Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Railroaders' Next Step, Amalgamation (1922).djvu/17

Rh Now the effect of all this consolidation and interlocking of company interests is to make railroad Labor's fight much more severe. Today when the unions enter into battle with one company they have them all to fight. No more do other roads abandon one that has a fight on its hands, or try to take advantage of its crippled condition. Far from it! Now they rush to its support, furnishing it with financial backing, re-routing its traffic over their lines, lending it locomotives and cars, etc. Thus, through co-operation with one another, the resisting power of all the companies is enormously increased. Moreover, they have the united support of the courts, the newspapers, the banks, and the industrial interests generally.

This is a situation which the railroad unions, on pain of extinction, must meet effectively. And they can do so only by the complete elimination of the competitive principle from their own ranks. Faced by a united opposition, we railroad men cannot afford to have sectionalism, such as now exists, in our forces. We must not allow one part of our organization to be played off against the rest. We must present an unbroken front to the enemy. The railroad union situation must be brought to a uniform, national proposition. To do this it is necessary to amalgamate the sixteen railroad craft unions into one industrial union.

Now let us see to what extent in their long years of experience with unionism, the railroad workers have understood the need for closer affiliation, what has been done about it, and how the next step should be taken.