The Knights of Labor invite the Land Leauger and old Irish Fenian Michael Davitt to organize for them. He would address the K. of L. convention the following year in Minneapolis.

‘Michael Davitt’ from Workmen’s Advocate (New Haven). Vol. 2 No. 25. March 14, 1886.

Of all the Irishmen who are prominent in the cause of Ireland, Michael Davitt commands the most respect among advanced labor reformers. His patriotism is not narrow, for he includes in his noble work the cause of workingmen especially. If he has not the large following of more pretentious patriots it is because of this fact. His advocacy of the interests of Labor, in connection with Ireland’s cause, is not exactly to the liking of the capitalist class, who see in Irish “freedom” only a better opportunity to use Irish labor for their own benefit. Therefore it is to workingmen that Davitt’s labors are particularly valuable, be they Irishmen or men of other nationalities. He is honored by English workingmen as few other reformers are, Justice, the organ of the Social Democracy, printed in London, had the following notice of Davitt in its issue of February 13:

“Michael Davitt has gone into Wales to stir up an agitation and to form a Land League. No nobler-minded man ever worked and suffered on behalf of his fellow-men, and the day will come, is perhaps nearer at hand than some of us think, when the whole civilized world will have for him the same honor and affection that is now felt by all those who know him. It is probable that Michael Davitt will follow up his trip to Wales by a tour through England and Wales on behalf of Home Rule for Ireland. There is no hope for the people of either country except in the intelligent union of the three democracies for common social good. No man living could point this out with greater force than the Irishman whom English workingmen delight to honor.”

With such genuine affection among organized pioneers of the labor movement in England for Michael Davitt it is not strange that Germans and Americans should look to him for still more active work in the field of Organized Labor. And the motion made by Bro. George A. Schilling, of Chicago, in John Swinton’s Paper, that Michael Davitt be called upon to accept a commission as organizer of the K. of L. among our British fellow-workers, will no doubt be seconded by members of the Order throughout the United States, with the hope that means will be found to bring it about, and that Michael Davitt will accept the responsibility.

The Workmen’s Advocate replaced the Bulletin of the Social Labor Movement and the English-language paper of the Socialist Labor Party originally published by the New Haven Trades Council, it became the official organ of SLP in November 1886 until absorbed into The People in 1891. The Bulletin of the Social Labor Movement, published in Detroit and New York City between 1879 and 1883, was one of several early attempts of the Socialist Labor Party to establish a regular English-language press by the largely German-speaking organization. Founded in the tumultuous year of 1877, the SLP emerged from the Workingmen’s Party of the United States, itself a product of a merger between trade union oriented Marxists and electorally oriented Lassalleans. Philip Van Patten, an English-speaking, US-born member was chosen the Corresponding Secretary as way to appeal outside of the world of German Socialism. The early 1880s saw a new wave of political German refugees, this time from Bismark’s Anti-Socialist Laws. The 1880s also saw the anarchist split from the SLP of Albert Parsons and those that would form the Revolutionary Socialist Labor Party, and be martyred in the Haymarket Affair. It was in this period of decline, with only around 2000 members as a high estimate, that the party’s English-language organ, Bulletin of the Social Labor Movement, appeared monthly from Detroit. After it collapsed in 1883, it was not until 1886 that the SLP had another English press, the Workingmen’s Advocate. It wasn’t until the establishment of The People in 1891 that the SLP, nearly 15 years after its founding, would have a stable, regular English-language paper.

PDF of full issue: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn90065027/1886-03-14/ed-1/seq-1/