The Great Strike on the "Q"

A firsthand account recounts the origins and growth of locomotive engineers', firemen's, and switchmen's brotherhoods and chronicles a major labor strike on a Midwestern railroad. It combines organizational history, the grievances that prompted collective action—reduced pay, harsh management practices, and corporate exploitation—and descriptions of strike events and negotiations, drawn from the author's observations and union correspondence. Prefatory material argues for organized labor as legal recourse against monopoly and calls for radical reform and Christian justice. The narrative interweaves institutional development, division formation, and the practical challenges of asserting workers' rights within the railroad industry.