charity, less of selfishness, more of generosity, less of
stinginess and nearness, than the average society has yet
disclosed to its members." Nor were these ideas and principles
betrayed by Stephens's successor, Terence V. Powderly, who became
Grand Master in 1879 and served during the years when the order
attained its greatest power. Powderly, also, was a conservative
idealist. His career may be regarded as a good example of the
rise of many an American labor leader. He had been a poor boy. At
thirteen he began work as a switch-tender; at seventeen he was
apprenticed as machinist; at nineteen he was active in a
machinists' and blacksmiths' union. After working at his trade in
various places, he at length settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania,
and became one of the organizers of the Greenback Labor party. He
was twice elected mayor of Scranton, and might have been elected
for a third term had he not declined to serve, preferring to
devote all his time to the society of which he was Grand Master.
The obligations laid upon every member of the Knights of Labor
were impressive: Labor is noble and holy. To defend it from
degradation; to divest it of the evils to body, mind and estate
which ignorance and greed have imposed; to rescue the toiler from
the grasp of the selfish--is a work worthy of the noblest and
best of our race. In all the multifarious branches of trade
capital has its combinations; and, whether intended or not, it
crushes the manly hopes of labor and tramples poor humanity in
the dust. We mean no conflict with legitimate enterprise, no
antagonism to necessary capital; but men in their haste and
greed, blinded by self-interests, overlook the interests of
others and sometimes violate the rights of those they deem
helpless. We mean to uphold the dignity of labor, to affirm the
nobility of all who earn their bread by the sweat of their brows.