Knights of Labor - Structure and membership, In decline, Further reading

(1878–93) A US industrial union that tried to organize all workers in support of a large-scale political and social programme, regardless of age, race, and sex. The knights reached a membership of 700 000 in 1886, but then declined.

The Knights of Labor was a labor union founded as a fraternal organization in December 1866, by Uriah S.

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. 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. Stephens and his supporters preferred a social club organizing model and opposed strikes, but the size and the divesity 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. Most rituals associated with the order continued, and Knights entered its period of greatest growth.

The Knights aided various strikes and boycotts, winning the important Union Pacific Railroad strike in 1884 and the Wabash Railroad strike in 1885. By 1886, the Knights had over 700,000 members. - 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. At the same time, the Knights received political support from the People's Party. Two years later, members of the Socialist Labor Party left the Knights to found the Socialist Trade & Labor Alliance as a Marxist rival. Although, by 1900, it was virtually nonexistent as a labor union, the Knights maintained a central office until 1917 and held conventions until 1932.

Further reading

Contemporary accounts

Knights of Labor (1887 - 1913). Proceedings of the General Assembly, 10th - 30th (microfilm), Library of American civilization. Knights of Labor (1878 - 1886). Thirty Years of Labor. Thirty Years of Labor. The Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day. The Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day; Chapter XV: The History of the Knights of Labor, 397 - 428. Turcheneske, Jr Terence Vincent Powderly Papers 1864-1937 and John Williams Hayes Papers 1880-1921, The Knights of Labor, 109 reels. "American Labor Organizations". The North American review 140: 48-63. "The Knights of Labor". "An Historical Sketch of the Knights of Labor". "The Labor Crisis". The North American review 142: 602-607. "The Labor Question". The North American review 145: 1-8. "Labor Tendencies in Great Britain". The North American review 151: 453-469. "The Labor Unions and the Negro". "Women and the Labor Movement". The North American review 166: 408-418. The Catholic Church and the Knights of Labor. The Practical Utopians: American Workers and the Cooperative Movement in the Guilded Age. Guide to the local assemblies of the Knights of Labor. Workingmen's Democracy: The Knights of Labor and American Politics. Dreaming of What Might Be: The Knights of Labor in Ontario, 1880-1900. Labor's True Women: Carpet Weavers, Industrialization, and Labor Reform in the Gilded Age. The Knights of Labor in the South.. The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century. The Labor Movement in the United States, 1860 - 1895: A Study In Democracy. The Knights of Labor in Belgium. "The Problem of Structure in the Knights of Labor". Industrial and Labor Relations Review 6 (4): 532-546. "Modernization and Social Crisis: The Knights of Labor and a Midwest Community, 1885-1886". "The Knights of Labor". "Organized labor and the Negro Worker". "Dixie Knights Redux: The Knights of Labor in Alabama, 1898-1902". "The Organization of Negroes in the Knights of Labor". "Reasons for the Growth of the Knights of Labor in 1885-1886". Industrial and Labor Relations Review 3 (2): 213-220. "Review: The Knights of Labor in Belgium by Leon Watillon, Frederic Meyers". "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". "The 1886 Convention of the Knights of Labor". "The Knights of Labor in Britain, 1880-1901".