Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

union, labor

(Encyclopedia)union, labor, association of workers for the purpose of improving their economic status and working conditions through collective bargaining with employers. Historically there have been two chief type...

Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem

(Encyclopedia)Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem: see Knights Hospitalers. ...

Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of

(Encyclopedia)Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of: see Knights Hospitalers. ...

Knights of the Golden Circle

(Encyclopedia)Knights of the Golden Circle, secret order of Southern sympathizers in the North during the Civil War. Its members were known as Copperheads. Dr. George W. L. Bickley, a Virginian who had moved to Ohi...

Knights of the White Camellia

(Encyclopedia)Knights of the White Camellia: see Ku Klux Klan. ...

Labor, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Labor, United States Department of, federal executive department established in 1913 and charged with administering and enforcing statutes that promote the welfare of U.S. wage earners, improve their ...

Powderly, Terence Vincent

(Encyclopedia)Powderly, Terence Vincent, 1849–1924, American labor leader, b. Carbondale, Pa. Apprenticed in a machine shop, he joined (1871) the Machinists and Blacksmiths National Union, becoming its president ...

labor, in physiology

(Encyclopedia)labor: see birth.

labor, in economics

(Encyclopedia)labor, term used both for the effort of performing a task and for the workers engaged in the activity. In ancient times much of the work was done by slaves (see slavery). In the feudal period agricult...

Labor Relations Act

(Encyclopedia)Labor Relations Act: see National Labor Relations Board; Taft-Hartley Labor Act. ...