Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Railroaders' Next Step, Amalgamation (1922).djvu/65

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In the foregoing pages we have pointed out the militant aggressiveness and fathomless greed of the railroad companies, how they are seeking to enslave their workers, and that the only hope of the latter is to make united resistance as one great army. We have also pointed out the glaring weaknesses of the unions as they now stand, and shown that only in industrial unionism can the workers exert their maximum economic power. But we have likewise indicated the folly and ruin of trying to achieve the needed industrial union by going outside of the old unions and starting new organizations. We have explained that the natural development of labor unions to the industrial status is through the three phases of isolation, federation and amalgamation; and also that our railroad unions, now in the federation phase, must inevitably pass on to the next one, amalgamation. And finally, we have outlined a practical plan of amalgamation, citing the many advantages that would come from industrial unionism on the railroads and answering the alleged objections thereto.

Now, the big job is to put the proposed amalgamation into effect. This can be readily accomplished if the multitudes of progressives and radicals in the railroad industry will put their shoulders to the wheel. Industrial unionism through the amalgamation of the sixteen craft unions should be made a live issue wherever railroad workers congregate: in the shops and offices, on the roads, at the meetings of the local unions and of the local, system and divisional federations; at the national conventions of the Railway Employes' Department and of the individual craft unions. The many journals should be filled with the idea. If all this is done it will not be long before such a body of favorable