Good, Reliable, White Men: Railroad Brotherhoods, 1877-1917 (review)

Paul Michel Taillon, a senior lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has written a detailed study of railroad brotherhoods in the "running trades", focusing on the period between the Great Railroad Strikes of 1877 and the entry of the United States into the Great War. His provocative title, Good, Reliable, White Men, captures the essence of this book. Over time, the four major brotherhoods—Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the Order of Railway Conductors—who represented tens of thousands of men in train service changed significantly and became more important in the affairs of labor and the nation. In the formative period, railroad brotherhoods, led by the first such organization, the BLE, were largely "coffin clubs", whereby through dues and assessments they paid death benefits and provided financial relief for injuries. Then there was the fraternal dimension. Brotherhoods held regular meetings, sponsored dances, picnics, and socials, provided members with a strong sense of manliness and belonging, and resembled other contemporary fraternal orders, especially the Freemasons. Almost without exception, these men of the rails welcomed only white males, usually native-born individuals whose roots were in northern and western Europe. They also applauded the development of women's auxiliaries. In time, though, the mutual aid/fraternal aspects became less important, especially after the troublesome strike in 1888 by the BLE against the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and the bitter boycott six years later, spearheaded by the American Railway Union, to support hard-luck workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company. Although not always unified, the running trades came to welcome the federal government as a helpmate. Passage in 1898 of the Erdman Act led to a mild form of labor arbitration and the hope that previous strikes would be less costly to the rank-and-file. The landmark Erdman Act was a harbinger for the coming of what Taillon calls a new liberal order. The less fraternal and more secular brotherhoods, which rapidly increased in size and strength, flexed their collective muscles in response to dramatic increases in the cost of living after the turn of the twentieth century and other mutual concerns, particularly work rules. By the eve of the Great War, the operating brotherhoods had moved away from arbitration and embraced direct federal intervention, scoring impressive legislative victories with the Hours of Service Act in 1907 and the monumental Adamson Act in 1916. The latter measure established the eight-hour day for men in the running trades and set an important precedent for organized labor both within and outside the railroad industry. In some ways, then, the Adamson Act became a "Magna Charta" for American workers.

The Taillon book is a worthy examination of railroad-operating brotherhoods prior to 1917. There is no question that this examination of these rail unions contributes significantly to a better understanding of American labor history. Moreover, Taillon's findings support that provocative book by Robert H. Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920 (1967), that makes much of the drive for professionalism, efficiency, and the bureaucratic state. Taillon, too, has skillfully used a variety of primary sources, especially the voluminous publications of the specific brotherhoods. Unfortunately, Taillon has paid little heed to well-crafted railroad corporate histories and biographies, including the works of Don L. Hofsommer, Maury Klein, and Richard C. Overton. In his massive biography of Jay Gould, Klein, for example, provides penetrating insights into the Knights of Labor-sponsored strikes against the Gould roads in 1885 and 1886. Although Taillon has an engaging writing style, he is often repetitive, a weakness that a copy editor should have corrected. And there were some surprising omissions. Taillon fails to discuss the thoughts and actions of "boomer" enginemen and trainmen. Prior to the 1930s, thousands of itinerant engineers, firemen, and brakemen roamed the country, usually working for limited periods on a particular road. These men supplied the extra...