Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Railroaders' Next Step, Amalgamation (1922).djvu/31

Rh a significant advance. Henceforth, instead of the roads being handled separately on the questions of hours, wages, etc., they were dealt with in large numbers. But the divisional movements varied in character. Some consisted of only one craft, as, for example, those of the Engineers (Div. No. 1, 1908) and the Firemen (Div. No. 1, 1907) ; but eventually they came to consist of two crafts, thus doubling their scope. The Conductors and Trainmen inaugurated the latter type, when an alliance was struck up between them in 1901. The Engineers and Firemen followed suit by a similar alliance in 1913. Several of these two-craft divisional movements were made. A typical instance was that of the Engineers and Firemen in 1915 on all the roads in the West, comprising Division No. 1. Approximately 65,000 men were involved.

The system and divisional federations were vast improvements over the primitive types of organization and they did much to develop the latent power of the brotherhood men, but evolution could not stop with them. In the face of the growing intelligence of the workers and the intensified power of the companies they had to give away to a still broader type. This was a concerted movement of the four organizations on all the railroads in the whole country. This big advance manifested itself in the great struggle for the eight-hour day in 1916-17. Over 350.000 engineers, firemen, conductors and trainmen were involved. It constituted the largest, well organized wage movement known in America up to that time, and resulted in a victory for the men. To stem the threatened gigantic strike, Congress hastily passed the Adamson eight-hour law, and the mossback Supreme Court, under the lash, hopped around, and for about the first time in its history gave Labor a square deal by calling the law constitutional, just on the eve of the strike.

Thus, so far as we have gone, we find that the brotherhood men, responding to the pressure against them, have gradually extended their fighting unit from the narrow