Upon the entrance of America
into the Great War, President Wilson appointed him Director of
the Division of Labor of the United States Railway
Administration.
Of the government and policy of the firemen's union President
Carter remarked:
"This Brotherhood may be compared to a state in a republic of
railway unions, maintaining almost complete autonomy in its own
affairs yet uniting with other railway brotherhoods in matters of
mutual concern and in common defense. It is true that these
railway brotherhoods carry the principle of home rule to great
lengths and have acknowledged no common head, and by this have
invited the criticism from those who believe...that only in
one 'big' union can railway employees hope for improved working
condition.... That in union there is strength, no one will
deny, but in any confederation of forces there must be an
exchange of individual rights for this collective power. There is
a point in the combining of working people in labor unions where
the loss of individual rights is not compensated by the increased
power of the masses of workers."
In the cautious working out of this principle, the firemen have
prospered after the manner of their colleagues in the other
brotherhoods. Their membership embraces the large majority of
their craft. From the date of the establishment of their
beneficiary fund to 1918 a total of $21,860,103.00 has been paid
in death and disability claims and in 1918 the amount so paid was
$1,538,207.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141