>From the inception of the Brotherhood, the policy of the order towards the employing railroad company has been one of business and not of sentiment.The Brotherhood has held that the relation between the employer and employee concerning wages, hours, conditions of labor, and settlement of difficulties should be on the basis of a written contract; that the engineer as an individual was at a manifest disadvantage in making such a contract with a railway company; that he therefore had a right to join with his fellow engineers in pressing his demands and therefore had the right to a collective contract.Though for over a decade the railways fought stubbornly against this policy, in the end every important railroad of this country and Canada gave way.It is doubtful, indeed, if any of them would today be willing to go back to the old method of individual bargaining, for the brotherhood has insisted upon the inviolability of a contract once entered into.It has consistently held that "a bargain is a bargain, even if it is a poor gain." Members who violate an agreement are expelled, and any local lodge which is guilty of such an offense has its charter revoked.** In 1905 in New York City 893 members were expelled and their charter was revoked for violation of their contract of employment by taking part in a sympathetic strike of the subway and elevated roads.
Once the practice of collective contract was fixed, it naturally followed that some mechanism for adjusting differences would be devised.The Brotherhood and the various roads now maintain a general board of adjustment for each railway system.The Brotherhood is strict in insisting that the action of this board is binding on all its members.This method of bargaining and of settling disputes has been so successful that since 1888 the Brotherhood has not engaged in an important strike.There have been minor disturbances, it is true, and several nation-wide threats, but no serious strikes inaugurated by the engineers.
This great achievement of the Brotherhood could not have been possible without keen ability in the leaders and splendid solidarity among the men.
The individual is carefully looked after by the Brotherhood.The Locomotive Engineers' Mutual Life and Accident Insurance Association is an integral part of the Brotherhood, though it maintains a separate legal existence in order to comply with the statutory requirements of many States.* Every member must carry an insurance policy in this Association for not less than $1500, though he cannot take more than $4500.The policy is carried by the order if the engineer becomes sick or is otherwise disabled, but if he fails to pay assessments when he is in full health, he gives grounds for expulsion.There is a pension roll of three hundred disabled engineers, each of whom receives $25 a month;and the four railroad brotherhoods together maintain a Home for Disabled Railroad Men at Highland Park, Illinois.
* The following figures show the status of the Insurance Association in 1918.The total amount of life insurance in force was $161,805,500.00.The total amount of claims paid from 1868 to 1918 was $41,085,183.04.The claims paid in 1918 amounted to $3,014,540.22.The total amount of indemnity insurance in force in 1918 was $12,486,397.50.The total claims paid up to 1918 were $1,624,537.61; and during 1918, $241,780.08.
The technical side of engine driving is emphasized by the "Locomotive Engineers' Journal" which goes to every member, and in discussions in the stated meetings of the Brotherhood.
Intellectual and social interests are maintained also by lecture courses, study clubs, and women's auxiliaries.Attendance upon the lodge meetings has been made compulsory with the intention of insuring the order from falling prey to a designing minority--a condition which has proved the cause of the downfall of more than one labor union.
The Brotherhood of Engineers is virtually a large and prosperous business concern: Its management has been enterprising and provident; its treasury is full; its insurance policies aggregate many millions; it owns a modern skyscraper in Cleveland which cost $1,250,000 and which yields a substantial revenue besides housing the Brotherhood offices.
The engineers have, indeed, succeeded in forming a real Brotherhood--a "feudal" brotherhood an opposing lawyer once called them--reestablishing the medieval guild-paternalism so that each member is responsible for every other and all are responsible for each.They therefore merge themselves through self-discipline into a powerful unity for enforcing their demands and fulfilling their obligations.
The supreme authority of the Brotherhood is the Convention, which is composed of delegates from the local subdivisions.In the interim between conventions, the authorized leader of the organization is the Grand Chief Engineer, whose decrees are final unless reversed by the Convention.This authority places a heavy responsibility upon him, but the Brotherhood has been singularly fortunate in its choice of chiefs.Since 1873 there have been only two.The first of these was P.M.Arthur, a sturdy Scot, born in 1831 and brought to America in boyhood.He learned the blacksmith and machinist trades but soon took to railroading, in which he rose rapidly from the humblest place to the position of engineer on the New York Central lines.He became one of the charter members of the Brotherhood in 1863 and was active in its affairs from the first.In 1873 the union became involved in a bitter dispute with the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Arthur, whose prompt and energetic action had already designated him as the natural leader of the Brotherhood, was elected to the chieftainship.For thirty years he maintained his prestige and became a national figure in the labor world.He died suddenly at Winnipeg in 1903 while speaking at the dinner which closed the general convention of the Brotherhood.
