Ten years later the union adopted its present name.It has an ample insurance fund* based upon the principle that policies are not matured but members arriving at the age of seventy years are relieved from further payments.About thirty members are thus annually retired.At Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the national headquarters, the order publishes The Railway Conductor, a journal which aims not only at the solidarity of the membership but at increasing their practical efficiency.
* In 1919 the total amount of outstanding insurance was somewhat over $90,000,000.
The conductors are a conservative and carefully selected group of men.Each must pass through a long term of apprenticeship and must possess ability and personality.The order has been carefully and skillfully led and in recent years has had but few differences with the railways which have not been amicably settled.Edgar E.Clark was chosen president in 1890 and served until 1906, when he became a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission.He was born in 1856, received a public school education, and studied for some time in an academy at Lima, New York.At the age of seventeen, he began railroading and served as conductor on the Northern Pacific and other Western lines.He held numerous subordinate positions in the Brotherhood and in 1889 became its vice-president.He was appointed by President Roosevelt as a member of the Anthracite Coal Strike Commission in 1902 and is generally recognized as one of the most judicial heads in the labor world.He was succeeded as president of the order by Austin B.Garretson, who was born in Winterset, Iowa, in 1856.He began his railroad career at nineteen years of age, became a conductor on the Burlington system, and had a varied experience on several Western lines, including the Mexican National and Mexican Central railways.His rise in the order was rapid and in 1889 he became vice-president.One of his intimate friends wrote that "in his capacity as Vice-President and President of the Order he has written more schedules and successfully negotiated more wage settlements, including the eight-hour day settlement in 1916, under the method of collective bargaining than any other labor leader on the American continent."Garretson has long served as a member of the executive committee of the National Civic Federation and in 1919 was appointed by President Wilson a member of the Federal Commission on Industrial Relations.A man of great energy and force of character, he has recently assumed a leading place in labor union activities.
In addition to the locomotive engineers and the conductors, the firemen also have their union.Eleven firemen of the Erie Railroad organized a brotherhood at Port Jervis, New York, in December, 1873, but it was a fraternal order rather than a trade union.In 1877, the year of the great railway strike, it was joined by the International Firemen's Union, an organization without any fraternal or insurance features.In spite of this amalgamation, however, the growth of the Brotherhood was very slow.Indeed, so unsatisfactory was the condition of affairs that in 1879 the order took an unusual step."So bitter was the continued opposition of railroad officials at this time," relates the chronicler of the Brotherhood (in some sections of the country it resulted in the disbandment of the lodges and the depletion of membership) "that it was decided, in order to remove the cause of such opposition, to eliminate the protective feature of the organization.With a view to this end a resolution was adopted ignoring strikes." This is one of the few recorded retreats of militant trade unionism.The treasury of the Brotherhood was so depleted that it was obliged to call upon local lodges for donations.By 1885, however, the order had sufficiently recovered to assume again the functions of a labor union in addition to its fraternal and beneficiary obligations.
The days of its greatest hardships were over, although the historic strike on the Burlington lines that lasted virtually throughout the year 1888 and the Pullman strike in 1894 wrought a severe strain upon its staying powers.In 1906 the enginemen were incorporated into the order, and thenceforth the membership grew rapidly.In 1913 a joint agreement was effected with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers whereby the two organizations could work together "on a labor union basis." Today men operating electric engines or motor or gas cars on lines using electricity are eligible for membership, if they are otherwise qualified.
This arrangement does not interfere with unions already established on interurban lines.
