The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-26
.isleaders in
the American
Labor Unions
BY WILLIAM z. FOSTER.

b. of l.. E. from 1873 to 1908, origt
inally elected as a radical, soon be-
came loyal servitor of the railroad
companies. AS early as the great
1877 strike he began to line up the
engineers for the companies and
against the rest of the railroad
workers. He kept his men out of
all joint strikes with other groups.
He bitterly fought the A. X. U.
strike, freely furnishing strike
breakers wherever the companies
wished them. He was a lifelong
| opponent of every form of railroad
federation and amalgamation. The
capitalist press was filled with his
praises. While in office he became
real estate Spectator, amassing
a considerable fortune. He owned a
beautiful mansion in Cleveland and
died worth half a million dollars.
Thus was this cornerstone of con-
servatism and corruption rewarded.
E. E. Clark, long head of the
Conductors, was All active agent
against everything progressive OIL
the railroads. Samples of his pol
icy were seen in the Switchmen'sA
strikes on the D. and r. G. in 1901
2, when he ordered members of his
union to take the place of strikers.
In 1894 he worked openly with the
General Managers Association to
break the A. r. U. strike. As point
ed out in previous chapter, he
has been well taken care of by the
companies for his loyalty to them.
They Become Rich.
P. H. Morrissey, former president
of the B. of R. T., helped to poison
this union and the railroad workers
at large with corruption. One of
his outstanding achievements was
the organization of that remarkable
experiment in class collaboration,
American Railway Employees and
Investors Association, which has
been dealt with in a preceding chap
ter. Morrissey became rich through
his treachery to the workers on the
railroads.
Warren S. Stone, successor to Ar
thur as grand chief of the B. of L.
E., followed a craft policy fatal to
the development of a powerful rail-
road unionism. He defended the en-
gineers at the expense of the mass
of railroad workers, which means
that he played the railroads game
Stone was the business" trade union
leader par excellence. He was
pioneer in labor banking and his
temporarily successful financial jag
Cling gave the entire movement for
trade union capitalism great i'm
pulse. Meanwhile he took good care
of his own personal interests. He
amassed at least 100000 from his
huge salaries and many investments.
He was progressive" in politics.
The difference between him and Lee
was that Stone was liberal capital
list, while Lee is conservative CAPT
talist. Stone was a pillar in that
enemy institution, the National Civic
Federation. In later chapter we
shall have much to say about Stone
and his disastrous speculations in,
trade union capitalism.
An Arch Betrayer.
VIM. G. C."Bill") Lee, grand presi-
dent of the B. of r. T., is the arch
betrayer of the railroad workers.
He is the worst traitor in the entire
history OF the railroad unionism, and
that is saying a great deal. His
working policy is combination of
the very worst features of craft
unionism, reactionary capitalist poll
tics, and personally corrupt leader
ship. There have been no real be-
trayals of the railroad workers for
a generation in which Lee did not
take an active part. He has fought
steadily against every effort to unite
the railroad unions and has consist
emily sold out the interests of every
union in the industry, including his
own. He has broken strikes of the
switchmen, lured his membership
into republican politics, and discrim-
mated against the Negroes. CA mere
detail of Lees reactionary course
was the signing of an agreement j.,
with the Memphis Terminal Com
pany providing wage scale of $1.00
per day less for Negroes than for
whites.) He has plunged deeply into
trade union capitalism and is proud
err of the unions S10,000,000 COM
pany to manufacture locomotive
parts than he is of the union itself.
Lee, more than anyone else, was re-
sponsibSe for the loss of the 1922
shopmel!s strike. He was also the
prime n.t'ver, in conjunction with
Atterbury and other great railroad
capitalists, in framing IL the in
famous Watson-Parker railroad Law.
Lee, one Of the most sinister figures
in all American labor history, has
grown wealthy from his servility
to the companies. A. A. Roe, B.
of r. T. militant, sized him up cor
rectly when he said:
"Christ had his Judas, Caesar
] hiH Brutus, Washington his Ar
mold, and the Brotherhood Of Rail
road Trainmen its Lee"
To the foregoing typica! list OF
misleaders of railroad labor could Def
added the names of scores Of others,