The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-11-18
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS.
Their Twenty.second Annual
Convention at New Orleans.
THO
The Noble Aims and Objects OF q
Society Which Is Rapidly
Increasing.

~OO~O~
Increasing.
The following is the address OF Grand
Chief Engineer Arthur, delivered before the
Brotherhood OF Locomotive Engineers at
their recent National Convention in New
Orleans: .
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen
According to a custom old as the Brother.
hood itself, we meet again for the twenty.
second time for mutual consultation ana
benefit. Our conventions have been held
in most OF the large cities of the Union, and
as we look back to a year ago, when we
met in San Francisco, it seems but a lew
weeks at the longest since we selected your
citv as the next meeting place. Many OF
ia have visited New Orleans before, some OF
US several times, yet to none does IL De.
come like a book read too often, SO tull OF
food for thought and historic interest," 40
we find it. Nowhere are people more
tv. more cordial or sincere in their hospi-
taiitv. and nowhere can we feel more free
dom to enioyt O the utmost the welcome
which has been so kindly extended ts US.
Let us be mindful OF our duty as guests ana
in no wise give offense to the good people OF
the Crescent City. To our friends here
present and the public we would say a lew
words of the Brotherhood OF Locomotive
Engineers as an organization, OF the re'a
ton of it's members to the railroad COM
nanies and to the public at large. We are
conscious that to the general public labor
combinations or labor unions betr u
certain stigma which bring upon them a
certain r%eproach, and in many cases de-
servedly so. The Brotherhood vi Locomo-
tive Engineers ia not a union OF despotlc,
arbitrary, ignorant men to defend and run
the ends of capital, but an association OF
as intelligent men as one meets IN money.
circles, formed to promote the interests OF
oil the vast railway systems extending
through the United States and Canada; to
protect It's member from UNJUST and un-
unnecessary arbitration and to strengthen
and inculcate in them principles adapted
to their best good and success in their call
ing: to provide, by means OF its insurance
denartment, aid In times OF distress OF
need. both for it's members and the families
of it's deceased. aad %embodying in it's head
a mediator between employers and en-
ployes. thus uniting the hand OF gold with
the hand OF iron.
Based upon those principles which tend
| only to elevate and instruct, and having
| for it's motto "Sobriety, Truth, Justice and
| Morality, and having for it's cornerstone
Courage and Fidelity" to the cause which
! wears OF severe test has proved to be a
righteous, and therefore, a good one,
| naught can overthrow or weaken it. One
| of the best proofs OF the authenticity OF
| that great and holy Book which we all hold
| in sacred reverence, lies in the fact that all
| through the ages it has stood, though at
tackled on every side by malignant and bit
ter foes, unsullied, spotless, pure and true,
! while other religions, Vaccinations OF evil
men, have fallen to rise no more. SO with
| all that is good. II it can stand the wear
| and tear of time and win by it's constant
| achievements of good fresh advocates to Its
| cause, why should it not exist and become
| a thing desired by all. Such We pride our
| selves has the Brotherhood become. Since
! the year 1863, when a few sturdy drivers
! of the iron horse met in the City OF Detroit,
| there to unite for the veal OF all who fol-
| lowed the same calling, have we been stead
ily extending our influence and swelling our
! ranks until, spreading from the Atlantic to
! the Pacific, and from the Gulf to Manitoba,
we form a vast army OF engineers. there
being 24S divisions, composed OF nearly
| / 1000 members, acting as one man. In
| temperance, the vice which holds many
men in thraldom, melting them to crimes
as dark and horrible as any which the an
clients consigned to the depth of Hades, W.
are glad to say exists in remote cases in
our order. When it is practiced, sooner or
later it comes to light and meets a speedy,
ample and just punishment. Misdemeanors
of various kinds are treated in the same
l am connHSnrlc T*toiGStu inYaesibahd& z" n7agh4f
standard OF morality exists among the
Brotherhood OF Locomotive Engineers
than in any similar large body OF men OF
whatever calling or profession.
| 0Ilr aim ia RI Obtain hv nn1v tnat ond
peaceable means the greatest good for the
greatest number. Thus we have been
! enabled to furnish to railroad companies
better men to run their engines than they
could otherwise obtain, and to many a
home a better husband and more provident
father. My brothers, we are come not for
ostentatious display, nor yet to secure a
holiday, but to hold friendly consultation
| regarding the work of the past year, and to
l~egislate to the best OF our ability for the
year opening before us. Let us gather to-
gether bits OF knowledge cleaned from a
| years experience, and place them at. the
feet OF judgment that we may sift the useful
| and good from the useless, and being free
from personal prejudice, malice and spite,
| act as seems wisest and best, remembering
that we are not giving voice to our W
wishes entirely, but are speaking for the
many who are not here to give us the bene-
fit of their opinion, or to express their wish
ca,
Our object is a just and noble one. Let
us each nobly do our part. Milton in his
sublime account OF the Fall OF Man, tells us
that when Adam was banished from Eden,
instead OF sitting idly down to mourn over
his departed glory and to repine at his sad
though merited fate, he philosophical thus:
with labor / must earn my bread. What
arm?
1d,ens IS had been worse. My labor will sustain
And rest be sweet from labor won."
Making the best and most of circum-
stances which sometimes may be very
scanty and bad, and honestly bending to
toll, however humble, looking ever onward
and to the bright side, must sooner OF. later
meet deserved success. The good example
set by the first father of nations is rather
to be emulated than that of him who de-
clares that on the top round Of the ladder
will he stand or not at all. 1t is only bv
regarding labor in it's true light that sue
cess Can be met and the highest planes OF
activity and usefulness be gained. All
things are small and apparently insigni6-
can't in the beginning. IT'S only God good
ness, time itself and mans energy that Can
account for the stupendousness of growth
and the might of influence.
Robert Browning has said
"Get leave to work
In this worit-'tis the rest You get at all,
For ''od In cuising gives us Detter gifts
Than m n in benedictlon. God says sweat
For f,reheads. Men say crowns; aud so we are
CT )wned.
Aye, gashed by some tormenting circle of steel,
Which sweeps with a secret spring.
Get wo:k! Get work.
Be sure it's better than what you work to get"
The past year has been financially a dis
astrous one to many business interests,
and all classes OF trade and labor nave felt
it's bad effects. We have not been wholly
exempt, although in most cases difficulties
arising from reduction of wages have been
amicably adjusted between employer and
employe, and we feel that we have every
reason to be thankful that we nave suffered
SO little while many have been called upon
to sacrifice much.
Such is the relation between capital and
labor that unless they go hand in hand
wreck and ruins is sure to follow. Between
capital and labor there ought to be no war
fare, certainly no irreconcilable conflict.
Without capital labor ~starves; without la
Dor capital goes to waste. The capitalist
and laborer both attend the same market;
the capitalist with money to buy labor, and
the laborer with strong muscles to sell la
Dor. As between the purchaser and seller