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The successes and failures of the Knights of Labor, have generated many controversial issues that have helped shape the North American labor movement. The Knights of Labor were originally part of the Trades and Labor Congress of Canada when it was organized in 1886 but were expelled after the Berlin Convention in 1902. It was during these years that the Knights of Labor enjoyed their peak success, and also contributed to their disappearance before World War I. Unquestionably the Knights of Labor was a popular movement, and was growing at an alarming rate. The members put the labor movement on the map, reaching groups that had never been reached before and teaching things about land, money, immigration, and government ownership that had never been taught before.
The Knights of Labor tried one way and failed, but is it appropriate to ask, who has found another way and succeeded? It is a mistake to think that the North American Labor movement has outgrown the Knights of Labor. In functions, organizations, and ideas, perhaps, but not in opinion. Emphasis on the principle of solidarity was the beginning of understanding the Knights of Labor. Strange names and titles, rituals, secrecy, forms of organization, and even activities, were all secondary principles.
The main objective of the Order was to teach the American wage earner that he was a wage earner first and a bricklayer, shoemaker, carpenter, and / or miner, etc. after. It also taught that he was a wage earner first and a Catholic, Protestant, Jew, white, black, Democrat, or Republican, after. However, the main objective of the order was to organize all nationalities, races, creeds, and grades of skill into one common labor union, in which all members earned their living by the sweat of their brow. The federation was a part fraternal, part union organization designed to settle labor disputes throughout North America. It drew many races of people including blacks, Europeans, Irish, Catholics, and Protestants.
It was originally founded in 1869 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and eventually spread throughout Canada during the 1870 s. It was actually a meeting of the Garmentcutters Association which sparked the formation of the Knights of Labor, and in turn the local name of the new assembly was to be called the Garmentcutters Assembly. The original committee consisted of U. S. Stephens, R. W.
Keen, James L. Wright, James M. Hilsea, Joseph S. Kennedy, William Cook, and Robert McCauley. On December 30, 1869, at the third Knights of Labor meeting at the United States Engine House, G. W.
Cook, H. L. Sinexon, W. C. Yost, Samuel Wright, G. W.
Hornberger, and James Barron were also elected to membership. At the meeting held in February, 1870, it was decided to fix the initiation fee at $ 1. On May 5 th of that year, the first ever newspaper advertisement published by the Knights of Labor appeared in the Ledger of May 10 th and 11 th, 1870, and read as follows: "FOUNTAIN OF POWER- Knights of Labor. Officers and Representative. - A special meeting will be held on Thursday, 12 TH inst. , to act on first report from State Labor Union, giving aid to Garmentcutters Branch; to resist the attempt of certain oppressive houses in the trade to reduce the wages of skilled workmen; secondly, shall the patronage of industrials be given to establishments that refuse just remuneration? By order. " (pp 70, Thirty Years of Labor) Every member of the Knights of Labor shared a common labor theory of value. They believed those who were rich but did not labor, stole for the people who labored in which in turn, made them rich.
The members of the organization were all sworn to secrecy; subsequently, they had many secret signals that allowed them to communicate only with each other. For instance, if one member said, " I am a worker, " the correct response for a member was, " I too earn my bread by the sweat of my brow" (and wipe his brow with his right hand from left to right). In situations of distress a Knight could utter, "I am a stranger. " If a fellow Knight heard his response was "a stranger should be assisted, " then he knew he was among friends. As secretly as they worked, the operations of the members could not be screened from the public. On October 27, 1870, it was reported to the Assembly that one of the members had been indiscreet in revealing not only the names of several people in the organization, but also the benefits to be derived from this organization. A committee was soon appointed to act upon the offending individual, but no action was ever taken.
The member who had violated his obligation to the Knights of Labor made a satisfactory excuse and was forgiven with a promise to never repeat the offense. It must be recognized, however, that this veil of secrecy created by the Knights of Labor was not to promote or shield wrong-doing, but to shield themselves from persecution and wrong. It was not the intention to create antagonism between labor and capital. The members realized that men who possessed wealth, in their haste and greed, often overlooked the interests of others less fortunate than they and frequently violated the rights of the people who were helpless and defenseless. Stephens and his co-laborers meant to uphold the dignity of labor and to affirm the honor of all who earned their daily bread in an honest way. They aimed for a healthy public opinion on the subject of labor and to receive a full and complete share of the values or capital it created.
Furthermore, the organization was to support all laws that were made to harmonize labor and capital. Strikes were not encouraged, however, when it became necessary to make use of that weapon, it was intended that the Knights of Labor aid such members that might suffer loss. In short, the federation wanted to extend a helping hand to every branch of trade which contributed to the vast industrial forces of the country. The members of the Knights of Labor all shared a fundamental principle which sought the cooperation of various opinions by which men earned the right to remain upon the earths surface as contributors to the public good. The Knights not only wanted to bring all wage earners into one union, but they also worked for various reform measures such as temperance and votes for women. Initially, the Knights rejected strikes as a means of settling wage disputes.
In Canada, the Knights of Labor order eventually grew to over 400 local assemblies and became particularly strong in Quebec because its anti-strike, anti-international union attitude appealed greatly to Catholic workers. During the mid 1880 s, the organization reached the peak of their success in the famous "Gould" strike, where they forced one of the largest railroad systems in the country, owned by a man named Jay Gould, to accept their demands. Goulds railroad system included the Missouri Pacific (...
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