Grand Master Frank Sweeney was born in Zanesville, O., in 1855. His parents moved West in 1860, and located at Monroe, Wis. He received a common-school education, and for a time studied medicine. He disliked the profession, however, and soon abandoned it and entered the railway service. His first railroading was in the capacity of brakeman on the M. & St. P. After braking on several roads for the period of four years, he began switching in the yard of the Minneapolis & St. Louis in 1886. At that time there were but three switch engines in Minneapolis. He has been in the yard service in that city ever since, until elevated to the position of Grand Master of the Order. He was one of the active men that organized Lodge No. 30, and was elected a delegate to the Second Annual Convention, held in Indianapolis, in 1887. At that session he was elected Vice-Grand Master of the Association, and his recent elevation to the highest position in the Order speaks better than words as to what opinion the switchmen have of him. He was instrumental in organizing the Northwest, and won the admiration of the switchmen of the country by his intelligent and conservative handling of questions that arose in that locality.
Grand Secretary and Treasurer William A. Simsrott was born in Chicago in 1861, and has the hustle characteristic of the average Chicagoan. He received a common-school education, and began his railroading in 1878 as a clerk on the P., Ft. W. & C. Railway. In 1882 he entered the yards of the Chicago & Western Indiana Railway as a switchman. In 1883 he entered the service of the L., N. A. & C. Railway, and continued with that road until elected to the office of Grand Secretary and Treasurer. He was a yardmaster at the time of leaving the company's employ. He was accepted in Lodge No. 1 in 1883, and in a few months elected to the office of Financial Secretary. Mr. Simsrott was one of the thirteen that established the Association as a National organization, and was a delegate from Lodge No. 1 to the First Annual Convention at Kansas City in 1886. At this Convention he was chosen as one of the Grand Board of Directors, and at the Second Annual Convention, held in Indianapolis in 1887, he was elected Grand Secretary and Treasurer. None have shown a higher regard for the good of the Association than this officer.
Vice-Grand Master John Downey was born in Cleveland, Ohio, October 12, 1853, and came to Chicago in the fall of 1858. He received a common education, and in the winter of 1869-70 commenced railroading. He first began braking on the P., Ft. W. & C. road, but soon went to switching in the Ft. Wayne yards. He had not been there long, however, before he had his left thumb completely shot off by the accidental discharge of a shotgun he was handling. In September, 1871, he lost two fingers off of the right hand, after which he went to tending switches on the Ft. Wayne. In 1872 he had his right foot caught and lost part of it, and 1875 he had his left foot caught and so severely injured that it laid him up for six months. In 1876 he went braking on passenger on the Ft. Wayne, where he remained for nine months, when he went braking on freight, and 1879 went back switching in the Ft. Wayne yards, where he has remained ever since.
John Downey joined Lodge No. 1 in September, 1884, and was soon afterward elected Treasurer of the Lodge, a position he held continuously until October, 1887, when he resigned. He was elected Grand Secretary and Treasurer of the then Switchmen's Mutual Aid Association of the United States of America, at its first Convention, held in Chicago, February 22, 1886. He served for some time in this capacity, but was forced to resign, owing to ill health, and when W. S. Condon absconded with all the money of the Grand Lodge he was asked by the Board of Directors of the Grand Lodge to fill out the unexpired term as Grand Secretary and Treasurer, and straighten out the tangled financial affairs of the Grand Lodge. He responded with that patriotism he is noted for, and won encomiums from all connected with the Association for his work. He has represented Lodge No. 1 in the Grand Lodge twice—Kansas City in 1886 and St. Louis in 1888.
Grand Organizer and Instructor George S. Bailey was born in Edgar County, Illinois, in 1858. After receiving a common-school education, he studied law for some time, but had to abandon his studies on account of ill health. He commenced railroading in 1878 on the I. & St. L. Railway, braking on local freight. He was employed as a switchman in East St. Louis a number of years, and was prominent in the great railroad strike of 1886.
When the "Q" strike occurred, he was selected to go over a portion of the road and address the railroad men. He spoke at Kansas City, St. Joe, Council Bluffs and other western points. He was a delegate from Lodge No. 37 at the Convention of 1888, and was then elected to his present position. He was a member of the Illinois Legislature in 1886, and made a creditable record. He introduced, and had passed through the House, "House Bill No. 268," which provided for a State Board of Arbitration, but before it reached the Senate the General Assembly had adjourned. Mr. Bailey is full of energy and ability, yet does not allow his enthusiasm to overbalance his good judgment. He has the faculty of controlling men and at the same urging them on to a sense of the duty they owe to themselves and those dependent upon them, as well as to their employers.
It has been but a few months since the Convention of 1888, and already fifteen new Lodges have been organized, while about a dozen others are ready and are clamoring for admission to the Association. The whole Eastern section of the country yet remains to be organized, and the switchmen throughout that section are fully alive to the needs of the hour. The present year will witness the addition of several thousand earnest men to the Association.
One grand element of strength is shown by this organization—namely: The absolute equality of its members. They have not permitted designing men to foster and establish a set of so-called "High-Class Runs" among them to breed discord and disunion. One switchman is the same as another, and a thousand are but as one, in all the essential points that originally brought them together. Other railway labor organizations have allowed grades and castes to grow up in their Orders, those of the lower grade having scarcely any rights that the others are bound to respect and assist them to maintain. Not so with the switchmen; the young blood in their Association will enable them to steer clear of the rocks and shoals that are sadly trying the timbers of the older Orders.
In the strike upon the Burlington system this Association was not officially connected, and had no part whatever in the management or final settlement of that trouble.
"We know what Master laid thy keel,