ment that each applicant should take the oath they hoped to shield the organisation from the indiscretion of some of its members."

"When the commercial interests," said the National Labor Tribune of April 24, 1875, " combine to exact the greatest share of profits of labor and give labor the least, even to the verge of starvation, when all attempts of labor to openly oppose and defeat the efforts of these combinations are made the pretext for still further oppression and persecution, it is time for the people to unite together for their individual and common safety. These considerations have prompted men in all trades to have recourse to secret organisations."

...

One of the secret organisations was the Molly Maguires." But terrorism could not lastingly succeed. The great railway strikes of 1877, which, in their violent methods, were akin to the Molly Maguires, were also doomed to fail. The typical organisation during the seventies was secret for protection against intrusion by outsiders, but it differed from the Molly Maguires in its peaceful methods. One of this type, the Knights of Labor, became the leading organisation of the following decade. Others were the Sovereigns of Industry, modelled after the Patrons of Husbandry of the farmers, and the Industrial Brotherhood, which captured the National Labor Congress in 1874.7 Still another was the Junior Sons of "76. Allan Pinkerton 8 also mentions the Universal Brotherhood and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. The former might refer to the Industrial Brotherhood but the latter was a purely fraternal order, organised in 1868.

The depression also cleared the field for a revolutionary movement. Socialism emerged for the first time from the narrow circle of the refugees from Europe, extended its organisations, and made its appeal to the American workingmen. It found, however, that in order to succeed it had to dislodge the philosophy of greenbackism which the American wage-earning class was recognising as its official expression of opinion. Although the secret organisations, unlike the remnants of the trade unions of the sixties, refused to join the farmers in the " Independent

5 Doc. Hist., X, 28.

6 See above, II, 181 et seq.

7 See above, II, 171 et seq.

8 Pinkerton, Strikers, Tramps and Detectives, 89.

Communists,

or "Greenback" party which was formed in 1875, still the sway held over them by the greenback philosophy was none the less effective. In the Pittsburgh convention of 1876, to be mentioned below, both groups of organisations, the secret and the socialist, came together in an endeavour to consolidate the labour movement.

The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor, although it first became important in the labour movement after 1873, was formed by Uriah Smith Stephens in 1869. From that year until 1878 it maintained extreme secrecy. Stephens was born in 1821 at Cape May, New Jersey, and, although educated for the Baptist ministry, was compelled to learn the tailoring trade for a living. He also taught school for a time. His intellectual experience was broadened by a journey to Europe in the sixties and there he doubtless came in touch with the Marxian Internationalists.

Stephens organised the first assembly in Philadelphia, December 26, 1869. He and the others were members of a garment cutters' union organised in 1862 or 1863. It seems that, after exercising "considerable influence in the trade," the union declined. 10 Stephens contended that the union could regain its old standing by shielding the organisation and its members with the veil of secrecy.11 With this purpose in mind, he attempted to secure the dissolution of the old open union of the tailors, and to form, with those who cared to join, a new secret society.12 The rivalry became so intense that the old union forbade any of its members to join any other association of their branch of trade, open or secret, under penalty of expulsion. 18

As a preliminary attempt at organisation, Assembly 1 (this was the designation adopted for the local bodies and was retained throughout the existence of the Order) allowed men of all callings to join, receiving the same privileges as the garment

In the eighties there was a "legend" current among the American socialists, saying that the Internationalist, J. George Eccarius, had supplied Stephens with a set of Marx's writings, including the Communist Manifesto. It is plain. however, that he did not adopt the essential ideas of Marx. But see Der Sozialist (New York), Mar. 3, 1888.

10 McNeill, Labor Movement: The Prob. lem of To-day, 397.

11 Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor, 134.

12 McNeill, Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day, 401.

13 Ibid. This union, four years later, joined the Knights of Labor.

cutters, except that they were not allowed to participate in trade matters. Neither were they required to pay dues. It was expected that these "sojourners" would act as missionaries and organise and instruct their fellow tradesmen. The decision to admit non-garment cutters to membership was a compromise, as the most radical members wanted the assembly "thrown open to workingmen of every trade or calling." 14 For the succeeding year and a half this new secret society, through its mysterious action, attracted more attention than its membership or accomplishments warranted. 15

The principles of the Order were set forth by Stephens in the secret ritual. Open and public association having failed after a struggle of centuries to protect or advance the interest of labor, we have lawfully constituted this Assembly," and "in using this power of organised effort and co-operation, we but imitate the example of capital heretofore set in numberless instances," for, "in all the multifarious branches of trade, capital has its combinations, and whether intended or not, it crushes the manly hopes of labor and tramples poor humanity into the dust." However, "we mean no conflict with legitimate enterprise, no antagonism to necessary capital." The remedy consists first in work of education: "We mean to create a healthy public opinion on the subject of labor, (the only creator of values or capital) and the justice of its receiving a full, just share of the values or capital it has created." The next remedy is legislation: "We shall with all our strength, support laws made to harmonise the interests of labor and capital, for labor alone gives life and value to capital, and also those laws which tend to lighten the exhaustiveness of toil." Next in order are mutual benefits. "We shall use every lawful and honorable means to procure and retain and employ for one another, coupled with a just and fair remuneration, and, should accident or misfortune befall one of our number, render such aid as lies within our power to give, without inquiring his country or his creed." 16 From the beginning up to July, 1872, all attempts at organis

14 Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor, 148.

15 Meetings were announced by five stars, a circle enclosing a triangle being marked on sidewalks, fences, and walls.

appear

At other times a call for a meeting would in 8 newspaper anonymously 16 Doc. Hist., X, 23, 24.

signed.

17

ing additional assemblies proved unsuccessful. However, by May, 1873, six assemblies were organised, most of them composed of textile workers and all located in Philadelphia. In order to secure concerted action on matters pertaining to the "welfare of the whole," a committee on "good of the Order " was established. 18 This was the precursor of the "district assembly."

With the expansion of the Order outside Philadelphia and into bordering States, the need for a permanent central body began to be felt. So on Christmas day of 1873, District Assem-. bly 1 was founded with thirty-one assemblies attached to it. The ritual and other work of the Order were now put into written form, and the organisation was complete.

Henceforth the growth of the Order in the East was steady and promising. The desire of the leaders to make the Order universal prompted them to turn westward. Here they interested John M. Davis, editor of the National Labor Tribune, of Pittsburgh, who took up the work west of that city. In the meantime (October 4, 1874) District Assembly 2 of Camden, New Jersey, was founded, and on August 8, 1875, District Assembly 3 of Pittsburgh was organised. This planted the Order in the industrial section of the United States and enabled it to reach wage-earners everywhere. It is very difficult to estimate the membership, as no provision was made for any central record, each district assembly having absolute control of its membership. The Order may have counted about 5,000 members, but the membership at this time, as well as throughout the existence of the Order, fluctuated enormously. Individuals or trade unions would join, and finding that the organisation could not or did not help them, they lost interest in it. John McBride, who was the paramount miners' leader during the eighties and early nineties and became president of the American Federation of Labor during 1894, corroborates this statement as follows: "Miners organised very generally into it for a while, in localities, but as it never seemed to show, on the surface, of anything being done to raise the price of mining, they fell off about as rapidly as they organised." 19

17 Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor, 183.

18 Ibid., 164.

19 McNeill, Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day, 251.

The Knights of Labor received their recruits from two sources. With the disruption of most of the national trade unions in 1873, many of the surviving locals found it to their interest to affiliate with the Knights of Labor. This was true of an especially large number of locals which formerly belonged to the Miners' National Association,20 the Machinists and Blacksmiths' national union, the Knights of St. Crispin, and the Ship Carpenters' and Caulkers' national union. The other sources of strength were in unattached locals which never belonged to a national trade union, such as silver gilders, brush makers, stationary engineers, cooks, garment workers, and carpet weavers. Most of these locals existed before the Knights came on the scene, although some were organised through their efforts.

The data as to the activities of the Knights during this period are meagre. The membership clustered mainly around the industrial centres of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, but did not extend further west than the region of Pittsburgh.

Most of the district assemblies had compulsory strike funds, and as strikes, in the coal region especially, were resorted to frequently, these funds must have been used considerably. Patrick McBride, in his history of the coal miners, 21 gives two instances in which district assemblies resorted to strikes during this period.

It was understood from the outset among all who owed allegiance to the Knights of Labor that sooner or later a national organisation was to be formed. 22 In the meantime, District Assembly 1 of Philadelphia, was, by tacit consent of the other branches, to be recognised as head of the Order.23 However, District Assembly 3 of Pittsburgh, owing to its location and leaders, 24 as a matter of course became at first the chief representative of the Order in the West. Later, meeting with phenomenal success in organising new assemblies, and districts," ," 25 it began to consider itself not only equal to Dis