The panic of 1893 hit the railway service very hard.There followed many strikes engineered by the American Railway Union, a radical organization which carried its ideas of violence so far that it wrecked not only itself but brought the newer and conservative Brotherhoods to the verge of ruin.It was during this period of strain that, in 1895, P.H.Morrissey was chosen Grand Master of the Trainmen.With a varied training in railroading, in insurance, and in labor organization work, Morrissey was in many ways the antithesis of his predecessors who had, in a powerful and brusque way, prepared the ground for his analytical and judicial leadership.He was unusually well informed on all matters pertaining to railroad operations, earnings, and conditions of employment, and on general economic conditions.This knowledge, together with his forcefulness, tact, parliamentary ability, and rare good judgment, soon made him the spokesman of all the railway Brotherhoods in their joint conferences and their leader before the public.He was not afraid to take the unpopular side of a cause, cared nothing for mere temporary advantages, and had the gift of inspiring confidence.
When Morrissey assumed the leadership of the Trainmen, their order had lost 10,000 members in two years and was about $200,000in debt.The panic had produced unemployment and distrust, and the violent reprisals of the American Railway Union had reaped a harvest of bitterness and disloyalty.During his fifteen years of service until he retired in 1909, Morrissey saw his order rejuvenated and virtually reconstructed, the work of the men standardized in the greater part of the country, slight increases of pay given to the freight and passenger men, and very substantial increases granted to the yard men.But his greatest service to his order was in thoroughly establishing it in the public confidence.
He was succeeded by William G.Lee, who had served in many subordinate offices in local lodges before he had been chosen First Vice-Grand Master in 1895.For fifteen years he was a faithful understudy to Morrissey whose policy he has continued in a characteristically fearless and thoroughgoing manner.When he assumed the presidency of the order, he obtained a ten-hour day in the Eastern territory for all train and yard men, together with a slight increase in pay for all classes fixed on the ten-hour basis.The ten-hour day was now adopted in Western territory where it had not already been put into effect.The Southern territory, however, held out until 1912, when a general advance on all Southern railroads, with one exception, brought the freight and passenger men to a somewhat higher level of wages than existed in other parts of the country.In the following year the East and the West raised their wages so that finally a fairly level rate prevailed throughout the United States.In the movement for the eight-hour day which culminated in the passage of the Adamson Law by Congress, Lee and his order took a prominent part.In 1919 the Trainmen had $253,000,000 insurance in force, and up to that year had paid out $42,500,000 in claims.
Of this latter amount $3,604,000 was paid out in 1918, one-half of which was attributed to the influenza epidemic.
Much of the success and power of the railroad Brotherhoods is due to the character of their members as well as to able leadership.
The editor of a leading newspaper has recently written: "The impelling power behind every one of these organizations is the membership.I say this without detracting from the executive or administrative abilities of the men who have been at the head of these organizations, for their influence has been most potent in carrying out the will of their several organizations.But whatever is done is first decided upon by the men and it is then put up to their chief executive officers for their direction."With a membership of 375,000 uniformly clean and competent, so well captained and so well fortified financially by insurance, benefit, and other funds, it is little wonder that the Brotherhoods have reached a permanent place in the railroad industry.Their progressive power can be discerned in Federal legislation pertaining to arbitration and labor conditions in interstate carriers.In 1888 an act was passed providing that, in cases of railway labor disputes, the President might appoint two investigators who, with the United States Commission of Labor, should form a board to investigate the controversy and recommend "the best means for adjusting it." But as they were empowered to produce only findings and not to render decisions, the law remained a dead letter, without having a single case brought up under it.It was superseded in 1898 by the Erdman Act, which provided that certain Federal officials should act as mediators and that, in case they failed, a Board of Arbitrators was to be appointed whose word should be binding for a certain period of time and from whose decisions appeal could be taken to the Federal courts.Of the hundreds of disputes which occurred during the first eight years of the existence of this statute, only one was brought under the mechanism of the law.Federal arbitration was not popular.In 1905, however, a rather sudden change came over the situation.Over sixty cases were brought under the Erdman Act in about eight years.In 1913 the Newlands Law was passed providing for a permanent Board of Mediation and Conciliation, by which over sixty controversies have been adjusted.
