From this condition he, by his untiring devotion and wonderful executive abilities, elevated the Brotherhood to one of the most powerful organizations of the age, and thus it was through the instrumentality of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen he was brought before the laboring people. Some few years ago he saw that class organization would not be successful, owing to the petty jealousy existing between the different orders, and that in every instance where one organization had a grievance with a railroad corporation, the management would use one or all the others to crush the one having the grievance.
In order to remedy this, he promulgated a plan of federation whereby all the different organizations, engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen and switchmen would stand as a unit in case of a grievance.
This federation was accomplished, but owing to the treachery of some of the chiefs, proved unsatisfactory and was finally dissolved.
But this did not discourage Mr. Debs, on the contrary, it made him more determined than ever to save the employes from the grinding power of railroad corporations, and to that end he instituted the American Railway Union, embracing all classes in the railway service from the trackmen to the engineers. This infant organization that so recently became such a power, was by no means the offspring of a premature conception. President Debs deliberated long and well, carefully considering all the points, and conscientiously weighing the advantages and disadvantages that would arise from the formation of such a union, before taking active steps to organize.
He finally decided that in the American Railway Union were the only true principles of organization, and in conjunction with a few of his associates, men true as steel, such men as Howard, Rodgers, Burns and, Kelliher, this union was founded.
The first strike that was authorized by the American Railway Union was that on the Great Northern Railway Line, against a sweeping reduction in wages in all departments on that system.
This strike commenced on April 13, and after a stubborn fight of eighteen days (where one of the shrewdest and ablest railroad presidents in the United States was met in his every stronghold and defeated by the grandest labor leader in the world, the matchless Debs) the strike was settled, and victory perched on the banner of the American Railway Union.
Then it was that the true principles of this organization were recognized by railroad employes, and applications for charters came pouring in from all parts of the country.