Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-03-24
A. c. BIainey Addresses Large Audience Of Rail-
readers and Others at Mass Meeting.
Stone Unable to Come.


-, difference TO those who are in the
sa5;t Of attending the Sunday meet
.~-s being held by the Twin City Fed
A.rst.an OF Labor. Rialto theater was
. - despite the downpour of rain,
- 5nionists, non-unionists, business
go professional men, farmers,
j aopeh xnoppers"-all with their wom-
On felzs-and also the new secretary
of the Employers Association.
Chairman Brown, after a lew re-
marks and announcements as to
fnture meetings, turned the meeting
over to the railroaders, and stated
nat James W. Finney, chief engineer
of this subdivision of the illinois
Central, would preside. Mr.. Finney
aid he did not see why Jim wanted
70 SHIFT the responsibility on to him,
syeeDt that Jim felt himself unable to
5apdle a bunch of railroaders, but he
would accept the job and do it to the
hest of his ability. Mr.. Finney said
mat he was sorry to disappoint those
present by not having Grand Chief
Warren S. Stone present, but that all
who read the papers know that Mr..
Stone is a very busy man at the
present time, and that at the last min
nte he mad been called to the east on
important business. However, he
said, Mr.. Stone had commissioned one
of his ablest assistants to address the
mseting-A. c. Blainey, trouble
shooter of the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Engineers, whom he intro
duced.
Mr.. Blainey was a charter member
of Lodge No. of the Boilermakers'
union, at which trade he worked for
several years before becoming fire.
man. He was for 26 years actively
engaged as an engineer on the Lake
Shore railroad, and for several years
pulled" the world-famous Twenteth
Century Limited on that road. He
has been a member of the b. OF l.. +.
since 1890.
Mr.. Blainey talked first of the hu-
name side of the railroad movement,
and enumerated many of the activi-
ties of the engineers organization.
Since its organization in 1868, in
Michigan, the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Engineers has been one of the
pioneers in the collective bargaining
OF organized labor. The organization
now has $4,000 members, 10000 of
whom are in active service in the
United States and Canada. 1t has
paid out in benefits to dependents of
the organization $48,000,000; it is
paying $4,000 year to widows OF
deceased engineers, and is spending
sl50,000 a year for the support OF ,
INDECENT members. There is nowhere
in the United States or Canada a un-
ion engineer in the poor house or IN
dire want-the Brotherhood takes
care of him when he is no longer
able to take care of himself. In 1917
a pension fund was created, which at
the present time is being participated
in by $4,000 members.
The Engineers Cooperative Nation
al bank at Cleveland is now quartered
in the B. of l.. 4. History building,
and at the last convention the last
mortgage was burned upon the plat
form in the convention hall. The
building cost originally S1,250,OO0,
and the brotherhood recently refused
an offer of $4,000, 900 for the building.
The brotherhood is now considering
the erection of a History building
Just across the street from the bank
building. Recently the Engineers Co
operative Bank acquired controlling
interest in bank at Hammond, Ind,
and also contemplated establishing
banks in Chicago and Washington,
but we're prevented from doing so by
the comptroller of currency, who re-
fused to charter the proposed banks.
Touching upon the wage question
for brief time, Mr.. Blainey stated
that labor never was sold for what
it was worth, that in the early day,
before trade union organization,
wages were scarcely enough to keep
body and soul together. Contrasted
TO present-day under-paid workers,
and at time when there is scarcely
any employment at all, he has sean
on Broadway, New York City, men
who have never done a days work In
their lives, light cigarettes with ten
dollar bills, while short three blocks
away, on the East Side, children were
starving because their fathers had no
work! Yet every time workers un-
ions ask for justice, the subsidized
eaptalistic press says labor is on a
strike, and Wall street cries "bolshe-
vik."
Mr.. Blainey deplored the present
condition of political affairs at Wash
imgton, where everything possible is
beng done to make laws that will
crush labor. All the good brought
about during the past is now being
wiped out by the present administra-
gIon. Ion. But the workers are to blame.
Ihey would not listen to the Ameri-
can Federation of Labor two years
ago, but voted for the party instead
ooi the man, and they are now seeing
the result of voting a national politi-
cal ticket because their fathers voted
me same ticket. The time has come |
When workers must forget there is
soeh a thing as a political party and |
vote Tor the men and women who |
Will represent--not misrepresent them
regardless of their party affilia-
aon' He said he hoped now that the