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Terence Vincent Powderly (1849 - 1924) was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, the son of Irish immigrants. He was a well-known national figure as leader of the Knights of Labor from 1879–1893.

[edit] Life

He began working at the age of 13 on the railroad, and later learned the trade of machinist. He joined several unions at any early age.

Powderly is most remembered for leading the Knights of Labor ("KoL"), a labor union whose goal was to organize all workers, skilled and unskilled, into one big union united for workers' rights and economic and social reform. He joined the Knights in 1876, became Secretary of a District Assembly in 1877 and was elected Grand Master Workman in 1879, at the time the Knights had around 10,000 members. He served as Grand Master Workman until 1893.

Powderly served three two-year terms as mayor of Scranton representing the Greenback-Labor Party beginning in 1878.

Like most labor union men of the time he advocated an eight-hour day and the abolition of child labor. The Knights also helped to organize unions for women and African American workers. By 1886, estimates for "KoL" membership range from 700,000 to a million members, including 10,000 women and 50,000 African Americans.

Powderly, like most working-class Americans of the time, actively opposed allowing Chinese workers claiming they took jobs away from Americans and drove down wages. Powderly even urged West Coast branches of the Knights of Labor to campaign for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Powderly worked with the noted American bishop, James Gibbons, to persuade the pope to remove sanctions against Roman Catholics who joined unions. This was accomplished by doing away with the membership rituals influenced by freemasonry and removing the words "The Holy and Noble Order of" from the name of the Knights of Labor in 1882.

The Greenback ideology of producerism influenced Powderly more strongly than socialism, and since producerism regarded most employers as "producers", Powderly disliked strikes. In certain cases, the Knights organizes strikes against local firms where the employer might be admitted as a member. The strikes would cause internal fights between the laborers and the employers, resulting in a more purely-working class organization. Despite his personal ambivalence about labor action, Powderley's skillful organizing and the success of the Great Southwestern Strike of 1885 against Jay Gould's railroad more than compensated for the internal tension. The Knights of Labor grew so rapidly that at one point the organization called a moratorium on the issuance of charters.

The union was recognized as the first successful national labor unions in the United States. During the next decade or so, the Knights of Labor achieved their greatest influence and greatest numerical significance. Powderly attempted to focus the union on cooperative endeavors. Eventually, the demands placed on the union by its members for immediate improvements, and the pressures of hostile business and government institutions, forced the Knights to function like a traditional labor union.

However the Knights of Labor were too disorganized to deal with the centralized industries that they were striking against. After the Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago on May 4 1886, Powderly refused to support anarchist Knights accused of inciting a bombing (see The McNamara Brothers). Membership dropped off sharply because of the Knights alleged and unproven association with the Haymarket bombing (some referred to them as the "Dynamite Knights of Labor") and rampant factionalism divided the union.

Many KoL members joined the newly formed American Federation of Labor [AFL] which promoted craft unionism over the one all-inclusive union concept. Powderly was defeated for re-election as Master Workman in 1893, but the decline of the Knights continued. Marxist socialists led by Daniel DeLeon formally split from the Knights in 1895, forming the Socialist Trade and Labor Alliance. Some remnants joined the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905, but isolated local assemblies continued to exist for decades. Powderly wrote a history of the Knights, but did not participate in any of these formations after his defeat.

He also tried his hand at practicing law, opening his own successful law practice in 1894. He was appointed U.S. Commissioner General of Immigration from 1897 to 1902, and the Chief Information Officer for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration from 1907 to 1921.

Powderly, a long-time resident of the Petworth neighborhood in Washington, D.C., died on June 24 1924. He is buried at nearby Rock Creek Cemetery. His autobiography, The Path I Trod, was published posthumously.

He was inducted in the U.S. Department of Labor Hall of Fame in January of 2000.

[edit] Further reading

• Powderly,, Terence V. (August 1882). "The Organization of Labor". The North American review 135: 118-127.
• Powderly,, Terence V. (April 1885). "The Army of the Discontented". The North American review 140: 369-378.
• Powderly,, Terence V. (August 1888). "A Menacing Irruption". The North American review 147: 369-378.
• Powderly,, Terence V. (April 1890). "The Plea for Eight Hours". The North American review 150: 464-470.
• Powderly,, Terence V. (December 1891). "The Workingman and Free Silver". The North American review 153: 728-737.
• Powderly, Terence Vincent (1889). Thirty Years of Labor. 1859-1889. Excelsior publishing house, 693.
• Powderly, Terence Vincent, Edmund Janes James (1891). The Labor Movement: The Problem of To-day. The M. W. Hazen Company, 628.

[edit] External link

• Terence Vincent Powderly Photographic Prints Collection (HTML). The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives. Retrieved on 2006-10-08.