Workmen's advocate., 1888-05-26
A cRAytN ORGANIZATION.


 The annual meeting of the Grand Division of the Order of Railway Conductors is in session in this city. At reception rendered them by Toronto division, at which a number of representatives of the city coun- ell were present, Grand Chief Con- ductor Calvin $. Wheaton, the head of the order, read a lengthy address explanatory of its objects and princi- pies. His remarks were mainly a tirade against genuine labor organi- zatlons, coupled with dvnunCiation of strikes as altogether unnecessary, and assertions that on no account would the order ever engage in such a proceeding. The grand conductor Tn fact took much the same position formerly assumed by the Brother hood of Locomotive Engineers in regarding the order as a superior caste of labor, haylng special inter- csts entlre y separate from those of the " flower strata in railway service" and the " hoodlum element" Con- ductor Wheaton is evidently a man after the monopolist's own heart. Utterly ignorant of the labor ques- tlon in its broader aspects, as every paragraph of his clumsily worded and serylIe address shows, he seeks in the most sycophantc fashion to curry favor with the railroad kings by emphasizing the selfish and cow ardIy doctrine of "every man for himself and the devil take the hind most" No hireling capltalstic scribe could set forth in stronger colors the so-called right of capital ism to manage its own business in its own way, and to engage and dis charge employees at will for any rea- son or no reason, than this self con- placent and obsequious wage-slave. While his address is an attack on the aims and methods of all labor bodies, its principal animus is directed against the Brotherhood of Eugi- neers, who have recently discovered by stern experience that the attempt to elevate one branch of toll into an aristocracy of labor, ignoring or de- spislng all others, is a failure.
 The remarks made by Conductor W Wheaton at subsequent session of the order would indicate that the policy of assuring the railroad mo- nopoIlsts that, no matter how often or how hard they choose to kick them, the order will never resent it, has not produced the harmonious relations so confidently anticipated. It appears that conductors are not all creatures of the Wheaton type, and that there is more or less dissat~ sfaction among the members of the order. The corporations, 1t appears, in spite of the abject servility of the platform, persist in withholding recognition of the order, fearing that there will eventually be a change in its policy. The grand conductor set up pitiful whine over the conduct of those members whose dissatlsfac tion has excited the suspicion of the monopollsts that possibly every spark of manhood may not have been eliminated from the bosoms of their wage-serfs. He complains, too, that the engineers, who have all along been utilized as an awful example of the dangers of Labor dictating to capital have for years been drawing money which rightfulIy belongs to the conductors. This admission Is hardly calculated to impress the kickerS in the order with the beau- ties of submissive policy.
 There are few workingmen, We fancy, among the "lowcr strata" who can read the deliyerances of this miserable poltroon with any other feelings than those of indignation and contempt. W hat IS to be deeply regretted, however, is that such an organization should pose before the world as the representatives of large class of toilers, many of whom, no doubt, utterly repudiate the craven and unmanly spirit shown in its deliverances. Canadian La50r Reformer.