Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-10-17
OF UNITED LABOR
Chauncey M. Depew Gives Us
Some Opinions.
ATALK TO ARTHURs FRATERNITY

Some Comments on the Combine ms APP
piled Now-a- Days to Everything-so-
cialism Condemned "A Little Deal
That the Noted Orator Declined to Go
Into-Conferences with Employees and
Some Indispensable Conditions of Sue
cess-The Central Strike.
PITTsBURG, Oct. 1.-THE International
| Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
| held its annual open meeting in the
| Grand Opera house yesterday afternoon.
Every available inch of room was occu-
| pied. Addresses were made by Master of
| Ceremonies II. X. Adams, Mayor Gour-
| ley, of Pittsburg: George w Elphenstone.
Esq, Lieutenant Governor Davies,
Channcey NJ Depew. Grand Chief
| Arthur, and others. President Depew re-
ceived a genuine ovation when introduced
| BY Chairman Adams {. His address was
| listened to with great interest Several
times the speaker WAS compelled to pause
owing to the enthusiasm and applause of
his hearers
Chauncey Depew's Address
Mr.. Depew began by speaking of the
|
have been formed recently, and the So
eialistic propaganda, which he declared
10 be impossible of success. OF the latter
lie said 500 societies had been wrecked by
disciples who could get along with no.
Body in this world and would never be re-
selyed into the next
What Are We Here for?
| "No labor organization can permanent
ly succeed whose sole'and only object is TO
Increase wages and diminish hours. The
tendency of such an organization is evil
dent. and rapidly causing collisions and
failure. Your record is unexampled in
| the history of the contact between en-
ployer and employees at home or abroad,
in the harmonious relations which have
been maintained, and in the intelligence
and prosperity of your members In the
| United States our pace is so rapid, and
our development so phenomenal that
without due consideration we rush to ex-
tremes This is true both of capital an d
| labor.
An Age of Combinations.
"Within a few years everything. from
pine lands to peanuts and from steel raj 3
TO sHrdines, has leen organized into some
| form of corporation or trust. This uni
! versal effort to absorb the individual, to
| divide the people into employing compa
| MES and employees. and to destroy compe-
| tition. Will inevitably end in disaster
| Hostile legislation and the laws of trade
will leave only the legitimate enterprises
| surviving In the same way and from
the same cause there have been several
an bilious attempts to form gigantic la
Dor trusts, which should combine under
one control and autocratic authority ev-
cry occupation in which a wage Garner
could engage.
His Own Experience Noted.
Labor must be a intelligent as capital
upon Its own grounds. The committee
which calls upon the employer or the
railroad officers must know its own bust
ness as we'll rs be does. Hun
dreds of committees of our employees have
been 10 see me, and l can safely say that
after the full and free discussion which
always took place not one of them ever
went out of my Office except to carry back
a satisfactory message to their constitu-
ents. ! do not mean that what WAS asked
was always granted, because an intelli-
gent committee when it sees the other
side always modifies and sometimes aban-
dons its demands.
Little Inside History.
"A committee called upon me last fall
with complaints and demands, all of
which were quickly and satisfactorily sd-
justed. They then made a demand for
the locomotive engineers. l said TO them:
Gentlemen, that body is able to speak for
itself They then said that their object
was to break up the organization of loco
motive engineers and to gather into the
one organization every department of
the railway service. and that If the man
agement of the Central road would recog-
niZe the claims of engineers only through
them, this result would be brought about
and upon a much lower basis than the
Brotherhood could admit under their
rules. and if we did not do so they would
strike and tie up the road.
Not Doing Business That WAY.
Il said to them: i regard the Brother
hood Of Locomotive Engineers as the best
labor organization in the United States a.
a safeguard both TO the public and to the
corporation against unreasonable de-
mands OF Incorporate violence, and YOU
may do your worst, but in a matter
which affects the brotherhood will rec.
ognize only them That night the off.
GERS of the brotherhood were informed
and the concession made to them, and
that threat of strike was never carried
out
! Compliment to the Brotherhood.
Years OF successful trial of fair, frank
and friendly discussions with the EN-
ployes on the Central. upon questions of
differences which arose from time to time.
had led me to believe that a strike was
impossible upon that road. In that trust
l went abroad during the summer to have
my hopes shattered. But you were true
to the relations which for many years had
been esta blished, and sustained my faith
in the efficacy of any effort to maintain a
satisfactory and permanent understanding
between capital and labor. The citizens
OF New York and of the whole country
owe TO the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers debt of gratitude for the
courage. fidelity, and intelligence with
which they stood by their posts and per-
formed their duties during the recent
troub on the New York Central
A Dream of Utopia.
Mr.. Depew closed with a plea for fair
dealing between employer and employe,
in which capital should yield to labor its
just proportion of the rewards OF busi-
ness, and labor be satisfied with that
just proportion. and hope for the dawn OF
n period when employees in any industry
shall not be arrsyed in hostile camps
over the whole country against their en-
ployers in the same business; when the
combinations will not be of the workers
on the one hand and the officers or firms
on the other as against each other, but
with good sense, friendly feeling. and
kindly tempered dispositions they shall
meet upon common grounds for the com.
mon good with an overwhelming sense OF
common interes'.
Carnegie INDUCES in Humor.
Andrew CarnepI,, WAS the ker
after Mr.. Depew. Loud cheers greeted
him. II. made a humorous address. He
said: II got my start in life while in the
railway service. / was an Official once,
but reformed early, else / might have
been classad with some of the hoary sin
ners in front OF you" He said he was in
favor of labor organisations, but believed
the best to be those in which the employ
er and the employees share.
Arthur Not for Federation.
Chief Arthur then read his address. He
outlined the policy Of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers. and expressed his