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RD-DD1843 [2017-06-27 06:05:41 +0000 UTC]

The  gentleman with the handlebar moustache is Terence V. Powdery,  the first man to be known nationally for leading a powerful labor union force, "the Knights of Labor".   The bearded man falling out of the carriage may be Powderly's associate Uriah Stephens.  The "Knights of Labor" began declining by 1887.  In the 1890s Samuel Gompers began to build up the far more effective American Federation of Labor (AFL) which was for specialty labor unions (like Gompers own "cigar makers") - more like a unified set of guilds that worked for specific wage and hour gains, and safety gains.  It was the work of Eugene Debs, and later William Green, that the unskilled union workers were organized, and the "CIO" formed (later to unite with the "AFL"). The failure of Powderly was due to his feeling labor had to influence elections (which did happen eventually), to the detriment of "meat and potato" style gains that Gompers felt were more sensible. Powderly was from England, as was Gompers, but Powderly noted the political activities of labor in European countries.  They simply did not have the same clout in the U.S. in the 1870s and 1880s. In fact labor's votes had to be built on the city and state levels first.  It is not until 1912 that Debs will be the fourth major Presidential Candidate of that year (as the Socialist Candidate) and will show an effect as important as Roosevelt, Wilson, Taft were.  Debs won some 900,000 votes - an achievement of real significance in the 20th Century.
 
 

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