The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-10
|HowFitzgerald
Robbed Union
of R. R. Clerks
BY WILLIAM z. FOSTER.

Mr.. E. H. Fitzgerald is grand
president of the Brotherhood of Rail-
way Clerks. He is one of the traitors
who betrayed the great 1922 strike.
During 1924, without any authorize
ton whatever from his union, Fitz-
gerald organized the Railroad
Brotherhoods' Investment Corpora
tion," which proposed to be $10,-
100000 company to promote the in
vestment of workers savings. He APP
piled the whole apparatus of the
union towards making this private
enterprise success by inducing the
membership to put their money into
it. Without authority he used the
insignia and stationery of the union.
He claimed that his company had the
backing of the union and its labor
bank. Later, when hard-pushed for
an explanation as to why he had
started such an institution in the
name of the union, he said that at
the previous convention the delegates
had applauded speech by one Nc
Caleb on the success of the B. of
L. E. financial venture and he deem
ed that sufficient justification for
going ahead on similar lines. To
secure some prestige for his COM
pany he dug up an unknown W. A.
Stone and put him on the Board of
Directors, a cheap trick to delude
workers into believing that w. S.
Stone of the B. of L. E. was backing
the proposition. Associated with
Fitzgerald in this financial adven-
ture, which soon blew up, were
many well-known labor reactionaries,
including James Wilson of the Pat
ternmakers, Jere Sullivan of the Ho-
tel and Restaurant Workers, A. 0.
Wharton of the Railway Employees
Department, T. Cashen of the
Switchmen, A. Huebner of the Brew
cry Workers, etc.
The General Executive Board of
the Railway Clerks took exception to
these high-handed proceedings of
Fitzgerald's and mildly censured him,
and the unions labor bank, in order
to save itself from the inevitable
crash, forced him to resign as presi-
dent of the bank. Fitzgerald then
declared war against both. He ar
. bitrarily removed the G. E. B. from
office and drove them from the build
ing with the aid of the police. He
tried to wreck the labor bank by
spreading false rumors about it and
by seeking to induce Daniel Willard,
president of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, (who is a heavy stock
holder in the bank!) to withdraw
his support from it. Finally, the
whole controversy, after dragging
its way through the capitalist courts,
reached the union convention in
Kansas City in 1926. No one who
understands our labor movement will
be surprised to learn that the con-
vention exonerated Fitzgerald and
reelected him president of the union.
The railroad companies took care of
Gheir man.
The Barker Case.
During the war period one of the
railroad organizations which expand
ed enormously was the Maintenance
of Way Workers. 1t jumped from
few thousand members to almost
100000. Vast sums of money poured
into the union treasury. A. E.
{ Barker, grand president, spent this,
as reports on his case said, "like
drunken sailor" He stole money
, right and left from the union. In
, this respect the report to the 1922
, convention said:
"That the checks procured as
, aforesaid, and which were turned
over to said Barker, and by him
J cashed and converted to his own use
were as follows viz: $1,000, 3-6, $780,
! 900, 3-14, $4,000, Al, $4,000, SIP,
$4,000, 5-26, $4,000, So, $4,000, TIT,
$4,000, 7-31, $4,000, 1921, $4,000,
| 9-10,. $4,000, GIG, $4,000, 10-14,
) $4,000, 1927. All the above being
in the year 1919, and $4,000, Janu-
, airy 18th, and $4,000, January 10Th,
+ both in 1920, amounting in the ag
, gregate to $172,000; that in addition
he caused to be issued to one P. M.
Draper a check for the sum of $780,
900. appropriated to uses not au-
thorized by this Brotherhood.
|, the total sums so taken from the
funds and Incorporated by said
; Barker being in the aggregate the
sum of $220,00o."