William Daniel Mahon (1861–1949) was a former coal miner and streetcar driver who became president of the
Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employees of America, now the Amalgamated Transit Union.
Early years
William D. Mahon was born in
Athens, Ohio
Athens is a city and the county seat of Athens County, Ohio. The population was 23,849 at the 2020 census. Located along the Hocking River within Appalachian Ohio about southeast of Columbus, Athens is best known as the home of Ohio Universit ...
in 1861. He worked in the
Hocking Valley
The Hocking River (formerly the Hockhocking River) is a right tributary of the Ohio River in southeastern Ohio in the United States.
The Hocking flows mostly on the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau, but its headwaters are in a glaciated region. ...
coalfields of Ohio as a miner.
In the late 1880s he moved to
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
and became a
mule car
A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar.
Summary
The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...
driver.
Mahon wrote of conditions in the days of horse-drawn trolleys, "It is a fact that in the early days the horse received much better treatment than the car man who drove him. Men could be easily replaced even at the miserable wages paid, but a horse cost money."
In 1893 Mahon represented the Columbus local in asking the Ohio Legislature pass a law requiring streetcar companies to enclose their cars to protect the platform men.
The request was successful despite strong opposition from the street railway owners, and the first vestibule law was passed that year.
The Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employes of America ("the Amalgamated") was founded at a meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, in September 1892 called by
Samuel Gompers of the
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...
.
Mahon attended the meeting as representative of the Columbus local, but said little.
William J. Law was elected president. The union struggled during its first year, and Law proved to be an ineffective leader.
William D. Mahon was elected president at the 1893 convention.
Labor leader
Unlike other AFL unions, the Amalgamated had an
industrial
Industrial may refer to:
Industry
* Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry
* Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems
* Industrial city, a city dominate ...
charter, in theory covering all occupations in the transit industry.
In practice, it mainly focused on motormen and conductors. Mahon was president of the Amalgamated from 1893 until he retired in 1946.
From 1898 to 1900 he was also the presiding judge at the Michigan State Court of Arbitration. At the start of the 20th century the Amalgamated Association launched a militant organizing program. Although the union was always willing to arbitrate in disputes, there were many strikes against the streetcar companies. Often these turned violent. The public and small businesses sympathized with the strikers, and passengers and other unions often became involved in the street actions.
On 4 July 1897 the
United Mine Workers
The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unit ...
called for a general strike for improved pay. Over 100,000 miners walked off the job in the first four days. The AFL saw the importance to the overall labor movement of the strike succeeding, and on 9 July 1897 placed Mahon in charge of coordinating a plan to help the West Virginia miners. Union organizers spoke in mining towns throughout the coalfields, and the orderly behavior of the miners even when provoked drew public support. The strike was successful, and was a great victory for the labor movement.
Mahon became a member of the executive committee of the
National Civic Federation (NCF), an organization in which labor leaders and business executives discussed cooperation. Towards the end of 1904 August Belmont, president of the NCF and head of the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) of New York, began working towards removing the unions from the IRT. Belmont brought in strikebreakers and failed to comply with existing contracts with the unions. This was not appropriate behavior for the NCF president. The New York conciliation committee of the NCF approached Mahon and
Warren Stanford Stone of the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, "trying to impress the labor end of the dispute with the importance of being fair and decent." Mahon and Stone agreed not to support a strike, but the locals walked out anyway, although the strike did not last long.
As of October 1907 the NCF had three categories of executive committee member. "On the Part of the Public" included people such as former President
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
, the industrialist and philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
and Episcopal Bishop
Henry C. Potter
Henry Codman Potter (May 25, 1834 – July 21, 1908) was a bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States. He was the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Potter was "more praised and appreciated, perhaps, than any public man ...
of New York City. "On the Part of Employers" included the heads of major companies in industry, transport, finance and publishing. "On the Part of Wage Earners" included
Samuel Gompers, president of the
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...
and the heads of major unions including Mahon.
In May 1913 Mahon was appointed to a three-man Detroit Street Railway Commission by Mayor
Oscar Marx to study the possibility of municipal ownership of the streetcar lines. The
Detroit United Railway had a monopoly of streetcar service in the city. The Street Railway Commission made an offer to purchase the DUR in late summer of 1913, which was rejected. However, they agreed that the question of municipal ownership would be submitted to the voters, and if they approved the Wayne County Circuit Court would set the price. In April 1914 Mahon quit the commission claiming that Mayor Marx was trying to subvert the municipal takeover. In May 1915 the Detroit street railway workers went on strike for a day.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
(1914-1918) Mahon made much of the contribution of streetcar workers to the war effort. Although employees complained that the streetcar operators were not raising wages to compensate for inflation, he said, "But no matter how justifiable this unrest may be, it must not influence us to acts that will compromise our integrity as an organization of workers that stands by its agreements and holds its obligations sacred." He generally managed to prevent strikes during the war. After the war ended, however, Mahon was unable to prevent a wave of strikes. In 1919-1920 he served as a member of the
Federal Electric Railways Commission.
Mahon was twice a member of the executive council of the
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...
, from 1917–23 and 1935-46. After the 1932 Presidential election, the AFL wanted one of their members to be chosen Secretary of Labor, as had generally been done in the past. Mahon supported
Daniel J. Tobin, president of the
Teamsters, who won the backing of the AFL Executive Council. In the end President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
selected
Frances Perkins
Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880 – May 14, 1965) was an American workers-rights advocate who served as the 4th United States secretary of labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position. A member of th ...
, who took office on 5 March 1933.
In 1936 Mahon was on the AFL Executive Council during a crisis in the relationship with the recently formed CIO (Committee for Industrial Organization), the precursor of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in 1935 as a committee within the American Federation of ...
. The CIO advocated
industrial unionism
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 ...
, with one union representing all workers in a given plant, while the AFL was dominated by supporters of
craft unionism, with different unions for each skilled occupation. The council voted 13-1 to give ten unions a deadline for breaking with the CIO or else being suspended from the AFL. Mahon was not entirely comfortable with the decision, but voted with the majority. Only
David Dubinsky of the
International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union
The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), whose members were employed in the women's clothing industry, was once one of the largest labor unions in the United States, one of the first U.S. unions to have a primarily female membe ...
voted against.
William D. Mahon retired in 1946 and died three years later at the age of 88. He was said to have been the longest-serving leader of a union in the history of the United States.
Beliefs
Mahon had strong religious beliefs. In an 1899 speech he called for the church to play a greater role in supporting organized labor, saying its "true mission" was to "establish the brotherhood of man."
The report of the union's 1899 convention says the "question of drawing the color line in Ritual and Constitution was discussed at some length, and it was stated by delegates from the South that they had never seen a colored man on a streetcar." Despite this, when Mahon visited the south he spoke to groups of black union members.
In 1937
Alexander F. Whitney informed mayor
Fiorello La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
of New York City that the
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen planned to start organizing
Independent Subway System (ISS) motormen and conductors. At first, LaGuardia said he had no objection. Later he noted that the non-segregated Amalgamated Association might be more appropriate given the number of black ISS conductors.
Mahon saw arbitration as the best way to solve disputes, and would not authorize strikes unless the employer rejected this approach. In 1918 a strike by laundry workers in Kansas City escalated into a general strike involving streetcar workers.
Mahon met the local union leaders and voiced his strong disapproval, saying they had violated their contracts and damaged the possibility of good relations with their employers.
He and other union chiefs would order the strikers back to work if the local leaders refused to do so.
In September 1920
Brooklyn Rapid Transit workers went on strike. Mahon addressed a meeting of the strikers. He said, "I regret you were not more prudent and careful in going out on strike. You can get into strikes easily and I regret your impatience. The thing, however, has been done..." He then called for New York Mayor
John Francis Hylan to be appointed the sole arbiter of the strike.
William D. Mahon was quoted as saying "I would sooner face the world with an organization of ten thousand men with $1 million in their treasury than I would with an organization of ten million men with ten thousand in their treasury."
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahon, William D.
1861 births
1949 deaths
American trade union leaders
Amalgamated Transit Union people
Trade unionists from Ohio
American coal miners
People from Athens, Ohio
Vice Presidents of the American Federation of Labor