CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE BLACK WORKER IN THE POWDERLY PAPERS

1. T. V. POWDERLY TO WM. J. STEWART OF RICHMOND, MO.

Scranton, Pa.

October 8, 1879

Dear Sir and Bro.:

Our organization makes no difference with the outside color of the man, if he is white on the inside it is all we ask.

There is an assembly in this District composed exclusively of colored men and it ranks among the best in the D. A. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

2. T. V. POWDERLY TO BROTHER WRIGHT

Scranton, Pa.

September 19, 1880

Brother Wright,

As your name indicates you are right. I am of the opinion that the brothers who oppose the black man the most in the L. A. would not object to his assistance in any struggle against grasping capital. But under the laws of our order a brother no matter what his color is can visit any local in the order if he is clear and in good standing. I think that the cheapest method for these colored brothers to adopt would be to enter L. A. 1,100 untill they are strong enough to form a new colored assembly.

If there are enough to form a new local of colored brothers at Warrior it can be done if they are so anxious to come within the folds it is too bad to deny their admission. I see no good reason why the D.A. should not grant them permission to locate in Warrior. Whichever is most convenient for the brothers to do under the law should be done to keep them in the order.

Brothers remember that when capital strikes a blow at us it does not strike at the white working man, or the black working man, but it strikes at Labor. Can the wisest of us tell what color labor is? I doubt it.

In Heaven’s name let not our foolish prejudice keep us apart where our enemies are so closely allied against us.

Does any man suppose that the universal Father will question our right to Heaven because of our color? If the color of the heart is right no matter about the color of the skin.

Do the best thing possible under the laws for the brothers and for the unity of the order.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

3. ROBERT D. DAYTON AND GILBERT ROCKWOOD TO T. V. POWDERLY

Pittsburgh, Pa.

May 10, 1883

My dear Terry,

The writer of the enclosed letter is in error in supposing that Sect. 2 of Article XVI. Local Constitution, gives them the power to adopt Local By-Laws excluding anyone from membership on account of color, for that Section says an A. shall have power to adopt By-Laws, etc., provided they do not conflict with the Constitution, and such a By-Law conflicts with Section 2. of Article 1, Local Constitution, also with Decision of G.M.W. on page 90, which is Constitutional law, having been approved by the G.A.

It is a somewhat delicate question to handle in the South, because we can never force a social equality, and it would be better for the colored men to form Assemblies by themselves, at the same time a By-Law excluding them on account of color is illegal. Will you give him the benefit of your logical reasoning on the subject?

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

4. JOE B. KEWLEY TO T. V. POWDERLY

Richmond, Ind.

“News Office”

May 14, 1883

Dear Sir and Bro.

I write you for advice in regard to a matter that is likely to cause considerable discussion in our assembly. Briefly the case is as follows: Unfortunately the charter members were enthusiastic and without discretion extended a general and special invitation to colored men to join the assembly. To make the matter clear to you is scarcely within the scope of a letter, especially the strong color line that is drawn by those outside the assembly, whom it is possibly to induce to join us if it were not for that element. Almost immediately after the founding of the assembly the colored men began to flock in, indeed so rapidly that they now number one-fourth of the membership. This of itself would at this time have been no cause of trouble, but it was understood at the founding that as soon as the colored element should become numerically strong enough they would form an assembly by themselves. This they will not do, and they at this writing will not even consider the advisability of so doing. This refusal on their part has been one cause of disagreement; another is their action—almost as a body—politically at the recent municipal election. There was placed at the head of the ticket for Mayor a shyster lawyer—an aristocrat in every sense of the word, as well as an attorney for railroads and corporations—and a plain business man. It was the sense of the assembly that our support should be given to the latter, but the colored men thought or at least acted otherwise, and not only voted for but their leaders openly electioneered for the lawyer. This was another sore point for the white element. It has been our policy to bear with them through it all, but the breach has become so open that the battle will either have to be fought now or in the very near future, as we are now and have for some time been initiating two colored men to one white, and consequently they now have one-quarter of the assembly, and at the same ratio of increase they will soon have a most decided majority, and either they or the whites will have form a new organization. The feeling has become so strong that the whites have commenced to black ball the blacks, without regard to character, and the colored men have threatened to retaliate by doing the same hereafter, and so you see we are in a very bad predicament. I wish your advice as to what course it would be best to pursue. It would be plain sailing if we could induce the colored faction to form another assembly, but they will not,—at least they show no disposition so to do, for as one of them observed at a recent meeting: “This is the only organization in which we stand on an equal footing with the whites, and it is a big thing, and unless we can work here we will work nowhere.” This equality is what seems to be sticking in their craw. If a separation could possibly be amicably made it would be of great benefit to the cause in this city, as a large number of the workingmen can not or will not affiliate with the colored element.

From a notice we received from District Assembly No.—-, I see you are announced to appear there (at Brazil) on the 12th of June. As you probably will pass through our city on your way there could you not make it convenient to meet with us. Your presence would have a very conciliatory effect, and you could probably settle the matter at once. We could probably heal the breach until that time if there was any likelihood of your meeting Us. Of course the assembly would pay all expense you would be put to in a chance of your arrangements. Pardon me for occupying so much of your time, and hoping to receive an early answer.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

5. T. V. POWDERLY TO M. W. PATTELL OF CHATTANOOGA, TENN.

Scranton, Pa. May 15, 1883.

Dear Sir and Bro.

I am powlerless in the matter of changing or amending the constitution. You will see on examining the constitution Article I Sect. 2, that the law is explicit. Again you will find a decision on page 90 which also permits the colored man to join.

The best plan to adopt now is to organize a colored assembly in your city and turn all applicants of that kind over to them. Then your by-laws will be binding.

I quote from your letter “It will not answer now to tell us that the ballot is the place to settle it.” The ballot is really the only means of settling who shall or shall not be members and if enough members cannot be found in an assembly to vote against a colored man why its a pretty healthy sign that they don’t object to his being a member.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

6. GILBERT ROCKWOOD (“GIL”) TO T. V. POWDERLY

Pittsburgh, Pa. May 17, 1883.

My dear Terry,

Yours just received. Your answers are good, and right to the point. I do not see any need of trouble in the South on account of color, as long as the colored man and brother can form Assemblies of their own. A white Assembly cannot adopt a By-Law excluding colored men, because it would conflict with the Constitution, but if a majority of the A. are opposed to having colored members they could quietly black-ball them without any violation of the letter of the law.

The Executive Board notify us of a meeting here soon, probably next week, but have not set the date yet. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

7. T. V. POWDERLY TO S. T. NEILSON OF NASHVILLE, TENN.

Scranton, Pa.

October 1, 1883

Dear Sir and Bro.

I have nothing to say on organizing the colored race only “organize them as fast as you can.” I think it the most prominent plan to organize them in assemblies of their own. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

8. JOHN R. RAY TO T. V. POWDERLY

Raleigh, N.C.

January 19, 1885

Dear Bro. Powderly,

I was truly glad, as you know, to receive assurances that you would soon visit us, but I regret to say the outlook for a successful meeting is gloomy. Race prejudices, engendered by politicians, has greatly injured us here, but I believe if you can get the white mechanics interested enough to organize an assembly entirely of whites the order will yet flourish. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

9. AN OPEN LETTER ON RACE BY T. V. POWDERLY

Notes By The Way

RALEIGH, N. C., Feb. 4.—Raleigh has made no progress since the war. The streets are covered with a six-inch coat of bright red mud. It is very gaudy and makes quite a display, but it has a stick-fast-to-your-boots kind of a way about it that I cannot approve of. The only thing that can be said in favor of it is that it is preferable to the pavement on Lackawanna avenue. The color will wash better. Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina. Remove the capital to another part of the state and Raleigh finds “a long farewell to all her greatness.” Three lines of railway diverge from this point and each one vies with the other in charging exorbitant rates of fare and killing time, for they never run fast enough to kill anything else. Four cents a mile for the privilege of riding in a coach, the seats of which are half-soled with a different material from the original. I cannot describe it. I never experienced anything like it outside of a glue factory. If the cholera ever visits this country on business or pleasure it will demolish every passenger coach on the North Carolina Railroad, and it ought to. I would do it if I was the cholera, and yet Raleigh is nicely situated and has nice people in it. I looked in upon the North Carolina Legislature and saw five colored Representatives, and two Senators of the came complexion. Just fancy a colored man in the Pennsylvania Legislature. We may talk as we please about the rights of the colored man, but he enjoys more privileges in the South to-day than in the North. Here he has his schools. In Raleigh there are three colored schools; the population is under ten thousand. The colored people here are intelligent, respectable, law-abiding citizens. A great many of them own their own homes and keep them nicely. On my arrival in the city I was invited to visit a colored man and brother and in company with a friend of mine, Mr. Ray, I made the visit. The old gentleman had invited some eight other colored men to assist him in receiving me. On being ushered into their presence they all stood up until the introductory ceremonies were performed then the nine sat down in a row. Each man lifted his right leg and deposited it on top of his left knee, then the business of the hour was transacted. Among the important questions discussed was, “Do you think the inauguration of Mr. Cleveland will deprive us of our liberties in whole or part?” I assured them that such a thing was preposterous. It is a fact that speakers on the stump during the last campaign solemnly assured the poor simple colored men that they would be remanded to slavery should Cleveland become president. These poor people follow naturally the lead of the white man and the idea of doubting his word never entered their heads. You can imagine the feelings of the black man when the news of Democratic success reached his ears. The colored man will from this time forth have more confidence in himself, and will work with more of a will to build himself a home and accumulate property. Heretofore he felt that, no matter how well directed his efforts might be in this direction, he and his property would be brought to the auctioneer’s block if the Democratic party gained the ascendancy. This idea will now be dispelled, and the blacks can look to the future with more of hope than heretofore. One of the old gentlemen, a white haired, venerable man, who had been a slave for nearly half a century, informed me that political agitators had terrified his neighbors by exhibiting to them a picture of the old auction block on which men of their flesh and blood had been sold over a score of years ago.

A Large Labor Meeting

The meeting which I addressed was held in the city hall and opera house, the seating capacity is twelve hundred, every seat was taken. The standing room was occupied and many could not gain admittance. Over half the audience was colored. A more attentive, appreciative audience I never addressed. The meeting was presided over by one of the wealthiest manufacturers in Raleigh. Col. McClure, who spoke in this city before I came, did not have near as large an audience. I visited the United States National Cemetery and looked over the long rows of white stones which mark the resting place of a portion of the eternal army. This cemetery was established in 1866. There were 1161 interments made, 648 of them are known, the remaining 513 are unknown. The cemetery is kept very neatly and is dotted here and there with magnolia and cedar trees. On my way back to the city, for the cemetery is outside of the city limits, I saw a cotton field for the first time. Of course the cotton had long since been picked, but I saw enough to give me a good idea of it. To the east of the state house stands a large cedar tree which has a history. When Raleigh was evacuated by the Confederates and the Union forces entered the city, Gen. Kilpatrick was fired at by a rebel who stood within a few feet of him on the road side. The rebel was captured, and without any unnecessary ceremony or fuss was hanged from the lower limb of this cedar. Mr. Ray, who was a resident of the city at that time related the story just as I have told it.

I left Raleigh at 4:45 p.m. and spent five hours in riding eighty-four miles. Our train stopped for two hours during the night at Charlotte, N.C., waiting for another train. At Seneca S.C., the engine ran into a land slide delaying us two hours more. We were due in Atlanta at one o’clock, but did not reach there until five in the evening.

The Scranton Truth, February 7, 1885.

10. THE SOUTH OF TO-DAY.

By T. V. Powderly

What is the condition of the Southern people? What do they stand most in need of? What manner of people are they? How do they feel toward the North? and how do they receive a Northern man when he goes among them? These are among the questions asked of every man who travels through the South and they are the questions I will attempt to answer in this paper. If I were a stranger to both North and South and had never heard of the late war I would leave the South and be none the wiser on that point unless I accidentally met something in the way of a cemetery, a monument or the ruins of an old fortification to tell me of the past. The evidence of the struggle must be gathered from the face of the country which still bears the scars of battle; but from the speech of the people, you learn absolutely nothing. They never even refer to it unless questioned on that point. But I did not travel South in the capacity of a stranger and as a consequence asked questions of every person that I thought would give me an answer. I visited not only the homes of the well to-do workingmen but the homes of the poor and lowly as well as those of the rich and influential, and from the information gathered from all quarters I feel that I can answer some of these questions.

The condition of the Southern people is not so prosperous as I would like to see it, but on the whole it will compare favorably with a great many places in our Northern and Eastern States. It is a common thing to hear Northern man say, ‘The South is poor because her people are not energetic; they are slow to act, in fact they are lazy.” This is unjust, and by way of answer let me ask this question: If the late war had been fought right here among our own hills and valleys; if our coal breakers, machine shops, blast furnaces and rolling mills had been burned down; if the farmers surrounding us had lost every cow, horse, mule and agricultural implement just twenty years ago, and if the help which the farmers had on the farms would crowd into the cities, what would be the condition of the farmer after twenty years of struggle who alone and unaided had to replace everything from the fence surrounding his farm to the dwelling itself? What would be the condition of our manufacturers who found themselves without factories, without material or money to start up again? How could they hope to hold the market which they could not supply? Would not our people present a poverty-stricken aspect to the Southern visitor? Without capital after the war they were helpless. Carpet-baggers in quest of cheap bargains in lands and property swooped down upon them. The Shylock of Europe as well as America loaned money at the highest possible rate of interest to those of the South who had anything to give as security, and to-day after twenty years you will meet men in the South who are contributing the pound of flesh to the Northern man who sitting in his cosy parlor over his wine will accuse the people of the South of being lazy because they didn’t pick up like the North did after the war.

The people of the South are poor but there is a more equal distribution of both poverty and wealth than in the North, and between the ex-slave and his old master though the relations existing between them have been changed, the old feeling of dependence still exists and if trouble darkens the door of former he goes to his old owner for assistance and he never goes in vain. The colored men will to-day be received with more of welcome and with a kinder word in the home of his old master in the South than in the home of the Northern man who preaches friendship for the negro. That slavery was wrong no man, North or South will deny that many a slave-owner regarded it as a curse in Ante-bellum days is true, but the money of the planter was invested in the slave. Every slave represented so much capital and how to remove the evil without entailing heavy losses was a question which would have puzzled a Northern man as well as a Southern slave-owner. But no matter what plan we would now propose, it is recorded in history that four years of civil war have solved that part of the question. Before the war the slave-owner did no work and labor in the South was degraded in the extreme. No matter what the color of the worker might be he was looked upon as an inferior being because he labored for a living.

There were poor white men in the South who felt that because the black slave worked while his master did nothing they would be lowering themselves to the status of the negro if they worked. This class of miserable beings eked out on existence after a fashion but they were despised by all others and regarded with supreme contempt by the black men who applied to them that peculiarly fitting appellation, “The low white trash.” The remnants of that army of idlers can be found in the South to-day, they have no ambition, no pride, nor have they any more intelligence than the poor slave who deprived of the protection which his master gave him had to shift for himself at the close of the war. Although this class is now very small in this South yet when added to the number of Freedmen who are too shiftless and lazy to work it assumes formidable proportions. Education among the children of the low white trash was as much neglected as among the children of the colored people, and until recently the school room was a novelty in parts of the South. Today all men are anxious to establish the school as a permanent institution in the hope that with the aid of education the children may be better enabled to take care of themselves than their fathers were. The man who goes South with no capital and no trade can make but little headway. It makes no difference how much Northern energy or push he brings with him he will find that as a laborer he soon sinks to the level of the low white trash and the lazy, shiftless blacks who infest the cities and towns. I do not charge that all the colored men are lazy and shiftless or that those who are lazy will not work at times; but they are unsteady and will rather sit in the sun than work at any time, and no matter how ambitious a laboring man may be he soons finds that this element is the club which beats back every effort to improve his condition.

I believe that the man who talks of going to the West to invest in land or manufacture, can find good lands in the South and that he can invest as profitably as in the West. He can live cheaper, the climate is not so rigorous, he is nearer to his market. The railway facilities of the South are improving wonderfully and the seaboard advantages are unsurpassed. The South does not lack for energy and push. It has any quantity of these qualities.

What the South requires is capital to develop her resources, for she is rich in minerals of all kinds. She extends a warm welcome to the man who goes there with a view to improving his condition as well as those who surround him. The people of the South are honest and truthful. Go to any door in the South after bed time and you will find it unbarred and unlocked. The reports of such horrible outrages as we read of during election times are not true. When we are told that droves of men are led to the polls in the South and compelled to vote as their bosses tell them, I can say that the ballot is regarded as a merchantable commodity by a great many Southern people who have been entrusted with it, and who will say that the same system does not prevail in the North? Who will say that men have not sold themselves on election day here in Lackawanna county? The Southern people are not only honest, but they are generous and hospitable as well. It is true that they have but little to give but they give with a free heart.

As regards the hostility of the people of the South toward those of the North I could find but little trace of it and I believe it exists principally on paper. It must be borne in mind that aside from those who made up the rank and file of the Confederate army, fully two-thirds of the present population of the present South were children when the war closed or else they have removed there since then, and as a consequence have no quarrel with the North. The young men of the South to-day are a generation removed from the influence of slavery, and if they entertain any feelings toward the North it is because they have been misrepresented. So far as the ex-Confederate soldiers are concerned I am satisfied that no feelings of ill will are rankling in their hearts. I met with scores of men who were in the Southern army and asked of them in various places whether they would extend as warm a welcome to me if it were true that I had been a Union soldier during the war, and the answer was the same everywhere. The words of Lieut. Col. Hammond voice the sentiments of all of them that I met and spoke to on the subject. In answer to the question, “What kind of a reception would you give to an old Union soldier?” he said, “If you could send your entire Northern army down here we would give them a warmer reception than we gave them from ‘61 to ‘65, but of an entirely different character. There is nothing in the South too good for us to give them. When I laid aside my sword after the surrender of Appomattox, I also laid aside every feeling of resentment with it, and I am to-day ready to take any Northern man by the hand and say as I say to you, welcome.” It must not be supposed that because editors of papers and members of Congress express hostility toward the North that they are representing their constituencies in so doing. Suppose Mr. Connolly had in the last session, or Mr. Scranton would in the next, say hard and bitter things calculated to keep alive the bitterness of the past between North and South, would they not misrepresent rather than represent the Twelfth Congressional District? When I spoke to a meeting of over sixteen hundred citizens in the city of Richmond I made use of these words: “You stand face to face with a stern living reality, a responsibility which cannot be avoided or shirked. The negro question is as prominent today as it ever was. The first proposition that stares us in the face is this: The negro is free; he is here, and he is here to stay; he is a citizen and must learn to manage his own affairs. His labor and that of the white man will be thrown upon the market side by side, and no human eye can detect a difference between the article manufactured by the hand of the black mechanic and that manufactured by the hand of the white mechanic. Both claim an equal share of the protection afforded to American labor and both mechanics must sink their differences or else fall a prey to the slave labor now being imported to this country. Our people have had their differences and it is the sincere wish of my heart that nothing shall ever divide us again, and if we must fight again, let it be as a united people battling against a common enemy. I repeated that sentiment in nearly every place that I spoke and it was everywhere received with unbounded enthusiasm.

I wish that every Northern man could make at least one visit to the South and that every Southern man could return the compliment. We would then learn that the South is really “in the saddle,” but only with a view to riding side by side with the North in the onward march of progress.

The vast majority of the men who fought in the Confederate army were not battling to uphold slavery. They did not like the work they were engaged in, but they went with the State and when I in taking a man to task for fighting against the old flag was asked this question,”Suppose that the old Keystone State went out tomorrow would you stand by the flag that belongs to all of the States as well as your own or would you go with Pennsylvania?” it sent my thoughts back to the mountains, the valleys and hills of Pennsylvania, and I could make but one answer: “I am afraid that I would forget my allegiance to the flag and stand by my native State.”

Yesterday I saw it stated in a New York paper that “they have been selling pictures of Jeff Davis right along from the car on which the old liberty bell is stationed.” Those who have been to the New Orleans Exposition will know that that cannot be done. It may surprise the people of the North to know that Jefferson Davis is not so popular in the South as he is said to be. I have seen pictures of Gen. R. E. Lee in private and public houses, in bar rooms and billiard halls. Side by side with Lee’s picture I have seen that of Stonewall Jackson, but in only one place did I see a portrait of Davis, and that was in a restaurant in Mobile. I saw the old gentleman himself at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, and no one seemed to be aware of his presence. He created no more of a sensation than I did, and if the people who thronged the corn area and rotunda of the St. Charles Hotel that day made anything of a demonstration over me they never told me about it.³²

It is fashionable to growl about everything in the South. I met men on the cars who condemned the management of the road we were traveling over and blamed the South for it. A look at the printed list of officers of the road would have shown that president, directors and managers of the road were Northern men. Reflection would have shown them that where travel is not so heavy the roads cannot be expected to pay as well as in the North. I saw a man sit down to dinner at a railway eating house. He eyed the piece of meat on his plate for a moment, and then asked what kind of meat it was. The man who sat next to him sententiously remarked, “Dog,” and that man began to abuse the South and left the table, while the man who said “dog” took the piece of meat and ate it. If it rains in the South while some of our Northern cranks are there they blame the country for it. If they have the dyspepsia or suffer from a disordered liver until everything looks blue they charge it up to the depravity of the South, it is fashionable to do this and then come home and say that not only is the South behind the age, but she will never catch up. I think the time has come to stop this system of warfare both North and South and clasp hands over the grave of by-gone animosities. If we must differ let it be upon such questions as relate to the future wellbeing of the country, leaving the dead past to bury its dead.

The Scranton Truth, March 17, 1885.

11. JOHN R. RAY TO T. V. POWDERLY

Office of United States Attorney

Eastern District of North Carolina

Raleigh, N. C.

May 19, 1885

Dear Bro. Powderly:

Why is it that I have not heard from you in so long? Is it because you have forgotten me, or because you have become disgusted with Southern people generally and Southern working people in particular? Probably a little of both.

The cause is making some progress here especially among the blacks, 3282 is increasing its membership rapidly with the best of the colored people, but the whites still stand aloof.

I have one or two questions I would be glad if you would answer right away. The colored women (washerwomen and domestics) wish to organize an Assembly. Do you think it would be advisable to organize them? You know they are very ignorant and illerate as a rule. . . .

Can you not come or send some one else down here to deliver a lecture or to get the people enthused in some way? I am working all the time among the colored people, but can’t do much with the white and have ceased to try much. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

12. T. V. POWDERLY TO J. M. BROUGHTON OF RALEIGH, N.C.

Scranton, Pa.

June 12, 1885

Dear Sir and Bro.

Sometimes it is not prudent to initiate certain men or women at certain places and this may be such a time in the history of the order in Raleigh. Go to Bro. Ray and consult him on the matter, and if deemed advisable, postpone the organization of the colored women until the men (of both colors) are more thoroughly enlisted in the movement. Get the men so well organized that everyone will know that they are in earnest in the work when they do come in. I think it better to postpone the work, at least for a time under the circumstances.

Give my kindest regards to Bro. Ray and all other members of the order you may meet.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

13. JOHN R. RAY TO T. V. POWDERLY

Office of Master Workman

Raleigh, N. C.

June 22, 1885

Dear Bro. Powderly:

You have no idea of what I have to contend with in the way of prejudice down here. There is a continual cry of “nigger! nigger!” in politics, society, labor organizations, and everywhere. I believe that our order is intended to protect all people who work, the poor ignorant underpaid and overworked cook as well as the skilled mechanic, and have tried to act upon that principle. And from this alone I have incurred the abuse and social ostracism of those who claim to be the friends of labor and have made enemies of those who should be my friends and my brethren. Oh how I would like to live in a country of freedom where industrial and moral worth, not prejudices and birth, are the controlling influences!

In regard to those women, I do not think, myself that it would be expedient just now to give the enire work, and should not have done so if nothing had been said against it, but they need organization in some way to protect them from the avericiousness of some of the bretheren (?) and they shall have it, if I am forced to remain here long enough to accomplish it.

Both locals here promise well now as to numbers, and I hope that 3282 will begin the new year out of debt.

I am willing—yea, anxious to move North if I can get work, and I hope you will do what you can for me in that direction. Hope to hear from you at your earliest convenience.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

14. P. M. MC NEAL TO T. V. POWDERLY

Palestine, Tenn.

October 12, 1885

Dear Sir:

As I see the great need of organization among the colored people of the South and it takes the full time of an organizer to travel among them and lecture and organize them I apply for Commission as Organizer (Traveling) for the Southern District.

Hoping that you will dispose of the communication according to your own judgment.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

15. T. V. POWDERLY TO THOMAS CURLEY OF GLEN COVE, N. Y.

Scranton, Pa.

January 14, 1886

Dear Sir and Bro.

The objections presented were not sufficient to reject the candidate.

If he is in other respect qualified to become a member his color cannot debar him.

The employer of labor in reducing wages does so regardless of color. The men who work with colored men dare not find fault, they take their wages and abuse side by side and our Order will not recognize the right of any man to blackball another on account of his race or religion.

Permission is hereby granted to reconsider that ballot by which the colored man was rejected.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

16. TOM O’REILLY TO T. V. POWDERLY

Macon, Ga.

March 4, 1886

My dear Brother Powderly,

The order is making wonderful headway in the South, but the colored assemblies are the most perfectly disciplined. You possess, in a marked manner, the fealty—the very hearts of the Southern people. The very mention of your name sets them wild with enthusiasm. The poor Niggers believe that “massa Powderly” is a man born to lead them out of the house of bondage. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

17. T. V. POWDERLY TO W. H. LYNCH OF MAYSVILLE, KY.

Scranton, Pa.

April 13, 1886

Dear Sir and Brother:

That which has become law through usage and is not in conflict with the law of the order cannot be declared null and void by the M. W. without the consent of the Assembly.

That which is acted on in committee of the whole, voted on and approved by Assembly at subsequent meeting cannot be declared null and void by the M. W. if the same is not in violation of law of the order.

The M. W. of an Assembly has no more right to say what is or is not law than any other member, it is his duty to act as M. W. under the law, and not to make the law, or the wishes of the Assembly subordinate to his notions.

Decision 173 has nothing to say about members at all, it refers to clergymen seeking admission. You must have made a mistake in the number of the decision.

Members of the order in the same D.A. need no travelling cards in order to visit the Assemblies in the same D.A. and if there is a D.A. and an Assembly that does not belong to a D.A. in the one locality the members can visit the different Assemblies without travelling cards by having a special password made for their use by the G.M.W.

I want it understood that this order recognizes no color or creed, no nationality or religion, no politics, or party, and the M.W. who denies the right of admission to a brother member on account of his color is false to the vow he took on becoming a member and false to the obligation he took on being installed. And I will go farther, the M.W. who does as you say your M.W. does is not the kind of man to preside over an Assembly of KNIGHTS. Your duty is to ask of him to resign and allow the Assembly to select a member who is willing to act as the instrument of the Assembly, and not to make an instrument of the Assembly to carve out his own notions.

There must be no trifling in our Assemblies for the future, I tell you that you cannot tell by looking at the finished piece of work whether it was a white man or a colored man who did it, capital makes no difference in oppressing labor whether it is white or black and we must know no differences if we would win as a unit on the question of HUMAN RIGHTS.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America

18. ALEXANDER WALKER TO T. V. POWDERLY

Whistler, Ala.

May 18, 1886

Dear Mr. Powderly:

I take it upon myself to ask you is it wright that a colored member cannot speak in the white assembly. Last meeting the whites they was discussioning labor. One of the colored members ask the Master Workman could he speak a word or to on labor. He told him he could not speak in this assembly and when they come to our meeting they speak as long as they please in the meeting. I have no more to say at this time present. Please send me anser as soon as you can i like to have it by the next meeting night.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

19. D. B. ALLISON AND EDWARD GALLAGHER TO T. V. POWDERLY

Morgan City, La.

July 7, 1886

Dear Sir and Bro.

At a meeting of the above Assembly held July 3, 1886. I was directed to communicate with you and try to get an “organizer” appointed for the purpose of organizing the colored laborers in this place and vicinity.

It will be of great benefit to this Assembly to have them organized at an early a date as possible, and of mutual interest. The colored laborers desire to be organized into a separate Assembly. In fact they have already two or three bodies that meet every week and are in every way prepared to be organized and admitted into our noble order—From the Statement of our Statistician, Bro. Ed. Gallagher hereto attached. It appears that there is nearly 150 that has already paid in funds and signed lists to be organized. As he states, they are daily asking for information in regard to their speedy organization. . It will be of great benefit to us to have them organized.

Hoping this will meet with your favor

I remain yours fraternally,

D. B. Allison

Recording Secretary

P.O. Address: Daniel B. Allison

Lock Box 110. Morgan City, Louisiana

Having been instructed by our Assembly to inquire into and ascertain the number of colored laborers desirious of joining and being admitted into our order. I will report that there is about 150 men now on lists and attending meetings and are very desirious of being covered with our shield.

In fact they are enquiring every day when can they be organized and obtain a charter. I am confident it will be of great and mutual advantage to both white and colored labor for them to be speedily organized, which I hope will be done at an early date.

Yours fraternally,

Edward Gallagher

Statistician

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

20. R. W. KRUSE TO T. V. POWDERLY

Petersburg, Va.

August 3, 1886

Dear Sir and Bro.

I am requested by the Knights of Labor of Petersburg to correspond with you in reference to my Commission as Organizer. I have forwarded my Commission to the Gen’l. Sec. Treas. and have not heard anything in regard to it. We have no Organizer now in this part of Va. now and I have notices from three (3) Counties to organize White Assemblies. I understand Lee A. Nelson Colored of Petersburg has been commissioned as Organizer. I hope you do not expect these white assemblies to be organized by a Colored Organizer. I hope you will answer this without delay by that means I can act accordingly.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

21. H. G. ELLIS TO T. V. POWDERLY

Durham, N. C.

August 17, 1886

Dear Sir and Brother,

An M.W. of the “senior assembly” in this locality “in date of organization,” I feel it incumbent upon me to transmit for the consideration of the Executive Board, any and all matters of importance involving the good of our Noble Order in this section of the State. The most urgent necessity of the order now, especially in this manufacturing centre is the appointment of a white organizer. We must deal with matters as we find them, trusting to time and education, and especially a better understanding of the principles of our order, for the correction and obliteration of all errors. The colored people have an organizer, and a very worthy and efficient one, in the person of the Rev. W. G. H. Woodward, colored. There is a race prejudice, natural, instructive, and while brother Woodward will be an useful worker among the colored people, he is utterly useless to us among the whites. The appointment of a white organizer is therefore a necessity. I suppose you are aware of the fact that brother Jno. R. Ray has left the State, and that we now have no white organizer in the state.

Clubs from every part of the State are appealing to us to be covered by the shield of our noble order, while, under present circumstances we are helpless. We feel that to send a colored man among the large number of white farmers and mechanics and factory operators who are appealing to us, would be to jeopardize the interests of the order in creating a prejudice against us, and thereby greatly retard the progress of the labor movement in this State.

Brother Charles C. King, having been recommended by the late convention which convened in Raleigh on the 10th and 11th inst. for the purpose of electing Representatives to the Gen. Assembly which convenes in Richmond in October, and to organize a State Assembly, and having also been warmly endorsed by each of the Assemblies in this city, I am instructed to request that his credentials (commisions) be forwarded at the earliest practical moment. Inclosed find endorsement of each of our L.A.

Yours fraternally,

H. G. Ellis, M.W.

L. A. No. 4105, K of L

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

22. R. W. KRUSE TO T. V. POWDERLY

Petersburg, Va.

September 23, 1886

Dear Sir and Bro.

I forwarded to you two (2) months ago my application for an Organizer’s Commission and have not heard anything in regard to it. There are now three White Assemblies waiting to be organized. We have a colored organizer in Petersburg but they will not be organized by him. Let me hear from you so I will know what to depend on.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

23. J. A. BELTON TO T. V. POWDERLY

Copiah County, Miss.

November 15, 1886

Esteemed Sir:

My application for the position of Organizer will be mailed you today. I feel authorized to write that in some respects no state in the Union needs organization, and the promulgation and inculcation of the principles of Knighthood, more than Mississippi. In many instances political and industrial liberty is a mere farce.

Out of little more than a million of inhabitants we have more than two hundred thousand majority of the colored population. I have no doubt much opposition will have to be confronted in the attempt to organize them. Without their organization the Order can effect next to nothing in any department of industry, nor need we hope to accomplish anything by legislation till the masses of laborers of all colors and nationalities understand one another better, and more fully comprehend the mutual duties and reciprocal obligations between themselves and employers. Unless by means of organization we can be brought to cooperate, our case is lamentable, and will be perpetuated by the gross ignorance that pervades every nook and corner of our state. The old Bourbon element so long used to its almost unopposed labor, political, and pernicious system, will not remain passive and indifferent, while the masses are seeking to ameliorate their condition educationally, politically, morally, and financially. Some of them are already imputing to us the purpose of inaugurating the social equality principles, knowing that said principle deters from the Order. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

24. C. V. MEUSTIN TO T. V. POWDERLY

Seddon, Ala.

January 17, 1887

Dear Sir and Brother,

I write you in regard to an assembly of colored men that were organized at Riverside about the 24th of Oct. 1886.

J. W. Robertson was one of the charter members of Seddon Assembly. He was appointed U.S. by W. J. Winters, Master Workman and immediately afterward was recommended to the General Assembly for an Organizer. After having had due time to receive a commission I asked him if he had received his commission he said he had but had left at his home in Birmingham. So I made no objection to his organizing the assembly. But it afterward turned out that he had no commission. The (colored) assembly numbered about 34 members. He had them to elect and installed their officers. They are in possession of the secret work of the Order as far as Robertson had it.³³

Can you or the General Assembly do anything for them? I have held them together promising them that we would do all we could to get them a charter. They paid Robertson all dues of an Organizer and I think it would be to the best interest of the Order to grant them a charter. If the General Assembly cannot grant them a charter please let me know so that they may know what to do.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

25. V. E. ST. CLOUD TO T. V. POWDERLY

Savannah, Ga.

January 23, 1887

Dear Sir,

At the last regular session of DA#139 held this a.m. I was instructed to communicate with you, & ask for a reply, to the communication of Dec. 10, 1886 in regard to the orgztion of a Colored Female Assembly, in this City. The communication referred to enclosed the Protests, forwarded to the DA by Several locals in the City, & asked you for a final decision in the case. We have received no reply up to date. Please favor us with your decision in the matter.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

26. W. H. SIMS, M.D. TO T. V. POWDERLY

Texarkana, Texas

January 26, 1887

Dar Sir:

We, the colored people are greatly in need of an organizer. Down in this country the wt. people have set a decoy & fooled the colored people so much it is simply impossible for a wt. organizer to orgze them to any good. In view of this fact DA 145 elected me as orgzer for the colored people but before I sent my commission to you: the Secty of DA 145 said he got a letter from you stating that you would not appoint a man who has not been in the Order over 18 mos. Now is:—I’ve been in the Order only 14 mos., M.W. 12 & believe it to be very necessary to have a colored orgzer. I write you thinking you do not really know the true situation of things in this section of the country.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

27. J. M. BROUGHTON TO T. V. POWDERLY

Raleigh, N. C.

February 8, 1887

Dear Sir & Bro.

I write you at the instance of Bro. Frank Johnson of this city. He was an Organizer, and as such gave satisfaction so far as I have ever heard. Recently his commission has been cancelled and called in. This occasioned him no surprise as I had previously informed him that you would cancel all commissions in this State as soon as the State Assembly met and was put into working trim. (So per your letter of instructions to me of Dec.—.) But up to this date the commission of Bro. Johnson is the only one that has been cancelled. And naturally he begins to feel that there must be some other reason for your recalling his commission. Will you do me the favor to let me know the facts in the case. He is a good man—a colored man you know is somewhat sensitive about honors—and I don’t like to see him under a cloud like this.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

28. FRANK JOHNSON TO T. V. POWDERLY

Raleigh, N. C.

February 14, 1887

Dear Sir & Brother,

Pleas do me the favor to read these few lines. I received an order from you revoking my commission as organizer & waited to hear the cause of the revokcation & was inform it was becaus that my name apeared in the public press as organizer. I say here I did not directly autherize any one to publish my name as organizer of the K of L. it was don at the suggestion and the enstence of Bro. John R. Ray the former organizer becaus he received so meney letters of inquiry who the organizer was. He did it to let the people who desired to organiz know who to apply to. neither he nor myself thought it any harm when all the other organizer did the same thing. every organizer in this state publish him self in the paper. I think it hard that I should be condemned for doing that which others hav done & I am to be punish & they are not. I greatly regret that should hav accurred just at this time for many reasons. The order promis much to my people while it has as yet done little or nothing and they are wavering in their confidence. the revokcation of my commission for no other caus than you give will arous the suspicsion of the colored people that all is not right—and especially so when others who are equally with my self are not molested. I know my race of people & the leas sign of difference they think that it is all for white man & none for the Negro

I have tryed to do my duty honestly for the up building of the order & the greatess truble I hav had whith my race was to make them believ that the order was not a white man trick to get their money.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

29. S. F. S. SWEET TO T. V. POWDERLY

Florence, S.C.

Mr. Powderly Sir.

I tender you these few lines to ask you could not let us have let us have an orgzer, but the great trouble is that color line. Our white Brothers down South is not eager to orgze the Negro race, that’s why we appeal to you for a colored orgzer & if you apply favorably much good will be done in the State of South Carolina.

So I would be pleased to hear from you as early as possible.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

30. GEORGE H. WILLIAMS TO T. V. POWDERLY

Moss Point, Miss.

March 21, 1887

Dear Sir & Brother,

I drop you a few lines steing our presand condishion we are in a condishion so far dear brother we the brothers of Walkes Assembly do kindly ask of all of our brothers to assist us in building a hall the one we meet in now is so small that not more than half of our members can meet at once. We want to build us one at the earliest opportunity, we have the majority of labors in our mills now & dear brother I tell you the honest thruth I do beleave that we are treated worse than any humans on earth, and to call our selfs free men we have to leave home to go to work before daylight & it is black dar when we get home again, we have to work from daylight to twelve o’clock & we only get a half of an hour for dinner & then we go towork at half past twelve & work till dark & we only get from 90 cts. to $1.25 per day & dear brother I think it too hard, I kindly wait for a favorable reply from you.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

31. PETITION TO T. V. POWDERLY

Montgomery, Ala.

April 1, 1887

Sir & Bro.

We the undersigned, officers of the above named L.A., petition your favor of getting on in the field as Organisers. Jno. D. Brookes for reasons herein after stated to wit. As a general thing the Colorded people of the South do not understand the white, and the white organizer cannot do just what is necessary for the upbuilding of the Order.

Signed: A. J. Leaveless, M.W.

C. Williams, W.F.

Jno. D. Brookes, R.S.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

32. FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION ANNOUNCEMENT

KNIGHTS OF LABOR FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION

GREETINGS:

To. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Assembly, No. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..

In pursuance to the request of our General Master Workman, the White Assemblies of this city will celebrate the Fourth of July at Powderly, Ala.

All white members of the Order, and their friends are cordially invited to attend. Please notify the Secretary as soon as possible if your Assembly will participate and the probable number that will attend. Also, what arrangement you can make for transportation.

By order of General Committee.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

33. T. V. POWDERLY TO J. M. BANNAN OF CHETOPA, KA.

Scranton, Pa.

July 8, 1887

Dear Sir and Bro.

I scarcely know how to advise you on so delicate a question. The color line cannot be rubbed out, nor can the prejudice against the colored man be overcome in a day.

I believe that for the present it would be better to organize colored men by themselves. In the present instance you must act in strict accord with the law bearing on organization, act as though you were in no way interested in the matter. I leave the matter in your own hands.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

34. T. V. POWDERLY TO J. O. PARSONS OF WHARTON, TEXAS

Scranton, Pa.

July 19, 1887

Dear Sir and Bro.

Our Order does not recognize any difference in the rights and privileges of the races of mankind. Colored men are regarded as entitled to the same treatment as whites, they may be admitted to Assemblies having white members, but the best way is to organize them in Assemblies of their own and allow the work of education to do away with the prejudice now existing against them.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

35. T. V. POWDERLY TO C. A. TEAGLE OF WACO, TEXAS

Scranton, Pa.

September 8, 1887

Dear Sir and Bro.

Enclosed you will find the letter from L.A. 6141, I think you took the proper course in recommending that this man be proposed and balloted for, after the organization of the Assembly.

Had the delegates, who got together to arrange for a Fourth of July demonstration, represented Assemblies of the Knights of Labor and then refused to allow the colored men to parade with them, they would have acted in violation of the letter and spirit of our laws but in representing other Orders, they were in duty bound to carry out the instructions of the other organizations. The matter having gone so far it is best to let it drop. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

36. ANDREW MC CORMACK TO T. V. POWDERLY

Louisville, Ky.

December 4, 1887

Bro Powd.

The greatest difficulties to be met all over the South are the old party leanings and color prejudice. These two are so mixed up & played upon by unscrupulous self-seekers of every kind, some so-called knights,—that a harmonious coming together of the divided elements will be little short of a modern miracle.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

37. B. W. SCOTT TO T. V. POWDERLY

Berwick, Ga.

December 8, 1887

Dear Sir & Bro.

I am requested by LA 4738 to get your decision on the following. Said LA has about 250 members & there has about 20 joined the State Militia which the LA does not approve of, and have by a large majority vote requested the said militia to accept withdrawal cards, or be expelled from the Assembly. You will understand that the Militia in this State is not used for the purpose for which it is intended but for pol. purposes & to intimidate Labor as has just been demonstrated in the late Strike here on Sugar Plants, when K of L were shot down. It is supposed by the militia or at least while they were present & never made an effort to prevent the killing so long as nothing but K of L were shot consequently LA 4738 does not want members who are subject to orders such as the militia of this State are & unless the LA can get rid of them it will cause it to break up as they are determined not to associate with them now the question you are requested to decide is. Is our Assembly of 250 compelled to retain as members 20 persons whom they do not want to associate with. In other words is there any way in which they can get rid of them & save the Assembly from breaking up.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

38. T. V. POWDERLY TO B. W. SCOTT OF BERWICK, GA.

Scranton, Pa.

January 6, 1888

Dear Sir & Bro.

If your Assembly, with full knowledge of the facts & circumstances surrounding the case of our members who joined the Militia, are of the opinion that it is unwise for them to remain members of the Militia, they may request their withdrawal from the same, on the ground that there is no just cause why a member of the K of L should belong to an org. that is based upon violence.

The K of L is an org. of peace, militia means war at some time or another. I think the matter can be adjusted by your own Assembly for since there is no law upon the matter the best judgment of the M.W. officers & members of the Assembly should be called into play & the case decided upon its merits.

I think it would be a safe plan for all workingmen to attend to their own peaceful occupations & not join any mil. co.; in case of invasion rebellion or war of any kind in the state or our country at leage, why our members, I believe, could do volunteer service as well as though they were members of a mil. co. I therefore leave the matter with your assembly for decision.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

39. B. STOCK TO T. V. POWDERLY

Birmingham, Ala.

February 17, 1888

Dear Sir & Brother.

Accept my sincere thanks for your photo. I assure you that whenever I have occasion to look at it, it will be with pride.

Now then to business. I have told my people that you are coming to Ala. rejoicing & renewed hope is on every lip, the diff. in our cond. is, in 68, only the black man was a Slave, in 88 the wt. & black man are in Slavery. The majority of our members are unable to pay the State & General tax 13, every 3 mos. their suffering is beyond your comprehension. These people look upon you as the coming Savior & for their Sake I beg you not to disappoint them. It would be worse than useless to attempt to have your lecture under a roof there is no bldg. in the State of Sufficient Capacity to accommodate a 5th of your audience and I would not think of asking you to visit us until your health is restored & the weather is pleasant. The 30th of May is our annual labor day. We hold our picnic in a beautiful park here in the City. If you will give us yourself on that day 10 or 12 thousand people will Surround you within its gates. As I said we are in a critical condition financially, the State Assembly is balanced between life and death, “but we will not down.” Last year we charged an admission fee of 25₵. This year we intend to do the same. The proceeds are used for the best interests of the order.

The contents of this letter is confidential & I ask you as a Special favor not to think that I want you to come to Ala. on Speculation of any kind. If you come on the 30th of May though we will be able to bear your Expense in a way you deserve. I am done. You have heard my appeal. Give it your Earnest consideration & let me know the result at your leisure.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

40. HILLARD J. MC NAIR TO T. V. POWDERLY

Battleboro, N.C.

March, 2, 1888

Bro. Powderly Sir,

It is with much complacency that I write you a few lines stating my troubles to you in behalf of my poor downtrodden race. We the under signed members have made a partial bargain with a very rich man to buy a six horse farm from his so that we can build us a hall on it. As we are here in a county where we have to be secretly about what we are doing we have to meet in school houses and churches and we have to run from place to place to keep the landholders from finding out what we are doing. And after I made this arrangement our Master Workman sliped to the man of whom I expected to buy the land of and told he wanted an acre of said land. and then he was told that I was going to buy the plantation he then said that I did not want all of the land that was there. and told the assembly that he wanted $50 dollars to pay for that acre to build a hall on it and if he does that in this county every white man in the county find it out and we can not get any land for nothing that is why write to you to let you know our objects whether or not it is expedient to buy the plantation and build us a hall on it so we meet there all the time or let him go ahead buy one acre so that we will have to quit meeting entirely. I am satisfied if we let him go the way he is going every assembly in this county will be ruined. let us know whether or not to buy the plantation. let me know what we must do because we are awaiting your decision.

Your most obedient Servant

Hillard J. McNair, R.S.³⁴

Powell Battle, Stat. he told the man something untrue. he said he wanted to a dwelling house on it. and if you say buy one acre and build on it after saying he was going to build a dwelling on it he will forfit the bargain and the land and hall will be taking from us. then there goes us and the money to.

Direct your letter to Bro No. 18.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

41. J. A. BODENHAMER TO T. V. POWDERLY

Jacksonville, Fla.

April 10, 1889

T V Powd.

The Order in the South must of necessity be composed largely of the Negro race. The great bulk of the labor in this country is performed by colored hands, against whom a cultivated prejudice (akin to hate) is most intense. Ridiculous as it may appear to men of broader intelligence there are toilers with wt. skins, whose lot is in no sense superior to that of the black slave’s, who will not join the Order because of the prejudice that has been instilled into them against the Negro. They have not yet learned the great lesson that greed makes no distinction in the color of the victims of its robbery.

Again, there are shrewd, calculating politicians who act solely with a view to personal gain, or to endeavor to control the colored vote. The greatest difficulties, so far, the Order has had to contend with have come from the contentions raised by this class of men in their struggles for leadership. In some localities the effect has tended largely to injure the Order, but it will grow upon the ruin of all such characters. It is a most encouraging fact that the colored people make good knights—they are exceedingly watchful of their liberty—and a strong and powerful org. of them is only a question of time.

Our State Master Workman, Bro. G. Y. Mott, works faithfully and earnestly, and with good results, though at times strongly antagonized. He is a mechanic—a worker with his paint brush—and a good one. Yet I am told that a few days ago he was “relieved” of a job on a banker’s property, with no reason assigned, other than his “insurrectionary movements among the Negroes.” This, I consider, the best indorsement he could get, in the estimation of working people.

In Bro. J. J. Holland, I am persuaded you will find an able and efficient Lieutenant, especially for work in the South.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

42. C. C. MEHURIN TO T. V. POWDERLY

Jacksonville, Fla.

April 15, 1889

Dear Sir:

I am mngr of this business—have been such for about 20 mos. When I first took charge there were branches in Columbus, Miss. Decatur, Ala. Chattanooga, Tenn, as well as here. During the past 5 yrs. I have traveled over much of 9 So. Sts, & Been in a position to note the lamentable condition of labor; so I feel able to address you on this very vital subject—labor in the South. Of course, the great distracting source is negro competition. The negro is forced to accept 50 to 75 cents per day & that forces the wt man to take about the same. These wages will not enable a wt or black to ed. his children or feed them such food as will nourish body & brain properly. The poorer classes are becoming grosser every day because of their diet of corn meal and “sow-belly” from the beginning to the end of the years. In the name of charity for poor man, can not something be done to right this terrible wrong before oppressed labor endeavors to right it with force & thus increase the evil? I have evolved a partial remdy; but you may have done more in the way of thinking on this line than I & more to the purpose. Standing at the head of a frt. org as you do, can you do, can you not start some reform? This dreadful competition of cheap labor in the so. must sooner or later very seriously effect the prices of wages in the north, and almost chivalize our great masses. I will be glad to aid in any movem, to better the condition of labor in the so. but not in any open way unless it be in connection with an orgzed effort; for to move in the matter is to stir up the most intense prejudices of the wts. & to combat with the dense ignorance of the blacks & “poor wt. trash,” & which of the 3 would be most to overcome is hard to say. In self defense the Knights ought to move in the matter at once.

That you may be assured that you are not being imposed upon I wish to say that I am originally from Ohio; am a marble workman, but for years past have been in the newspaper work—In inclose one of my old business cards. Allow me to also refer to ex-Lieut. Gov. Lyon of Ohio as Co my identity.

Can I be of service to you in bringing about some greatly to be desired reforms?

P.S. I am corresp. of some city dailies, & may use them to a little purpose. CCM.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

43. C. E. YARBORO TO T. V. POWDERLY

Editor

The Southern Appeal

Atlanta, Ga.

November 18, 1889

Sir:

I have endeavored repeatedly to gain a conference with you but have always found you engrossed in other matters.

I send with letter copies of my paper. If you deem that it can prove beneficial to the Order and can get the Negroes in Georgia, I would be glad to have it made the official organ for the Knights of Labor for this state.

If further explanation is desired I shall be pleased to call at whatever time you suggest.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

44. JOHN DERBIN TO T. V. POWDERLY

Jacksonville, Fla.

November 2, 1890

My Dear Powderly,

You are a bad man. You have got me into a hot box by sending me to Fla. You wanted me to prevent Holland from making any more mistakes. But the mistakes or rather blunders, they may possibly be worse, were all made before I got here. I am rather inclined to think worse. I find that the Bro. (Taylor) who it was alledged was an expelled member was not an expelled member at all. He never was tried by the court of his A. or any other A. There is no record of trial on the books of his A. up to the evening that the committee of the State A. assisted the Assembly. I attended the A. at its last meeting heard the minutes of that meeting read (the one which the investigation committee was present at). The record shows that the Bro was expelled by motion in the A. The notice to the State Secty states that he was expelled Aug. 29th. The books has no second of it untill the meeting mentioned in October. The charge against him was for taking $57.00 in cash against the will or consent of the A. and unlawfully holding books, key of desk, and Seal of the A. The bro puts another face upon the charges made against him. But you will see that if it were true as charged, he should have been tried by the court and given an opportunity to defend himself. Such was not the case, and Holland knew it, or could have known it if he wanted to. But that is not all, I find that when the State A. met in September that the regularly accredited delegates who had not up to that time been covered by the exclusion decree and they constituted all but about four were not admitted to the meeting untill after the ex-delegates had settled the question of Taylor’s right to sit. They were then admitted and initiated. So that I find that it was not the regularly accredited delegates that decided against the ruling of the S.M.W. but a lot of ex-delegates who have as I believe no right to decide anything, in fact the matter was never brought before the S. Assembly after the regular delegates were admitted. Rather a strange way of doing business these people have in Florida. I might say that L.A. 9686, Bro. Taylor’s A., is a colored A. and when I attended their meeting and Bro. H. was with me I received a rather HOT reception because I asked a few questions. 0 such a storm. The M.W. and R.S. told me flatly that they would not give me any information and when I insisted upon the R.S. answering my questions a big burly Negro threw of his coat and I began to think I might find the pavement without going down the stairs. All this time Bro H. set there and never opened his mouth so far as to check the disturbance. The officers would not answer any question only that Bro. H. told them to answer and they were very few. So you see you have got me into hot water with my Bro. H. He has paid me but little attention since I began investigating and when I talk to him about the matter he gets very hot under the collar. The brothers here who have been thrown out of office are going to protest against his being admitted and request an opening of the case as to the legality of the called session. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

45. T. V. POWDERLY TO REV. P. H. KENNEDY OF HENDERSON, KY.

Scranton, Pa.

December 2, 1890

Dear Sir:

I am written to by John H. Adams, of Empire, Ky., to drop you a line concerning the attitude of the Knights of Labor toward the colored race, and, as my time is limited, I must be brief.

We organize neither race, creed or color in our membership and make no distinctions whatever, believing that moral worth should be standard. We do not load the colored man with fulsome flattery or praise him for qualities which he does not possess, we simply place him side by side with his white brother on the same plane.

One thing I realize and that is that long years of thraldom have denied the colored man the same opportunities that the white man possesses, and because of that the colored man should receive more encouragement in order that he may win what was kept back from him for centuries.

The education of the colored man on the political, social and economic questions of the day is as essential as can be the education of the white man on these same lines and its intense desire to bring about such results that the Knights of Labor have earned the enmity of all who would make slaves of the white and black who toil for bread.

Wherever you find a true Knight of Labor there will you find one who stands side by side with all true men on the basis of equality.

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

47. SAMUEL G. SEARING TO T. V. POWDERLY

Jacksonville, Fla.

June 15th, 1892

Mr. T. V. Powderly G.W.M.

Just before my appointment expired as organizer I consolidated all the white assemblies here in one #3578 that being the oldest assembly, & had not my commission expired I would have consolidated all the Blacks in one that would have put the order here in such shape that our enemies could not have got in and caused dissentions we could have had a committee from the white assembly to go there and assist in enlightening and learning the blacks and they could send a delegation to see how the whites got along and each could assist in advancing the interests—This is the way it is done in St. Augustine and the order there is in good condition and a power there locally. We want it a power all over the state and I believe that large assemblies and fewer of them much preferable to so many small and weak ones. . . .

Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America.

48. POWDERLY’S OPEN LETTER TO SECRETARY FOSTER³⁵

The Latter a Mere Artificer in Political Trickery.

To the Hon. Charles Foster, Secretary of the United States Treasury:

DEAR SIR:—On the 24th of last December I opened up a correspondence with your predecessor, the late Mr. Windom, on the subject of the discharge of Knights of Labor from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Your recent public statements, as made through the medium of newspaper interviews and conversations with public men, strengthen the impression made upon my mind at our first and only interview—that you knew little or nothing about the merits of the controversy. ³⁶

You have given out the impression that the primary cause of the difficulty lay in the demand of a Knight of Labor for the discharge of a colored girl with whom he refused to work. In answer to a question put to you by Mr. Cavanaugh as to what led to the trouble, you said: “I’m damned if I know.”

If you spoke truly to Mr. Cavanaugh you could have had no faith in your statements to the public as made through the press. If you believed what you published you must have told to Mr. Cavanaugh that which you intended to be untrue. Within the last three days you have given out garbled extracts from a letter written by to you. You have stated that the contention is between rival organizations. You have charged that we threatened the defeat of Mr. McKinley in Ohio. You have congratulated yourself on having tricked the General Officers of the Knights of Labor. I say that you have done these things, and they must have originated with you, for it has been our purpose since the beginning to make nothing public except that which was unavoidable. Your exalted position as a Cabinet Officer, the Minister of Finance of our country, and adviser of the Chief Magistrate of a nation of 62,000,000 people, is indeed a responsible one. Next to the Presidency, it is the most responsible office in the Republic. You very aptly said to Mr. Devlin on June 30: “This is a big place.” A place that was made great by a Hamilton and a Windom is indeed a big place, but it becomes only a vacuum when an artificer in political trickery attempts to fill it.³⁷

The public press, even the most bitter opponents of the Order I represent, in commenting on the various lights in which this controversy has been shown by you, has not failed to penetrate the thin guise of statesmanship in which you have veiled yourself, and, while many condemn us on the strength of your misrepresentations, not one word of approval has been spoken or written of the course pursued by a statesman who did not feel too small to squeeze through the narrow crevice of deception and treachery when the broad pathway of truth and manliness lay open before him.

Before this trouble began a plate printer, and a Knight of Labor too, complained to his Local Assembly that a colored girl had been appointed as his assistant. The Local Assembly placed the facts before the General Executive Board. I was present at the meeting, and the decision of the Board was that the remedy lay with the plate printer himself. If he did not wish to work with her he could quit, unless he could prove that she was unfit to perform the duties of the position. In any event, her race, creed or color could not enter into the controversy. That decision of the General Executive Board was accepted by all concerned. It settled the matter. The plate printer who remonstrated was not and is not one of the men whose discharge is now in dispute, and, furthermore, he is still at work in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The girl is not there now. Mr. Meredith can tell you where she is and why she left. That episode cuts no figure in the argument, and the demagogic appeals to race prejudice which emanate from you, and which furnish the meat for misleading editorials in many papers, are based on nothing more tangible than your hope to deceive the public.

So much for the race question.

Members of L. A. 3837 at work in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing discovered that the Chief of the Bureau was not conducting himself as a gentleman or a watchful guardian of public interests. They charged him with immorality, with obscene and profane language in the Bureau, with drunkenness, and with making a beastly exhibition of his depraved nature. When a workman applied for leave of absence on account of sickness he was asked by the Chief of the Bureau if he were not afflicted with a vile disease which those who travels the paths of virtue are not likely to contract. The Chief of the Bureau was informed that certain employes were unclean and that vermin was communicated to others by them while at work. The answer of Mr. Meredith as contained in the affidavit before me is too filthy for publication.

It was charged that inferior inks of foreign make were being used, and it was intimated that some one was receiving a commission on the purchase of these inks. American ink of a superior quality could be purchased for less money than the foreign ink which was being used. The Treasury notes printed before we forced a partial investigation were printed with ink that did not stand the test. If you doubt my word, you have only to rub the back of one of these Treasury notes on a piece of white paper and you will discover that the colors are not fast, for they will rub off and discolor the paper with which the bill comes in contact. If it was proper to so protect American tin as to cause the people of the United States to use it in preference to foreign made tin, it was eminently so on the part of the plate printers when they demonstrated that the goverment should practice what it preached. You evidently fell in with that idea when you ordered a change of inks, but you did not follow up the investigation to ascertain what percentage of the profits on the sale of the foreign inks went into the pockets of heads of departments and bureaus.

A United States Senator recommended a plate printer for employment in the Bureau under Chief Meredith. The officers of the Knights of Labor entered a protest against his employment on the ground that he was incompetent, dishonest, and that he ill-treated his wife. The Chief reported the matter to the Senator, but did not say a word about the man’s character. The Senator naturally became angry and insisted that no labor organization should interfere with government affairs. He met the officers of L.A. 3837; they proved to his satisfaction that the man he recommended was a worthless character; he thanked them for their vigilance and withdrew his recommendation.

I have before me the sworn statements of plate printers on the irregularities of the Bureau; but what has been detailed will show that we have a cause for complaint—if not as Knights of Labor, then as American citizens and tax-payers interested in the discipline and honest administration of public affairs.

Away back of all of these things stand the patentees of the steam presses, on which a former official of the government received a royalty, and who naturally felt angry at the Local Assembly that exposed the steal and deposed the stealer. The steam presses cannot do the work as it should be done—in the highest style of the art; but a percentage of the profits, if given to Mr. Meredith, would no doubt reconcile him to the use of the steam presses. The officers of L.A. 3837 stood between the government of the United States and inferior workmanship that could easily be counterfeited. They also stood between the Chief of the Bureau and a share of the profits. If these things were not known to the Secretary of the Treasury they should be made known to him and not to the public, for they reflected not alone on officials, but on every American citizen.

With these ideas in view I wrote the following letter:

SCRANTON, PA., December 24, 1890.

Hon. Wm. Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, Washington, D.C.:

DEAR SIR:—I am encouraged to again address you on a subject which is of great importance to the Order of which I am the responsible head. The fact that you have special attention to and investigated the protest against the appointment of Thomas Furlong at our request causes me to hope that you will again use your great influence in our behalf, and thus undo a wrong which has been perpetrated upon members of our Order. I have been requested to take official notice of the discharge of members of Plate Printers’ Assembly, No. 3837, from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, on the order of Mr. Meredith; but, before doing so, I beg to ask you to give the matter some attention, and, if possible, have the trouble adjusted without any interference from our General Executive Board. If what I have been told is true, Mr. Meredith has denied to Mr. Jordan and others the right to be heard in their own behalf. It is also alleged that others who preferred charges against Mr. Meredith have not been given a fair opportunity to present testimony. As to the nature of the charges against Mr. Meredith I know nothing, for I did not consider it necessary to listen to them until after the court of last resort had been appealed to. I believe that such matters are best settled through the heads of departments and the avoidance of any publicity, for scandals reflecting upon the character of public officials injure us as a nation in the eyes of other people, and for that reason I would rather not make public the charges preferred against Mr. Meredith. Mr. Jordan asserts that although he had nothing to do with the charges against the Chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, he is held responsible for the same. May I ask you to cause an investigation to be made into the controversy now progressing between members of L.A. 3837 and the Chief of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing? When in Washington the other day, I was requested to call upon you, but, knowing the harassing details and perplexities consequent upon the present financial situation, which demanded attention at your hands, I refrained from troubling you, preferring to ask you through the medium of a communication to take official notice of the matter which I now bring to your attention.

Very respectfully yours,

T. V. POWDERLY

General Master Workman.

That letter was answered by the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Nettleton, who, in closing his communication, used these words:

I do not need to say that, if it can be shown that injustice has been practiced toward any employe of the Bureau, the wrong will be promptly righted, and I will add, in conclusion, that if any one inside or outside of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has knowledge of any misconduct on the part of the Chief or any other officer or employe of the Bureau, and will prefer charges to that effect, such charges shall be promptly and impartially investigated.

On receipt of that letter I instructed the officers of Plate Printers’ Assembly to reduce to writing such facts as they possessed, and they did as directed.

In company with Mr. Hayes, the General Secretary-Treasurer of the Knights of Labor, I called on Mr. Windom, the Saturday before his untimely death, and made arrangements to present these charges. They were intrusted to Mr. Hayes for presentation. Mr. Windom’s death caused a delay, and then you became Secretary of the Treasury. When the matter was presented to you and an investigation asked for you declared it unnecessary, inasmuch as it would be easier to reinstate the men and have no investigation. When the time arrived to put that plan into execution you shifted the responsibility to the shoulders of the president, asserting that Mr. Meredith was his special appointee, and that His Excellency had interfered in his behalf. You were informed that, no matter though the discharged men were restored to their places, the charges against Mr. Meredith must be subjected to investigation, and from that position we have not receded one jot or tittle.

After every meeting held between you and members of our Board malicious and garbled accounts of what occurred appeared in the Washington papers, these false statements came from your desk in the Treasury Department. Though they were extremely aggravating, we held our peace. Even after the termination of the interview which you held with Messrs. Devlin and Hayes early in June, we remained silent, and when our Board met in Columbus, Ohio, the newspapers that friendly to you were the first to charge us with making threates to defeat Major McKinley. We made no threats then; we make none now. Actions speak more eloquently than words sometimes.

Previous to the meeting of our Board at Columbus and the meeting held between Senator Sherman, Major McKinley and yourself at Mansfield, you discussed the settlement of this matter with Mr. Cavanaugh, the General Worthy Foreman of this Order, and told him you would bring it up at the Mansfield meeting. The following letter will bear out that statement:³⁸

Fostoria, Ohio, June 22, 1891

Hon. Wm. McKinley, Jr., Canton, Ohio:

DEAR SIR:—I called upon Senator Sherman to-day and was advised by that gentleman to come here and have a talk with Secretary Foster which I have done. I cannot say that my visit has resulted in a settlement of our trouble, but it looks, however, as though it would lead to that. Mr. Foster informs me that he is to meet you at Mansfield on the 24th, upon which occasion this subject may be referred to. Feeling assured that we can depend upon your assistance in the matter, I hope the opportunity will present itself during the meeting to advise a settlement in our behalf.

Yours respectfully,

HUGH CAVANAUGH.

Mr. McKinley answered that letter on the 25th at the close of the Mansfield meeting, and stated that the matter had been discussed.

On June 26 you sent this telegram to Mr. Cavanaugh:

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 26, 1891

Hugh Cavanaugh, Cincinnati, Ohio:

Think matter can be arranged on the basis of talk. You had better be here on Monday.

CHARLES FOSTER.

In response to that telegram Mr. Cavanaugh came on to Washington, and, in company with Mr. Devlin, had an interview with you on the afternoon of June 30 . At that meeting you wrote a letter to Mr. Jordan, signed it, and handed it to Mr. Devlin. You did not ask him for it again; and as he was directed to get an acknowledgment of some kind from you, over your signature, of the injustice done the plate printers, he did right in retaining it.

You have stated that the letter was stolen from you. That is either an error of speech or judgment on your part. But let the letter speak for itself. It is as follows:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON

June 30, 1891

Mr. Jordan

Sir:

In accordance with an understanding arrived at with Mr. Devlin and Mr. Cavanaugh it was agreed that the seven men discharged by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of which you are one are to be re-employed in the places held by them when discharged.

Will you please advise whether you desire to be so re-employed.

Yours truly,

CHAS. FOSTER

Journal of the Knights of Labor, July 16, 1891.