UC-NRLF 
 
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LABOR. I1CRALD LIBRARY 
 Mo. 1 
 
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 flE TRADE Union EDUCATIONAL 
 
 LEAGUE 
 
 IIS n. L>A9ALLE 9T. 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
Militants, Notice! 
 
 Organize! Join the Trade Union Educational 
 League. This is a system of informal committees 
 throughout the entire union movement, organized to 
 infuse the mass with revolutionary understanding and 
 spirit. It is working for the closer affiliation and solidi- 
 fication of our existing craft unions until they have 
 been developed into industrial unions. Believing that 
 all workers should stand together regardless of their 
 social or other opinions, it is opposed to the common 
 policy of radical and progressive-minded workers quit- 
 ting the trade unions and starting rival organizations 
 based upon ideal principles. That policy is one of the 
 chief reasons why the American labor movement is not 
 further advanced. Its principal effects are to destroy 
 all radical organization in the old unions and to leave 
 the reactionaries in undisputed control. 
 
 The Trade Union Educational League is in no 
 sense a dual union, nor is it affiliated with any such 
 organization. It is purely an educational body of 
 militants within existing mass unions, who are seeking 
 through the application of modern methods to bring 
 the policies and structure of the labor movement into 
 harmony with present day economic conditions. It 
 bespeaks the active cooperation of all militant union 
 workers. For further details apply to the 
 
 Trade Union Educational 
 League 
 
 118 North La Salle Street, Chicago 
 
Labor Herald Library 
 No. 1. 
 
 The Railroaders' Next Step 
 Amalgamation 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE THIEVING RAILROADS 
 
 The supreme need of railroad men at the present time is 
 a consolidation of our many labor organizations into one 
 compact body. The power of the companies has become 
 so enormous, their solidarity so intense, and their greed 
 so voracious, that the prevailing type of federated craft 
 unionism is no longer able to cope with the situation. If 
 we are to maintain existing labor conditions, not to speak 
 of making further advances, we must arrive at a more 
 solidified form of organization. The tremendous latent 
 power of the great army of railroad workers will have to 
 be fully developed. This can be done successfully only by 
 the amalgamation of the sixteen principal railroad craft 
 unions into one industrial union covering every branch of 
 the railroad service. 
 
 As I write this (March, 1922) events are taking shape 
 that render more pressing than ever the need for the ut- 
 most possible power and solidarity on the part of all rail- 
 road workers. The companies are now making a big drive, 
 politically as well as industrially, to crush the unions and 
 to force us down to serfdom. They have secured the pass- 
 age of the Esch-Cummins law limiting the right of railroad 
 men to strike. And not content with that they are forcing 
 through the Poindexter bill, abolishing this right alto- 
 gether and providing fines, of from $500 to $10,000 and im- 
 prisonment not to exceed ten years for those who even 
 "solicit, advise, induce or persuade, or attempt to induce 
 or persuade" railroad workers to quit their jobs. Besides 
 
 977439 
 
2 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 this they have induced the pliable Railroad Labor Board 
 to abolish the national agreements, and in many cases the 
 eight hour day itself ; wages have been slashed to the bone 
 and more reductions are in sight. Piece work is being 
 established on many roads, likewise company unions. In 
 fact the railroads are carrying on a great drive which is 
 ^all top ; stlGesful to reestablish pre-war conditions of 
 slavery 'for t'he^ir workers. The only way this campaign 
 <iaft 'e; j-esjs^Gd... effectively is for the workers on the rail- 
 'roa3s t'6 tfevelbp the strongest, most closely-knit organiza- 
 tion possible. And this cannot be achieved until the entire 
 body of them are fused together into one all-inclusive or- 
 ganization. 
 
 This anti-union campaign is, of course, calculated to re- 
 duce railroad workers to utter helplessness so that we may 
 be ruthlessly exploited by the railroad owners. The latter 
 are in business solely for profit. In their greed to make 
 money they consider all means legitimate. They are the 
 biggest single gang of thieves in the world. Humanity and 
 fair play cut no figure with them. So long as their own 
 profits are forthcoming they care not a rap for the suffer- 
 ings of their workers. That is why they have so bitterly 
 fought every working improvement in the railroad indus- 
 try ; collective bargaining, better wages, shorter hours, the 
 sixteen-hour law, the safety appliance laws, etc. Because 
 it paid them well, they were entirely content to have their 
 workers exhausted by from 25 to 60-hour runs, abused like 
 dogs by tyrannical foremen, pauperized by low wages, de- 
 stroyed by piecework systems, crushed to death by faulty 
 equipment, etc., etc. The only protection the workers have 
 had from the most savage exploitation, the sole thing that 
 has kept us from sinking into complete degradation is our 
 trade unions. These organizations have achieved results 
 entirely upon the basis of the amount of power they have 
 been able to exert. The railroad owners can appreciate 
 no other argument than that of might. With them might 
 is right. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 3 
 
 Plundering the Public Domain 
 
 In order to develop a militant union policy the very first 
 requisite for railroad workers is a clear understanding of 
 what powerful and unscrupulous crooks are our opponents, 
 the companies. Hence, in the following pages will be cited 
 some of the shady exploits of the transportation magnates ;* 
 
 From its very inception railroading in this country has 
 been a process of brazen thievery. Every means that hu- 
 man ingenuity could devise has been used without stint or 
 limit to prostitute the nation's transportation system to the 
 benefit of a few social parasites. Merciless exploitation of 
 the workers, land-grabbing, stock-watering, rebating, brib- 
 ing of legislators and judges, embezzlement, perjury these 
 are some of the criminal methods habitually resorted to 
 in building up the present ownership of the giant railroads. 
 The man who could figure out some new scheme to rob 
 the people was hailed as a great inventor by the railroad 
 crooks; and his fortune was made. The cleverest thief has 
 always been the most successful railroad magnate. 
 
 A rich source of plunder for the railroad owners was the 
 Government land. They literally stole an empire of it. 
 Their usual method was to have corrupt lobbyists push bills 
 through the National and State legislatures giving them 
 vast grants of land for building the railroads. Thus the 
 Northern Pacific got 47,000,000 acres, the Southern Pacific 
 18,000,000, the Union Pacigc 22,000,000, and others accord- 
 ingly, until 160,000,000 acres in all oi the people's heritage 
 had been stolen. This enormous stretch of land is equal 
 in extent to the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, 
 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New 
 Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and In- 
 diana. It fell into the maw of the railroad thieves. 
 
 *A11 railroad workers should read Gustavus Myers' "History of the Great 
 American Fortunes," and C. E. Russell's "Stories of the Great Railroads." 
 Both are full f well-authenticated accounts of the amazinpr robberies com- 
 mitted upon the American people by the railroad companies. Many of the 
 incidents cited in this chapter are taken from their pages. The books are 
 procurable from Chas. H. Kerr & Co.. Chicago. 
 
4 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 Most of this is rich farming, mineral and timber land. It 
 is now worth billions of dollars. One unacquainted with the 
 greed of the railroad companies might think that they would 
 have been satisfied with this gigantic steal. But not they ; 
 they are money mad ; they want the whole country. It 
 happened that some of their land grants included desert 
 land; so, in the guise of helping poor settlers, they had a 
 law passed allowing anyone who had received government 
 desert land to exchange it for government farming land. 
 Then they hastily dumped in 50,000,000 acres of desert land 
 and took in exchange, not farming land, but 50,000,000 acres 
 of Northwest timber land, the finest on the globe. This 
 was a typical railroad fraud. 
 
 Besides the land grants, the Government (inspired to ac- 
 tion by big campaigns of open bribery) gave the early rail- 
 road builders large money subsidies. These were a fruit- 
 ful source of loot. For example, the men behind the cor- 
 rupt Central Pacific got in land and other subsidies $86,000,- 
 000 wherewith to build their road. The total cost of build- 
 ing, including the greatest extravagance and graft, was 
 $42,000,000. The remaining $44,000,000 of the Government 
 gift they calmly pocketed. Thus the Government paid for 
 the road twice over and still it belonged to Huntington and 
 his fellow-crooks. These gentlemen, whose descendants 
 are highly honored citizens, started out in 1861 with a capi- 
 tal of $108,987. Twenty-three years later they had suc- 
 ceeded in stealing 5,906 miles of railroad capitalized at $454,- 
 000,000, not to mention other properties. Up till the pres- 
 ent time this project has yielded its owners $700,000,000 
 that is to say, the grafters have been paid enough to build 
 their roads seven times over and still they own them com- 
 plete'y- 
 
 Robbing One Another 
 
 It would be wrong, however, to leave the impression that 
 the lailroad magnates have confined their efforts to ex- 
 ploiting Labor and defrauding the Government. That 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 5 
 
 would be to misrepresent their nefarious business ethics. 
 Their policy is to grab everything in sight that is not 
 nailed down, no matter whom it may belong to. They are 
 impartial in the matter. They rob each other as freely as 
 they do outsiders. A time-honored device to do this is for 
 the controlling clique in a company to milk the rest of the 
 stockholders (and thus the people at large) by setting up 
 an outside company, owned by themselves, to do construc- 
 tion and repair work for the parent railroad and then vot- 
 ing it contracts at fabulous prices. Thus the grafters have 
 sucked in millions and millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains, 
 and thus many a railroad has been bled white, thrown into 
 a receiver's hands and left for the people to re-finance. We 
 see the same policy in operation at the present time, with 
 the railroads letting out immense quantities of work to 
 "independent" equipment companies while their own shops 
 and workers stand idte. 
 
 Bitter, dog-eat-dog wars have raged between rival in- 
 terests for many years over the control of the railroads. 
 In these brutal encounters the law of fang and claw prevail. 
 Everything from petty larceny to murder is considered 
 legitimate. The struggle for the Erie was typical : Orig- 
 inally this road was built by public subscription, but as 
 usual a bunch of thieves got title to it. They sucked it 
 dry with the customary methods, and finally lost it to one 
 Daniel Drew by a mortgage foreclosure. Drew used the 
 road for speculative purposes, making millions. But the 
 greedy Vanderbilt, whom Gustavus Myers calls "the fore- 
 most blackmailer of his time, the plunderer of the National 
 Treasury in the Civil War, the arch-briber and corruption- 
 ist," outwitted him, ruined him and seized the road. He 
 made the mistake, however, of putting Drew, Jay Gould 
 and Jim Fisk in charge of it. These worthies promptly 
 double-crossed him and, by an illegal issue of stock, got 
 control. Vanderbilt's crooked judge thereupon issued an 
 order against them. But they fled his jurisdiction with 
 $7,000,000 in cash, the proceeds of their robbery. Later on 
 
6 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 Gould and Fisk bribed the New York Legislature for $500,- 
 000 to make their stock issue legal. This left them mas- 
 ters of the situation. Then, freed from the threat of jail, 
 they turned on their partner, Drew, and bankrupted him. 
 Some time afterward Fisk was shot, and finally Gould was 
 ousted by an English syndicate that, copying Gould's meth- 
 ods, spent $750,000 in bribery to do the job. Eventually 
 the road fell into the grip of the great railroad octopus, 
 Morgan & Co., and there it still remains. For these jungle 
 fights, which raged everywhere, of course the workers had 
 to pay the bill. 
 
 When the workers demand a few cents more per hour 
 in wages the railroad companies always raise a howl about 
 the dire things that will happen to the widow and orphan 
 stockholders. But in their own brutal struggles for finan- 
 cial mastery they show no mercy to these elements. The 
 robbery of the widow Colton was a case in point : Colonel 
 Colton, her husband, was one of the four men who en- 
 gineered the notorious Central Pacific land-grabbing, stock- 
 jobbing steals for many years. It might have been thought 
 that when he died his three partners in guilt would have 
 shown his widow some consideration. But the principles of 
 humanity never trouble railroad magnates. True to their 
 kind, and like a pack of wolves rending one of their number 
 that has fallen, the three remaining partners stole almost 
 the last cent Mrs. Colton had. To do this they had to bribe 
 her confidential adviser, her lawyer and a judge. But such 
 matters are only details in the day's work of railroad 
 owners. 
 
 A Sea of Watered Stock 
 
 A favorite thieving device is the watering of railroad 
 company stocks. Every worker should know how this 
 chicanery is operated. Let us explain it briefly : Suppose, 
 for instance, a certain railroad is capitalized at $100,000,000. 
 To water its stock the controlling capitalists, on the pre- 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 7 
 
 text of improving the property, issue, say, another $100,- 
 000,000 of stock. Thus the burden of the industry is dou- 
 bled. Thereafter it has to pay dividends upon $200,000,000 
 instead of $100,000,000. The advantages .to the crooks 
 engineering the hocus-pocus are many. For one thing they 
 are enabled to steal scores of millions at a blow; and an- 
 other is that the resultant cutting of the dividend rate 
 (which in the case cited would be 50 per cent) puts the 
 road in the position of being poverty-stricken and furnishes 
 an excellent excuse for beating down wages and screwing 
 up passenger and freight rates. When, however, through 
 wage-cutting, rate-raising and the natural increase in busi- 
 ness, the dividend rate rises on the watered stock, then the 
 crooks inject more water and the whole process is gone 
 over again. 
 
 By means of this watered stock swindle every railroad 
 system in the United States has been used as an instrument 
 of extortion and robbery. Dozens of railroads have had 
 their equipment ruined and themselves thrown into bank- 
 ruptcy because of it. At a hearing a few years ago in 
 conection with the financial wrecking of the Rock Island 
 it was found that the Moore & Reid interests had poured 
 $350,000,000 of watered stock into the original capitalization 
 of $75,000,000. It was more than the road could stand and 
 it went under. In 1907, according to C. E. Russell, of the 
 $409,946,845 capitalization of the New York Central, at 
 the very least $175,000,000 was nothing but water. By 
 watered stock and other crooked schemes the infamous 
 Credit Mobilier gang similiarly ruined the Union Pacific. 
 Then, when everyone thought it had been bled to death, 
 Russell Sage and Jay Gould came along and stole another 
 $100,000,000 from it. Later, Standard Oil, operating 
 through Harriman, got the road and is now exploiting it 
 more vigorously than ever. Up to 1908 the Great North- 
 ern clique, grace to their various land-grabbings and stock- 
 waterings, had taken in profits from that rich property and 
 had values in sight to the enormous amount of $1,526,016,- 
 
8 . THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 521. Investigating the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 ford, which had collapsed financially, the Interstate Com- 
 merce Commission found that the bandits owning that 
 concern had increased its capital stock 1500 per cent in 
 eight years, and had pocketed almost all of the money. 
 
 The general result of this stock-watering continued over 
 many years, has been to enormously over-capitalize the 
 railroad industry. Many experts declare that all the rail- 
 roads in the United States could be replaced for ten billion 
 dollars. But the companies have them capitalized at nine- 
 teen billions, and insist upon returns on that basis. And 
 the powers-that-be are quick to recognize their claims. The 
 Interstate Commerce Commission is always very obliging 
 in the matter of rates. And the Government does what it 
 can, too. The infamous Esch-Cummins law, which Sen- 
 ator LaFollette fittingly characterized as marking "the un- 
 conditional surrender of Congress to Wall Street," guaran- 
 teed the railroads a return of at least 5^ per cent on their 
 swollen capitalization during its term. Under its provi- 
 sions the railroads were paid on the basis of $940,000,000 
 per year, or at the rate of enough to rebuild all of them in 
 ten years. Such a price are we compelled to pay for being 
 dominated and abused by our railroad autocracy. 
 
 To share in the great loot from the railroads there were 
 officially listed on December 31st, 1918, 647,689 stockhold- 
 ers. But many of this number are duplications, because 
 although one individual may hold stock in numerous com- 
 panies he is counted separately for each holding. It is 
 extremely doubtful if the total number of railroad stock- 
 holders will run over 100,000. And the great majority of 
 these are small fry, owning only a share or two apiece. It 
 has been estimated that one per cent of all the stock- 
 holdrs own over 50 per cent of all the stock. It is to sup- 
 port in luxury this minority of parasites that the vast army 
 of 1,850,000 railroad workers keep the 235,000 miles of rail- 
 roads in operation for beggarly wages and under the most 
 unfavorable working conditions. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 9 
 
 The Big Fish Eat the Little Ones 
 
 The foregoing examples of orthodox railroad methods 
 will suffice to indicate the moral caliber of the unprincipled 
 lot who have managed to steal their way into ownership 
 of our transportation systems. Now, let us glance for a 
 few moments at the way in which they are concentrating 
 and consolidating their forces, in order to exploit Labor 
 the better. 
 
 The pioneer railroad capitalists were men of compara- 
 tively small means. In the early days hundreds of small 
 companies sprang up, each operating a little stretch of rail- 
 road, furnishing transportation to a limited district. But 
 soon a strong current towards combination set in. Gradu- 
 ally the stronger financial groups absorbed the weaker ones 
 (mostly by chicanery and fraud) and linked their many 
 little "jerk-water" roads together, eventually building up 
 the gigantic railroad systems of today. 
 
 The history of the New York Central is typical : Orig- 
 inally between New York and Buffalo, the present main 
 line of the New York Central, there were sixteen separate 
 railroads, each owned and operated by a distinct company. 
 But the notorious Vanderbilt he who gave expression to 
 the two working principles of capitalistic railroading; 
 namely, "All the traffic will bear," and "The public be 
 damned" grabbed control of all these petty roads and 
 jammed them into one. Then he reached out and seized, 
 one after the other, a whole series of big railroad systems, 
 including the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, Michigan 
 Central, Big Four, Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, Boston & Al- 
 bany, Erie, etc., each of which in turn had been built up of 
 many small roads. Besides this, the growing octopus se- 
 cured strong hold of such roads as the Delaware & Hud- 
 son ; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western ; Philadelphia & 
 Reading; New York, Ontario & Western; Lehigh Valley, 
 etc., and large numbers of trolley lines, coal mines, indus- 
 
10 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 trial plants, express and telegraph companies, etc., etc. It 
 is an industrial Colossus. 
 
 Another case in point is that of the great New York, 
 New Haven & Hartford system, controlled by the Morgan 
 interests : Like the New ^ork Central, this company built 
 itself up from a lot of smaller ones, until, at last, it had 
 secured a stranglehold on the entire railroad transportation 
 system of New England. Then it proceeded to secure an 
 almost complete monopoly of water traffic in its territory 
 by absorbing the Fall River Line, Stonington Line, New 
 Bedford Line, New Haven Line, Maine Steamship Com- 
 pany, Bridgeport Line, Hartford Line, Rock Island Line, 
 and many so-called independent steamship companies. And, 
 finally, it sought to do the same thing with the trolley 
 lines. By means of flagrant legislative corruption it se- 
 cured control of the entire electric transportation systems 
 of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Thus, in 
 transportation of all sorts, the New York, New Haven & 
 Hartford was dictator for the several states in which it 
 operated. 
 
 The titanic Pennsylvania Lines were similarly brought 
 about by the assimilation of small roads and affiliated in- 
 dustries. It is now accredited with 21,389 miles of track- 
 age, the ownership of 72 subsidiary railroad companies and 
 heavy interests in 254 related industries. Normally it em- 
 ploys about 275,000 workers. 
 
 The tendency towards consolidation shown in the three 
 big systems cited above manifests itself in all sections of 
 the railroad industry. Already the whole business has re- 
 solved itself into a few financial groups. In 1916 the World 
 Almanac (page 216) listed these groups as follows : 
 
 Name Mileage Stocks Bonds 
 
 Vanderbilt 26,126 $ 628,924,000 $ 765,441,600 
 
 Pennsylvania 21,389 779,916,000 576,600,000 
 
 Harriman 22,716 756,600,000 1,098,775,400 
 
 Hill . .. 14,183 417,527,000 432,812,000 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 11 
 
 Name Milage Stocks Bonds 
 
 Morgan 14,117 573,619,000 545,118,000 
 
 Gould 22,318 541,220,000 822,613,000 
 
 Moore-Reid 29,173 372,906,000 490,209,000 
 
 Rockefellers 18,119 259,116,000 319,204,000 
 
 Walters 11,914 150,116,000 204,119,000 
 
 Erb Syndicate 13,104 345,100,000 524,146,000 
 
 Independent 34,069 653,108,000 486,113,000 
 
 Total 227,228 $5,478, 1 52,000 $6,265, 1 5 1 ,000 
 
 Since this table was compiled many changes have taken 
 place in railroad ownership. The monopolization of the 
 industry has proceeded apace. A close study now demon- 
 strates (The New Majority Chicago, March 5th, 1921) that 
 financial control of the systems as a whole has simmered 
 down practically to four great, closely-related, interlocked 
 capitalistic interests ; viz., Morgan & Co., The National City 
 Bank (Rockefeller group), The First National Bank of 
 New York (Baker group) and Kuhn, Loeb & Co. It is said 
 that Morgan & Co. alone control 300 railroad directorships, 
 besides owning 54 "independent" railroad equipment and 
 construction plants and innumerable other enterprises. 
 
 The time is close at hand if it has not already arrived 
 unbeknown to us when our entire transportation system 
 will be ruled by a single financial interest. And at its head, 
 backed by the nineteen billions of railroad capital and un- 
 told billions from other industries, will stand some super- 
 Gary, the industrial emperor of America. 
 
 Workers Versus Exploiters 
 
 This tremendous consolidation and combination of the 
 enemy's forces is of vital importance to railroad Labor. 
 In years gone by there was real competition on the rail- 
 roads. Between the many independent companies rate 
 wars raged. Often in these struggles passenger and 
 
12 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 freight schedules were slashed to the bone. In one mem- 
 orable case a transcontinental railroad reduced its passenger 
 fare from Chicago to California to $1.00. Whereupon its 
 rival retaliated not only by cutting its rate to $1.00 like- 
 wise, but also by furnishing free meals to its patrons en 
 route. 
 
 Naturally, such unorganized, competitive conditions 
 played into the hands of Organized Labor and made its 
 fight easier. If the unions tied up a road the other roads 
 usually left it to its fate. They seldom gave it any prac- 
 tical assistance, instead they grabbed what they could of 
 its business. The consequence was that the companies 
 were reluctant to enter into strikes, and comparatively 
 more eager to settle them when they did occur. 
 
 But now things are altogether different. This is the era 
 of railroad monopoly. Competition has been almost en- 
 tirely eliminated. On the employers' side the railroad in- 
 dustry is practically united into one country-wide organ- 
 ism. National ownership has been concentrated into the 
 hands of a few magnates, keenly conscious of their mu- 
 tual interests ; the national rate-making power is wielded 
 by the tractable (to the companies) Interstate Commerce 
 Commission rate wars are now merely a matter of his- 
 tory ; the national administration of labor- matters is looked 
 after by the Association of Railway Executives ; and the 
 national technical problems are handled by the American 
 Railroad Association.* Everywhere is system, organiza- 
 tion, standardization. And now it is proposed in powerful 
 railroad circles to secure legislation fusing all the railroads 
 into one gigantic system of ownership and operation. This 
 is the logical outcome of the ceaseless tendency towards 
 combination. 
 
 *The American Railroad Association is a recent amalgamation of the 
 American Railway Master Mechanics' Association; Association of Railway 
 Telegraph Superintendents; Association of Transportation and Car Accounting 
 Offices; Freight Claim Association; Railway Storehouse Keepers' Association, 
 etc. It is divided into five departments: Operating, Engineering^ Mechanical, 
 Traffic, Transportation. If the need arose it would prove an efficient strike- 
 breaking agency. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 13 
 
 Now the effect of all this consolidation and interlocking 
 of company interests is to make railroad Labor's fight much 
 more severe. Today when the unions enter into battle 
 with one company they have them all to fight. No more 
 do other roads abandon one that has a fight on its hands, 
 or try to take advantage of its crippled condition. Far 
 from it ! Now they rush to its support, furnishing it with 
 financial backing, re-routing its traffic over their lines, lend- 
 ing it locomotives and cars, etc. Thus, through co-opera- 
 tion with one another, the resisting power of all the com- 
 panies is enormously increased. Moreover, they have the 
 united support of the courts, the newspapers, the banks, 
 and the industrial interests generally. 
 
 This is a situation which the railroad unions, on pain of 
 extinction, must meet effectively. And they can do so only 
 by the complete elimination of the competitive principle 
 from their own ranks. Faced by a united opposition, we 
 railroad men cannot afford to have sectionalism, such as 
 now exists, in our forces. We must not allow one part of 
 our organization to be played off against the rest. We 
 must present an unbroken front to the enemy. The rail- 
 road union situation must be brought to a uniform, national 
 proposition. To do this it is necessary to amalgamate the 
 sixteen railroad craft unions into one industrial union. 
 
 Now let us see to what extent in their long years of 
 experience with unionism, the railroad workers have under- 
 stood the need for closer affiliation, what has been done 
 about it, and how the next step should be taken. 
 
14 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 THE FAILURE OF DUAL UNIONISM 
 
 Faced by the growing power and limitless greed of the 
 railroad companies, railroad workers have for many years 
 past sensed more and more clearly the need for the great- 
 est possible solidarity among themselves. In the main this 
 urge for united action may be said to have expressed it- 
 self in two general ways: (1) Utopian dual unionism, (2) 
 natural trade unionism. The dual unionism has been a 
 product mostly of the more militant and energetic minori- 
 ties, chiefly radicals, among the railroad workers. These 
 minorities, consciously weighing the factors in hand as 
 best they could and with an intense desire for united ac- 
 tion, have for many years advocated the founding of an 
 industrial union to include all railroad men. With charac- 
 teristic impatience they have believed that this could be 
 done only by discarding the old trade unions altogether 
 and starting afresh with a new, theoretically perfect or- 
 ganization. On the other hand, the natural trade union- 
 ism is a product of the sluggish, conservative masses. More 
 or less blindly and without plan, the latter have re-acted 
 to the pressure of the companies, first by joining together 
 into the most primitive types of unions, and then, gradually 
 extending and developing them into ever-more wide-spread- 
 ing and inclusive organizations, as the need for such be- 
 came apparent. The method of the radical minorities has 
 been largely to leap into industrial unionism, whereas that 
 of the conservative masses is to drift into it gradually. 
 
 The question of solidarity is one of paramount interest 
 and importance to railroaders, but there is an appalling con- 
 fusion and lack of knowledge about the whole matter. A 
 large body of radicals still have a highly unwarranted faith 
 in the dual industrial program, and, together with the con- 
 servatives, are very much in ignorance of the true signifi- 
 cance of the evolution towards greater solidarity constantly 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 15 
 
 taking place in the old trade unions. Hence, before we 
 can hope to successfully outline a rational program for 
 further strengthening railroad unionism, we must examine 
 in detail what has resulted from the radicals' conscious 
 striving for industrial unionism and the conservatives' un- 
 conscious drift in the same general direction and profit 
 from the lessons both tendencies have to teach us. Let 
 us first consider what has been accomplished by dual union- 
 ism: 
 
 
 
 Knights of Labor and American Railway Union. 
 
 The railroad craft unions were in their infancy when 
 the dual unionists began to set afloat their all-inclusive in- 
 dustrial unions. And they have followed their separatist 
 policy vigorously for a generation, even up till the present 
 day. During this long period they have launched manv 
 such organizations, all of which have gone down to deteat. 
 Let us glance briefly at the most striking examples : 
 
 The first important attempt to disregard the trade unions 
 and to form a general union of railroaders occurred in 
 1877, when R. H. Ammon, in Pittsburgh, founded an or- 
 ganization to include engineers, firemen, conductors, train- 
 men and yardmen. The companies were slashing wages 
 right and left, and the new union was designed to stop 
 them. But it soon collapsed because of internal difficulties 
 Shortly afterward, however, the deep discontent of the 
 men blazed forth spontaneously in one of the greatest 
 and most violent railroad strikes in history, that of July- 
 August, 1877. 
 
 But a far more serious and extensive effort was the one 
 made by the Knights of Labor not long afterward. This 
 famous organization was frankly revolutionary and aimed 
 to combine the whole working class into one union. It 
 was formed in 1869, but for the first dozen years of its life 
 it led an anaemic existence. In the middle '80's, however, it 
 caught the imagination of the masses and raged across the 
 country like a prairie fire. Hundreds of thousands were 
 
16 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 swept into its ranks, among whom were large numbers of 
 railroad workers. The organization secured an especially 
 strong grip on several Western and Southwestern roads, 
 winning big strikes on the Union Pacific, Wabash, Missouri 
 Pacific, Missouri, Kansas & Texas, etc., in 1884-5. But the 
 following year the wily and unscrupulous Jay Gould 
 crushed the union on these roads in a bitterly fought two 
 months' strike. A few years later, as the power of the 
 Knights of Labor waned generally throughout the country, 
 its railroad organization went to pieces, leaving the em- 
 battled, feeble craft unions alone in the field. 
 
 But not for long; soon the greatest of all dual railroad 
 unions was under way. This was the American Railway 
 Union, launched by Eugene V. Debs and a few others in 
 Chicago in 1893. It was opposed by the craft unions, but 
 as they were still weak, they could offer no effective re- 
 sistance and it spread rapidly over the systems. By the 
 Spring of 1894 it was said to have 465 local lodges and 
 about 150,000 members. It included all classes of railroad 
 workers. 
 
 Its first struggle with the employers came in April, 1894, 
 on the Great Northern. That system was tied up from end 
 to end by a general strike. The autocratic Jim Hill capit- 
 ulated after eighteen days, coming to terms with the or- 
 ganization. But this brilliant victory bred an over-confi- 
 dence among the men that soon brought about the destruc- 
 tion of their union. In an effort to force a settlement of 
 the then pending Pullman strike, the militant railroad men 
 placed a boycott against all Pullman cars which action pro- 
 duced a general strike, June 26th, 1894, on twenty-four 
 roads centering in Chicago. 
 
 The tieup was highly effective and the companies were 
 on the way to defeat, when the Government and courts took 
 a hand. Troops were rushed to Chicago ; injunctions were 
 issued against the strikers ; their leaders were jailed, and 
 such a general reign of terror set up that the conservative 
 mass became terrified and straggled back to work. Before 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 17 
 
 three weeks had passed the strike was lost. The A. R. U. 
 lingered along until 1897, when it turned itself into a co- 
 operative political organization the Social Democratic 
 Party, forerunner of the present Socialist Party. 
 
 The advent of the American Railway Union, as is always 
 the case with dual organizations, did great harm to the 
 railroad craft unions. All of them were weakened and 
 some nearly destroyed. Thousands of their best members 
 quit them to take part in the A. R. U., only to find them- 
 selves blacklisted out of the railroad service later on be- 
 cause of the lost strike. The case of Debs himself is a 
 striking example of the damage done. When he resigned 
 his position as General Secretary-Treasurer and editor of 
 the official journal of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fire- 
 men in order to form the A. R. U., he was a great force 
 for progress in the old unions. Had he but stayed with 
 them he would have been a big factor in their future devel- 
 opment. But he was lost to them, and that they have suf- 
 fered much in consequence no unbiased observer will deny. 
 This constant sucking of the best blood out of the craft 
 unions is one of the very worst features of dual industrial 
 unionism. 
 
 A Flock of Dual Unions 
 
 Hard upon the heels of the American Railway Union 
 came a whole series of dual unions on the railroads, some 
 of them being but parts of general separatist movements, 
 whilst others specialized in railroad workers alone. But 
 all were alike in that they advocated the industrial form of 
 organization and sought to realize it by going outside of 
 the old unions and beginning anew. They are also alike 
 in that none of them succeeded in establishing itself firmly 
 on the railroads. 
 
 The first of these dual unions was the Socialist Trades 
 and Labor Alliance, organized in 1895. A general labor or- 
 ganization, it made war upon the whole trade union move- 
 ment. But it secured little or no hold on the railroads. 
 
18 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 In 1905 it was one of the organizations that were merged 
 together to form the I. W. W. 
 
 An organization somewhat similar to the S. T. & L. A. 
 was the Western Labor Union, organized in 1898 by the 
 Western Federation of Miners. It was designed to sup- 
 plant the entire existing labor movement, the railroad or- 
 ganizations included. But it was still-born, and after an 
 anagmic struggle re-named itself the American Labor 
 Union. It later went to make part of the I. W. W. at the 
 latter's foundation. At no time did it become strong in 
 the railroad industry. 
 
 A much more militant dual union on the railroads was 
 the United Brotherhood of Railway Employes. This or- 
 ganization was started in 1900. It worked mostly in the 
 West, and succeeded in getting a strong hold on several 
 roads in that section. It had agreements with a few com- 
 panies. But it finally went the way of all dual industrial 
 railroad unions and collapsed. Just as it was about to ex- 
 pire it was fused with the other unions going to form the 
 I. W. W. 
 
 The Canadian Order of Railwaymen was in existence 
 during part of the period covered by the U. B. R. E. It 
 was launched in 1901. It claimed jurisdiction over en- 
 gineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen and yardmen in 
 Canada. But it was unable to make good its claim in the 
 face of the craft unions. It made no important headway 
 and soon died off. 
 
 The next important one in the long list of dual indus- 
 trial railroad unions was the Industrial Workers of the 
 World. This organization was formed in 1905 in Chicago 
 by an amalgamation of several industrial unions. It was 
 intended to replace the entire trade union movement. Debs, 
 Hall, Estes and many other active railroad militants gave 
 it their hearty support for a time. But it has never been 
 able to make substantial progress on any of the roads, ex- 
 cept in the Canadian Northwest, where it organized the 
 railroad construction workers ten years ago and waged 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 19 
 
 several strikes in their behalf. At the present time it is 
 not a big factor on the railroads. 
 
 The Workers^ International Industrial Union is an off- 
 shoot of the I. W. W. It split off because of internal 
 squabbles in 1908. Like its parent, it is a general dual 
 union. But it has never been able to make a strong show- 
 ing among railroad workers. It still exists in skeleton 
 form. 
 
 Two later attempts to start dual railroad unions were 
 those of the Industrial Railway Union and the Brother- 
 hood of Federated Railway Employes. Both these organi- 
 zations, bred of internal strife in the old unions, led brief 
 existences in 1915-16 on a few Eastern roads. Neither se- 
 cured any considerable following. 
 
 American Federation of Railroad Workers, One Big Union, 
 and United Association of Railway Employes 
 
 The American Federation of Railroad Workers occupies 
 a unique position among the many dual industrial unions 
 that have sprung up from time to time on the railroads. 
 While all the others have been radical, it is markedly con- 
 servative. It has had a checkered history. Originally it 
 was the International Association of Car Workers, an A. 
 F. of L. union. But as there was a conflict in jurisdiction 
 between it and the Brotherhood Railway Carmen of Amer- 
 ica, the A. F. of L. ordered the two bodies to amalgamate. 
 The president of the I. A. of C. W. refused point blank to 
 agree to this salutary measure, and surrendered his char- 
 ter to the A. F. of L. at the Atlanta Convention in 1911. 
 
 The organization struggled along for a few years as a 
 craft union, and then, in 1915, it extended its jurisdiction 
 to take in all railroad workers, calling itself thereafter the 
 American Federation of Railroad Workers. Its member- 
 ship at the present time is estimated to be about 9,000, 
 principally car workers. It has contracts on two or three 
 railroads. 
 
20 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 From its inception, the A. F. of R. W. has been a thorn 
 in the side of the old unions. It has done them much harm 
 and compromised the interests of railroaders generally. 
 One of its latest exploits was a clear betrayal of union 
 principles. During the recent big struggle to maintain the 
 national agreements and to preserve the system of bar- 
 gaining upon a national scale rather than with individual 
 companies, the officials of the A. F. of R. W. promptly 
 stepped in and signed up a separate agreement with the 
 Philadelphia & Reading, which not only gave up the prin- 
 ciple of the shopmen's national agreement, but also many 
 of the conditions established by the same. Similar agree- 
 ments have since been made on other roads, to the sad 
 compromise of the interests of railroad workers as a whole. 
 But such are the fruits of dual unionism generally, no mat- 
 ter in the name of what high-sounding purpose the dual 
 union operates. 
 
 The One Big Union was set afoot in Western Canada in 
 1918. It is a general dual union, organized upon the indus- 
 trial plan and claiming all classes of workers. For a time 
 it made great progress in Canada, assembling large num- 
 bers of workers, among them many railroad men, into its 
 fold. Some railroad locals were established in the United 
 States also, notably in Chicago. But the movement has 
 lost its impetus ; it is waning rapidly and seems about to 
 be eliminated. 
 
 The United Association of Railway Employes is an after- 
 math of the great, so-called "outlaw" yardmen's strike of 
 the Spring and Summer of 1920, headed by John Grunau. 
 It was formed of the various groups of strikers and black- 
 listed men. Numerically it is not strong. So far as the 
 writer can learn, it has no agreements with the companies 
 anywhere. It, too, appears to be moribund. 
 
 The strike that gave birth to this organization is a typi- 
 cal illustration of the unfortunate dualistic tendency that 
 has long afflicted railroad men. It must be admitted that 
 the men affected had crying grievances and that the union 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 21 
 
 officials were asleep at the switch when it came to taking 
 care of these grievances. But the wiser thing to have 
 done, rather than to call the unauthorized strike, was to 
 fight out the matter within the confines of the old unions. 
 Had this been done there can be no doubt but that with 
 the tremendous spirit of unrest and resentment prevailing, 
 the leaders would have been spurred into action. Had a 
 strike become necessary, it could have been widespread and 
 official, and it would have surely resulted in a victory, so 
 favorable were economic conditions. Undoubtedly the 
 most wholesome effects would have been produced upon 
 the unions. But no, impatiently the men first went out 
 on the unauthorized strike and then into the new, dual 
 unions. The results, easily to be foreseen, were the loss 
 of the strike ; the blacklisting of thousands of first-class 
 union men out of the railroad service ; the general weak- 
 ening of the old unions ; the strengthening of the conserva- 
 tive bureaucracies in these organizations, and the affliction 
 of the railroad industry with one more dual union to create 
 disharmony and division. 
 
 At present there are five dual industrial unions on the 
 railroads : The I. W. W., W. I. I. U., A. F. of R. W., 
 O. B. U., and U. A. of R .E. All of them advocate the sol- 
 idarity of labor, and at the same time all are waging war 
 upon each other, as well as upon the craft unions. Their 
 combined membership is only a fraction of the total num- 
 ber of railroaders organized. 
 
 Such are the results of the dual industrial union program 
 after more than thirty years of effort on the part of thous- 
 ands of active and earnest militants. Could a showing be 
 more disappointing? It amounts to a failure complete in 
 both theory and practice. Not only have the dualists failed 
 to rally the masses to their program, but they have also 
 failed to grasp the principles of solidarity. The spectacle 
 of five dual industrial unions in one industry, all conceived 
 in the name of solidarity, is tragically ridiculous. But that 
 is the logical result of deserting the old unions and setting 
 
22 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 up Utopian organizations. Other industries where similar 
 tactics have been used show identical results. 
 
 In view of these facts should it not be evident that the 
 long-hoped-for industrial union of railroad workers will 
 not come through dual unionism? And is it not clear that 
 this disruptive program should be finally and definitely 
 abandoned? In the next chapter we will see how the in- 
 dustrial union is really being brought about through the 
 evolution of the old trade unions. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE EVOLUTION OF RAILROAD TRADE UNIONISM 
 
 Now, having- seen the utter failure of the dual union pro- 
 gram of the concious minorities, let us examine the drift 
 of the conservative masses towards industrial unionism, 
 for as yet it can hardly be called a concious movement. 
 
 Like the radical minority elements, the great body of 
 railroad men have responded to the oppression of the rail- 
 road companies. But their manner of doing so has been 
 vastly different. It is not their method to throw away 
 their old unions, built through so much stress and struggle, 
 and to begin all over again on a supposedly perfect basis 
 as the dual unionists have so long urged them to do. No, 
 they are far too sluggish for that. Their way is the evolu- 
 tionary way, the way followed almost universally by work- 
 ers in improving their organizations, and the one taken 
 by the railroad companies in building up their own power. 
 They have no plan or theory, but move pretty much as 
 circumstances imperatively dictate. As they sense the need 
 for more united action they build up and extend their old 
 unions and then strike up closer and closer affiliations with 
 sister organizations. The general result is a constant and 
 steady, even if unrecognized, approach to the industrial 
 form. 
 
 This unceasing evolution has gone on for many years, 
 in fact from the very inception of railroad unionism. The 
 stages making it up are many and complicated. Beginning 
 with a whole series of primitive and isolated local unions, 
 the organization has constantly marched on expanding and 
 developing until it has reached its present condition of six- 
 teen more or less loosely federated national craft unions 
 covering the whole railroad industry. These unions are: 
 Engineers (B. of L. E.), Firemen (B. of L. F. & E.), Conduc- 
 tors (O. R. C.) Trainmen (B. of R. T.), Switchmen (S. U. 
 
24 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 of N. A.), Telegraphers (O. R. T.), Clerks (B. of R. & S. C. 
 F. H. E. & S. E.), Signalmen (B. of R. S. of A.), Stationary 
 Firemen (I. B. of S. F. & O.), Maintenance of Way (U. B. 
 M. W. & R. S. L.), Machinists (I. A. of M.), Blacksmiths 
 (I. B. of B. & H.), Boilermakers (L B. I. S. B. & H. of A.), 
 Carmen (B. R. C of A.), Electrical Workers (L B. E. W.), 
 and Sheet Metal Workers (A. S. M. W. L A.). In order 
 that we may understand the coming together process that 
 has developed these craft unions and the alliances between 
 them, and so* we will have a guide for future progress, it 
 will pay us to review some of the details of the evolution. 
 We will consider the sixteen principal unions in their three 
 natural divisions of transportation, miscellaneous, and shop, 
 beginning with the transportation section. 
 
 Development of the Transportation Unions 
 
 Originally the five unions actually engaged in the direct 
 moving of passengers and freight, the Engineers, Firemen, 
 Conductors, Trainmen, and Switchmen, like all the other 
 railroad trade unions, followed a policy of individual action. 
 That is, each craft group fought its own battles, regard- 
 less of the interests of the others. When one struck the 
 rest stayed at work, with the natural result that much bit- 
 terness prevailed among them. This was intensified by 
 raging jurisdictional wars and mutual scabbery. The gen- 
 eral result was to seriously weaken them all and to make 
 them pay dearly, through many lost strikes, for their lack 
 of solidarity. 
 
 The evolution of the transportation unions, like all 
 others, is to be measured chiefly by the extension and 
 solidification of their fighting front against the employers. 
 The first fighting unit used by the transportation unions 
 consisted simply of the few workers in a single trade em- 
 ployed in only one town of a railroad system. For exam- 
 ple, the conductors working out of a certain division town 
 would negotiate an agreement with the company. Thus 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 25 
 
 there might be a dozen agreements in effect for this one 
 craft on the whole railroad. Naturally such a primitive 
 method developed but little strength for the workers. 
 Fighting as they did in such small detachments it was easy 
 for the expanding companies to defeat them. So eventually 
 they came to learn that they would have to operate on a 
 broader scale. Then came the enlargement of the fighting 
 unit until it included all the workers in a given craft upon a 
 whole railroad system. Thereafter, the conductors, in- 
 stead of acting together only in each division point, moved 
 in concert all over the many divisions comprising the road. 
 This type of one craft on one system became general quite 
 early in the history of railroad unionism. 
 
 But it was only a step. The companies, waxing rapidly 
 rich and powerful, found that with all the departments of 
 a system in operation, save one, it was not difficult to de- 
 feat a striking craft. Hence the need for a still more ex- 
 tended battlefront pressed heavily upon the workers, and 
 in 1889 an effort was made to finally solve the problem by 
 federating the several transportation unions together on a 
 national scale in the United Order of Railway Employes. 
 But this federation was premature, and it fell to pieces in 
 1891 because of internal strife. Out of its ruins, however, 
 grew one of the most important types of organization yet 
 produced in this country. This is what is called the sys- 
 tem federation. 
 
 System federations are alliances of several crafts on 
 individual railroad systems. They operated to extend the 
 fighting unit from one craft on one system to several crafts 
 on one system. In the transportation department they 
 brought about active offensive and defensive co-operation 
 between the four brotherhoods* on all matters relating 
 to single railroads. This type of organization was pro- 
 posed by the Engineers in 1890. It was adapted in 1892, 
 
 *The bitter jurisdictional warfare between the Trainmen and Switchmen 
 resulted, among its many other evil effects, in keeping the latter organiza- 
 tion out of the many federations mentioned in this section, and in having them 
 practically isolated until quite recently. 
 
26 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 under what is known as the Cedar Rapids Plan, but it did 
 not get wide application until within the last fifteen years. 
 
 The system federations have done much to break down 
 the intense sectionalism of the brotherhoods. Tending to 
 make the crafts better acquainted with each other, they 
 have checked jurisdictional quarrels and produced a better 
 co-operation all around. Naturally their component unions 
 greatly increased in power from the extended scope of 
 solidarity. This was clearly manifested in the big strikes 
 on the southern Pacific (1913), the Delaware & Hudson 
 (1914), and the Chicago Belt (1915). All three were clean- 
 cut victories. In each case the four organizations struck 
 almost to a man and compelled the companies to grant 
 their demands. 
 
 While the system federations were spreading through- 
 out the country, the transportation unions, responding to 
 the ever-present urge to get together, still further ex- 
 tended their scope of action by means of territorial or di- 
 visional organizations and movements. In order to make 
 it clear what these important developments signify it is 
 necessary to explain that the Government, the railroad 
 companies and the workers consider the railroads of the 
 United States as falling into three "territories" or divisions : 
 Western, Eastern and Southern. The Western Territory, 
 or Division No. 1* comprises all the railroads West of and 
 including the Illinois Central; the Eastern Territory, or 
 Division No. 2, all those East of Chicago and North of the 
 Chesapeake & Ohio; the Southern Territory, or Division 
 No. 3, all those East of the Illinois Central and South of 
 the Chesapeake & Ohio, including the latter system. 
 
 The divisional type of organization enlarged the fighting 
 unit of the crafts from the one system basis to that of 
 the scores of roads that are to be found in each division, 
 
 *Following for simplicity's sake the terminology in use among the A. F. of L. 
 railroad unions, a Territory will be hereafter in this booklet referred to as 
 Division No. 1, 2 or 3, accordingly as it is Western Eastern or Southern. 
 The railroads of Canada comprise Division No. 4 in union practice, while the 
 Independent railroad locomotive and car equipment plants in both countries 
 constitute Division No. 5. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 27 
 
 a significant advance. Henceforth, instead of the roads 
 being handled separately on the questions of hours, wages, 
 etc., they were dealt with in large numbers. But the divi- 
 sional movements varied in character. Some consisted of 
 only one craft, as, for example, those of the Engineers 
 (Div. No. 1, 1908) and the Firemen (Div. No. 1, 1907) ; but 
 eventually they came to consist of two crafts, thus doub- 
 ling their scope. The Conductors and Trainmen inaugur- 
 ated the latter type, when an alliance was struck up be- 
 tween them in 1901. The Engineers and Firemen followed 
 suit by a similar alliance in 1913. Several of these two- 
 craft divisional movements were made. A typical instance 
 was that of the Engineers and Firemen in 1915 on all the 
 roads in the West, comprising Division No. 1. Approxi- 
 mately 65,000 men were involved. 
 
 The system and divisional federations were vast im- 
 provements over the primitive types of organization and 
 they did much to develop the latent power of the brother- 
 hood men, but evolution could not stop with them. In 
 the face of the growing intelligence of the workers and 
 the intensified power of the companies they had to give 
 away to a still broader type. This was a concerted move- 
 ment of the four organizations on all the railroads in the 
 whole country. This big advance manifested itself in the 
 great struggle for the eight-hour day in 1916-17. Over 
 350.000 engineers, firemen, conductors and trainmen were 
 involved. It constituted the largest, well organized wage 
 movement known in America up to that time, and resulted 
 in a victory for the men. To stem the threatened gigantic 
 strike, Congress hastily passed the Adamson eight-hour 
 law, and the mossback Supreme Court, under the lash, 
 hopped around, and for about the first time in its history 
 gave Labor a square deal by calling the law constitutional, 
 just on the eve of the strike. 
 
 Thus, so far as we have gone, we find that the brother- 
 hood men, responding to the pressure against them, have 
 gradually extended their fighting unit from the narrow 
 
28 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 confines of one trade in one railroad town to broad-sweep- 
 ing movements of the four trades on all the railroads in the 
 United States. To one familiar with the gradual manner 
 in which workers improve the structure of their labor 
 unions this tremendous advance will stand out as a long 
 stride towards the inevitable industrial union in the rail- 
 road industry. 
 
 Development of the Miscellaneous Unions 
 
 Before going further with the four brotherhoods let us 
 turn our attention to the unions in the miscellaneous sec- 
 tion; viz, Telegraphers, Clerks, Signalmen, Stationary 
 Firemen, and Maintenance of Way Workers. Their evo- 
 lution is comparitively simple. Before the war the latter 
 four led a very precarious existence, as they possessed lit- 
 tle organization upon the various roads. When the war 
 came, however, they underwent a mushroom growth and 
 swarmed nearly all of the eligible workers into their ranks. 
 At one blow almost they advanced from the primitive 
 status of negotiating separate agreements for each system 
 to the establishments of national agreements for their re- 
 spective crafts on all interstate systems. 
 
 Because of their long quarrel with the Trainmen, the 
 Switchmen remained in the detached condition character- 
 istic of the unions in the miscellaneous section. In fact, 
 although properly a transportation union, they usually 
 found themselves left out of the joint movements in that 
 department. 
 
 Development of the Shop Unions 
 
 The principal shop unions are the Machinists, Black- 
 smiths, Boilermakers, Carmen, Electrical Workers, and 
 Sheet Metal Workers. Their evolution was much more 
 lengthy and involved than that of the miscellaneous unions. 
 It is comparable to that of the transportation unions and 
 merits our attention. It illustrates clearly the constant 
 get-together tendencies of the railroad unions. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 29 
 
 Like the members of the brotherhoods, the shop workers 
 began early to perceive that their trades could not success- 
 fully fight alone. It was not enough that their respective 
 crafts be highly organized. It was necessary also that 
 they should co-operate together as against the common 
 enemy, the companies. Dozens of lost strikes emphasized 
 this lesson. So the shopmen entered upon a long course 
 of drawing up their unions into federations, much as the 
 brotherhood men have done, but without quite so many 
 complications and refinements. 
 
 The first definite form of active co-operation among the 
 shop trades was the familiar system federation. This type 
 of organization did for the shop men what it did for the 
 transportation men, expanded their scope of action from 
 one craft on one system to several crafts on one system. 
 They began to spread over the railroads of the country 
 about 1905, and in a few years were established on many 
 systems. But the shop men, less strategically situated in 
 th t industry than are the brotherhood men, have always 
 had to fight harder to win concessions from the companies. 
 Consequently their system federation movement met heavy 
 resistance from the companies in a number of strikes, chief 
 among which was the great Harriman Lines-Illinois Cen- 
 tial walkout. 
 
 This big strike started in September, 1911, and lasted 
 forty-five months, until June, 1915. It was one of the most 
 bitterly contested strikes in American labor history, and 
 one of the most important. About 38,000 men were in- 
 volved, scattered over the twelve railroads comprising the 
 'enormous Harriman Lines-Illinois Central system. The 
 issue at stake was the question of federation ; the nine 
 unions insisting upon dealing collectively with the man- 
 agement, and the management insisting that they act one 
 at a time. Both sides desperately fought out their issue. 
 President Markham of the Illinois Central explained the 
 company's opposition as follows : 
 
30 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 "It would only be a question of years until the 
 operating men became members of the system fed- 
 eration. That would place the company at the mercy 
 of a compact body of labor to enforce its demands 
 by tying up the system at all points. It would mean 
 taking the control out of the hands of the board of 
 directors and placing it in the hands of organized 
 labor. That's why I am opposed to the system fed- 
 eration plan of organization." 
 
 Nominally the strike was lost, the workers being com- 
 pelled to go back to work without either their unions or a 
 settlement. But practically a large measure of victory 
 was achieved, because the company paid so dearly for its 
 victory that other companies hesitated to go into similar 
 struggles; with the result that the shopmen's federations 
 thereafter were quite generally recognized wherever the 
 crafts had any strength of organization. The big strike 
 definitely established the system federation movement. 
 It also resulted in making the Railway Employes' Depart- 
 ment the best department in the A. F. of L., by bringing 
 about the amalgamation of the original half-dead depart- 
 ment with the Federation of Federations, an organization 
 called into being to unite all the system federations. 
 
 As in the case of the transportation unions, the divisional 
 type of organization developed among the shop unions side 
 by side with the system federations. The first divisional 
 movement of shop men took place in Division No. 3 in 
 1916. Twelve Southern railroads were involved. In Di- 
 vision No. 1 an effort was made along similar lines shortly 
 after; but the unions, not yet recovered from the big 
 strike on the Harriman Lines-Illinois Central system, were 
 unable to win their point. The companies blocked them, 
 and compelled them to continue along with the old method 
 of one craft or one system federation at a time, as the case 
 might be. 
 
 At this stage of the shop unions' development the war 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 31 
 
 broke out and the whole situation was revolutionized. The 
 railroads were taken over by the Government; Director- 
 General McAdoo issued his famous order No. 8 guarantee- 
 ing railroaders the right to organize ; the workers streamed 
 into the unions ; local, system and divisional federations 
 were hastily organized, and the shop unions fairly leaped 
 even beyond the point of development reached by the 
 brotherhoods in their great eight-hour movement of a 
 couple of years before. They not only carried out na- 
 tional campaigns for hours, wages, etc., but in addition suc- 
 ceeded in negotiating a national agreement covering the 
 whole six shop crafts upon all the railroads of the United 
 States thereby taking another long stride towards firmly 
 uniting the great body of railroad men in one organiza- 
 tion. 
 
 Transportation, Miscellaneous and Shop Unions Unite 
 
 To recapitulate : So far as we have gone we find the 
 sixteen railroad unions operating as follows : First, the 
 four transportation unions, consisting of the Engineers, 
 Firemen, Conductors and Trainmen, acting in close co- 
 operation upon a national scale. Second, the six miscella- 
 neous unions, consisting of the Telegraphers, Clerks, 
 Switchmen, Signalmen, Stationary Firemen and Mainten- 
 ance of Way Workers, each proceeding separately, but all 
 working upon a national basis. Third, the six shop unions, 
 consisting of the Machinists, Blacksmiths, Boilermakers, 
 Carmen, Electrical Workers and Sheet Metal Workers, all 
 working under a single national agreement. 
 
 This situation was a far cry from the primitive type 
 of unionism described above. But evolution could not stop 
 there. The same forces that had brought the organiza- 
 tions to this stage of development must continue to oper- 
 ate until there is complete solidarity among all railroad 
 workers. It was inevitable that the two compact groups 
 of transportation and shop unions and the scattering group 
 
32 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 of miscellaneous unions should strike up a co-operation 
 among themselves upon a national scale.* 
 
 The first step in this direction had to do with political 
 measures. The unions clearly recognized their industrial 
 relationship and mutual interdependence in the Plumb 
 Plan. To advocate this proposal they formed themselves 
 into the Plumb Plan League, issued the joint journal, 
 "Labor," and launched a general publicity campaign. But 
 it was not long until this new co-operation also manifested 
 itself on the industrial field, and in 1920 all the organiza- 
 tions united in a national movement for wage increases. 
 
 Thus, after many long years of evolution, the enormous 
 army of railroad workers, beginning at the simple system 
 of one trade acting at a time in each division town, finally 
 arrived at the stage where all the trades acted together 
 simultaneously on every railroad in the United States. 
 Although the lineup was yet far from perfect, the 1,850,- 
 000 railroad men, for the first time in their history, were 
 moving in a body against the common enemy. The ap- 
 proach made to industrial unionism by this long evolution 
 is unmistakable. 
 
 Much of this national, all-trades co-operation is unques- 
 tionably flimsy as yet, as we shall see farther on. It may 
 be that the present alliances will be partly dissolved 
 through the shortsightedness of the men though the six- 
 teen trades strike on the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic 
 augurs well. But such setbacks can only be temporarily. 
 The evolution of the unions will go on, in spite of occa- 
 sional reverses, until all the railroad workers of America 
 stand stolidly united in one organization, fully conscious 
 of their common interests against the common foe, and de- 
 termined to fight shoulder to shoulder to make them pre- 
 vail. 
 
 *A forerunner of the all-craft movement occurred on the Chicago & Eastern 
 Illinois in 1915, when all the trades on that road joined forces in a system 
 federation, the first of its kind. The system federation was unique in that 
 it comprised all the railroad crafts, and not merely several of the more 
 closely related grroups. as had previously been the case. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 33 
 
 For industrial unionists the facts cited in these two chap- 
 ters should bear an important lesson. They make it clear 
 as day that the dual unions have failed utterly, and that 
 the trade unions provide the means for the realization of 
 industrial unionism on the railroads. Not only have the 
 latter organized the vast bulk of all railroad workers ; but 
 they are also constantly closing up their ranks in a man- 
 ner that can only end in transforming them all into one 
 organization. The part of wisdom then is to give up dual 
 unionism and to devote all our efforts to the development 
 of the trade unions. 
 
 The worst of the dual industrial unions is not so much 
 that they have failed of themselves, but rather that they 
 have greatly retarded the progress of the trade unions. 
 In the first place, they have discredited the very name of 
 industrial unionism by associating it with secession, dis- 
 ruption and failure. And, then by pulling thousands of live 
 wires out of the trade unions they have robbed these or- 
 ganizations of tremendous support. It is safe to assume 
 that if the large body of industrial unionists, for all these 
 years, had stayed in the old unions, set up their ideal of 
 industrial unionism there, and then worked for every prac- 
 tical measure making in that direction, we would have had 
 an industrial union of railroad workers by now. But bet- 
 ter late than never. This sensible policy should be fol- 
 lowed henceforth, and a lasting goodbye said to dual 
 unionism. 
 
34 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE NEXT STEP AMALGAMATION 
 
 Sooner or later, the unions in all industries and in every 
 country find themselves at the point where they are based 
 upon industrial rather than craft lines. In arriving at this 
 stage of development they ordinarily pass through a more 
 or less lengthy evolutionary process, marked by three dis- 
 tinct phases, which I shall call: (1) isolation, (2) federa- 
 tion, (3) amalgamation. 
 
 In the first, or isolation phase, the several craft groups 
 in a given industry act independently of each other, rec- 
 ognizing few or no interests in common. Eventually, how- 
 ever, grace to their own unfolding intelligence, to the grow- 
 ing power of the employers, to the elimination of skill by 
 machinery, and to various other factors, they awaken to 
 the ineffectiveness of this individualistic method, and begin 
 to set up offensive and defensive alliances with each other. 
 This brings them into the second, or federation phase. 
 And, finally, when by the working of the same factors, they 
 perceive their loose federated form, although a big im- 
 provement over the previous system, does not develop their 
 maximum power, they gradually fuse themselves together 
 into a unified body along the lines of their industry. Thus 
 they reach the third, or amalgamation phase. 
 
 This is the normal course of labor union development, 
 the natural way of building industrial unions. Dozens of 
 industrial unions in Europe have taken it, and our Amer- 
 ican trade unions are following suite. In common with 
 other groups of unions in the food, clothing, metal, trans- 
 port, building, printing, and other industries, the railroad 
 unions are now in the secondary, or federation phase of 
 development. That is the significance of their multitudi- 
 nous local system, divisional and national alliances, which 
 constitute the most elaborate maze of federation ever con- 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 35 
 
 structed by unions anywhere. Nor will they stop with 
 federation. They must go on to the next phase, amalga- 
 mation. In so doing they will be merely following the dic- 
 tates of reason and acting in harmony with labor union 
 evolution the world over. It will be the logical and in- 
 evitable climax to all the get-together movements, radical 
 and conservative, among railroad men for a generation. 
 Amalgamation of the sixten railroad craft unions into one 
 industrial union that's the railroaders' next step. 
 
 The Failings of Federation 
 
 The situation is over-ripe for a general amalgamation 
 of all railroad unions. Solidly united and inspired by a 
 boundless voracity for profits and power, the railroad com- 
 panies are resolved to smash the workers down to slav- 
 ery. In this unholy task they have the active assistance of 
 every branch of the powerful capitalist class. Common 
 sense demands, therefore, that the enormous army of rail- 
 road men be brought to the highest possible state of effi- 
 ciency in unflinching opposition to our would-be masters. 
 Under the prevailing federated form this cannot be done. 
 Amalgamation is the only solution. 
 
 Federation is all right so far as it goes. It marks an 
 important stage in the workers' development from craft 
 to class unionism. It is at once an admission of the in- 
 effectiveness of craft action and a striving for industrial 
 solidarity. Federation always sounds the death knell of 
 pure and simple trade unionism. But the trouble with it 
 is that it does not go far enough. It is essentially only a 
 halfway measure. Afflicted with lingering craft weak- 
 nesses, it develops only a fraction of the workers' potential 
 power. Despite federation the employers are still able to 
 play one group of workers against the others and thus beat 
 them all. 
 
 Whenever a federation goes into action, whether in con- 
 c erence or in strike, its weaknesses are instantly apparent. 
 
36 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 The autonomous unions lack cohesion and unity of pur- 
 pose. The craft point of view prevails. Each union, ani- 
 mated by its particular craft prejudices, and selfishness, 
 looks first to the interest of its own members. Little or no 
 power is conceded to the federation, which is looked upon 
 pretty much as a mere matter of convenience. The idea of 
 the general good remains in the background. Jealousies, 
 squabblings and even betrayals are the order of the day. 
 Consequently united action is out of the question. Federa- 
 tions can neither agree definitely upon a program, nor fight 
 vigorously to put one through. 
 
 The Steel Workers' Federation 
 
 Railroad men have had a wide experience with federa- 
 tion. But before going into that it may not be amiss to 
 mention something of what happened in the great organ- 
 izing campaign and strike in the steel industry for federa- 
 tion always works out the same. 
 
 The National Committee for Organizing Iron and Steel 
 Workers was a gigantic experiment in federation. It con- 
 sisted of twenty-four international unions ,numbering over 
 2,000,000 members. While its work, like that of all federa- 
 tions, was a big improvement over the primitive condition 
 of each union going it alone, still it was afflicted with the 
 customary faults of such organizations. These contrib- 
 uted much to its final defeat. 
 
 In the great steel fight the need for the solidarity of 
 labor was imperative. The Steel Trust was solidly united ; 
 its forces worked together like a perfect machine. But not 
 so on the side of Labor where there should have been 
 unity, harmony and power, there was division, disagree- 
 ment and impotency. Federation failed to make good. 
 The twenty-four unions never really combined their forces, 
 or organized their many wills into one firm determination 
 to win. From first to last they lacked cohesion and sin- 
 gleness of purpose. And under their federated form of 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 37 
 
 organization not even the great stake of the organization 
 of the steel industry could spur them to unified action. 
 
 The National Committee, like all federations, lacked 
 authority to command the resources and co-operation of 
 its component unions. Instead of the campaign being con- 
 ducted from one central point, as the situation impera- 
 tively demanded, it was practically handled from the 
 twenty-four union headquarters scattered all over the 
 country. It proved impossible to get all the international 
 presidents (who held the reins of power) assembled in one 
 meeting, even in the most critical periods of the movement. 
 Notwithstanding the most desperate appeals, the most got- 
 ten together at any one time was seven. The usual thing 
 for the unions to do was to send some minor official with- 
 out power to act, which of itself condemned the National 
 Committee to powerlessness. Then, when the committee 
 attempted to function through these straw delegates and 
 took important action, word would soon come from some 
 headquarters, far from the scene of action, that they would 
 not go along with the program outlined. Then other 
 unions, hearing of this, would likewise balk, with the con- 
 sequent collapse of the plan. This was the fate of many 
 vital measures. Constantly the movement was paralyzed. 
 It had to drift along as best it could with only a fraction 
 of the strength of the twenty-four unions behind it. 
 
 Jurisdictional fights and craft jealousies embittered the 
 unions and still furthed weakened their co-operation. There 
 was also endless confusion in starting and finishing the 
 strike, many local unions refusing to respond to the Na- 
 tional Committee. In one case the officials of the Inter- 
 national Union of Steam Operating Engineers deliberately 
 betrayed the whole movement because of a fight with the 
 Electrical Workers over jurisdiction. They ordered their 
 men to disobey the strike call and to remain at work. Sim- 
 ilarly, the officials of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, 
 Steel and Tin Workers sabotaged the organizing campaign 
 and strike from beginning to end, because of jealousy 
 
38 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 towards the other unions, if nothing worse. The regular 
 attitude was for each organization to hold back, waiting 
 for the others to take the lead, and fearing that if it stirred 
 the others would take advantage of its good will. This 
 meant paralysis all around ; the unions weakest in resources 
 and spirit seemed to set the pace for the rest. Nor could 
 anything change the situation. 
 
 In the matter of finances the holding back tendency was 
 particularly noticeable. Although actually with millions 
 in their treasuries, the twenty-four unions gave the Na- 
 tional Committee only the beggarly sum of $100,000 to 
 carry on the whole organizing campaign and the strike. 
 If hard-pressed almost any one of them could have done 
 as well alone. Three outside unions, the Amalgamated 
 Clothing Workers, the Ladies' Garment Workers, and the 
 Fur Workers, contributed more than the twenty-four 
 unions combined; viz., $190,000. Had the twenty-four 
 unions been really united, instead of merely federated, they 
 could, and certainly would have put in fifty times as much 
 money as they did ; not to speak of the strength they 
 would have added in other ways. An industrial union of 
 steel workers, under similar circumstances, would have 
 surely defeated the Steel Trust. 
 
 Some Foreign Experiences 
 
 Federation always demonstrates such defects. The 
 British Labor Movement has just had a disastrous experi- 
 ence with it. There the miners, railroaders, and transport 
 workers were federated together in the world-famous 
 Triple Alliance. The understanding was that if one of 
 the three groups got in serious trouble the other two would 
 rally to its support. The workers thought they had a 
 wonderful weapon in this gigantic labor combination,, num- 
 bering about two million people employed in the most 
 vitally necessary industries. 
 
 But events sadly undeceived them. The Triple Alii- 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 39 
 
 ance, when put to the test, collapsed like federations al- 
 ways do under pressure. The trouble started in the Spring 
 of 1921, when the miners were bitterly attacked by the 
 mine owners. They called upon the two affiliated groups 
 of railroads and transport workers to help them. This the 
 latter made a show of doing, going so far even as to call 
 a general strike in support of the miners. But this never 
 materialized. On the contrary, the three great unions, 
 simply because they were separate organizations and 
 manned by timid officials, quarrelled among themselves 
 over the usual technicalities, personalities, etc. and finally 
 declared off the threatened strike. The miners were left 
 to make the fight alone, and the general result was far 
 worse than if there had been no Triple Alliance at all. 
 The affair was a terrific defeat for the whole working 
 class. 
 
 Above all the labor movement is a fighting organization, 
 and a successful fighting machine can never be constructed 
 on the basis of federation. This was clearly demonstrated 
 during the World War in the military forces of the Allies. 
 In the beginning the Allied armies were practically fed- 
 erated. But naturally no real concerted action was possi- 
 ble among them, just as it is impossible among federated 
 trade unions and for the same reasons. No general strat- 
 egy could be developed. When France was making a drive 
 against the Central Powers, England, Italy, Russia and 
 the rest would invariably be doing the reverse of what they 
 should be, and vice versa. Nor could the most pressing 
 danger of defeat put an end to this condition and make 
 the federated armies function effectively. When they had 
 nearly lost the war then the Allies applied the remedy, 
 amalgamation. The several armies were placed under one 
 head. This doubled their power and sounded the death 
 knell of the opposing military forces. Whether in social 
 or military warfare, unity of thought and action can come 
 only through unity of organization. That is the great les- 
 son railroad men have yet to learn. 
 
40 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 Insufficiency of Railroad Federation 
 
 But railroad workers have no need to look afield for 
 weaknesses of federation. The history of our own organ- 
 izations is replete with such. One of many illustrations 
 that may be cited was the great Illinois Central-Harriman 
 Lines strike. That affair was a glaring illustration of the 
 divided authority and lack of solidarity produced by feder- 
 ation. There was the customary manifestations of craft 
 selfishness at the expense of the general interest ; the same 
 unwillingness of the various organizations to concede the 
 necessary control to the federation; the same planlessness 
 and confusion in financing and directing the walkout. It 
 was truly said that there were nine craft strikes, rather 
 than one general strike. From first to last the various of- 
 ficials, jealous of their respective prerogatives, quarrelled 
 bitterly among themselves. Charges of indifference, sa- 
 botage, and sell-out flew back and forth between them. 
 Torn with dissention, the whole movement constantly 
 faced disruption. Under such circumstances, so typical of 
 federation, a really effective strike was altogether out of 
 the question. All chances for victory went glimmering. 
 Defeat resulted. 
 
 But could a more damning argument be found against 
 federation than our present situation? The employers 
 have declared war to the knife against the unions. And 
 the latter, despite the many federations, are cringing under 
 the blow, unwilling and incapable of helping each other. 
 The railroad owners select one union or group of unions 
 after the other and give them a beating, while the others, 
 safe from attack for the moment, refuse to go to the at- 
 tacked ones' assistance. Thus the transportation unions 
 stand about shrugging their shoulders while the shop 
 unions have their national agreement taken away from 
 them. And in turn the shop unions consider it none of 
 their funeral when the Stationary Firemen, Maintenance 
 of Way, and other groups lose the eight-hour day. Thus 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 41 
 
 S^ 
 
 it goes, with the companies defeating us piecemeal, one 
 section after another. Divide and conquer is the eternal 
 motto of the exploiter. And never was it put more effec- 
 tively into practice than it now is as against the railroad 
 workers. 
 
 If we should be forced into a strike, as well we may, 
 how would it go with us then? We are ill-prepared for 
 such a vital struggle. The chances are, if present indica- 
 tions do not lie completely, that only a group of the unions 
 would strike, and the others, with characteristic craft sel- 
 fishness, would stay at work and thus help defeat the 
 strike. But even if all the sixteen unions should strike to- 
 gether, which is most unlikely indeed, the situation would 
 be critical for us. Chronically divided by their craft char- 
 acter, the organizations would go into the fight with a 
 fraction of possible efficiency. Instead of a homogenuous 
 machine, we would have sixteen autonomous unions, each 
 with its own set of officers and each its own will ; sixteen 
 sets of organizers working at cross purposes with each 
 other and creating endless confusion ; sixteen different 
 strike relief systems, with the disruptive condition of the 
 richer ones paying high benefits and the poorer ones none ; 
 sixteen headquarters scattered all over the country dab- 
 bling in the management of the strike and quarreling with 
 each other. 
 
 Under such circumstances, inevitable in the present state 
 of our organization, limitless confusion, disharmony, and 
 weakness would result. A properly conducted strike, one 
 that would bring out the real power of the workers and 
 give them better than a desperate chance to win, would be 
 impossible. It would be the steel strike and the Illinois 
 Central-Harriman Lines strike all over again, only this 
 time on a far larger scale. Of course, such a strike might 
 be won. But if victory did come it would be due to the 
 weight and stragetic position of the workers, and not to 
 the skill shown in organization. And the winning would 
 amount to only a fraction of what it would if the workers 
 
42 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 were really united. But the strike might also be lost. 
 This is the chance that cannot be taken. If we are going 
 to have a general struggle the workers must go into it 
 properly organized and prepared to effectively support each 
 other to the limit. 
 
 Federation must give way to amalgamation, just as iso- 
 lation gave way to federation. There is no other way out 
 of it. In the phase of isolation the unions, in spite of their 
 handicaps, made considerable headway and abolished many 
 abuses. In federation they have vastly increased their 
 power and established conditions that amount to a semi- 
 revolution in the railroad industry. But infinitely greater 
 tasks lie ahead, tasks that will demand the utmost unani- 
 mity of purpose and action from the whole army of rail- 
 road workers. And this unanimity federation cannot give. 
 So long as the unions remain autonomous bodies, each with 
 its own set of officers, just that long will they stand first 
 for their respective craft interests,, to the detriment of the 
 general welfare, and just that long will real unity among 
 railroad men be impossible. This can only be had when 
 the unions are all amalgamated into one body. Then the 
 resultant organization, with one set of officials, one in- 
 terest and one goal, will develop such tremendous power 
 that the workers will be able to make real progress on the 
 long, hard road to emancipation. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 A PLAN OF AMALGAMATION 
 
 When American railroad men embark upon the amalga- 
 mation of all their trade unions into one industrial union 
 they will not be pioneers blazing- a trail through an un- 
 known wilderness. On the contrary, they will be setting 
 forth on a well-travelled road, long since gone over by the 
 railroad workers of France, Italy, England, Russia, Ger- 
 many, Belgium, etc., on their way to freedom for in all 
 these countries all classes of railroad workers, save an oc- 
 casional craft fragment here and there, are to be found in 
 single organizations. In fact, the United States is the 
 only important country in the world where the industrial 
 form of union is not predominant among railroad workers. 
 Here alone, where the need for solidarity is greater than 
 anywhere else, is the antiquated craft type supreme which 
 does not speak well for our spirit of progress. 
 
 In considering measures to be taken by us for amalga- 
 mation we will do well to bear in mind the experiences of 
 railroad workers of other countries. Great Britain, for 
 instance, contains a lesson for us. In that country, it is 
 true, the railroad organizations are not so completely in- 
 dustralized as they are in Continental Europe ; but the gen- 
 eral conditions of unionism are so similar to those here 
 and the British unions have made so much progress 
 towards industrial organization, that their achievements in 
 this direction should prove valuable to us as a criterion. 
 
 The National Union of Railwayman 
 
 The basic organization on British railroads is the N%- 
 tional Union of Railwaymen (N. U. R.), which includes all 
 classes of railroad workers. But it has not yet succeeded 
 in completely industrializing the situation. The Associated 
 Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, which con- 
 
44 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 trols a portion of these two crafts, remains separate. Like- 
 wise the Railway Clerks' Association; but between this 
 organization and the N. U. R. complete understanding- ex- 
 ists. The two would amalgamate, but it is felt that inas- 
 much as the Clerks still have something of a "white collar 
 psychology," it may be better to let them go alone until 
 they know more about unionism and can stand fusion with 
 the mass of less genteel workers. However, both unions 
 work in closest co-operation. Besides the two separate 
 craft groups there is also a dispute over the shop men, the 
 metal trades unions putting in claims for and organizing 
 numbers of these workers. But this difference bids fair to 
 be settled along industrial lines. Notwithstanding these 
 ragged edges, however, the N. U. R., with its industrial 
 structure, is overwhelmingly the most important union on 
 the railroads. Having over 400,000 members, or about 
 four-fifths of all organized railroad workers, and enjoying 
 great prestige, it dominates the whole situation. It may 
 well serve as a type for us to go by. 
 
 The National Union of Railwaymen is the product of an 
 evolution essentially the same as that which American rail- 
 road unions are now going through. It experienced the 
 three familiar phases of isolation, federation and amalga- 
 mation. At first the various craft unions went it alone, 
 with the usual unsatisfactory results. Then they tried 
 federation; but that developed the same failings as it does 
 here : the organizations wrangled among themselves and 
 lacked the power that comes from real unity. So finally 
 the three most important among them, the Amalgamated 
 Society of Railway Servants, the General Railway Work- 
 ers' Union, and the United Signalmen and Pointsmen, fused 
 themselves together and formed the National Union of 
 Railwaymen. 
 
 This was in 1913. The effect of the amalgamation was 
 electric. Immediately the whole movement leaped to the 
 front. When the amalgamation took place the three com- 
 bining unions had 156,000 members ; eighteen months later 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 45 
 
 the new organization had 300,000. A new spirit seized 
 hold of the railroad workers. For the first time they were 
 able to give unified expression to their needs and their 
 power. They marched forward amazingly, and today their 
 union stands in the very forefront of the British labor 
 movement. It is playing a part in the industrial life of 
 Great Britain such as the old railroad craft unions hardly 
 dared dream of. The organization of the N. U. R. marked 
 a new day for British railroaders. 
 
 The National Union of Railwaymen is an industrial union 
 in the true sense of the word. For all the classes of work- 
 ers under its jurisdiction it has one general headquarters, 
 one set of officials, one financial system, and one point of 
 view. Of its organization machinery, which is strictly 
 modern in type, a very important feature is the manner 
 in which it ascertains, harmonizes and defends the in- 
 terests of its variegated membership. To do this properly 
 is always a big problem for broad-sweeping unions of the 
 industrial type to at once give expression to the many 
 crafts, and yet to avoid the bitter wranglings that ruin the 
 efficiency of the unions in the two primitive stages of iso- 
 lation and federation. In fact, it is to solve exactly this 
 problem that industrial unions are called into being, and 
 their value is to be measured by the degree in which they 
 succeeded with its solution. 
 
 The National Union of Railwaymen deals with this situa- 
 tion through a departmental form of organization similar 
 to that of other European industrial unions. Its national 
 executive committee is composed of four sections, con- 
 forming to natural divisions of the industry; viz., (1) Lo- 
 comotive, (2) Traffic, (3) Goods and Cartage, C4) Engineer- 
 ing Shops and Permanent Way. Each section numbers 
 six men, or twenty-four for the whole committee. The 
 effect of this is to give all the trades adequate representa- 
 tion, so that their interests may be intelligently looked 
 after at all times. 
 
 In framing wage and other demands each section works 
 
46 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 out its own proposition and then submits it to the whole 
 committee to pass on before it is incorporated in the gen- 
 eral demands which in turn have to be ratified by either 
 an annual or a special convention. Experience shows that 
 these trades sections are able to agree upon a common 
 program and to give each other a square deal much more 
 readily than would a group of federated trade unions. Very 
 few disputes occur between the departments. This is be- 
 cause all the workers are members of one organization, 
 which is shot through and through with the conception 
 of the welfare of the general mass of railroad men. Nar- 
 row craft selfishness, always fostered, developed and 
 strengthened by separate organizations, is conspicuous by 
 its absence in the industrial union. There is a distinct get- 
 together tendency, a decided urge for solidarity. The gen- 
 eral practicability of the system is shown in the wonderful 
 growth and influence of British railroaders since the organ- 
 ization of the National Union of Railwaymen. 
 
 Locking the Unions Together 
 
 In joining their forces into one common body, as inevit- 
 ably they must sooner or later, American railroad unions 
 will do well to adopt a departmental form similar to that of 
 the N. U. R. Such a system would make for order and power 
 throughout the entire union structure. In fact, it is the 
 most practical and efficient method yet evolved to handle 
 so many categories of workers as are to be found in the 
 railroad industry. Conditions here make it advisable, how- 
 ever, that for a time at least there be more departments in 
 the proposed industrial union than there are in the N. U. R. 
 For it is idle to suppose that our highly individualistic craft 
 unions, accustomed as they are to so much autonomy, 
 would rush into an industrial union that would at once 
 wipe out their trade lines. A better plan would be to as- 
 similate them gradually. Therefore, to begin with, it 
 might probably be found expedient to have one department 
 for each of the amalgamated organizations. This would 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 47 
 
 be no very serious disadvantage. And then, later on, when 
 the varous trades, through contact with each other, hal 
 lost their narrow craft spirit ; when they had become di- 
 gested by the amalgamation, the number of departments 
 could be decreased to conform more clearly to the natural 
 divisions of the industry. Closely allied groups of trades, 
 such as the Engineers and Firemen, could eventually be 
 placed in one department ; the Conductors, Trainmen and 
 Switchmen in another; the metal trades (as fast as their 
 organizations amalgamated nationally) in a third, and so 
 on. Finally, the number of departments could be cut to 
 eight, or if necessary, less. 
 
 The first step, and a mighty important one, in bringing 
 about the proposed amalgamation, would be to popularize 
 the plan in all the organizations and to put them on record 
 in favor of it. But let us suppose for a moment that this 
 big job had been accomplished. Then the next step would 
 be, at the amalgamation conference, or convention, to 
 throw out a super-structure in front of the whole sixteen 
 unions, definitely locking them together. This would be 
 done by creating a national executive committee, based 
 upon the departmental system, to handle the affairs of the 
 new industrial union. In a pinch this committee might con- 
 sist of the united executive boards of the amalgamated or- 
 ganizations ; but the part of wisdom would be to construct 
 it of about three delegates from each department; or but 
 it is not so good a system of about 50 delegates chosen 
 by the various departments on the basis of their respective 
 voting strengths. Of course, the necessary general offic- 
 ers and subcommittees would also be provided for. This 
 would lay the foundation of the industrial union. 
 
 One vital thing, the very essence of the amalgamation, 
 and the measure without which it could have no meaning, 
 is that the individual craft unions would completely sur- 
 render their autonomy to the industrial union. Thence- 
 forth the latter would be supreme. It would formulate the 
 demands of all trades, present them together to the com- 
 
48 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 panics as one proposition, and, if necessary, strike as one 
 man to make them prevail. Craft autonomy would be a 
 thing of the past. 
 
 The process of industrialization, begun by linking to- 
 gether the heads of the trade unions, would be extended 
 as fast as possible throughout all their ramifications. The 
 local, system and divisional federations would be extended 
 to conform to the new, closer relationship. Wherever prac- 
 ticable the local unions would be actually amalgamated. 
 The many sets of officials, national, divisional, system and 
 local, would be gradually transformed into one homogenu- 
 ous force. The many journals would be combined into one 
 powerful publication. Standardization of the dues and 
 benefit systems would be introduced; grading the dues of 
 the various departments to fit the differently paid classes 
 of workers, and preserving, if wanted, the heavy insurance 
 features carried now by the transportation unions. A free 
 transfer would be made to prevail between the different 
 departments, and also a standard, uniform initiation fee, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 A revolution in the prevailing convention system would 
 be necessitated. Instead of sixteen craft conventions, as 
 there are today, then there would be but one general gath- 
 ering of representatives of all classes of railroad workers 
 the departments would not have either the need or the 
 right to hold separate conventions of their own. The 
 united railroad workers of America, possessed of one or- 
 ganization and one will, would meet in general national 
 convention to work out their common problems. Along 
 with the obsolete craft conventions would go their equally 
 obsolete system of representation. As the industrial union 
 would be a huge organization containing many thousands 
 of local unions, naturally the local union as a basis for con- 
 vention representation would have to be discontinued. 
 This would be a blessing for it is a primitive, expensive and 
 impractical method. A much more fitting unit of repre- 
 sentation is the system federation now used by the Rail- 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 49 
 
 way Employees' Department. This system unit would 
 probably be adopted, and the industrial union convention 
 would be made up of representatives of the system organi- 
 zations, either upon the basis of one delegate from each 
 department of each system amalgamation ; or, what is more 
 likely and practical, three or four delegates from each sys- 
 tem amalgamation, selected by general election and with- 
 out regard to their respective departments. This would 
 at once insure a democratic and representative convention 
 and keep its size within reason. It is instructive to note 
 that the big National Union of Railwaymen of Great Bri- 
 tain limits its annual conventions to eighty delegates, 
 elected at large from the various districts into which the 
 organization is divided. The antiquated system of local 
 union representation is not recognized. 
 
 Partial Amalgamation 
 
 The foregoing propositions have been written around the 
 thought of the whole sixteen unions making a concerted 
 move for amalgamation for that is what should happen. 
 The proposed industrial union should contain all the crafts, 
 as the situation demands complete solidarity all along the 
 line. Each of the organizations, no matter what its spe- 
 cial conditions, has at once much to contribute to such a 
 combination and much to gain from it. The amalgamation 
 can never be thoroughly effective until all the railroad 
 unions, large and small, strong and weak, become part of 
 it. 
 
 But in view of the fact that the unions are afflicted with 
 large reactionary elements, who block every progressive 
 movement, we have to consider the possibility that all of 
 the organizations will not move for amalgamation simul- 
 taneously. It is very probable that amalgamation, like 
 federation, will being to show itself first in two or more 
 streams among the closest related trades. In such an 
 event, say, where several unions desired to amalgamate, 
 they could do so exactly along the general principles out- 
 
50 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STPE 
 
 lined above. Thy could set up their departments, one for 
 each of the amalgamating- trades, just as though all the 
 unions were parties to the plan. Later on, as the out- 
 standing organizations woke up and came into the amalga- 
 mation, new departments could be provided for them, and 
 representation given them on the national executive com- 
 mittee. The foregoing plan is feasible whether the unions 
 all join hands at once, whether they first form several sets 
 of amalgamations among themselves, and then link these 
 together, or whether the various trades come in in ones 
 and twos. 
 
 Should all the unions amalgamate simultaneously one 
 effect would be either the remodelling of the Railway Em- 
 ployes' Department, along the lines suggested above, so 
 that it could serve as the national executive committee of 
 the industrial union ' (which would be the logical thing to 
 do), or, in failure of such remodelling, its entire elimina- 
 tion as superfluous. But should the unions amalgamate 
 piece-meal, two or more at a time, the Railway Employes' 
 Department might probably continue much as it is, with 
 the same system of representation, the same autonomy 
 between the affiliated organizations, etc. ; until finally the 
 amalgamation had been completed, when the department 
 would be faced by the same necessity as though all the 
 organizations had fused together at the same time ; namely, 
 remodelling to meet the new condition, or abolition. 
 
 Of course, such partial amalgamations of two or more 
 trades would be steps in the right direction. But they 
 would not meet the needs of the situation. The thing that 
 is wanted, and the thing that must be put through is the 
 amalgamation of the whole sixteen railroad unions at the 
 same time. 
 
 The Matter of Non-Railroad Affiliations 
 
 In working out an amalgamation project for the rail- 
 road industry consideration must be given to the very im- 
 portant fact that the unions therein divide into two dis- 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STPE 51 
 
 tinct classes: (1) those whose membership is confined en- 
 tirely, or practically so, to the railroads; (2) those that 
 have large bodies of members in other industries. Of the 
 first class, or purely railroad unions, are the Engineers, 
 Firemen, Conductors, Trainmen, Switchmen, Carmen, Tel- 
 egraphers, Clerks, Signalmen and Maintenance of Way 
 Workers, ten in all. Of the second class, or semi-railroad 
 unions, are the Machinists, Blacksmiths, Boilermakers, 
 Electrical Workers, Sheet Metal Workers and Stationary 
 Firemen six in all. 
 
 Now a special problem arises from the fact that amalga- 
 mation would affect these two classes of unions very dif- 
 ferently. In the case of the purely railroad organizations 
 the matter is comparatively simple. Their whole member- 
 ship would be involved and they would simply merge com- 
 pletely with the industrial union. But with the semi-rail- 
 road organizations the matter is much more complex. Only 
 that portion of their membership working upon the rail- 
 roads would be affected, and an unmodified amalgamation 
 project would oblige them to surrender these large sections 
 of members to the industrial union. 
 
 But it might just as well be recognized at the outset that 
 the six semi-railroad unions would never agree to that at 
 least not within measurable time. In trade union practice 
 all over the world it is found that while it is feasible, al- 
 though difficult, to get unions to merge together com- 
 pletely, it is next to impossible to induce one organization 
 to surrender any considerable part of its members to an- 
 other. This would especially be the case with our six 
 semi-railroad unions. Deeply imbued as they are with craft 
 union principles, and accustomed to fight bitterly over the 
 control of a man or two, they could be depended upon to 
 fight to the last ditch against giving up such large portions 
 of their membership to the industrial union. They would 
 wreck any amalgamation proposition based on such a pro- 
 gram. 
 
 However, there is a way out of the difficulty. It lies in 
 
52 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 a modified amalgamation : As the basis of their refusal to 
 give up their members, the six semi-railroad unions would 
 argue with great weight that the mechanics have not only 
 an industrial interest as railroad workers, but also a craft 
 interest as tradesmen. They would contend that the ma- 
 chinist or boilermaker who is now working on the railroad 
 may be working next week at his trade in some other in- 
 dustry ; and that, consequently, he has a direct interest in 
 maintaining good conditions for his craft in all industries, 
 and a moral obligation to belong to the organization that 
 is doing that work. Whether right or wrong, this conten- 
 tion would have to be met, and it could only be met suc- 
 cessfully by giving the men involved a double affiliation 
 to correspond to their double interest. That is to say, 
 the shop mechanics would at once be affiliated to the rail- 
 road industrial union and also to their respective craft 
 unions. The two unions would divide between them the 
 control over these classes of workers, each organization 
 reserving the functions necessary to its proper working. 
 Likewise, they would apportion the dues and per capita 
 according to the services rendered by each organization.* 
 Already there is a beginning of this system in the Rail- 
 way Employes' Department. That organization is an em- 
 bodiment of the recognition of the common industrial in- 
 terests of the many crafts going to make it up. It is con- 
 tinually encroaching upon the authority of its component 
 trade unions. It has succeeded in securing a large meas- 
 ure of control over the shop mechanics, together with a 
 share (all too small) of per capita to finance this control. 
 But as yet only a start has been made. In an amalgama- 
 tion along industrial lines the general railroad organization 
 would necessarily exercise a far greater degree of con- 
 
 *In a recent agreement between the Miners' Federation and the Amalga- 
 mated Engineering Union of Great Britain this principle was recognized. 
 The A. E. U. gave the Miners' Federation industrial control (strike power) 
 over its members working in the mines together with a portion of their dues 
 to cover the cost of negotiations" with the mining companies. In return the 
 A. E. U. members were given cards by the Miners' Federation, in addition 
 to their regular A. E. U. cards. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 53 
 
 trol than the Railway Employes' Department now does. 
 It would have to have full sway over the bargaining and 
 striking activities of all the railroad metal trade workers, 
 and be financed with portions of their dues to correspond. 
 Nothing- short of this would do, because genuine solidarity 
 and unity of action is out of the question in an industry 
 if one or more outside organizations have to be consulted 
 and harmonized before definite action can be taken. 
 
 in other words, the industrial union would handle the 
 immediate interests of the shop mechanics in the railroad 
 industry, and the craft unions would look after their more 
 remote interests in other industries, their fraternal bene- 
 fits, etc. Such an arrangement would, of course, throw 
 the weight of the affiliation to the industrial union. The 
 railroad metal trades worker would be a railroad man first 
 and a boilermaker or machinist second. But even this 
 double affiliation could hardly be considered final. Sooner 
 or later the movement would reach the stage that it has in 
 Continental Europe, where the shop mechanics usually 
 belong entirely to the railroad industrial unions and have 
 no connections whatever, except a free transfer, with the 
 metal trades unions. But it will take a lot of education 
 before we come to that. The bi-union system of control 
 will probably have to be used for considerable time. 
 
54 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 ADVANTAGES AND OBJECTIONS 
 
 The supreme advantages of the amalgamation of all the 
 railroad craft unions into one industrial union would be, 
 of course, the enormous increase in economic power com- 
 ing from the greater scope of activity, intensified solidar- 
 ity and clearer vision of the larger body. From a series 
 of detached, semi-organized fragments, incapable of out- 
 lining a real general program, or of making a concerted 
 fight for it, the army of the railroad workers would be 
 transformed into a co-ordinated whole, animated by a com- 
 mon purpose for every man in the industry and able to 
 exert united, tremendous strength to achieve it. 
 
 But there would be other, special advantages. One of 
 these is the killing of the dual industrial union idea. In 
 Chapter II we have seen something of the ravages caused 
 by this idea ; how for over thirty years the old unions have 
 been devitalized by the loss of thousands and thousands 
 of first class militants who have quit them to start new 
 organizations. And unless this splitting off tendency is 
 stopped it may well result, some time or other, in a general 
 smashup of the unions that will set them back for many 
 years. Only the amalgamation of the craft unions into an 
 industrial union can put an end to this standing menace. 
 Once such a combination is brought about then many in- 
 valuable militants, now lost to the movement, will devote 
 their great potential strength to the productive work of 
 building up the fused organization. 
 
 Amalgamation would also stop the many jurisdictional 
 wars that now sap the strength of the railroad trade unions. 
 Sidney Webb, a well-known English labor writer, once said 
 that trade unions lose 90 per cent of their efficiency because 
 of fighting among themselves. That there is much truth 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 55 
 
 in this assertion railroad men know to their cost. Who 
 can estimate the serious injuries wrought our cause by the 
 long-drawn, fratricidal struggle between the Trainmen and 
 the Switchmen? And that is only one of many. Except 
 for amalgamation, there is no cure for such jurisdictional 
 disputes between closely related railroad trades. So long 
 as these trades are in different unions (even though feder- 
 ated) just so long will they steal each other's members and 
 work, and just so long will internecine fights go on be- 
 tw^en them and ruin their efficiency. Only when they 
 actually 'fuse together can these clashes cease. In an amal- 
 gamated organization there are no separate sets of officials, 
 each preaching craft prejudices, and each trying to fatten 
 its particular trade at the expense of the others. On the 
 contrary, the officialdom of all industrial unions is homo- 
 genuous. Its point of view is the welfare of all the work- 
 ers in the industry ; it naturally seeks the elimination of 
 craft narrownesses, not their perpetuation. Hence, what 
 few spats do occur between the various groups are easily 
 settled in a spirit of brotherhood. 
 
 Further advantages of amalgamation would result from 
 large financial economies. Merging the sixteen national 
 headquarters into one would make a great saving. Like- 
 wise the combination of the sixteen staffs of general offic- 
 ers and organizers. As things now stand the waste in 
 handling the business of railroad workers is enormous. 
 Duplication of effort occurs to an unbelievable extent. The 
 sixteen groups of officials run over the country without re- 
 gard to each other. No real system or co-operation exists 
 anywhere. Often local unions of one organization are al- 
 lowed to fall to pieces for want of attention, while at the 
 same time a half dozen paid organizers of the other trades 
 are in the locality and not over-burdened with work; it is 
 a common occurrence for two or more craft system chair- 
 men to travel hundreds of miles together at big expense to 
 look after some-trifling grievance or organization detail that 
 one could attend to as well; and so on with similar non- 
 
56 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 sense that a modern business concern would not tolerate 
 for a second. 
 
 A general amalgamation woujld speedily straighten all 
 that out. The work of administration would be unified and 
 systematized throughout. With the departmental system 
 in effect, vice-presidents, chairman and organizers would 
 look after several (as many as circumstances permitted) 
 categories of workers for everyone who has had contact 
 with industrial unions such as the United Mine Workers 
 knows how ridiculous is the current craft union notion that 
 an official can represent and attend to only one trade, his 
 own, efficiently. The saving in energy and money from 
 this one item would be great. Moreover, the railroaders' 
 affairs would be much better taken care of, and many or- 
 ganizers would be rendered available to unionize the vast 
 armies of non-union workers employed in the independent 
 railroad equipment plants and on the industrial railroads. 
 
 Additional financial economies would result from the new 
 convention system. The present order of things is ruin- 
 ously extravagant. Each of the sixteen organizations 
 holds its own convention at enormous expense. With often 
 as high as two or three thousand local union delegates in 
 attendance (most of whom look upon such affairs as mere 
 vacation trips) the cost runs -from $100,000 to $500,000 
 apiece. The natural result of such absurdities is that con- 
 ventions are becoming fewer and fewer. But with a gen- 
 eral industrial union, basing its convention representation 
 upon the system amalgamation instead of the local union, 
 there would be only a few hundred delegates in attendance, 
 and they would be there for business. National assemblies 
 could be held annually for a fraction of what it now costs 
 for the mass craft gatherings, misnamed conventions. 
 
 Some Objections Answered 
 
 From the standpoint of the workers' interests there are 
 no valid objections to the amalgamation we propose. The 
 bewhiskered contention that the various crafts of skilled 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 57 
 
 workers would be swamped by each other and especially 
 by the masses of unskilled, and their interests neglected, 
 was exploded long ago. It will not bear investigation. 
 The same reactionary cry was raised when it was urged a 
 few years ago to admit helpers and handymen into some 
 of the unions. But the prophesied dire calamity did not 
 happen, nor would it occur in the proposed amalgamation. 
 All over Europe there are industrial unions of building 
 trades, metal trades, clothing trades, printing trades, rail- 
 road trades, etc., and the various groups composing them 
 function freely and effectively. It is a matter of common 
 knowledge that the skilled workers, in American and every 
 other country, are well able to take care of themselves in 
 any kind of a labor organization. 
 
 Those who fear the skilled workers being overwhelmed 
 reason from wrong premises. They take it for granted 
 that the latter have a free will choice in the matter, that 
 they can co-operate with the mass or not, just as they see 
 fit. But this is decidedly not the case. With the con- 
 stantly increasing pressure against them, the skilled work- 
 ers can no longer prosper going it alone ; they are com- 
 pelled to seek the assistance of each other and of the un- 
 skilled. It is a question of compulsion. By force of cir- 
 cumstances the skilled workers are compelled to compose 
 their craft differences and to act with the mass. At first 
 they try to do so by federation; but eventually, because 
 of the imperfections of this type of organization, they are 
 brought to amalgamation. In this way alone can they 
 achieve the power they must have. With the skilled 
 workers' unions, even as with those of the unskilled, the 
 alternative is, "Amalgamation or annihilation." 
 
 Another objection (although a shameful one indeed to 
 come from a movement based on the principle of "an in- 
 jury to one is the concern of all") that is levelled against 
 all projects to affiliate the trades more closely together is 
 the assertion that in a general railroad amalgamation the 
 strongest organized trades would have to pull chestnuts 
 
58 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 out of the fire for the weaker ones. Because the skilled 
 workers have been unable to pierce its seeming truth, this 
 pitiable sophistry has served to wreck many a promising 
 get-together movement. Always contrary to fact, even 
 when some of the trades were entirely unorganized, it no 
 longer has a semblance of verity. Today every branch 
 of the railroad service is so thoroughly organized that 
 even the blindest cannot help seeing, if they only will, that 
 each of the sixteen unions would add great strength to a 
 railroad industrial union. Indeed, some of the trades long 
 considered weaker sisters, are now in a position, if it came 
 to a struggle, to give a better account of themselves, than 
 many other crafts who take great pride in their skill, or- 
 ganization and stragetic position in the industry. There 
 is no longer even a pretense of a reason for the trades not 
 to join each other in closest alliance. All would be gainers 
 from such co-operation. 
 
 A favorite argument against every improvement in the 
 unions is the contention that the trade unions in this coun- 
 try are the most effective of any in the world, coupled with 
 citations of the higher wages prevailing in the United 
 States to prove it. That wages are higher here than al- 
 most anywhere else is incontestable; but to say that the 
 superior efficiency of our organizations is responsible for 
 them is ridiculous. Anyone acquainted with the facts 
 knows that in many respects our movement lags behind 
 that of Europe. Rather the credit for our higher wages is 
 due to the unprecedented development of America's mar- 
 velous resources, which has made our fight easier than in 
 other countries. But in any event the more we improve 
 our unions the better results we will get, and amalgama- 
 tion is always a great improvement. 
 
 Old-time craft unionists also object that the great size 
 of the proposed amalgamation would make it unwieldly 
 and unworkable. But there is no bottom to that conten- 
 tion either. The fact is there are many such gigantic com- 
 binations already afoot and functioning successfully, and 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 59 
 
 with more in prospect. In Germany, for instance, there 
 is the monster metal workers* union, with 1,800,000 mem- 
 bers, ranging from jewelry workers to shipbuilders and 
 steel makers. The German railroaders, who are organized 
 chiefly into two unions, are also about to combine (if 
 they have not already done so) with the telegraph, tele- 
 phone and postal workers, which will give this great 
 transportation-communication organization more than 
 1,500,000 adherents. The British mine workers' union 
 numbers almost 1,000,000 members. Practically the entire 
 Belgian working class is organized in twelve industrial 
 unions, and now a plan is being put into effect to combine 
 all these industrial unions into one gigantic all-inclusive 
 organization to cover the whole working class. The Aus- 
 tralian trade unions went on record recently for a similar 
 project. The possibilities of labor unions outstrip even the 
 dreams of orthodox craft unionists. 
 
 All these great combinations of labor, and many more 
 that could be mentioned, have grown gradually through 
 voluntary federation and amalgamation. They are the 
 fruits of practical experience. The rapidity with which 
 they are growing and multiplying is a standing proof of 
 their superiority over the primitive, narrow types. The 
 workers composing them have learned through actual prac- 
 tice that only by massing themselves into such enormous 
 aggregations can they properly defend their interests. No, 
 the argument about size will not serve. If European work- 
 ers can successfully construct such large organizations, so 
 can American workers. 
 
 A more powerful objection to amalgamation, however, 
 than any of the foregoing is one that is never expressed 
 by those holding it ; viz, the fear of the higher officials of 
 the craft unions concerned that in the new, more econom- 
 ically operated industrial union they will lose their author- 
 ity, and probably their very jobs. This fear is by far the 
 most serious hindrance to amalgamation ; it always does 
 more to block the fusing of labor organizations than any 
 
60 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 other factor. Few officials can rise above it. No matter 
 how badly amalgamation may be needed, the almost in- 
 variable attitude of officialdom is to fight against it re- 
 lentlessly. This is so well-known as to be a commonplace 
 of the labor movement. Therefore, all over the world gen- 
 uine amalgamation movements have to surge up from the 
 rank and file. 
 
 Unquestionably there would be considerable justifica- 
 tion for some of this job-fear in a general railroad amalga- 
 mation. Instead of sixteen presidents, as now, then there 
 would be only one. The rest would have to play second 
 fiddle, with a certain restriction of their power and prestige, 
 and also a very probable trimming of their salaries down 
 to more modest sizes. But as for an actual reduction in 
 the number of officials, that does not usually occur in amal- 
 gamations. There is always so much work to be done in 
 an organizing and administering way, and the amalga- 
 mated unions are so much better able to go ahead with it 
 than were the individual unions, that the tendency is rather 
 to increase the staff than to decrease it. But let that be as 
 it may, earnest railroad union men will never let such con- 
 siderations stand in the way of the combination of our 
 many weak organizations into one strong one. 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 61 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 IN CONCLUSION 
 
 In the foregoing pages we have pointed out the militant 
 aggressiveness and fathomless greed of the railroad com- 
 panies, how they are seeking to enslave their workers, and 
 that the only hope of the latter is to make united resist- 
 ance as one great army. We have also pointed out the 
 glaring weaknesses of the unions as they now stand, and 
 shown that only in industrial unionism can the workers 
 exert their maximum economic power. But we have like- 
 wise indicated the folly and ruin of trying to achieve the 
 needed industrial union by going outside of the old unions 
 and starting new organizations. We have explained that 
 the natural development of labor unions to the industrial 
 status is through the three phases of isolation, federation 
 and amalgamation ; and also that our railroad unions, now 
 in the federation phase, must inevitably pass on to the 
 next one, amalgamation. And finally, we have outlined a 
 practical plan of amalgamation, citing the many advantages 
 that would come from industrial unionism on the railroads 
 and answering the alleged objections thereto. 
 
 Now, the big job is to put the proposed amalgamation 
 into effect. This can be readily accomplished if the multi- 
 tudes of progressives and radicals in the railroad industry 
 will put their shoulders to the wheel. Industrial unionism 
 through the amalgamation of the sixteen craft unions should 
 be made a live issue wherever railroad workers congregate : 
 in the shops and offices, on the roads, at the meetings of 
 the local unions and of the local, system and divisional fed- 
 erations; at the national conventions of the Railway Em- 
 ployes' Department and of the individual craft unions. The 
 many journals should be filled with the idea. If all this 
 is done it will not be long before such a body of favorable 
 
62 THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 
 
 sentiment is created that the sixteen unions can be com- 
 bined into one, and the amalgamated organization launched 
 into a career of power and success now hardly thought pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Of course, the standpatters in the unions will vigorously 
 oppose this amalgamation project. They will argue that 
 the present network of federation and semi-federation con- 
 stitutes the highest attainable degree of solidarity. But 
 that is only to be expected ; such reactionary elements are 
 constitutionally against all progress. Blinded by ignor- 
 ance, or dominated by some petty selfish interest, they have 
 combatted every step in the evolution of the railroad 
 unions. They are apostles of things as they are. When 
 the system federation movement began to take root they 
 denounced it as an unnecessary and dangerous innovation. 
 It was the same with the divisional federations and every 
 other progressive movement initiated by railroad men. 
 Such conservatives are the greatest of all hindrances to the 
 progress of the working class. They hang like a millstone 
 about its neck. Their opposition is more destructive even 
 than that of the employers themselves. Had we railroad- 
 ers hearkened to the croakings of this "it-can't-be-done" 
 element we would be still striking one craft at a time in 
 each division town that is, if the companies had not de- 
 stroyed all semblance of unionism in the meantime. Every 
 pace forward has been won in spite of their bitter opposi- 
 tion, and so it will be with amalgamation. To accomplish 
 that task is a job for the progressives and radicals. 
 
 But while we are working for the amalgamation of the 
 railroad unions into one industrial organization we must 
 never forget that that, too, is only a step on the workers' 
 road to power. We cannot stop with that measure; we 
 must press on still farther. Next we must form alliances 
 with the miners and transport workers, as the British rail- 
 roaders have done in the Tripple Alliance, but more effec- 
 tive and militant. And then, with that accomplished' we 
 will go on and on, building up still greater combinations of 
 
THE RAILROADERS' NEXT STEP 63 
 
 Labor, until finally we have the whole working class solidly 
 united in one militant organization. 
 
 The trade unions are more than merely a means to win 
 a few cents an hour more in wages or a few minutes a day 
 less of work ; they are battalions of an army of emancipa- 
 tion in the making. The greedy railroad autocracy is in- 
 tolerable. It must go, and along with it the balance of the 
 parasitic capitalist class. Private property in social neces- 
 sities must be abolished root and branch. There is no other 
 cure for our industrial troubles. Then, and only then, will 
 war, poverty and exploitation come to an end. To do this 
 great work is the supreme mission of the labor movement. 
 At heart and in their daily action the trade unions are rev- 
 olutionary. Their unchangeable policy is to withhold from 
 the exploiters all of their product that they have the power 
 to. In these days, when they are weak in numbers and 
 discipline, they have to content themselves with petty 
 acheivements. But they are constantly growing in 
 strength and understanding, and the day will surely come 
 when they will have the great masses of workers organ- 
 ized and instructed in their true interests. That hour will 
 sound the death knell of capitalism. Then they will pit 
 their enormous organization against the parasitic employ- 
 ing class, end the wages system forever and set up the 
 long-hoped-for era of social justice. That is the true mean- 
 ing of the trade union movement. 
 
 (THE END) 
 
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