The North American review,

★ The Labor Question, , George Frederic, Parsons, The Atlantic monthly,

★ An Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labor, , Carroll D., Wright, Quarterly Journal of Economics,

References

1. Foner, ''History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 2: From the Founding of the American Federation of Labor to the Emergence of American Imperialism,'' 1955, pp. 160-161.
2. Weir, ''Beyond Labor's Veil,'' p. 322.

External links

★ Freemasonry: Unions - Mutual Aid Through Collective Bargaining

★ Select Bibliography of Terence V. Powderly and the Knights of Labor