, 1890-10-17
CAPITAL and LABOR.
Dspew's Speech to the Brother
hood Engineers.
Chief Engineer Arthur Makes
a Few Remarks.
The Federation Plan to Be Dis
cussed.

no important business was transacted. In
the afternoon an open meeting was held,
at which addresses were delivered by
Grand Chief Arthur, Chauncey NJ. De-
pew and others. \
MIR. Depew spoke highly OF theNBroth-
erhood of Locomotive Engineers, and said
that during the period of its existence and
prosperous growth hundreds of labor
organizations had been formed and dis
solved. They had been started to carry
out novel theories. or to put in practice
unusual and untried processes. The sue
cess of your body is due to Its rigid ad-
herence to the right principle upon which
it was founded. No labor organization
can permanently succeed whose sole and
only object is to increase wages and
diminish the hours OF labor. 1t lacks the
essential bond Of mutual sympathy and
brotherly help in bearing or tightening
each others burdens. The tendency Of
such organizations is inevitably aud rap
idly to collisions and failure. The funda-
mental idea of the engineers brotherhood
is, first, charity in support of the sick or
injured and contributions to the family of
the dead; second, education, which per
fects the artisan in the theory and prac-
tice of his trade and broadens hun for
larger usefulness as a citizen; protection
in securing aud maintaining your rights.
Your record is unexampled in the history
Of contract between employer and en-
ploye, at home or abroad, and in the in
~telligence and prosperity OF your mem
bers.
Mr.. Depew spoke Of all the ~pervading
idea oil the past few years of trusts, and
said this universal effort to absorb indi-
vidual wealth. TO divide people into en-
ploYinR companies and employees and to
destroy competition, will inevitably end in
disaster. Hostile legislation and the laws
Of trade will leave only the legitimate en-
terprises Surviving. In the same way and
from the same causes there have been sew
eral ambitious attempts to form gigantic
labor trusts which should combine under
one central aud %autocratic authority every
occupation in which the wage Garner
could Engage. Ia all such associations of
trades and occupations having nothing in
common, certain qualities af audacity, flu
ency of speech and capacity for manip-
ulating caucuses and conventions rush to
the front many men who know little of
the great interests confided to their care.
Labor must be as intelligent as capital
upon its own grounds. The committee
which calls upon an employer or Railroad
ohicer must know its own business as well
as he knows his. Otherwise, from angry
contentious because of ignorance comes
the exercise OF brute force. and violence
fails to secure that which in nine cases out
OF ten could have been had by intelligent
presentation.
"
Hundreds Of committees of our en-
ployes have been to see me and | can
safely say that after a full and free discus
sion which always took place, not one Of
them ever went out OF my office except to
carry back a satisfactory message to their
constituents. The reason forthose ready set
tlemeRts was that the men understood
their wi business; knew precisely what
they wanted, and how much the company
could afford to concede. But with the
representatives of what | may call the
labor trust | have had different expert
ences.
Mr.. Depew cited an instance Of where
fifteen men at one point Of tie lire were
ordered to strike by the chief of their
local assembly, who was a shoemaker and
who took that action because he had had
a row with a passenger conductor. On
another occasion a high official in the or
der called on MIR. Depew, who soon dis
covered that he knew nothing OF what he
was talking about. The official confessed
that he had never boen in the railway SER
vice in his life.
Such representatives of organized labor,
said Depew, bring it into disrepute both
with the employers and public. A com
mittee called upon me last fall with a
series ofcomplaints which were quickly and
satisfactorily adjusted. They then made
a demand on behalf of the locomotive
engineers, when | informed them that
that body could speak for itself. They
then said their object was TO break up the
organization of the locomotive engineers
and gather into one organization every
department of the railway service. If
the management Of the New York Cen
trail would recognize the engineers only
through them this result would be brought
about aud upon a much lower basis then
the brotherhood would admit, and If we
did not do so they would strike and tie up
the road. Mr.. Depew informed the
committee That they might do their worst,
but that in matters affecting the brother
hood he would recognize only that body.
The threatened strike never came.
Speaking of the great Central strike,
Depew said that years Of successful trial
OF fair, frank and friendly discussions
wirh the employees Of the New York
Central had led him to believe that a strike
was impossible. In that trust he went
abroad on his annual holiday, to
have his hopes rudely shattered by a
cablegram announcing the strike. But
the engineers, he added, were true to the
relation which for manv years had been
established and sustained and reinvigora-
ted my fading faith in the efficacy of any
effort to maintain a satisfactory and per-
manent understanding between capital
and labor. Citizens Of New York and of
the whole country. | owe to the Brother.
o of Locomotive Engineers a debt of
gratitude for the courage, fidelity and in-
telligence with which they stood by their
posts and performed their duties during
the recent troubles on the New York
Central.
Depew touched briefly on the matter of
government ownership Of railroads. Time
does not permit, he said, OF a discussion
OF the effacts upon our institutions of the
appointment of a million public servants
being given to an administration and
made the patronage of party bosses. He
referred to the letter carriers in England
who worked long hours and get an aver
age OF s6 a week. After a ain effort for
the amelioration of their condition they
struck. The government instantly filed
tneir places, put a policeman beside each
new man and dispersed gatherings Of the
Old ones. In Germany the government
owns the railroads. A locomotive engin-
ser receives about s45 a month, and if he
ueserts his engine becomes subject to Sc
we're punishment. Libraries have been
Written upon labor and capital, but they
arc mostly trash.