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"Caught Napping," Judge, October, 1886.
flipFlip to Political philosopher Henry George, circa 1886.
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Puck cartoon of Powderly, and Gould with George in the Background

Credit: Image donated by Corbis-Bettmann

In 1885 Terence Powderly and the Knights of Labor won major concessions from Jay Gould's Southwest railway conglomerate, while the distracted Gould–seen on the right–was engaged in a fierce war to make himself master of the American telegraph industry. About the time that Judge magazine put him on its cover in October of 1886, Powderly, leader of the surging American labor movement, endorsed radical political economist Henry George–his head in the background– in his campaign for mayor of New York City. That November, George lost to Democrat Abram Hewitt in a general election marked by fraud. Supported by voters outraged by the business practices of Gould and other powerful businessmen that Powderly had branded "monopolists," and the "new slave owners," third-party candidates did win victories in dozens of towns and cities across the nation.

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