A Secret Society Gains National Recognition
Uriah S. Stephens
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The Knights of Labor was a labor union that started in 1869. It was led by Uriah S. Stephens. At first, it was a secret organization of tailors in Philadelphia. The Knights of Labor played a very important part in bringing together workers from different trades into one union.
At first, the Knights of Labor was a secret society. They had to keep it a secret because business owners and industrialists might fire or blacklist employees who belonged to a union. The union started in 1869 with just 8 members. As the union grew, the Knights of Labor inducted new members with secret ceremonies, similar to those practiced by Freemasons. The Knights of Labor members created a system of secret symbols and these symbols were chalked on to sidewalks to let members know about meetings.
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In 1879 Uriah Stephens stepped down as leader of the Knights of Labor. A man named Terence V. Powderly replaced him. Powderly made many changes to the way the Knights of Labor did things. He ended the secrecy and announced that anyone could be a member. The Knights of Labor became a national union that was open to all workers. You could not be denied because of your skill, sex, nationality, religion or race. The only occupations that were not allowed to be members were gamblers, bankers, stockholders, lawyers, and saloonkeepers. Powderly also changed the name of the group to the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. He hoped the new name would change people's attitudes about unions. He wanted people to understand that it was noble to respect yourself and demand respect from others.
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Terence V. Powderly
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Women in the Knights of Labor
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Terence V. Powderly also used more aggressive methods to help workers. They became more active in politics too. The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor had several goals that they strove for. First, strove for fair and equal treatment for workers. They wanted an eight-hour working day. They also wanted improved safety in factories. They felt industrialists should offer workers compensation for on-the-job injuries. They believed that child labor should be ended. They stood for equal pay for equal work and equal pay for women.
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Another goal of the Knights of Labor was to protect the right of workers to earn a living. They wanted to end the use of prison labor. Business owners at this time could pay prisons to have prisoners work for them for much less than it cost to pay an employee. The Knights of Labor wanted to end this practice because it kept hard working Americans from getting the jobs they needed to make a living. They also wanted political reforms such as a graduated income tax. An graduated income tax was a tax on your paycheck where the tax was higher for richer people and lower for poorer people. They wanted the government to own the railroads and telegraph lines and not big businesses.
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Prison Laborers in the late 1800s
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Workers on strike
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In the beginning, the Knights of Labor did not want to use strikes, but as things got worse, they began using them. Two of the biggest accomplishments of the Knights of Labor was their strikes against the Union Pacific Railroad in 1884 and the Wabash Railroad in 1885.
The Knights of Labor started with just nine members. By 1880 there were 28,000 members. In 1886 membership was up to 800,000 members. After 1886 membership started to decline.
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In 1886, the Knights of Labor held an unsuccessful strike against the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Then later that year, they became involved in the Haymarket Square Riot. It began as a rally of workers who met in anger over the death of a coworker. When police arrived, the rally turned into a riot and someone set of a bomb that killed several policemen.
The Haymarket Square Riot turned people against labor unions. People who were not union members felt that unions were violent and were nothing more than a group who wanted to cause trouble. Strikers were accused of being communists who did not like the democracy or capitalism. By 1900, the Knights of Labor had lost most of their power and their support. Those who did join unions joined less violent ones.
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Haymarket Square Riot
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