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Powderly Will Go to Paris: The Paris Exposition 1889 and the Knights of Labor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2017

Steven Parfitt
Steven Parfitt*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Abstract

This article deals with one of the many neglected chapters of the global history of the Knights of Labor: the events that led the Knights to participate in one of the great international events of the age, the Paris Exposition of 1889, and their attempts to found their assemblies, as they called their branches, on French soil. Drawing on voluminous correspondence between the leaders of the Knights of Labor and their enthusiasts in France, and on the Order's own journal and the proceedings of its conventions, this article analyzes the reasons why the Knights failed to capitalize on their participation in the Exposition, illustrates many of the failings of leadership and organization that afflicted the Order both at home and abroad, and demonstrates some of the problems and potential solutions that faced French labor activists at the end of the nineteenth century.

Type
Article
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 92: Developmentalism, Labor, and the Slow Death of Slavery in Twentieth Century Africa , Fall 2017 , pp. 183 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2017 

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References

NOTES

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19. Journal of United Labor (hereafter JUL), October 1, 1887.

20. See Watillon, Knights in Belgium, and Pelling, “Knights in Britain.”

21. An example of each includes Young, “Changing Images,” 84–85; The Times, November 15, 1886; Sunderland Daily Echo, February 11, 1890.

22. The Times, June 29, 1886.

23. Maysville Daily Evening Bulletin, July 17, 1886.

24. JUL, September 6, 1888.

25. Maurice to Powderly, October 30, 1888, Box 48, Terence Powderly Papers, Catholic University of America History Research Center and University Archives (hereafter cited as TPP).

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28. JUL, February 25, 1888.

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33. JUL, January 24 and March 21, 1889; Weir, Knights Down Under, 217.

34. Moss, Origins of the Labor Movement, 96; Maitron, Dictionnaire biographique, XI, 314–15.

35. JUL, October 25, 1888.

36. JUL, August 16, 1888.

37. JUL, August 9, 1888.

38. JUL, February 25, 1888.

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44. Powderly to Maurice, March 7, 1889, Box 41, TPP.

45. Godineau, “L’économie sociale,” 72–74.

46. Victor Delahaye to Powderly, September 8, 1887, Box 36, TPP.

47. JUL, November 22, 1888.

48. JUL, November 8, 1888.

49. Proceedings of the GA (1888), 19–20, 67.

50. New York Sun, November 25, 1888.

51. JUL, February 21, 1889.

52. JUL, February 28, 1889.

53. Maurice to Powderly, February 18, 1889, Box 41, TPP; Maurice to Powderly, June 4, 1889, Box 54, TPP.

54. JUL, May 9, 1889.

55. Birdsall, William C., “The Problem of Structure in the Knights of Labor,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review 6 (1953): 532–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weir, Knights Unhorsed, 97.

56. Directors Scripps League to Powderly, May 15, 1889, Box 53, TPP.

57. Scripps League to Powderly, undated June 1889, Box 54, TPP; Hugh Cavanaugh to Powderly, undated 1889, Box 57, TPP.

58. JUL, May 30, 1889. This story became a newsworthy item in Britain, where two of the leading radical newspapers featured it. (Reynolds’ Newspaper, July 21, 1889; Commonweal, August 3, 1889).

59. F. Veyssier to Maurice, July 30, 1889, Box 55, TPP.

60. Ibid.; JUL, March 14 and May 9, 1889.

61. F. Veyssier to Powderly, November 30, 1888, Box 49, TPP.

62. C. Deville to Hayes, July 28, 1889, Box 54, TPP.

63. Examples of promises to each of them include Alberte Delwarte to Hayes, May 20, 1889, Box 54, TPP; Chicago Daily Tribune, September 3, 1887; Powderly to Jesse Chapman, February 8, 1889, Box 99, TPP.

64. Weir, Knights Unhorsed, 63–69.

65. Ibid., 165.

66. Powderly to Maurice, June 1, 1889, Box 42, TPP.

67. Powderly to F. Veyssier, July 15, 1889, Box 54, TPP.

68. His poor health is chronicled in Craig Phelan, Grand Master Workman: Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor (Westport, CT, 2000), esp. 11, 49, 9, 154, 181, 252.

69. Powderly to F. Veyssier, July 15, 1889, Box 54, TPP.

70. Barry's dispatches to the Journal include JUL, August 15, September 5, September 19, September 26, and October 3, 1889.

71. JUL, September 19, 1889.

72. Weir, Knights Unhorsed, 152–53.

73. F. Veyssier to Powderly, September 20, 1889, Box 56, TPP.

74. C. Deville to Hayes, July 28, 1889, Box 54, TPP. “Brother Chapman” referred to Jesse Chapman, one of the leading figures in the Order's assemblies around Birmingham (England).

75. F. Veyssier to Maurice, July 30, 1889, Box 55, TPP; C. Deville to Hayes, July 28, 1889, Box 54, TPP.

76. F. Veyssier to Powderly, August 9, 1889, Box 55, TPP.

77. Powderly to F. Veyssier, August 27, 1889, Box 101, TPP.

78. Weir, Robert, Knights Unhorsed: Internal Conflict in a Gilded Age Social Movement (Michigan, 2000), 101–102 Google Scholar.

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80. Weir, Knights Unhorsed, 171.

81. F. Veyssier to Powderly, February 28, 1890, Box 59, TPP.

82. F. Veyssier to Powderly, September 20, 1889, Box 56, TPP.

83. Maurice to Powderly, March 26, 1889, Box 51, TPP; Powderly to Maurice, December 29, 1888, Box 99, TPP.

84. Powderly to Maurice, June 19, 1889, Box 101, TPP; Hayes to Powderly, May 31, 1889, Box 53, TPP.

85. Proceedings of the GA (1889), 9; New York Sun, November 25, 1888.

86. Weir, Knights Unhorsed, chapter 6.

87. The Times, July 22, 1889.

88. Justice, July 27, 1889.

89. JUL, November 14, 1889.

90. An example sent to the Knights: Chicago World's Fair to Powderly, June 12, 1891, Box 67, TPP.

91. New York World, September 2, 1889.

92. Chicago World's Fair to Powderly, December 9, 1891, Box 70, TPP.

93. For three examples of this correspondence, see H. Bearnaise to Powderly, May 28, 1892, Box 72, TPP; Lyon to Powderly, September 22, 1892, Box 74, TPP; de Boyue to Powderly, January 5, 1893, Box 75, TPP; Count Theodore de Leusse to Powderly, December 22, 1893, Box 83 TPP. For the article in 1899: Jannet, P., “Les Chevaliers du Travail,” Musée social 6 (1899): 305–49Google Scholar.

94. A.F. Parmentier to Powderly, February 2, 1894, Box 84, TPP.

95. Dommanget, La Chevalerie de Travail.

96. Jannet, “Les Chevaliers du Travail,” 305–306.