The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-04-10
UniiOn?

This is pertinent question in the light of some
of the recent activities of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers disclosed in news items and
press dispatches from many sources.
Exhibit is a dispatch from a labor news
service announcing that President Warren Stone
of the Brotherhood has submitted an affidavit to
sustain the contention of the d. and H. railway in
their application for an injunction to restrain the
interstate commerce commission from forcing them
to install automatic safety train control devices
This affidavit states that engineers generally be-
ieve that it is undesirable and unsafe to divide the
control of trains between engineers and automatic
devices"
Long before President Stone was born the steam
locomotive denounced as unsafe" The same
was true of the airbrake and other improvements
in safety equipment which the railways stubbornly
refused for long time to introduce. This distrust
of safety devices by railroad companies is in direct
proportion to the cost in installation. The united
front of Brother Stone and the railroad manage
ment is little hard to explain, but is either one
of those subtle schemes by which labor leaders of
his type think the bosses can be fooled or plain
sell-out.
Exhibit B is report of a meeting of 700 mem
bers of the Brotherhood in Pittsburgh at which
the principal speaker was E. 7. Whittier, vice
president of the central district of the Pennsyl-
vania railroad.
Whittier told the engineers present that his road
refused to deal with unions affiliated with the
American Federation Of Labor, because they stand
for the closed shop, restriction of output and the
sympathetic strike Gle pointed out that these
items are not part of the policy of the Brother
hood which does not endorse any one of them"
The news item further states:
Following Mr. Writers address several Brother
hood crfcaIs and members took the occasion to
compliment the Pennsylvania railroad its manner
Of dealing with its employees thru the "empoye rep
+ resentaton plan"
The ''employe representation plan" is the Penn
sylvania company union.
The Brotherhood also operates bank which is
an integral part of the Empire Trust company, of
which Charles Schwab is a director.
This bank in turn arranges European tours for
the members of the union and such other affluent
persons as care to participate. The publicity put
out by the manager of this department is Exhibit
and certainly is novel contribution to labor liter
ature. 1t reads in part:
What real vacation that will be. Visiting the old
world with its political literary, social and artistic
temperament; motoring along the shores Of the
beautiful lake district in England, visiting Paris
buildings monuments eathedraIs, universities, and
theaers thru Of the grandeur Of the Swiss
Alps to Lucerne; three days in Rome, the mecca of
the catholic world this year, visits to the vatican;
seeing Florence with its memories of great and
books and the center Of italian art, and Venice, the
queen Of the Adratic with its interesting sondoIas;
steamer down the Rhine past historic castles and
cltiepto Cologne.
Lecturers, eouriers, and guides accompany the
party in each foreign city.
We observe one slight mistake in the above
blurb. There is reference to "Rome, the mecca
of the catholic world but nothing about the birth
place of Martin Luther. Inasmuch as the member
ship of the Brotherhood is evenly divided between
the Mobiles of the Mystic Shrine and the knights
of Columbus, this may cause some friction.
Finally, as readers know, the Brotherhood
members have invested about three million dollars
in West Virginia coal mines which are run on
strictly open shop basis-just like the properties
of Charles Schwab, codirector of big business with
President Stone.
When is a union not union?
When it becomes an adjunct of capitalism and
shares in its profits.