Knights of Labor

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The Great Seal of the Knights of Labor

TheNoble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, best known simply as the Knights of Labor (K of L), was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 19th Century. It was established in 1869 and reached a peak membership of nearly three-quarters of a million members by the middle of the 1880s, before beginning a period of rapid decline in size and influence, being supplanted by the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in the 1890s. Remnants of the Knights of Labor continued in existence until 1949, when the group's last 50-member local was absorbed into the AFL.

Contents

[edit] Organizational history

[edit] Origins

Terence Powderly, Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor during its meteoric rise and precipitous decline.

In the 1860s, the tailors of Philadelphia attempted to establish a union of their trade. This effort was met forcefully by the employers of the city, who frequently forced their employees to choose between their union and their jobs.[1] In these circumstances, it was deemed best to dispense with typical open forms of organization and instead take their union underground, using the methods of secret societies.

In December 1869, seven members of the Philadelphia tailors' union, headed by Uriah Smith Stephens and James L. Wright, established their underground union under the name the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor.[1] The nature of the early organization is exemplified by the titles of the first permanent officers, who were elected in January 1870: Venerable Sage, Past-Officer (James L. Wright), Grand Master Workman (U.S. Stephens), Worthy Foreman (Robert W. Keen), Worthy Inspector (William Cook), and Unknown Knight (Joseph S. Kennedy).[1] Indeed, until 1878 it was expressly forbidden to divulge even the name of the organization to non-members, the union being designated as the "N. and H.O. of the * * * * * of North America" in printed communications, the five asterisks standing for "Knights of Labor."[2]

The secrecy of the organization made it the subject of an endless series of sensational and often ludicrous rumors, causing the "criminal combination" to be denounced in the press and from the pulpit.[2] Therefore, in 1878 the organization decided to make the name of the Order public so that its attackers and accusers could be answered. A first national convention of the Order was held in Philadelphia in 1878, and the name, principles, and goals of the organization were there made public.[2] In 1881, the Order's General Assembly agreed to make its name and objectives public and to abolish its initiating oaths. Most rituals associated with the order continued, and the Knights entered its period of greatest growth.

[edit] Expansion

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 not only to emphasize 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.

Though initially afraid 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. While the Knights were in no way involved, the Haymarket affair nonetheless significantly tarnished their reputation.

[edit] Ideology

The Knights of Labor had a mixed history of inclusiveness and exclusiveness, accepting women and blacks (after 1878) and their employers as members and advocating the admission of blacks into local assemblies, but turning a blind eye to the segregation of assemblies in the South. Bankers, doctors, lawyers, 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, who amounted to nearly a tenth of the overall city population at the time. The Knights were also responsible for race riots that resulted in the deaths of Chinese Americans in the Rock Springs Massacre. The Knights strongly supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Contract Labor Law of 1885, as did many other labor groups, although the group did accept most others, including skilled and unskilled women of any profession. Mary Harris Jones, known as "Mother Jones," helped recruit thousands of women to the Knights of Labor. She was greatly feared by factory owners, but loved and respected by union members and workers, which is how she earned her nickname.[3]

The Knights demanded an end to child and convict labor, equal pay for women, a progressive income tax, and the cooperative employer-employee ownership of mines and factories.[4]

[edit] Decline

J.R. Sovereign, Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor from 1893.

Membership declined with the problems of an autocratic structure, mismanagement, and unsuccessful strikes. Disputes between the skilled trade unionists (also known as craft unionists) and the industrial unionists weakened the organization. There was widespread repression of labor unions in the late 1880s, such as the violence against strikers in the Haymarket Riot of 1886. The Knights were unsuccessful in the Missouri Pacific strike in 1886 and lost many craft unionists that year when the rival American Federation of Labor was founded.[5]

In 1890, the Knights had fewer than 100,000 members. At the same time, the organization 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 and 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.[6]

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 labor movement people such as William Lane, Ernie Lane, WG Spence, Arthur Rae and George Black. A similar assembly operated in Melbourne.

[edit] Legacy

Though often overlooked, the Knights of Labor contributed to the tradition of labor protest songs in America. The Knights frequently included music in their regular meetings and encouraged local members to write and perform their work. In Chicago, James and Emily Talmadge, printers and supporters of the Knights of Labor, published the songbook "Labor Songs Dedicated to the Knights of Labor" (1886). The song "Hold the Fort" [also "Storm the Fort"], a Knights of Labor pro-labor revision of the hymn by the same name, became the most popular labor song prior to Ralph Chaplin's IWW anthem "Solidarity Forever". Pete Seeger often performed this song and it appears on a number of his recordings. Songwriter and labor singer Bucky Halker includes the Talmadge version, entitled "Labor's Battle Song," on his CD Don't Want Your Millions (Revolting Records 2000). Halker also draws heavily on the Knights songs and poems in his book on labor song and poetry, For Democracy, Workers and God: Labor Song-Poems and Labor Protest, 1865-1895 (University of Illinois Press, 1991).

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Morris Hillquit, History of Socialism in the United States. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1903; pg. 289.
  2. ^ a b c Hillquit, History of Socialism in the United States, pg. 290.
  3. ^ The American Pageant. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
  4. ^ General Interest Business and Industry Knights of Labor - u-s-history.com
  5. ^ 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. New York: International Publishers, 1955; pp. 160-161.
  6. ^ Robert E. Weir, Beyond Labor's Veil: The Culture of the Knights of Labor. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996; pg. 322.

[edit] Grand Master Workmen

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Books

[edit] Articles

[edit] Contemporary accounts

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[edit] See also

Syndicalism.svg Organized labour portal

[edit] External links

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