454 



LABOR, MOVEMENTS AND AGITATIONS OF. 



strength has been given to movements of this 

 kind in recent years by the appearance as a 

 directing and supporting force of the society 

 called the Knights of Labor, which has become 

 one of the most important and effective or- 

 ganizations of working-men in the United 

 States. It has grown up out of a secret pro- 

 tective union of garment-cutters, that was 

 formed in Philadelphia in 1869, at the instiga- 

 tion of Mr. Uriah S. Stevens. The principles 

 of the organization were extended in 1873 to 

 the other trades of the city ; and two years 

 afterward the strength of the local assemblies 

 of Philadelphia having increased to fifteen 

 thousand members, a district assembly, com- 

 posed of delegates from the local unions, was 

 organized. An extension of the organization 

 to other cities and States was begun at about 

 this time ; and in 1878, several hundred local 

 assemblies having been formed, a general as- 

 sembly was constituted as the legislative body 

 for the entire order. At a meeting of the del- 

 egates from fifteen districts, held at Reading, 

 Pa., a " national resistance fund " was also es- 

 tablished at this meeting, to be made up of 

 contributions of five cents each month, from 

 each member of the order, and to be kept for 

 the assistance of "brothers in need against the 

 aggressions of employers." The objects of the 

 order are declared in the preamble of its con- 

 stitution to be the unification of labor, with the 

 object of putting a check upon the power of 

 aggregated wealth and upon unjust accumula- 

 tion, and of obtaining the adoption of a sys- 

 tem which will secure to the laborer the fruits 

 of his toil. It therefore seeks " to bring with- 

 in the fields of organization every department 

 of productive industry, making knowledge a 

 stand-point for action, and industrial moral 

 worth, not wealth, the true standard of indi- 

 vidual and national greatness ; to secure to 

 the toilers a proper share of the wealth they 

 create, more of the leisure that rightfully be- 

 longs to them, more society advantages, more 

 of the benefits, privileges, and emoluments of 

 the world ; in a word, all those rights and priv- 

 ileges necessary to make them capable of en- 

 joying, appreciating, perpetuating, and defend- 

 ing the blessings of good government." It 

 proposes the establishment of bureaus of labor 

 statistics of the various governments, for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the real condition of 

 the producing masses; the establishment of co- 

 operative institutions, productive and distrib- 

 utive ; the reservation of public lands for act- 

 ual settlers ; the abrogation of all laws that 

 do not bear equally upon capital and labor ; 

 the removal of technicalities, delays, and dis- 

 criminations in the administration of justice, 

 and the adoption of measures providing for the 

 health and safety of persons engaged in vari- 

 ous industrial occupations; weekly payment 

 of their workmen by corporations in lawful 

 money; the establishment of a first lien to 

 mechanics and laborers on their work for the 

 fall amount of their wages; the abolition of 



the contract system in public work ; the sub- 

 stitution of arbitration for strikes ; prohibition 

 of the employment of children under fourteen 

 years of age in workshops, mines, and facto- 

 ries; the abolition of the contract system in 

 prisons and reformatory institutions ; to both 

 sexes equal pay for equal work ; the reduction 

 of the hours of labor to eight per day ; and the 

 issue by governments of "a purely national 

 circulating medium, direct to the people with- 

 out the intervention of any system of banking 

 corporations." The general assembly in 1879 

 advised all the assemblies of the order to use 

 their political power at legislative elections, 

 but left it within the discretion of each local 

 assembly to decide with which party it should 

 act ; but it also provided that no decisive ac- 

 tion of this kind should be taken by any as- 

 sembly unless at least three fourths of the 

 members in attendance were united in support 

 of it, and that no member should be compelled 

 to vote with the majority. In 1880 women 

 were made eligible to membership. In 1881 

 the general assembly voted to make the name 

 and objects of the organization public. The 

 membership of the order at that time was 

 enumerated at 40,000 persons. In April, 1882, 

 it had increased to 140,000, the increase having 

 taken place chiefly in the smaller industrial 

 cities and in the mining districts. Omitting 

 20,000 new accessions at Pittsburg, whose 

 names have not yet been officially enrolled, the 

 members of the order were at that time dis- 

 tributed by States as follow : 



These members were represented in 44 dis- 

 trict assemblies, with 1,830 local assemblies, in 

 good working order. The order is represented 

 by four weekly newspapers, advocating its 

 principles and explaining its objects. 



STEIKE OF THE WESTERN IRON- WORKERS. 

 A strike of the workmen in the iron-trade, 

 which was intended to embrace all the mills 

 west of the Allegheny Mountains, was begun 

 on the 1st of June. It originated in a demand 

 of the men for a new scale of wages, the oper- 

 ation of which would be to cause an advance 

 in wages in all branches of the business of 

 from 15 to 25 per cent, and was sustained by 

 the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel 

 Workers. The demand was made upon the 

 Cleveland Rolling-Mill Company, Ohio, May 

 9th, and was met with a refusal, followed by 

 the closing of the mill and the throwing of 

 4,500 men out of employment. Two weeks 

 afterward the scale was submitted to the man- 

 ufacturers of Wheeling, West Virginia, and vi- 



