History of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen by Walter McCaleb 1936

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History of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen by Walter McCaleb. With special reference to the life of Alexander F. Whitney.

Walter F. McCaleb, author of the History of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, has been associated with Labor for almost twenty years. He knows the leaders and the problems of Labor.

He is the organizer who placed on the map Labor banks from Minneapolis to Birmingham and from New York to Los Angeles. The most conspicuous of these was the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Cooperative National Bank.

McCaleb is sympathetic with Labor in its struggle for a place in the sun. He believes that the time is near when Labor will share more fully in what it produces. He is also convinced that a shorter work day is inevitable in the economic processes. He declares that there is but a definite amount of work to be done in the world and that it should be distributed among those able to work. That will result in a six-hour day or a four-hour day. In a word, the length of the work day shall be geared into the work to be done, so that all shall enjoy a cultural wage. That is, in effect, a law which in due course McCaleb declares will come to be ac, for each man must contribute his share of labor to society.

A considerable portion of this book is orabout. A. F. Whitney, President of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, for his life largely reflects the record of the organization itself.

Mr. McCaleb's scholarship is already well attested by two previously published works in the fields of history and biography, "The Aaron Burr Conspiracy" and "Theodore Roosevelt." The present work will be indispensable to the libraries of all interested in the record of Labor's achievement in the United States.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I..The Beginnings
II..The Perilous Seventies
III..An Adventurer Arrives
IV..From Brakeman to Painter
V..Again a Brakeman
VI..Growth of the Brotherhood
VII..Whitney as Vice President
VIII..Eight-Hour Day
IX..Labor's War
X..Yardmen's Strike of 1920
XI..The Plumb Plan and Confusions
XII..Politics and the Presidency
XIII..The Six-Hour Day
XIV..The Six-Hour Day Fight
XV..The Critical Years-'3i and '32
XVI..Panic and Controversies
XVII..Whitney for Roosevelt
XVIII..Rail Consolidations; Wage Restoration
XIX..Diverse Interests
XX..Progress of the Brotherhood
XXI..Labor-Character and Opportunities
XXII.Finalities

Appendix AAppendix BAppendix CBibliographyIndex

Introduction

IN ORDER properly to tell the story of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, it is necessary to trace back through the times. We must weigh condiof vital import in the shaping of Whitney's career and in the history of the Brotherhood; we must delve into problems which were of concern to society.

In this I have tried to sketch a picture with Labor, in a large sense, in the background. The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen is outlined upon the canvas. Upon and through such an outline I have striven to render an interpretation of the life of its outstanding leader in relation to the Brotherhood, as well as to society at large. It is not strange that often the life of an individual epitomizes the story of an organization and reflects the essentials of its era.

As a result of our Revolutionary War and the French Commune there was hope for humanity, due to the triumph of the middle class throughout the Western world. But soon the course was altered. The energies of America and Europe were spent in the development of stupendous, profit-extracting business structures, the type of which, in the view of many thinkers, does impoverish and threaten to enslave great sections of society. In Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Russia, where consumer and producer cooperation has taken the place of inordinate profit-motive competition, we find real feeling of security among the people. For the rest, Europe is like a smoldering volcano, ready to blaze out sulphurously at any moment. But what of America?

The nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth saw the rise and fall of the middle class, in Europe and America. Now we have in effect but two divisions of society: one, very small in number, the ultra rich; the other the people, not far removed, if the truth were fully realized, from the cobblestones of the streets of ancient Rome.

Shall we be able to survive the ailments and afflicwhich beset us, while we go about treating our sick social State?

During the past sixty years our economic world has shifted the bases upon which it rests. It is a far cry from the yesterday which saw the birth of Alexander Whitney to the present time, so tense and vibrant with fear and uncertainty. Those sixty years have witnessed an astounding train of events. It has been a swift, dizzy whirl, bowling over things not only in economics but in politics and society as well, and we are now in the throes of a reorganization, trying to save ourselves. What we have experienced is in effect a bloodless revolution-summary and drastic, crashage-old, weather-beaten ideas and conventional fetishes. Our early emergence into a quieter, better world will depend on the sanity of necessarily daring decisions to be made by our leaders and the wholeaction of the people upon them.

Whether any philosophy can save us from Fascism or other demagogic tyranny remains to be seen. Mahas led us far afield. Laissez-faire-the so-called "rugged individualism" or competitive system under which we have lived-has resulted in the almost complete ethical perversion of the working classes. The small merchant and small businesses in general are rapidly disappearing. In their place we have coloscorporations which strive to monopolize enterprise and to subject all industry to their domination. Diand indirectly, laissez-faire is responsible for most of the social ills of our age.

However, I cannot here enter upon a lengthy acof the conditions prevailing in the United States during the past three-score years. That would lead us astray and submerge the immediate objects of our inquiry.

The life of every man presents many aspects, some simple, some complex, but always there are problems to solve. Men are made by conditions and it is not often that one rises superior to them. Only bold, inand able individuals can override the effects of throttling environment and mold it to their ends. Alexander Whitney is such an individual.

As a rule, men's lives are simply classified. For the most part they fall within definite categories, are easily labeled for Doom's Day, and stuck away in pigeonholes. Few would care to scrutinize them-they are so much alike and so commonplace. They repremerely dull chapters in rather sad stories of human beings bound blindly on voyages, destinations un.

The life of Alexander Whitney is interesting. He is now in the midst of a career of action. From early youth he has not slowed down under the weight of work or responsibility.

His journey has been uphill most of the way, but he has followed his course and is still going on un.

WALTER F. MCCALEB

Cleveland

September i r, 1936.

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