The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

186 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 3 hour workday strikes, Powderly proposed an essay contest as an alternative to striking (Yard 446). Although it is possible that this proposal was simply an attempt to distract the sometimes malcontented and aggressive Knights, an essay contest was entirely consistent with Powderly’s general strategy (447). Powderly, much the same as his predecessor, did not think that strikes were effective. He argued that the battle for the eight-hour workday could be won not by striking, but by courting public opinion. Powderly claimed that the essay contest was “a grand success,” saying that through the contest a “healthy public opinion” was created (245). Powderly’s emphasis on public opinion directed the prospective strategy of the organization. Under his leadership, the Knights did not actively petition the government to step in and impose a mandatory eight- hour workday. In fact, Alexander Yard notes, “The Knights of Labor had minimal radical demands and expectations” of government intervention (444). The Knights were more intent on petitioning business executives than the executive branch, and the court of popular opinion than the Supreme Court. Under the direction of Terence Powderly, the Knights of Labor underwent massive growth. When Powderly took over leadership from Stephens in 1879, the Knights of Labor were a “small secretive group of less than 10,000 members” (Phelan 1). At the height of its membership, just seven years later, the Knights of Labor boasted over 700,000 members (Gourevitch 181). Theories postulating the reasons for this surging growth abound. One popular theory is that the two successful strikes against the business enterprises of Jay Gould prompted the membership increase (Case 222). As these strikes occurred in the early 1880s and the union experienced rapid growth during this time, this theory is plausible. However, Donald Kemmerer and Edward Wickersham in their article “Reasons for the Growth of the Knights of Labor,” assert that the two “successful” Gould strikes were only moderate successes to which neither the organization itself nor the newspapers of the day paid much heed (214). The article further asserts that the impetus behind the growth was actually the fallacious association of the Knights of Labor with the eight-hour workday movement and the Federation of Trades and Unions (218). While the eight-hour workday was a goal of the Knights of Labor, members of the organization’s leadership, such as Powderly, discouraged any of the members from participating in the