The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-05-21
'sTHE RAILROADERS NEXT STEP"
A review by Thurber Lewis.
Pub. by the Trade Onion Educational League-Chcago
VIM. 2. Foster, Author.

"Amalgamation or annihilation,"
this is the keynote of Fosters ex-
hortation to the Railroads.. The rail-
way interests of America, after years
of bitter competition, draw ever
closer together; they promise, even,
so rapidly is their integration pro-
crossing, to face the workers with
one huge combine in the not too
distant future. Already they have
abrogated their national agree
ments; they seek to pit one section
of the railroaders against the other,
taking advantage Of their present
economic insecurity. Railroaders!
your loosely federated sixteen crafts
can never see you to victory. The
struggle is upon you, amalgamate.
Thus Foster sounds the tocsin to the
railroaders.
And he proves the need Of it. He
does not merely say that the rail-
way interests are combining: by a
review of the corporational develop
ment of the different systems; by
authentic accounts of the grating,
lobbying, stockwatering and outright
brigandage of the railroad octopi-
he leaves no room for doubt. When
the workers match cudgels with one
road they fight all of them. When
+, the employers challenge the work
ers, the whole weight of their COM
bine falls on an unaided division.
Yes their is need of amalgamation.
BY the authors own experience in
the great steel strike-of which he
was the leader-he is able to give
unquestioned assurance that seperate
crafts, even though federated, are
poor match for we'll organized en-
ployers. The autonomy of the crafts
leads to lack of confidence in the
federation. Prejudices, cliques, and
ungovernable self interest cause end
less difficulty. Federation, though it
is far better than the antiquated iso-
lation of crafts, will not fill the bill.
Too, he has a word for "dual
unions" Those who have pulled out
of the old unions and have sought
to build new, all-inclusive unions on
industrial lines, have worked ines
Unable harm to the labor movement.
Most Of these ,exodi have been move
ments of radicals-the best blood
and brains of the unions. Not only
have these withdrawals weakened the
old unions by depriving them of
their most militant and best mater
ial, but the new organizations have
amounted to practically nothing.
The Knights Of Labor, the Amer
lean Railway Union, the Socialist
Trades and Labor Alliance, besides
many smaller lual unions have gone
down to defeat. The l. w. W. and
the o. B. u, all dual unions, cut
but small figures in the American
Labor movement No, the industrial
organization of the workers can not
hope to come through these abor-
tive, spontaneous attempts.
Close upon Fosters healthy argu-
ments comes the Moscow declara-
tion, "Stay in the old unions" The
advice from abroad comes from those
who have had experience with every
trade union movement in Europe.
1t comes from those who have wit
messed the development of the move
ments of many European countries
from the simple craft form to.
powerful Industrial amalgamations.
They know also the value of having
the radicals within these unions.
They have seen too their dualist at
tempts overwhelmed by the steady
growth and improvement Of the old
forms adapting themselves to the