The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (B of LF&E) was a North American

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

fraternal benefit society A benefit society, fraternal benefit society, fraternal benefit order, friendly society, or mutual aid society is a society, an organization or a voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit, for instance insurance for relief f ...

and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

in the 19th and 20th centuries. The organization began in 1873 as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (B of LF), a mutual benefit society for workers employed as

firemen A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

for steam locomotives, before expanding its name in 1907 in acknowledgement that many of its members had been promoted to the job of

railroad engineer A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

. Gradually taking on the functions of a

over time, in 1969 the B of LF&E merged with three other railway labor organizations to form the

United Transportation Union The United Transportation Union (UTU) was a broad-based, transportation labor union that represented about 70,000 active and retired railroad, bus, mass transit, and airline workers in the United States. The UTU was headquartered in Cleveland, ...

Organizational history

Background

Early railway transportation relied upon steam engines to power railway

locomotives A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the ...

—large

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

-fired

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

s which generated

motive power ''Motive Power'' is a bi-monthly railway related magazine that focuses on diesel locomotives in Australia. The first issue was published on 23 August 1998. Its headquarters is in Sydney. The content includes photographs of locomotives & trains, ...

through the manipulation of concentrated steam. These boilers required a regular input of fuel to keep the train fired up and running. It was the task of so-called locomotive firemen to shovel coal into a train engine's firebox through a narrow opening, thereby feeding the fire.Paul Michel Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men: Railroad Brotherhoods, 1877-1917''. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2009; p. 18. The job of a locomotive fireman was physically demanding—strenuous, filthy and dangerous. Although by no means a highly skilled task, locomotive firemen nevertheless needed to develop not only physical prowess, moving heavy coal on a swaying platform, but also a certain job savvy, estimating the engine's burn rate and future fuel needs, making sure that water was continuously in the boiler to avoid an explosion and ensuring that coal was sufficiently and properly spread in the firebox to ensure the locomotive's efficient operation. A locomotive's fireman worked in a tandem with the train's

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

, serving in a subordinate role as his assistant. Firemen were in practice often engineers-in-training, learning the skills of train operation and assisting the engineer with the observation of signals and other routine aspects of his job performance, waiting for a job opportunity for promotion. Locomotive firemen were consequently lower paid and of lower status than the highly paid railroad engineers—although both of these were actually subordinate to the train's conductor. It was the conductor, not the locomotive engineer, who was most comparable to the captain of a ship. The conductor oversaw the crew and assigned them their mission, made sure the train ran on schedule, inspected car couplings, arranged for the train to maintain adequate supplies, collected passenger fares and supervised the train's freight documentation. Conductors acted as both supervisors and traveling clerks and were in practice the figures of the highest authority on a train.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men,'' pg. 19. Locomotive fireman generally received but half the salary of a conductor or engineer and shared in none of their authority. Our brotherhood LCCN2003656993

Despite the hard nature of the work process, their low professional status and their mediocre pay, locomotive firemen performed very dangerous jobs. Boiler explosions and other railway accidents made railroad work among the most deadly in the United States at the end of the 19th century, with an annual fatality rate in the early 1890s of approximately 9 per 1,000 workers—higher even than the 7.8 per 1,000 fatality rate suffered by hard rock miners in the

Western United States The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...

.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men'', p. 21. Non-fatal workplace accidents were also endemic among railroad workers, with one study by the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics determining that railroad workers suffered more than half the broken arms and ribs and 71 percent of all arms and legs

amputated Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indiv ...

as the result of mishaps on the job. During the 19th century, occupational safety regulation was non-existent in the United States as were the

social benefits Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

of the welfare state for employees injured on the job or the families of workers who suffered fatal accidents.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men'', p. 40. As a result, workers themselves endeavored to form

fraternal organizations A fraternity or fraternal organization is an organized society of men associated together in an environment of companionship and brotherhood; dedicated to the intellectual, physical, and social development of its members. Service clubs, lineage so ...

among their peers for the purposes of

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

and the payment of benefits for death or disability suffered on the job. Some of these organizations were based upon religion or ethnicity, while others were occupational in nature. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen—later known as the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen—was one such organization.

Establishment

It was the engineers who pioneered occupational fraternal benefit organization in the railroad industry, with the

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) is a labor union founded in Marshall, Michigan, on 8 May 1863 as the Brotherhood of the Footboard. It was the first permanent trade organization for railroad workers in the US. A year late ...

launching a charity called the Widows', Orphans', and Disabled Members' Fund in 1866.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men'', p. 42. That organization went on to expand its benefits package through the establishment of a formal life insurance package via the Locomotive Engineers' Mutual Life Insurance Association in 1867. Conductors followed by establishing their own fraternal order in 1868. Five years later came the locomotive firemen's turn to establish a fraternal benefits society of their own. This organization, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen (B of LF) was founded on December 1, 1873 in

Port Jervis, New York Port Jervis is a city located at the confluence of the Neversink and Delaware rivers in western Orange County, New York, United States, north of the Delaware Water Gap. Its population was 8,775 at the 2020 census. The communities of Deerpark, ...

by Joshua A. Leach and 10 other Erie Railroad firemen. These men had recently been forced to pass on the news of the fatal accident in a wreck of fellow fireman George Page to his grieving widow the previous month and decided to establish a mutual benefit society for those employed in the locomotive firemen's trade.D.B. Robertson, "Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen: A Brief Narrative Telling the Story of the Founding of the Institution and a Brief Historical Outline of Its Growth and Development...," in ''Fiftieth Anniversary B of LF&E, 1873-1923''. .c. (Cleveland?) Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, 1923; p. 7. Other lodges soon followed and within a year there were a dozen functioning local groups scattered about the states of New York,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. These met in convention in 1874 and adopted a first constitution for the organization and established a subsidiary institution called the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen's Life Insurance Association of the United States. Indeed, the main practical purpose of the organization was its utility as a mutual insurance association, with each member to receive death benefit coverage of 50 cents per member up to a maximum of $1,000 for loss of life on the job.F.P. Sargent
"A Short History of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen,"
in Carroll D. Wright (ed.), ''Fifth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1889: Railroad Labor''. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1890; pp. 40–41. A second optional fund provided for disability benefits. In 1881, the death benefit was pegged at a fixed level of $1,000 in 1883, with no more than 3 settlements per month to be paid, with premiums set at 50 cents per month per member. Total disability through loss of an arm, leg, or eyesight on the job was to be treated the same as loss of life under the revised system. In 1884, benefits were expanded, with the death benefit raised to $1,500. By February 1889, a total of $1.35 million had been paid out in benefits by the B of LF. A total of 18,000 locomotive firemen were members of the organization at that date. As a general rule in the B of LF and the other similar railroad brotherhoods, death and permanent disability benefits were administered by the national organization while local lodges handled sickness and accident insurance through a separate fund, raised and disbursed independently of the national organization.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men,'' p. 44. During the decade of the 1880s, such a local assessment might amount to 50 cents per member per month. Local units also saw to the emotional support of ill or injured members, with committees visiting the bedridden and attempting to provide personal solace to family members.

Organizational form

The B of LF in this early period organized itself into a network of "lodges", which provided a place for members to meet others in the profession to discuss matters of common concern. Social functions such as balls and picnics were periodically conducted under the B of LF's auspices. The organization also published a monthly magazine, ''The Firemen's Magazine'' (later ''Locomotive Firemen's Magazine''), including railroad news of the day and articles appealing to the membership's professional interests. Little attention was paid to labor-management relations, with the B of LF mildly offering the suggestion that "the oldest firemen in service" should be promoted to positions as engineers "when they are competent and worthy, and opportunity offers". Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen grave marker

Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen grave marker

The early B of LF took the form of a secret society, complete with an elaborate initiation ritual, membership oaths, secret signs of recognition, and formulaic protocol for the conduct of lodge meetings.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men,'' p. 49. Much of the original inspiration in this regard derived from the quasi-mystic religious tradition of

Freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

. Meetings formally opened with a prayer conducted by the lodge chaplain and were modest and subdued, emphasizing the sacred task of the organization and the need for members to maintain appropriate decorum and professionalism in daily life. In the B of LF's initiation ceremony of the 1870s, the initiate was seated in the darkened lodge room in front of a large backdrop used as a screen, while wearing a "hoodwink"—blindfolding headgear with retractable opaque lenses.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men'', pp. 50–51. First the prospective member was instructed by the lodge chaplain as to the benevolent purposes of the organization and the sacred duties of the members thereof. Next, lodge members then joined in by collectively reciting the four principles ensconced in the organization's

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

"Protection, Charity, Sobriety, Industry".Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men'', p. 51. At this point a stereopticon began to project a series of images on the screen, after each of which the lenses of the hoodwink were briefly raised and the image was explained to the initiate. First, a locomotive fireman leaving his family to go to work; then, a train with its crew industriously fulfilling their assigned task. Next came an image of a train wreck, followed by another of a funeral attended by members of the brotherhood, paying their respects to the deceased. This was followed by an image of a lodge representative relieving the grieving widow with a payment of the organization's death indemnity. Having witnessed his own symbolic death, the new candidate was thus made acutely aware both of the importance of his own support of families of maimed or fallen brothers in their time of need as well as the confidence that his own family would be provided for should he himself fall to misfortune. The initiation experience was memorable and effective in building lasting commitments to the organization. Three decades after his own initiation into the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen,

Eugene V. Debs Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American socialist, political activist, trade unionist, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and five times the candidate of the Soc ...

recalled the evening as a watershed in his life:

A new purpose entered my life, a fresh force impelled me as I repeated the obligation to serve the 'brotherhood,' and I left that meeting with a totally different and far loftier ambition than I had ever known before.

Formulaic rituals and organizational secrecy also helped to insure that lodge meetings were orderly, intimate and confidential and contributed to group cohesion among B of LF members. The value of the B of LF's mission was emphasized, allowing serious-minded members a sense of personal fulfillment through participation in an important collective entity.

Membership exclusion

The benefits of membership in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen were not universally available as the organization was based on the systematic exclusion of African American men and of women of all races.''Constitution of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen''. Terre Haute, IN: Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, 1888; pp. 41–42. Cited in Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men'', p. 57. The organization's constitution in 1888 specified that membership requirements included that a candidate be a man "white born, of good moral character, sober and industrious, sound of body and limb". Additional ''de facto'' membership discrimination was practiced against recent unskilled immigrants from Europe, who were similarly held to be unsuitable for membership.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men'', p. 57. The white-only rule came up for debate in 1896-97, when the B of LF explored membership in the American Federation of Labor, only to learn that the AF of L would require the removal of the offending clause from the group's constitution. Rank and file membership erupted in protest over the change, flooding the organization with letters of protest, with members of lodges in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

most vociferous in their opposition. The racial exclusion was ruled unconstitutional in 1944 by the Supreme Court decision ''Tunstall v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen''. The B of LF and other similar railroad brother hoods were, in short, based as much upon a process of exclusion as they were upon unification, as historian Mary Ann Clawson has noted in a 1989 book.

Leading officials

The pioneer head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen during the decade of the 1870s was Frank W. Arnold (1851–1917). Arnold would be succeeded as Grand Master of the B of LF in 1885 by a man who would remain the iconic chief of the brotherhood for the rest of the 19th century, Frank P. Sargent."Frank Pierce Sargent", in Gary M. Fink (ed.), ''Biographical Dictionary of American Labor''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985; p. 501. The

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

-born Sargent remained the head official of the B of LF until 1902, when he was named Commissioner General of Immigration by

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

. The eventuality of a Grand Master's incapacity to serve was provided for by the periodic election of a Vice Grand Master, nominally the second ranking officer of the organization. In practice, however, the number two functionary in the "Grand Lodge" of officers of the B of LF was the Grand Secretary and Treasurer—running the organization's office on a day-to-day basis and providing for the publication of the B of LF's monthly magazine. Fraternal Sisterhood of the B of LF

The first Grand Secretary and Treasurer was William Sayre of

Galion, Ohio Galion is a city in Crawford, Morrow, and Richland counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 10,453 at the 2020 census. Galion is the second-largest city in Crawford County after Bucyrus. The Crawford County portion of Galion i ...

, who professed to be a staunch advocate of the theory that personal virtue and good character, economic efficiency and a stable and democratic republic were closely interrelated.Taillon, ''Good, Reliable, White Men'', p. 54. While Sayre espoused these sacred values on a theoretical plain, in practice his behavior seems to have been rather more profane. In July 1880, a young locomotive fireman turned city clerk from Terre Haute, Indiana named Eugene V. Debs was elected as Grand Secretary and Treasurer of the B of LF. Upon gaining access to the books, Debs discovered that his predecessor had been

embezzling Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

funds from the organization.Mike McCormick
"Terre Haute was 'Convention City' in 1882"
, ''Terre Haute Tribune-Star'', October 20, 2002. With the B of LF about $6,000 in debt, Debs stabilized the organization's shaky finances with a promissory note which he personally backed and began a new era of careful financial management. Two years later, the Brotherhood had recovered, with nearly $13,000 in the bank to the credit of the organization's 6,000 members. Debs was named editor of the ''Locomotive Firemen's Magazine'' in 1881 and he remained in that capacity and in the position of Grand Secretary and Treasurer until September 1894. While remaining supportive of the B of LF and its limited mission, over time Debs began to feel the insufficiency of a mere fraternal benefits to solve the fundamental problems facing locomotive firemen and other railway workers, which were often financial in nature and seemed to call for collective action. In 1893, Debs was instrumental in forming an

industrial union Industrial unionism is a trade union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in ...

bringing together railway workers of all occupational tasks, the American Railway Union (ARU). This organization conducted several strikes for higher wages and better working conditions before ultimately being broken by judicial injunction in the 1894 Pullman strike.

Change of name

The 23rd Convention of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, held in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

in September 1906, took the step of expanding the scope of the organization and changing its name—an idea that had been discussed for many years previously.Robertson, "Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen", p. 19. Over time a steady stream of the organization's members had been promoted to the position of Engineer while remaining inside the organization. This presented a situation in which the organization's name did not reflect its actual membership composition. Despite great sympathy for the traditional organizational moniker, the convention voted to formally acknowledge the participation of engineers among its membership and changed its name to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen (B of LF&E). This change went into effect on January 1, 1907.

Disestablishment and legacy

In 1969, the union merged with the

Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen The Order of Railway Conductors of America (ORC) was a labor union that represented train conductors in the United States. It has its origins in the Conductors Union founded in 1868. Later it extended membership to brakemen. In 1969 the ORC merg ...

, the

Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen The Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen (BRT) was a labor organization for railroad employees founded in 1883. Originally called the Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen, its purpose was to negotiate contracts with railroad management and to provide in ...

and the

Switchmen's Union of North America The Switchmen's Union of North America (SUNA) was a labor union formed in October 1894 that represented the track switch operators and people who coupled railway cars in railway yards in the United States and Canada. It became part of the United T ...

to form the

.Finding Aid for Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen records, 1873-1975"
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York. A massive collection of materials of the B of LF&E, including over 200 linear feet of minutes, bulletins, correspondence, internal documents and other ephemera is housed at the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives at the library of

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...

Conventions and membership size

:Sources: D.B. Robertson, "Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the B of LF&E", pp. 7–28; Published convention proceedings, various; ''American Labor Year Book, 1926,'' pp. 106–107; ''ALYB, 1929'', p. 131; ''ALYB, 1932'', pp. 63–65. The title of "Grand Master" was changed to "International President" at the convention of 1908.

Footnotes

Official magazine

* ''Locomotive Firemen's Magazine'' (established December 1876) :
Vol. 1 (1876)

Vol. 2 (1877)

Vol. 3 (1879)

Vol. 4 (1880)

Vol. 5 (1881)

Vol. 6 (1882)

Vol. 7 (1883)

Vol. 8 (1884)

Vol. 9 (1885)

Vol. 10 (1886)

Vol. 11 (1887)

Vol. 12 (1888)

Vol. 13 (1889)

Vol. 14 (1890)

Vol. 15 (1891)

Vol. 16 (1892)

Vol. 17 (1893)

Vol. 18 (1894)

Vol. 19 (1895)
,

External links

Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York. {{DEFAULTSORT:Brotherhood Of Locomotive Firemen Trade unions disestablished in 1969 Mutual insurance companies of the United States Friendly societies United Transportation Union Railway unions in the United States Trade unions established in 1873