ATU 519 Labor History - "We Walk", by Terry Hicks

  Part 1

ATU Local 519, 100 Years of Public Service - 1909-2009 

This is the story of the formation and the continued existence of a trade union and the men and women of it, whom have served the people of the La Crosse area with a public transit service for the past one hundred years. 

Division 519 was born on May 10, 1909.  Ten employees of the La Crosse City Railway Company, on that date signed a charter and began forming and organizing the union.  They were aided in this effort by the local AFL organizer and organizers sent to town by the ATU International organization, headquartered then in Michigan. 

At that time it carried the designation of The Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America.  Today the association is known as the Amalgamated Transit Union or ATU, Division 519 is now known as Local 519.  Some background of the ATU is proper before proceeding with the story of Local 519.  Samuel Gompers was born in London, England, the son of a cigar maker.  Immigrating to New York along with his family in l863, Samuel Gompers became a member of Local 144 of the Cigar Makers' International Union, CMIU. 

A sincere and passionate believer in the trade union movement, he rose in the trade and learned the ropes of public speaking and union management.  Writing to the CMIU in January 1876, he displayed his understanding of the conditions of labor with the following thoughts, which he addressed to the International President of the CMIU.  1.  Include all laborers in the union movement regardless of their skill level. 2.  Reduce hours, while maintaining levels of pay currently in effect. 3.  Raise wages in the industry to the level of the highest wages.  Samuel Gompers moved on to head the National labor movement when, in l882 he was elected as President of the American Federation of Labor, or AFL.  The AFL was founded in 1881 by Peter McGuire’s efforts at the convention in New York City.  McGuire was a founding member of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of that City.  Samuel Gompers served the AFL as it President from his election in 1882 until his death in l924.  This is the background of the man, who called for a convention in l892, to be held at Indianapolis, Indiana September 12th. 

Delegates met and founded the ATU International Organization and the battle to organize our industry was under way in earnest.  In the letter to labor leaders that got the founding convention under way Samuel Gompers wrote...  "In the name of our great cause I earnestly appeal to every organization of street railway employees to be represented at this convention.  To the men interested in furthering the labor movement, the request is made to use every possible endeavor to make this convention a success, by persuading every organization of street railroad employees to send delegates.  Fraternally yours,Samuel Gompers, President American Federation of Labor, New York July 11, l892."  In La Crosse, trade unionism was also advancing at this same time.  The Grand Labor Council was formed in l891, the La Crosse AFL was chartered, and La Crosse Trades and Labor Council were in place, with seven union organizations enrolled.  Strikes in the La Crosse area were rare but organizing was progressing nevertheless.  The transportation history of La Crosse begins in the year 1878. 

The La Crosse Street Railway Company was formed by several businessmen who put up fifty thousand dollars and began plans for horse drawn streetcar service.  A dispute began when plans to span the La Crosse River with a bridge for the streetcar line was announced.  Foregoing legalities, the company hired laborers and set them to work on the bridge when the disbelievers argued.  Setting the crew to work on a Sunday to stall the process of court proceedings, the bridge was completed by Monday morning.   This stopped the argument and when service began on July 4, l879, the dispute faded away.  A terminal was constructed by the La Crosse Lumber Company on the North side for the six horse drawn cars and their steeds.  Horses and mules were used to pull the cars.  The line ended at 3rd and Main Streets, a distance of 1.6 miles. Fares were a nickel for the twenty to thirty passengers who were able to crowd on each car.  June 9, l881 saw the creation of the Street Railway Company by B.E. Edwards, George F. Gund, Mons Anderson, Mills Tortellette, James Vincent and Joseph Tuteur.  The car barn for this company was a 7th and South Avenue.  The line ran from the 2nd and Vine, Milwaukee Road Railroad Depot to Main at 4th and then to Gund's Brewery on the Southside. 

Operating independently for several years, the two lines merged in l885 and took the corporate name, La Crosse City Railway Company.  B.E. Edwards served as it's president. 1893 saw the construction of a power station at 3rd and La Crosse Streets and by the fall of the year, all lines were electrified, the first line being completed being the North side run.  The fares were held at a nickel.  Electric streetcars themselves owed their invention to the former assistant of Thomas A. Edison, Mr. Frank J. Sprague.  Sprague gave birth to the industry when he successfully electrified the twelve-mile car line in downtown Richmond, Virginia, a few years earlier.  These types of streetcars ran on 600 volts of D.C. current, interurban cars, which ran many miles of service, utilized higher voltages.  At the inception of this industry the cars required "Front of the car men" and "back of the car men".  The former men were also known as motormen and the latter as conductors.  The motormen operated the car, while the conductor was responsible for collecting the fare from the passengers and in bad weather, stoking the potbellied coal-burning stove, to warm the car’s interior.  Such were some of the conditions of the La Crosse City Railway Company from l893 until the year l909. 

Electric cars were in service and Mr. B.E. Edwards was presiding over the company.  Mr. Edwards also was the owner of a business, the Fountain City Drill Works.  He lived at 1304 Cass Street with his wife and family.  Wages and working conditions failing to improve, in fact getting decidedly worse, under the new Superintendent, Mr.George H. Shaw, the local company was exacting profits and not improving the equipment or wages by the year of l909. Mr. Shaw had been hired about May of l908.  These policies contributed to unrest and discontent.  Consequently the men were ripe for a change.  A grass roots movement began in the ranks of the men, several members of the company taking the initiative to contact the local AFL, organizer.  A formation of a trade union was ready to proceed and a majority of the employees of the streetcar company indicated their willingness to organize. 

An initial meeting took place on May 1, when apparently the decision to unionize took place. To accomplish this, the men contacted the local labor organizer, John Rae.  Mr. John Rae, a local blacksmith who had worked in the horse shoeing trade for many years in La Crosse, also served as an organizer for the AFL in l909.  He went to work with the car men and guided them along the path to unionization as far as helping them to proceed with his knowledge of the State and Local labor scene. 

On the National scene, William D. Mahone, a horse car trolley man at one time, was heading the International Organization as President.  In l909 the international was known as the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America.  President Mahone was to receive queries from La Crosse signed by ten members of the La Crosse City Railway Company, and soon issued a charter to the men, dated the 10th of May, l909 and assigning the local union the designation, `519'.  The ten men became our founding fathers so to speak and a list of them is appropriate at this juncture.

...This list is reprinted just as it appears in the original membership book of 519, which is extant at this writing. 1. Chas. Masterson, 2. Victor Pegar, 3.    Thomas Daley, 4. John Darling, 5. Chas. Harder, 6.  Harvey Johnson, 7.  Chas. Kanter, 8.  Fred E. McGregor, 9.  Edward Stalder, 10.  Dean Sprout.        

The original charter of 519 is missing and has eluded all attempts to locate it at this writing.  The names are misspelled in several instances.

President Mahone said in l909..."As it is with individuals, so it is with organization...Individuals of a like class...see the same advantage in amalgamation as a single craft...organization...in this we find that which inspired the institution of the Amalgamated...We find ourselves together from the natural adhesive force of the affinity of common interest."  Having chartered, the fight for recognition was on it earnest, now.  The same day of the chartering of 519 an initial union meeting was to occur.  Organizer John Rae called the meeting to order and appointed two of the founders as temporary chairmen, Charles Masterson and Thomas Daley, Secretary/Treasurer, respectively.  Dues were collected from those present and business was then begun.  A motion was made and seconded to select Mr. Masterson, the union’s first President and upon a vote being taken, he was so selected.  Similarly, Thomas Daley was installed as Vice-president, D.R. Sprout became the Recording secretary, William Brunke the Financial Secretary and Harvey Johnston found himself elected Treasurer, Fred Mac Gregor became the Correspondent, Claude Donehower, Conductor and finally, Edward Jones took on the duties of Sentinel.  The following brothers were initiated at this meeting. William Bruhnke, Claude Donahauer, Edward Jones, Tony Bachman, Walter Brsjowski, Edward Sweeny, Martin Peterson, Ferdinand Mull, Charles Mull, John Blaschke, Henry Straight, Henry Johnson, William Dopson, S.C. Deyo, John Pruett, Peter Johnson, E.C. Houk, George Phillips, Fred Goede, James Shanksand Albert Mekvold.  The first gathering of the union, the end of this enrolled thirty-one members of the streetcar company enrolled as union members.  Out of the ten charter members, five were already serving as union officers and a second meeting was scheduled for May 15, five days off.  After this first union meeting, the members met with the company on the day after their meeting to discuss the issues. According to the La Crosse Triune of that day and the following day the results of that meeting were less than satisfactory to the men. 

Superintendent Shaw had began his employment with the line by ruthlessly enforcing minor rule infractions and discharged dozens of men in the year leading up to May of 1909.  The men charged him with having pioneer motormen and conductors `spotted' by agents hired by him for this purpose, a practice causing uniform resentment.  A past practice of the motormen of dropping off their conductor at or near his home at the close of the day was ordered discontinued.  These men resented the imposed penalty of the effects of this rule.  President Edwards after agreeing to meet the men gave a statement to the Triune, "I do not know of anything in the rules to which the men ought to take exception.  I hope the differences will prove so immaterial as to make a friendly disposition of them certain.  I am positive, however, and that is that the company will stand by the superintendent in the maintenance of reasonable rules and regulations governing the conduct of its employees."  At this evening meeting was most of the Board of Directors of the company, Edwards, Hixon, Cargill and Vallier. Superintendent Shaw also was in attendance. 

The meeting took place in Shaw's office in the Power House building.  Summing up their previous complaints the men also presented their disagreement with the rule of having to report for work each work day at 5:40 a.m., 10:40 a.m. and at the end of their work shift, at which time they were made to account for their receipts each day.  Edwards and the directors promised to make a formal reply in a few days time.  John Rae presided over the May 15 union meeting and initiated eight more members into the young union, Louis H. Thrun, J.M.  Merchant, J.H.  Smith, A.P. Ruegg, Robert Franklin, August Woldt, Fred Gurgel and P. Myszka.  At this time the body choose their delegates to the Trades and Labor Council, they were to be brothers, AP Ruegg, Charles Kanter and Robert Franklin.  The Union's first executive board was also chosen and consisted of Masterson, Thrun, Bruhnke, Sprout and Fred Mull.  The union now numbered thirty-nine brothers strong.  At the Union's third meeting on May 22, five more men joined, John Ryan, Joe Sewers, O.H. Boardman, H. Lathrop and H. Dunn, making a total now, of forty-four.  The charter had been sent out to be framed and union stationery was printed and now was paid out of the treasury.  Out of these 44 early joiners of our union were three who would devote 24 years of their lives to serving their fellow laborers as the President of this union.  Two would also serve the cause of organized labor citywide as movers and shakers of the AFL in the La Crosse Council.  Masterson, Franklin and Darling were the brothers just mentioned.  In addition, Peter Sieger who would enroll in the union on July 23rd, was another local brother who stepped forward and accepted the work and loss of personal time incumbent in union office holding.  Brother Sieger was to account for 19 years of holding down the office of President and continues to hold the record of our longest incumbent President.  Between the four of these fine gentlemen, 43 years of our current 85 years are accounted for.  Now began the actions of union busting or at the least union discouragement by the Edwards and Shaw led, streetcar company. 

Brothers Thrun and Sprout were discharged along with brother Tony Bachmann.  Brother Thrun was a member four executive board and brother Sprout was a charter member and the Recording/Secretary.  As for brother Bachmann, Superintendent Shaw is quoted by him for his comments at the time of discharging him that he had heard of the membership of Mr. Bachmann in the Union and because of this he was no longer needed at this property.  Thrun and Sprout reported that when Shaw discharged them he had a burly private detective standing by his side.  When he displayed his temper during their firing he told the detective, "Show these men out, officer!" 

Questioned by reporters about this treatment, Thrun and Sprout complained that their records as private citizens warranted no such treatment or `third degree' methods.  Reporters wrote that aggrieved employees have made threats against Shaw but that violence is not expected.  Car men state that Shaw has said he will "break the union" if he has to "fire every man on the line."  Shaw posted a bulletin in the car barns forbidding all employees from riding on the front platforms of the streetcars with the motorman during their off duty hours or conversing with the conductor on the rear platform.  They were further ordered not to obstruct the operation of any of the cars in way as well.  Assistant Superintendent John H.Harrier was complained of as being overly officious and severe this day as well by the men.  In answer to these actions, the Union called a Special Meeting on the evening of Friday, May 28.  The same day these events had occurred.  The members voted to send a committee to speak with the company directors about these firings the next day.  Another employee Frank Crandall, apparently not frightened by the attitude or actions of the company, joined the Union this very evening he was Frank Crandall.  Saturday dawned and the men discovered six husky policemen & a private detective upon their arrival at work that morning. 

Part 2