A strike of 180,000 anthracite miners followed on April 1, 1912, during which the operators made no attempt to run their mines.  The strike ended within a month on the basis of the abolition of the sliding scale, a wage increase of approximately 10 percent, and a revision of the arbitration machinery in local disputes.  This was coupled with a somewhat larger degree of recognition, but by no means a complete recognition.  Nor was the check-off system granted.  Strangest of all, the agreement called for a four-year contract, as against a one-year contract originally demanded by the union.  In spite of the opposition of local leaders, the miners accepted the agreement.  President White’s chief plea for acceptance was the need to rebuild the union before anything ambitious could be attempted.

After 1912 the union entered upon the work of organization in earnest.  In the following two years the membership was more than quadrupled.  With the stopping of immigration due to the European War, the power of the union was greatly increased.  Consequently, in 1916, when the agreement was renewed, the miners were accorded not only a substantial wage increase and the eight-hour day but also full recognition.  The United Mine Workers have thus at last succeeded in wresting a share of industrial control from one of the strongest capitalistic powers of the country; while demonstrating beyond doubt that, with intelligent preparation and with sympathetic treatment, the polyglot immigrant masses from Southern and Eastern Europe, long thought to be impervious to the idea of labor organization, can be changed into reliable material for unionism.

The growth of the union in general is shown by the following figures.  In 1898 it was 33,000; in 1900, 116,000; in 1903, 247,000; in 1908, 252,000; and in 1913, 378,000.[58]

(2) The Railway Men

The railway men are divided into three groups.  One group comprises the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Order of Railroad Conductors, the Brotherhood of Firemen and Enginemen, and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.  These are the oldest and strongest railway men’s organizations and do not belong to the American Federation of Labor.  A second group are the shopmen, comprising the International Association of Machinists; the International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers, and Helpers; the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen of America; the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers’ International Alliance; the Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Iron Ship Builders and Helpers of America; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; and the International Brotherhood of Stationary Firemen and Oilers.  A third and more miscellaneous group are the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, the Order of Railway Telegraphers, the Switchmen’s Union of North America, the International Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and Railroad Shop Laborers, and the Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen.  The organizations comprised in the latter two groups belong to the American Federation of Labor.  For the period from 1898 to the outbreak of the War, the organizations, popularly known as the “brotherhoods,” namely, those of the engineers, conductors, firemen, and trainmen, are of outstanding importance.