The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-21
That is the Charge
Against Locomo-
tive Engineers.
LOCAL LABOR LEADERS TALK.
What Those Who Are Crit
cised Have to
Say.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive En-
gineers is the Crusoe labor organiza-
ton. 1t is isolated from all others and
refuses to affiliate with bodies like the
Central Labor Union
Members of the Central Labor Union,
at labor headquarters. GA Southbridge
street, yesterday, criticized this atti-
tude of the engineers vigorously. That
the engineers prefer to stand aloof and
fight their own battles without the aid
of other organizations they say is ALL
right in its way, but that they deliber-
ately stand out during labor troubles
and refuse to aid others financially or
sympathetically they denounce as not
only selfish but against the spirit Of
unionism.
In speaking with The Spy reporter
on this subject yesterday, a prominent
member of the Central Labor Union
said that while the engineers refuse aid
to others, they are among the first to
call for help when they are in trouble
themselves. That they do not as q
rule get this help, the union man said,
was the logical sequence of their policy.
Having a strong box with big re-
serve fund, the brotherhood seems to
think that there will never come a day
when they cannot dictate their own
terms to the railroad corporations. p.
M. Arthur, chief engineer of the broth
erhood, this man said, is as autocratic
as the czar of Russia, and the rank and
flle of the organization follow his lead
as blindly as sheep follow the shepherd.
He has said, and the engineers be-
lieve him, that the brotherhood can
fight and win it's battles unaided. Hav-
ing no earthly use for other labor or
CARNATIONS, the engineers have been
led into perpetrating some curious
maneuvers. AS an instance, the strike
on the Pennsylvania road was cited,
during which brotherhood men took ne
place of the Knights of Labor strikers,
and the extraordinary spectacle was
presented of P. M. Arthur hobnobbing
with Austin Corbin, the great railroad
magnate. This, members Of the Cen
trail Labor Union say, is the result of
the policy of isolation pursued by the
brotherhood.
The Spy. reporter was told by prom
inent engineer that there is nothing for
the brotherhood to gain by working
with other labor unions. He said that
the brotherhood is strong enough to
win out by itself, and affiliation with
other organizations would simply be
burden, for it would entail sympathetic
strikes and be a constant drain upon
the treasury in the form of assessment
for strike funds and that, too, for
strikes with which the engineers can
have no interest whatever.
A railroad telegrapher was outspoKen
against the engineers. He said that
his business required more study and
carried with it more responsibility than
that of the engineers, yet the wages
paid We're very unequal, and a tele-
grapher didn't get within 81 a day as
much as is paid the engineers. An
intelligent fireman, he said, could do
an engineers work after a little prdc
tice. yet they, too, do not get anything
like the wages paid the engineers.
This the engineers point out as an
unanswerable argument for their pol
icy of isolation and demonstrates, too,
the strength of their brotherhood.