rever."

Nothing seems more natural to me than that a man who believes that
labor should be free, and that he who works should be free, should
come to the conclusion that the passages above quoted are not
entirely on his side. I don't see why people should be in favor
of free bodies who are not also in favor of free minds. If the
mind is to remain in imprisonment, it is hardly worth while to free
the body. If the man has the right to labor, he certainly has the
right to use his mind, because without mind he can do no labor.
As a rule, the more mind he has, the more valuable his labor is,
and the freer his mind is the more valuable he is.

If the Knights of Labor expect to accomplish anything in this world,
they must do it by thinking. They must have reason on their side,
and the only way they can do anything by thinking is to allow each
other to think. Let all the men who do not believe in the inspiration
of the Bible, leave the Knights of Labor and I do not know how many
would be left. But I am perfectly certain that those left will
accomplish very little, simply from their lack of sense.

Intelligent clergymen have abandoned the idea of plenary inspiration.
The best ministers in the country admit that the Bible is full of
mistakes, and while many of them are forced to say that slavery is
upheld by the Old Testament they also insist that slavery was and
is, and forever will be wrong. What had the Knights of Labor to
do with a question of religion? What business is it of theirs who
believes or disbelieves in the religion of the day? Nobody can
defend the rights of labor without defending the right to think.

I hope that in time these Knights will become intelligent enough
to read in their meetings something of importance; something that
applies to this century; something that will throw a little light
on questions under discussion at the present time. The idea of
men engaged in a kind of revolution reading from Leviticus,
Deuteronomy and Haggai, for the purpose of determining the rights
of workingmen in the nineteenth century! No wonder such men have
been swallowed by the whale of monopoly. And no wonder that,
while that are in the belly of this fish, they insist on casting
out a man with sense enough to understand the situation! The
Knights of Labor have made a mistake and the sooner they reverse
their action the better for all concerned. Nothing should be taught
in this world that somebody does not