The Great Strike on the 'Q' Part 1

The Great Strike on the 'Q'

by John A. Hall.

DEDICATION.

A history of the spoliations, robberies, and oppressions of corporate capital in America, is a history of shame, degradation and disgrace, not to be obscured in the halo of great achievements in material progress, though adorned by the splendid triumphs of science and art. It is the impersonation of the pa.s.sion of avarice, and no more soul-debasing pa.s.sion afflicts the human race. It becomes more ravenous the more its maw is gorged; it always and everlastingly wants more; in growth it never reaches maturity.

The only firm and determined resistance that has ever confronted this power has come from the widely extended but fraternally combined labor organizations of the country; though not always successful in resistance, they have ever left the enemy too feeble to follow up a technical victory.

To that mighty bulwark that will yet stem the tide of corporate greed, and insure to the laborer a fair share of the produce of his toils, this book is respectfully dedicated.

PREFACE.

The cause of right is but the cause of reason. Let all men reason together, and be brothers. Let all help each other and it will be easier for all.

We are all victims of monopoly, and it lies within our own efforts to reform a system which enslaves the many and makes heartless misers of the few. We must not fear a thing because it seems radical; truth is always radical, and every advance that humanity has ever made has been born in radicalism.

To act upon the dictates of reason is to be radical. This fearful thing called radicalism is the hope of society. With it you will bury monopoly, injustice and oppression.

Him the world calls Master, because of His worthiness, n.o.bleness, manhood and justice, was far from being conservative. He espoused the cause of the poor, the weak and the helpless against the rich, the strong, and the powerful. Instead of favoring and fostering the existing evils of society, He sought to reform them, and set into motion the great wheels of Christianity that are rolling over the whole earth. Let those who call themselves His followers, strive to make His commands practicable. Let them have more of justice, charity and humanity.

ORGANIZATION.

To obtain justice, and obtain it legally, the weak must organize.

Whatever may be the ideal to which labor reformers aspire, the first step must be organization. This is living protest against monopoly and injustice, and the means by which we must reform our social system, if we would last as a nation.

A tramp at the base of the social pyramid, and a millionaire at the top, argues ill for the middle cla.s.ses. With the foundation rotten, and the summit top-heavy, the whole structure must fall or be rebuilt.

Much of the matter contained in this book came under the personal observation of the writer; more was furnished by the Brotherhoods and the correspondence of the strikers.

Thanks are due to Chairmen Hoge and Murphy, for kindness and favors rendered.

Yours Truly, JOHN A. HALL.

THE GREAT STRIKE ON THE Q.

This work should properly begin with a short history of the origin and growth of the three Orders whose members were connected with the strike upon the Burlington system.

Naturally the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers should come first, as the strike originated with them, and was brought about by the injustice and oppression of the Burlington Officials toward this Order.

The organization of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers originated in the State of Michigan, in the year 1863. For some years before that time, the locomotive engineers on various roads throughout the country had cause for serious complaints owing to the treatment they received at the hands of railroad officials. It was felt that the men handling the locomotives on the growing railroad system of America were performing important duties that required good, responsible men, and deserved fair and honorable treatment, which, in many instances, was not given. The tendency of many railroad officers, in fact, was to degrade engineers, and refuse them the justice and fair dealing which is their just due.

The immediate cause of the formation of the Order was the harsh treatment received by the engineers employed on the Michigan Central Railroad from the superintendent of motive power of that road. The disposition manifested by him to wage a remorseless war upon the best interests of labor, and especially his incroachments upon the established rights and usages of the engineers in the employ of that company, and the reduction of their pay, at length became insufferable, and the engineers, as a cla.s.s, became satisfied that the safety of their pecuniary interests demanded a unity of purpose and combined organization. A meeting was held, composed of engineers employed by the Michigan Central Railroad, and the result of their deliberations, at this primary meeting, was a call for a Convention of Engineers, to meet in the city of Detroit, on the fifth of the ensuing month, May. The call was extended only to the engineers on the following roads: The Michigan Central, Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana, Detroit & Milwaukee, Grand Trunk on the American side, and the Detroit Branch of the Michigan Southern. At the Convention, the Michigan Southern & Northern Indiana was represented by F. Avery, L. Wheeler and John Kennedy; the Detroit Branch of that road by T. Wartsmouth and E. Nichols; the Detroit & Milwaukee by H. Higgins; the Grand Trunk by B. Northrup; and Geo. Q.

Adams represented the Eastern Division of the Michigan Central, and W.

D. Robinson the Middle Division of the same road. With but little formality in their organization, these delegates entered upon their duties. A Const.i.tution and By-Laws, embodying the fundamental principles of our present organization, was adopted.

The necessity of something further on the part of engineers than the common consent to become and remain members of this organization so long as suited their convenience, and no longer, became apparent to minds of the delegates, and an obligation, as a bond of union, was unanimously adopted, and on the 8th of May, 1863, a band of twelve engineers, the delegates included, joined hands and pledged themselves to support the Const.i.tution and By-Laws then adopted, and to resist the wrong and maintain the right. Officers were elected, and Division No. 1, of Detroit, Brotherhood of the Foot-Board, stood forth as the pioneer in the work of the regeneration and elevation of the locomotive engineers on this continent, eager to extend the hand of fellowship and alliance to all worthy members of the craft who had any faith in their rights as a cla.s.s and a belief that in organized action alone rested a hope of vindication. The organization of Divisions soon began, and in three months ten Divisions had sprung into existence.

At this time, the Chief Engineer of Division No. 1 issued a call for a meeting of one delegate from each Division, to meet at Detroit August 18, 1863, for the purpose of forming a Grand National Division, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. At this meeting, the Const.i.tution and By-Laws were changed and provisions made for the formation and government of a Grand National Division. W. D. Robinson was elected Grand Chief Engineer of the Order, and served in that capacity until August 20, 1864, at which time there were thirty-eight Sub-Divisions, covering the railroads from Michigan, through Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. Charles Wilson, the second Grand Chief Engineer, was elected to succeed W. D.

Robinson, and continued in office until February 25, 1874.

At a special session of the Grand International Division, held in the city of Cleveland, P. M. Arthur, the present inc.u.mbent, was elected his successor, and re-elected at the close of each term of three years to the present time, executing the duties of the office with such success and judgment that the Order has continued to grow and improve, until it now numbers three hundred and sixty Sub-Divisions with 25,000 members, and covers every railroad and every State and Territory in the United States, as well as a large part of the British Provinces and Mexico. We believe that the law of the Order, enforced by him, of "doing by others as we would be done by," is the only true solution to the labor problem of the present day.

In these days of strikes and increasing labor agitation, the course adopted by them has proved to be unquestionably the best, and to that alone we ascribe the great success that has attended their efforts and made their Order known and respected everywhere. This course is, that any differences between members and their employers shall be settled by arbitration. St. Paul says, "Come, let us reason together;" and this advice they have found to be so good that they have it to say, that never since its adoption by them have they resorted to a strike when the officials of a company where dissatisfaction existed would receive and treat with our committee.

Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen.

The organization known as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was organized at Port Jervis, N. Y., December 1, 1873, and is consequently fifteen years old.

The following "Preamble" to the Const.i.tution explains the aims and objects of the Order:

For the purpose of uniting Locomotive Firemen, and elevating their social, moral and intellectual standing, and for the protection of their interests and the promotion of their general welfare, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen has been organized.

The interests of our members and their employers being identical, we recognize the necessity of co-operation, and it is the aim of the Brotherhood to cultivate a spirit of harmony between them, upon a basis of mutual justice.

Realizing the fact that our vocation involves ceaseless peril, and that it is a duty we owe to ourselves and our families to make suitable provision against these disasters which almost daily overtake us on the rail, the necessity of protecting our interests as firemen and of extending to each other the hand of charity, and being sober, industrious and honorable men, becomes self-evident: And, hence, the Brotherhood has adopted as its cardinal principles, the motto: "Protection, Charity, Sobriety and Industry."

The organization was formed by eleven men on the Erie Railroad, and the first Lodge numbered eleven men. Its growth and development has been phenomenal; starting with that first Lodge of eleven men in New York, the organization expanded into immense proportions, with lodges in every State and Territory of the Union, covering Canada and extending into Mexico.

There are at present 385 subordinate lodges, with a membership of 19,000 men. The rapid growth fully demonstrates the necessity for its existence. It might be supposed that this phenomenal increase would be a source of weakness, instead of strength. Such, however, is not the case.

The Brotherhood of Firemen has never, at anytime, been unwieldy, but on the contrary the addition of each new lodge has been so well a.s.similated by the whole, that this body of 19,000 is as compact, firm and as thoroughly under control as a division of the Regular Army. Another grand element of strength is the fact that there is no aristocracy in the Order.

It must not be thought that all has been clear and smooth sailing with the Brotherhood of Firemen; this great result has been won by years of incessant labor by earnest, determined men, with confidence in themselves and in the justice of their cause. Probably no organization has had a harder struggle for existence; it has experienced serious reverses; the year of its birth was the year of the great commercial panic. Born and nurtured in adversity, it has steadily worked its way to the front. In 1877 the country was agitated from Maine to California by labor troubles, and labor organizations received a severe check, and an unsettled condition existed for several years. "Seventy-eight" and "'79" were critical periods, and were years of anxiety for the safety of the Brotherhood.

Starting in 1873 as a purely benevolent inst.i.tution, it developed into a labor organization in 1885, retaining, however, all of its moral and benevolent features intact. There are no State organizations in this Brotherhood. It is governed by a Grand Lodge composed of a Grand Master, Vice-Grand Master, Grand Secretary and Treasurer, Editor and Manager of the Magazine, Grand Executive Board of five members, and a Board of Grand Trustees, consisting of three members.

OFFICERS.

The first Grand Master was J. A. Leach, now residing in Kansas City; the first Grand Secretary and Treasurer was Wm. N. Sayre, of Buffalo, N. Y.; second Grand Master, W. R. Worth, followed in succession by F. B. Alley and W. T. Goundie (now General Manager of the New York Elevated Railway), and F. W. Arnold. S. M. Stevens, of Lowell, Ma.s.s., was, for several years, Grand Organizer and Instructor, succeeded in 1885 by J.

J. Hannahan, of Englewood, Ill., who now holds that office in connection with that of Vice-Grand Master.

The present officers are: F. P. Sargent, Grand Master, Terre Haute, Ind.; J. J. Hannahan, Vice-Grand Master and Grand Organizer and Instructor, Englewood, Ill.; Eugene V. Debs, Grand Secretary and Treasurer, Terre Haute, Ind.; H. H. Walton is Chairman of the Grand Executive Board, Philadelphia, Pa.; W. E. Burns, Secretary, Chicago, Ill.; the Grand Executive Board is composed of J. J. Leahy, Philadelphia, Pa.; W. H. McDonnell, Scranton, Pa.; F. Holl, Minneapolis, Minn., and C. W. Gardner, Fort Dodge, Ia.

The circulation of the Magazine, the official organ of the Brotherhood is 26,000 copies.