The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-07-11
CREDIT The union
What Organized Labor Does Fol
Its Members.
THE RAILWAY MEMS HOME

Pathetic IneiSent That Led to the
Founding Of q Noble Institution.
Disabled Provided For From q SENSE
Of Duty, Not Charity.
While movements TO prevent indus
trial accidents and increase the as
sured compensation to working people
and their families for industrial in
juries and loss of life have recently
been inauguratad by state legislatures
and some OF our greatest m~anufactur-
ing and railway corporations. we
should not fail to credit the trade un-
ions with having initiated long ago
their own efforts to provide for their
disabled members and the families OF
their dead. The most recen evidence
Of their self sacrificing and successful
struggle to do SO is furnished in the
dedication of the Home For Aged and
Disabled Railroad Employees at High
lane Park. H.. near Chicago. The
story OF its inception. growth and com
pletion is full of courage. pathos and
significance.
A doctor who had formerly been a
member of the brotherhood OF Rail-
way Trainmen in the course of his
duties as a physician fouid one OF his
old railway comrades in the Cook
county poorhouse. Resenting the stig-
ma cast upon the brotherhood by hay
ing one of its members an inmate Of
a public poorhouse. he conceived the
idea Of establishing a home where
brotherhood men might find care and
comfort in old age or might be nursed
back to some sort of working capacity
when disabled. At, first he offered
such care to as many as he could take
into his own home. appealing mean
while to the several brothcrhoods to
support financially a larger and more
effective effort. This was in 1880.
One after another of the public spirit
ed railway union men Joined him un-
til in 1903 John O'keefe devoted his
patient energy and good executive
ability to building up the institution
and securing for it an adequate build
ing plant. He enlisted the our rail-
way b~rotherhoods' sanction and coop
GRAFTON. Through the annual voiun-
tary contribution Of the divisions aud
local lodges of the brotherhood Of LO-
connective Engineers. OF Locomotive
Firemen and Enginemen. of the Order
Of Railway Conductors and of the
Brotherhood Of Railroad Trainnen. to-
gether with the ladies' auxiliary of
each. the home has grown up from
two or three little frame cottages to
a massive building.
Surrounded by FIVE acres Of fine
land. 1t stands three stories high above
the basement. one wing being $50 feet
long by ~ feet wide and the other
G. feet long by 40 feet wide. In de-
sign and color scheme it is very at
tractive. In its provisions for safety.
comfort and convenience it is very
complete. The construction is fire.
proof throughout. Electrical elevators
convey the crippled men in their
wheeled chairs from their rooms to
n floor in the building and to the
recreation rooms and grounds. The
building will accommodate los men
only thirty-two inmates having previ.
ously been cared for. A we'll equip.
ped hospital with twelve beds and
trained nurses is maintained in the
building.
1t was with UNSUITABLE pride tina,
the former grand master OF the Broth
erhood Of Railroad Trainmen in open
ing the dedicatory exercises said: Il
Qm glad to haze Such Il large aud