Knights of Labor

File:KOLlarge.jpeg

Knights of Labor seal

The Knights of Labor was a labor union founded as a fraternal organization in 1869, by Uriah S. Stephens.

Originally called The Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor, it was designed to protect all who worked for a living. Labor Day can be traced to two Knights' parades in New York City in 1882 and 1884.

Structure and membership

Most unions of that era organized workers by trade and skill level. The Knights grouped workers by industry, regardless of trade or skill.

With the motto "an injury to one is the concern of all," the Knights of Labor attempted to attain its goals of:

• Shortening the hours of labor to an eight-hour day
• Ending the use of child labor
• Equal pay for equal work
• The use of arbitration rather than strikes
• The promotion of cooperative businesses
• Currency reform based on the principles of the Greenback-Labor Party

The Knights had a reputation for being all-inclusive. Women, blacks (after 1883), and employers were accepted as members. Bankers, 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. 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 enterprizes, but to initiate strikes to win concessions from non-Knights employers. Stephens and his supporters preferred a social club organizing model and opposed strikes, but the size and the diversity of the Knights afforded local assemblies a great deal of autonomy. The Knights also 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 Knights entered its period of greatest growth.

The Knights, while initially suspect of the strike as a method to advance their goals, 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. 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 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.

Leaders

• Uriah S. Stephens led 1869 - 1879
• Terence V. Powderly led 1879 - 1893
• James Soveriegn led 1893 - ??
• James W. Hayes led ?? - 1917

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.

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.

Further reading

Contemporary accounts

• Knights of Labor (1887 - 1913). Proceedings of the General Assembly, 10th - 30th (microfilm). Library of American civilization. LAC 23217-20. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Knights of Labor (1878 - 1886). Record of the proceedings of the General Assembly, 1st - 9th (microfilm). Library of American civilization. LAC 23214-16. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Powderly, Terence Vincent (1889). Thirty Years of Labor. 1859-1889. Excelsior publishing house. p. 693.
• Powderly, Terence Vincent (1889). Thirty Years of Labor. 1859-1889. Excelsior publishing house. p. 693.
• Powderly, Terence Vincent (1891). The Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day. The M. W. Hazen Company. p. 628. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Powderly, Terence Vincent (1891). The Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day; Chapter XV: The History of the Knights of Labor. pp. 397–428.
• Powderly, Terence Vincent (1891). John A. Turcheneske, Jr (ed.). Terence Vincent Powderly Papers 1864-1937 and John Williams Hayes Papers 1880-1921, The Knights of Labor. pp. 109 reels. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Contemporary accounts by non-Knights

• Hinton, Richard J. (January 1885). "American Labor Organizations". The North American review. 140 (338). University of Northern Iowa: 48–63.
• Dunham, A. C. (June 1886). "The Knights of Labor". New Englander and Yale review. 45 (195). W. L. Kingsley etc: 490–498.
• Wright, Carroll D. (January 1887). "An Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labor". Quarterly Journal of Economics. 1 (2). Harvard University's Department of Economics: 137–168. doi:10.2307/1880768.
• Hatch, Rufus (June 1886). "The Labor Crisis". The North American review. 142 (355). University of Northern Iowa: 602–607.
• Parsons, George Frederic (July 1886). "The Labor Question". The Atlantic monthly. 58 (345): 97–113.
• George, Henry (July 1887). "The New Party". The North American review. 145 (368). University of Northern Iowa: 1–8.
• Davitt, Michael (October 1890). "Labor Tendencies in Great Britain". The North American review. 151 (407). University of Northern Iowa: 453–469.
• Durham, John Stephens (February 1898). "The Labor Unions and the Negro". The Atlantic monthly. 81 (484). Atlantic Monthly Co: 222–231.
• Kelley, M. E. J. (April 1898). "Women and the Labor Movement". The North American review. 166 (497). University of Northern Iowa: 408–418.

Books

• Browne, Henry J (1949). The Catholic Church and the Knights of Labor. Washington: Catholic University of America Press. p. 435.
• Commons, John R. (1918). History of Labour in the United States - Vol. 2 1860-1896.
• Leikin, Steve (2005). The Practical Utopians: American Workers and the Cooperative Movement in the Guilded Age.
• Garlock, Jonathan (c.1982). Guide to the local assemblies of the Knights of Labor. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Fink, Leon (1983). Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics. Urbana: University of Illois Press. p. 249. ISBN:.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Kealey, Gregory (1982). Dreaming of What Might Be: The Knights of Labor in Ontario, 1880-1900. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 487. ISBN:. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• Levine, Susan (1984). Labor's True Women: Carpet Weavers, Industrialization, and Labor Reform in the Gilded Age. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. p. 191. ISBN:.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
• McLaurin, Melton Alonza (1978). The Knights of Labor in the South. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-313-20033-5.
• Voss, Kim (1993). The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century.
• Ware, Norman J. (1929). The Labor Movement in the United States, 1860 - 1895: A Study In Democracy. New York: D. Appelton and Company. p. 409. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Watillon, Leon (1978). The Knights of Labor in Belgium. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN:. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)

Articles

• Birdsall, William C. (July 1953). "The Problem of Structure in the Knights of Labor". Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 6 (4): 532–546. doi:10.2307/2518795.
• Cassity, Michael J. (June 1979). "Modernization and Social Crisis: The Knights of Labor and a Midwest Community, 1885-1886". Journal of American History. 66 (1). Organization of American Historians: 41–61. doi:10.2307/1894673.
• Foner, Phillip S. (January 1968). "The Knights of Labor". Journal of Negro History. 53 (1). Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, Inc.: 70–77. doi:10.2307/2716391. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Grobb, Gerald (Spring 1960). "Organized labor and the Negro Worker". Labor History. 1: 166.
• Hild, Matthew (Fall 2001). "Dixie Knights Redux: The Knights of Labor in Alabama, 1898-1902". Gulf South Historical Review. 17 (1).
• Kessler, Sidney H. (July 1937). "The Organization of Negroes in the Knights of Labor". Journal of Negro History. 37: 255. doi:doi:10.2307/2715493. {{cite journal}}: Check |doi= value (help)
• Kemmerer, Donald L. (January 1950). "Reasons for the Growth of the Knights of Labor in 1885-1886". Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 3 (2): 213–220. doi:10.2307/2518830. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Kittell, Allan H. (December 1960). "Review: The Knights of Labor in Belgium by Leon Watillon, Frederic Meyers". Journal of Modern History. 32 (4). University of Chicago Press: 400. doi:10.2307/2518830.
• Licht, Walter (Summer 1985). "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". Journal of Interdisciplinary History. 16 (1): 117–123. doi:10.2307/204327.
• Miner, Claudia (2nd Quarter, 1983). "The 1886 Convention of the Knights of Labor". Pylon. 44 (2). Clark Atlanta University: 147–159. doi:10.2307/275026. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Pelling, Henry (1956). "The Knights of Labor in Britain, 1880-1901". Economic History Review. 9 (new series) (2). Economic History Society: 313–331. doi:10.2307/2591749.
• Wheeler, Hoyt N (Fall 2004). ""Producers of the World Unite! A Return of Reformist Unionism?"". Labor Studies Journal. 29 (3): 81–100.

See also

• Labor unions in the United States
• List of trade unions
• Labor federation competition in the U.S.

External links

• "Freemasonry: Unions - Mutual Aid Through Collective Bargaining". History of Labor Unions in Marin County. Mill Valley Lodge #356, Mill Valley, California, USA. Retrieved 2006-10-08.
• "Select Bibliography of Terence V. Powderly and the Knights of Labor". Catholic University of America. Retrieved 2006-10-08.