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Men of the Steel Rails James H Ducker Workers on the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe
Men of the Steel Rails by James H Ducker
Workers on the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 1869-1900
Hard Cover w/Dust jacket
220 pages Indexed
Copyright 1983
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Chapter 1
Workin' on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 1
Chapter 2
Winning the Workers: Recruitment, Discipline, and Paternalistic Policies of the Santa Fe 24
Chapter 3
Boomers, Old-Timers, and the Romance of the Rail 53
Chapter 4
Railroaders and Their Neighbors: Emporia, a Case Study 69
Chapter 5
"Damn the Railway Men": The Politics of Frustration 86
Chapter 6
Brotherhoods: The Protective Function 104
Chapter 7 Brotherhoods: The Fraternal Function 126
Chapter 8
Santa Fe Strikes 140
Conclusion 165
Appendix 173
Notes 175
Bibliography 205
Index 217
ILLUSTRATIONS
Following page 68
Shop force at La Junta, Colorado
Topeka roundhouse gang
Funeral train for Santa Fe fireman
Track workers at Ponca City, Oklahoma
Station at Rincon, New Mexico
The Santa Fe System in 1900
Jim Phillips and his engine
New Topeka switch engine
DUST JACKET INTRODUCTION
In one of the few studies of its kind, James H. Ducker's Men of the Steel Rails portrays the lives-both on and off the job-of workers on the Santa Fe Railroad. As the single largest group of American workers in the late nineteenth century, railroaders are a vital element in the history of labor and of the American West; yet historians have tended to overlook the topic. This book fills the void, providing both a fascinating account of railwaymen's lives and an in-depth consideration of labor relations.
Using newspapers and railway and union journals as well as computerized analysis of payrolls, censuses, tax rolls, and city directories, the author has created a vivid picture of railroading in the nineteenth century. The story is a varied one, ranging from tales of young men who set brakes by scampering across the tops of trains, to accounts of old-timers supervising railroad reading rooms, to more complex considerations of geographic mobility, class divisions, political preferences, strikes, and the economic and social roles of unions. It includes an extensive investigation of the differences among the various types of railway jobs: for the railroad employee, the events of his workday, his place of residence, and the quality and even the length of his life were determined by his position. The railroad, like other large nineteenth-century businesses, had tremendous influence on its workers' lives, and much current historiography does not show nineteenth-century management in a favorable light. Ducker demonstrates, however, that the Santa Fe displayed a relatively enlightened attitude toward its workers. It was one of the first lines to grant contracts to unionized workers; and although the company and the unions had important conflicts, a study of the Santa Fe's recruitment, discipline, and paternalistic practices reveals that the company strove to create an atmosphere of cooperation in order to retain loyal and efficient workmen.
James H.Ducker is a historian for the Bureau of Land Management in Anchorage, Alaska. His publications include articles in Kansas History and Business and Economic History.
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