Running the Rails: Capital and Labor in the Philadelphia Transit Industry by James Wolfinger (review)

The cavalcade of transit vehicles that have served Philadelphia and other large American cities haven’t differed much from place to place. The odyssey almost always included rumbling stagecoaches, primitive omnibuses, railed horsecars, electric trolleys, underground subways, elevated railways, trackless streetcars, and diesel buses. Local peculiarities might include cable cars, counterweight trolleys, and even integrated airplane service. These diverse fleets have always caught the eye of professional and amateur photographers but less so that of historians. Nonetheless, specific knowledge of transportation in metropolitan areas is essential to our understanding of urban America.

James Wolfinger has examined more than just the history of mass transit in the influential city of Philadelphia. He has also addressed two other themes seldom investigated within that urban realm: labor union and personnel relations that sought to control work and the workforce; and a penetrating financial analysis of the schemes to support and defraud transit operations there. Funding mechanisms and human resources, he demonstrates, were more insidious and diverse than the parade of transit conveyances mentioned above. The century-long chronology he details presents a panoramic view that allows greater segmentation than would a shorter calendar of events.

The railed horse-car systems, before and after the Civil War, reflected an incredibly irrational competition among a myriad of competitors owning scattershot routes. The duplication of service among small entrepreneurs eventually gave way to the centripetal forces of a transit monopoly and other utilities in general. Wealthy investors cleared the deck of the old centrifugal players and consolidated operations and service as the speed and comfort of electric-trolley systems drew in a myriad of new passengers and revenue, according to Wolfinger.

By 1900 the consolidation of transit services virtually transformed the city into an electric power plant that fueled the modern streetcar to urban dominance. A single entity, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT), controlled five hundred miles of trolley tracks and raked in an incredible 300 million passenger trips annually, numbers that constantly increased. The author breathlessly and painstakingly unravels layers of graft and corruption within the PRT and its successors in a task perhaps more suited to a forensic auditor. He highlights the problems created when private capital acts as ring-master for public service, a major conflict in the Progressive Era. Stockholders and taxpayers were pitted against one another in a smoldering debate that flickered on and off tumultuously into the 1960s.

Despite occasional improvements in service, equipment, and technology to placate riders and politicians, Wolfinger underscores the company’s incessant efforts, in a variety of guises, to deny decent wages and working conditions from employees. Management’s subterfuges triggered both passenger and worker revolts. For example, the company employed its own spy system and in the 1930s organized a company union, which once again flirted with the law, this time the National Labor Relations Act. At times the carriers’ parsimony irked passengers enough to dovetail their complaints with those of employees, leading to adverse local political action.

Although Wolfinger provides a fairly straightforward linear account, he alights from the transit running board to examine different eras and episodes in depth, untangling employer-employee ganglions and financial intrigue. For those enamored of walk-outs and strikes, they come in all sizes and shapes and read like an adventure account. Readers with an accounting bent will appreciate imaginative public-relations campaigns, undercover financial dealings, and manipulated money ledgers. The PRT also covered up deferred maintenance, service cutbacks, and route alterations. Although incidents may be unique to a particular place like Philadelphia, most of the events and pathways reflect national trends.

Running the Rails’ labor-management dichotomy is a welcome relief from the usual one-sided approach undertaken in business accounts and some union histories. Wolfinger embraces the greater holistic stance of the new labor historiography by linking communities, race, gender, urban space, and local politics, to mention a few. He also analyses alliances within the...