Born Jan. 22, 1849, in Carbondale, Pa.; died June 24, 1924, in Washington, D.C. A reformist leader of the US labor movement.
Powderly was a railroad engineer by occupation. He joined the Knights of Labor in 1874 and was the organization’s leader from 1879 to 1893. He obstructed the development of the tactic of the militant strike, appealing to the workers to accept compromise agreements with the employers and peaceful arbitration. After he was removed from the leadership of the Knights of Labor, Powderly joined the Republican Party (1896). He served as US commissioner-general of immigration from 1897 to 1902 and as chief of the Division of Information of the Bureau of Immigration from 1907 to 1921.