with the receiver, declared a boycott on Wabash rolling stock.  This order, had it been carried out, would have affected over 20,000 miles of railway and would have equalled the dimensions of the great railway strike of 1877.  But Jay Gould would not risk a general strike on his lines at this time.  According to an appointment made between him and the executive board of the Knights of Labor, a conference was held between that board and the managers of the Missouri Pacific and the Wabash railroads, at which he threw his influence in favor of making concessions to the men.  He assured the Knights that in all troubles he wanted the men to come directly to him, that he believed in labor organizations and in the arbitration of all difficulties and that he “would always endeavor to do what was right.”  The Knights demanded the discharge of all new men hired in the Wabash shops since the beginning of the lockout, the reinstatement of all discharged men, the leaders being given priority, and an assurance that no discrimination against the members of the Order would be made in the future.  A settlement was finally made at another conference, and the receiver of the Wabash road agreed, under pressure by Jay Gould, to issue an order conceding the demands of the Knights of Labor.

The significance of the second Wabash strike in the history of railway strikes was that the railway brotherhoods (engineers, firemen, brakemen, and conductors), in contrast with their conduct during the first Wabash strike, now refused to lend any aid to the striking shopmen, although many of the members were also Knights of Labor.

But far more important was the effect of the strike upon the general labor movement.  Here a labor organization for the first time dealt on an equal footing with probably the most powerful capitalist in the country.  It forced Jay Gould to recognize it as a power equal to himself, a fact which he conceded when he declared his readiness to arbitrate all labor difficulties that might arise.  The oppressed laboring masses finally discovered a powerful champion.  All the pent-up feeling of bitterness and resentment which had accumulated during the two years of depression, in consequence of the repeated cuts in wages and the intensified domination by employers, now found vent in a rush to organize under the banner of the powerful Knights of Labor.  To the natural tendency on the part of the oppressed to exaggerate the power of a mysterious emancipator whom they suddenly found coming to their aid, there was added the influence of sensational reports in the public press.  The newspapers especially took delight in exaggerating the powers and strength of the Order.

In 1885 the New York Sun detailed one of its reporters to “get up a story of the strength and purposes of the Knights of Labor.”  This story was copied by newspapers and magazines throughout the country and aided considerably in bringing the Knights of Labor into prominence.  The following extract illustrates the exaggerated notion of the power of the Knights of Labor.