Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Railroaders' Next Step, Amalgamation (1922).djvu/59

Rh in this assertion railroad men know to their cost. Who can estimate the serious injuries wrought our cause by the long-drawn, fratricidal struggle between the Trainmen and the Switchmen? And that is only one of many. Except for amalgamation, there is no cure for such jurisdictional disputes between closely related railroad trades. So long as these trades are in different unions (even though federated) just so long will they steal each other's members and work, and just so long will internecine fights go on between them and ruin their efficiency. Only when they actually fuse together can these clashes cease. In an amalgamated organization there are no separate sets of officials, each preaching craft prejudices, and each trying to fatten its particular trade at the expense of the others. On the contrary, the officialdom of all industrial unions is homogenuous. Its point of view is the welfare of all the workers in the industry; it naturally seeks the elimination of craft narrownesses, not their perpetuation. Hence, what few spats do occur between the various groups are easily settled in a spirit of brotherhood.

Further advantages of amalgamation would result from large financial economies. Merging the sixteen national headquarters into one would make a great saving. Likewise the combination of the sixteen staffs of general officers and organizers. As things now stand the waste in handling the business of railroad workers is enormous. Duplication of effort occurs to an unbelievable extent. The sixteen groups of officials run over the country without regard to each other. No real system or co-operation exists anywhere. Often local unions of one organization are allowed to fall to pieces for want of attention, while at the same time a half dozen paid organizers of the other trades are in the locality and not over-burdened with work; it is a common occurrence for two or more craft system chairmen to travel hundreds of miles together at big expense to look after some-trifling grievance or organization detail that one could attend to as well; and so on with similar