The record-union., 1895-01-29
RAILROAD STRIKES.
Interesting Article From the Pen
of Charles Wilson,
One of the Organizers OF the BroIher
hood Of Locomotive Engineers ana
its Chief for Ten Iears-ho" "
Retain Confidence Between Eli
pIoyer and Employed.
1rronn the Cleveland Leader.l

from the Cleveland Leader.l
Tho following article on the subject OF
~oilroad strikes was written by Chas. Will
son. the man who was most lnstrumehtai
in organizing the brotherhood OF LOCO
motive Engineers, and in establishing us
Headquarters in Cleveland, and VINO was
its chief for ten years. For long Tune ne
was citizen of Cleveland, and Low nVes
at Danville, Vt. He is an aged man, pu'
still retains a great deal of his old-tlme
vigor:
For more than thirty years some mem
bers of the labor unions have had nrm
belief that as soon as the labor organlza,
tions were strong enough, ana uhlIeu, al
that they would have to do was 10 say 'he
word and the employers would Dc
manded. L think that the Debs strike
has settled that question. and fully dem,
onstrates the insane folly OF general
strike to remedy some local grievance or
complaint, or any complaints. was Ihe
chief officer of the Engineers Brother
hood for ten years, and during aiI tnaU n.v
time we had members that useu 10 say
"all YOU have to do is to say the Woru,
and every wheel will stop. My OPINION
has ALWAYS been that the larger ana more
extensive the strike the more !lkely tne
men are to get beaten. l THINK TINS Is
man could expect to stop the railroad
traffic of the whole country, unless he
had a force sufficient to take possession
of the Government, and rule the entlre
business OF the Government as well as
the railroads.
Now this condition of things has been
brought about by a few insane agltators
in the labor movement during the last
thirty years, and l hope the lesson
learned will last for all time. The
Brotherhood OF Locomotive Engineers
are entitled to all praise for the course
they pursued last summer. Their mem
bers, with few exceptions, kept their
places, and performed their duties
bravely to the companies and the public.
They have had lessons that have taught
them the folly of joining other peoples
strikes or trying to enforce boycott,
and no doubt have learned that expert
ence is the best schoolmaster. The great
strikes by the engineers on the Reading,
Boston and Maine, Pennsylvania Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy, Ann Arbor AMI
other railroads have been lessons that
were dearly bought, and that resulted in
no benefit to the engineers, but ruined
hundreds OF good men.
For ten years the engineers brother
hood was run on the sole basis OF merit
alone, and the success obtained during
that period ought to have been q pre-
time, but the idea existed that all you
have to do is to say the word and every
wheel will stop, and l believe the force
plan is now effectually exploded.
Engineers wages on all the main lines
OF railroads were established more than
twenty years ago, and no advances have
been obtained since, although millions OF
money have been lost in strikes. and
hundreds of good men have been ruined.
No case can be mentioned where the
engineers working on the old plan did
not receive all due attention, and as
rule obtained all they asked for, and all
this was accomplished without expense.
In place or spending millions OF money
for strikes, no member ever paid more
than 81 a year to defray expenses until
the great strike on the Pennsylvania
Railroad in 1873.
To show how the troubles on the rail-
roads were settled under the rules in
force during my administration, l will
relate the condition of things on the
Pennsylvania Railroad in about 1870 or
III. All the railroads west of Pittsburg
run by the Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany were obtained by lease, and every
road had different system OF pay, and
most of them different rates of wages.
This condition of things naturally bred
dissatisfaction on the part ofthe engineers.
They appointed committees for every di-
vision of the road and drew up the COM
plants in writing.
After all was ready, the Chairmen of
the different committees constituted
committee to present their complaints to
the general Office of the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company. Thomas Scott was
the General Manager at thatltime. He
readily arranged for meeting to be held
at Philadelphia. | think the committee
consisted of twenty-six men. They were
sent to the Continental Hotel by Mr., Scott
and entertained. The meetings were held
in the large parlors of the hotel. The
President and directors and superintend-
ents were all there, and they very care
fully went over all the grievances of the
engineers, which took several days.
Finally Mr.. Scott told the engineers that
it was evident that they understood the
matter much better than the officials did,
and asked for a little time to investigate
the complaints, promising that at all early
day he would inform the committee, and
they could come down and have final
hearing. His request was readily granted,
and in about month he notified the
committee, and the result was that every
thing was arranged to the satisfaction of