Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-15
A LABOR COALITION.
B. & 0. EMPLOYEES of Every Branch of
the Service Are TO Unite in
ONE FAR-REACHING FEDERATION.
The Movement Is Kept Secret Cntil Almost
Lipe for Execution.
MANY PETTY WRONGS TO BE RIGHTED

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIs7ATCH.l
WHEELING, Dec. 14.-A movement is
now we'll under way among the employees
of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com
pany that will, if consummated, revolu-
tIonize the present relations between the
railroad operatives and the company. The
inception of the proposed new departure
has been kept secret until the pre-
liminaries have progressed so far that the
men feel confident of ultimate success A
| federation of all the branches of the serv-
| ice into one monster organization is to be
! effected. A well-known conductor, who
has been one of the moving spirits of the
plan, in an interview with THE DISPATCH
correspondent to-day said:
For many years the thinking men in the
rank and file of the organizations of railroad
employees on this system have realized that,
while the minor unions are good so far as
they are able to go, they are not able to cope
with the great combinations which the rail-
roads have been organizing for their own
benefit. The history of labor organizations
in their contests with the great corporations
during the Fast year has emphasized this
idea, and the time has come when the va
ricus societies OF rairoaders will be fused
into one dominant organization. The Balti.
more and Ohio will pioneer this movement
by organizing the entire systcm, and there
will be no insurmou.able difficulties in the
way OF getting the other great systems in
line.
All Branches of the Service Included.
The purpose is to take in conductors, en-
glneers, firemen, bral1emen, telegraphers,
ticket and station agents. yardmen, and in
fact, all the employees down to the trackmon
and janitors. This is no menace to the COM
pany or to the executive officers who have
generally treated the representatives of our
examinations with courtesy; but we recog-
nize the fact that tho executives represent
the capital invested and the business of the
company as whole, and We propose to
have an organization representing the labor
invested in the same way.
There are 6lOO0 employees on the main
road and its connections. Our circulars to
all these employees will request them to get
together at the town nearest their sta tion
and elect one of their number fro n each de-
partment delegate to grand meeting,
which Will probably be held at Cumberland,
for the purpose of canvassing and complet-
Ing the organization at once. Our idea is
that each branch of the service be repre-
senteo by five men, one from each division
In the particular department in which he is
employed; these five to elect an Executive
Committee who shall elect the officers from
among themselves. They shall, also, elect q
Grievance Committee, composed of one man
all complaints shall be referred and who
shall. ii tho matter demands it, demand q
conference with the proper officials of the
company to settle the difficulty.
We don't want any strikes, and we don't
propose to advocate the strike as an insti-
tuition: but we want to be in a position
where. if things go too hard with US and the
companyi is disinclined to do the right thing,
we can quit in body instead of making the
isolated and disunited f1ghts for our rights
that have generally failed to accomplish
anything thus far.
Many Petty Wrongs to Ce Righted.
We realize, too. the danger of a too-com-
plicated organization in such an immense
Federation, and all the difficulties that the
best minds in the country can foresee have
been discounted. That the organization
will be effected is only question of q little
time, or the TACT that it is contemplated
would not have been made public.
There are manv petty impositions of which
the general public is ignorant, against which
the detached organizations have never felt
strong enough to make n stand, that this
plan of federation will enable us to insist on
having abolished. Not much longer will we
eXorbitant insurance rates because there is
money in the business for the heads of some
of the Executive Departments: nor will
some narrow gauge, petty officer persist in
the present practice of laying men off to
crafty personal ill-will. The federation
would have been accomplished at least two
years earlier. were it not for the opposition
of the heads of some of the minor organiza-
tions, who see in it a menace of their present
salaried positions as union officials; but we
have weeded these fellows out to great ex-
tent, and you will hear more of this move in
a few weeks.
Other employees in a position to know
what is developing, when approached in
this matter, declined to make specific
statements. One of them, probably speak
L, 1f
vass of the matter at this stage of the game
can do us no good, and may do us harm.
OF course, the newspapers will have all the
particulars as soon as there is no risk in
giving the business out for detailed publi-
cation"