Once within the fold, the rules governing his
conduct are inexorable. If he shuns his financial obligations or
is guilty of a moral lapse, he is summarily expelled. In 1909,
thirty-six members were expelled for "unbecoming conduct."
Drunkards are particularly dangerous in railroading.
When the order was only five years old and still struggling for
its life, it nevertheless expelled 172 members for drunkenness.
In proven cases of this sort the railway authorities are
notified, the offending engineer is dismissed from the service,
and the shame of these culprits is published to the world in the
Locomotive Engineers' Journal, which reaches every member of the
order. There is probably no other club or professional
organization so exacting in its demands that its members be
self-respecting, faithful, law-abiding, and capable; and surely
no other is so summary and far-reaching in its punishments.
Today ninety per cent of all the locomotive engineers in the
United States and Canada belong to this union. But the
Brotherhood early learned the lesson of exclusion. In 1864 after
very annoying experiences with firemen and other railway
employees on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, it
amended its constitution and excluded firemen and machinists from
the order. This exclusive policy, however, is based upon the
stern requirements of professional excellence and is not
displayed towards engineers who are not members of the
Brotherhood.
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