| Terence V. Powderly | |
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Terence V. Powderly |
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| Born | January 22, 1849 Carbondale Pennsylvania |
| Died | June 24, 1924 (aged 75) |
| Occupation | Leader of the Knights of Labor from 1879–1893 |
Terence Vincent "Terry" Powderly (January 22, 1849 – June 24, 1924[1]) was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, the son of Irish Catholic immigrants. He was a highly visible national spokesman for the working man as head of the Knights of Labor from 1879 until 1893. Although the Knights claimed over 600,000 members at its peak in 1886, it was so poorly organized that Powderly had little power.
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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 large 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.
The Knights also helped to organize unions for women and African American workers. By 1886, estimates for "KoL" membership range from 700,000 to 1 million members, including 10,000 women and 50,000 African Americans....
Powderly, along with most labor leaders at the time, opposed the immigration of Chinese workers to the United States. He argued that immigrants took jobs away from native-born Americans and drove down wages, and even urged West Coast branches of the Knights of Labor to campaign for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act.[2]
Powderly worked with the noted Catholic bishop, James Gibbons, to persuade the pope to remove sanctions against 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.[3]
The Greenback ideology of producerism influenced Powderly more strongly than socialism, and since producerism regarded most employers as "producers", Powderly disliked strikes.[4] At times the Knights organized strikes against local firms where the employer might be admitted as a member. The strikes would drive away the employers, resulting in a more purely-working class organization. Despite his personal ambivalence about labor action, Powderly'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.[5]
The union was recognized as the first successful national labor union in the United States. In 1885-86 the Knights achieved their greatest influence and greatest membership. Powderly attempted to focus the union on cooperative endeavors and the eight-hour day. Soon 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.[6]
Disaster struck the Knights with the Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago on May 4, 1886. Anarchists were blamed, and two of them were Knights. Membership plunged overnight as a result of false rumors linking the Knights to anarchism and terrorism. However the disorganization of the group and its record of losing strike after strike disillusioned many members. Bitter factionalism divided the union, and its forays into electoral politics were failures.[7]
Many KoL members joined more conservative alternatives, especially the Railroad brotherhoods and the unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) which promoted craft unionism over the one all-inclusive union concept. He was defeated for re-election as Master Workman in 1893 the decline of the Knights continued and Powderly moved on, opening his own successful law practice in 1894.[8]
Powderly served 3 two-year terms as mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania representing the Greenback-Labor Party beginning in 1878.[9]
A favorite of Republican President William McKinley, who sought a pro-labor image, Powderly 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 resident of the Petworth neighborhood in Washington, D.C., in the last years of his life, 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 into the U.S. Department of Labor Hall of Fame in January 2000.