POWDERLY, TERENCE VINCENT

Terence Powderly (1849–1924) was born in Pennsylvania in 1849 to a family of poor Irish immigrants. He rose to become one of the major leaders of U.S. industrial workers during the late nineteenth century. Becoming the leader of the Knights of Labor Union in 1879, his idealism created the first industrial union to admit all workers regardless of race or sex and enabled the birth and development of 135 worker and consumer cooperatives in the United States.

Born in 1849, Powderly did not begin his career as a labor leader. He started out in public office, serving three terms as mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He entered into union work seeking to abolish the capitalist wage system and institute a society where people would live by cooperation, rather than by seeking to gain from exploiting one another.

Powderly sought to lead laborers collectively towards this goal. He preferred to negotiate labor matters in a non-confrontational manner. Powderly hoped to bring harmony to industrial relations, stressing cooperation between workers and industries. With these ideals in mind, Powderly became leader of the Knights of Labor in 1879. Since the labor movement at that time was not open to conciliation and negotiation, Powderly found himself taking the union in a different direction.

Powderly led the Knights of Labor through a series of dramatically successful strikes in the 1880s, among them a victory against the U.S. railroad industry. The 1880s were the early days of the labor movement, and Powderly's victories encouraged union growth. Membership in the Knights of Labor rose from 100,000 to 700,000 in one year. Powderly continued to meet with success as a labor leader, establishing labor bureaus in several states and supporting contract-labor laws.

As time passed the popular union boss became ambivalent about leading a confrontational union, but despite his best attempts, the Knights of Labor continued to be more aggressive. Powderly, who saw himself as a man of peace, became uncomfortable with his position, and as a result, he began to distance himself from union involvement.

Powderly turned more of his attention to pursuits outside the labor movement. While still serving as head of the union, he studied law and served as a county health officer. He partly owned and managed a grocery store and served as vice president of the Irish Land League. He also sought a presidential appointment as the first U.S. Commissioner of Labor. Several times he threatened to resign from the union.

Resignation came in 1893, when a rural wing of the Knights of Labor moved aggressively to oust Powderly from the union leadership. This movement was supported by socialists, who sought open conflict with industrial owners and disagreed completely with Powderly's insistence on negotiation. By this time the union's strength was failing; its membership had dwindled to seventy-five.

Powderly was relieved to leave the union. He resigned at the age of forty-four and soon started a new career as a lawyer and civil servant. Putting his union leadership days behind him, he worked in several capacities as a civil servant with the U.S. Immigration Commission and the Department of Labor.

Terence Powderly died in 1924. His efforts as a labor leader, though often against his personal philosophy, encouraged workers to organize and change the workplace status quo. He continued to serve the public in his work outside the union until his death.

See also: Knights of Labor, Labor Movement, Labor Unionism, Trade Unions

FURTHER READING

Encyclopedia of American Biography, 2nd ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1996, s.v. "Powderly, Terence Vincent."

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998, s.v. "Powderly, Terence Vincent (1849–1924)."

Falzone, Vincent J. Terence V. Powderly, Middle Class Reformer. Washington: University Press of America, 1978.

Powderly, Terence Vincent. The Path I Trod; the Autobiography of Terence V. Powderly. New York: Columbia University Press, 1940.

Voss, Kim. The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993.