Trainman News

Ladies Auxiliary Jottings

FROM OFFICES OF THE GRAND PRESIDENT AND GRAND SECRETARY AND TREASURER

In reading the report in the TRAINMAN NEWS of the granting of the four cents per hour for BRT members and the adoption of the five-day week on some roads, we feel sure the members of the Brotherhood are pleased with this advancement.

It proves, with patience and hard work on the part of the officers of the Grand Lodge, that step by step they do make progress.

We of the Auxiliary, are very happy to know that hundreds of our members have also been benefited by the law enacted that gives these members $40 per month after they reach the age of 65 years. It has required the entire time of one assistant in the office of the grand secretary and treasurer, assisting these spouses, (AS THEY ARE LISTED) in providing their data of birth or their age at time of admission to our order.

In making these requests to the Grand Lodge, we will ask the sisters to kindly note the number of their subordinate lodge as our membership records are kept according to lodge number. Some of the brothers have called personally at the office and it is interesting to learn from some of them how they have already spent their wife's pension, but, of course, we know railroad men.

During 1951, the Grand Lodge issued 976 20-year membership pins, 502 40-year and 119 50-year pins. The secretary of the lodge should check her membership often and ascertain if any of the members of her Lodge are entitled to pins, many times they are long overdue when we receive the request for same.

Lodge 455, Coffeeville, Kans., celebrated its 40th anniversary Jan. 9 with a nice attendance of their own members. The president, Sister Lucile McIntosh, assisted by the past president, Sister Cora Downey, presented one 20-year pin and three 40-year pins. During the evening, entertainment and refreshments were enjoyed. We will be looking forward to a nice class of candidates to be secured by this lodge.

BRT Gets Doaks Cabinet Chair

In settling the claim of our late Sister Emma Marie Doak, widow of the late William H. Doak, who was secretary of labor during the Hoover administration, we were pleased to learn thru the executor of her estate, Mr. A. Lane Cricher, who is a nephew of the late Sister Doak, that in her will she left the cabinet chair occupied in the White House by her late husband to the Washington office of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.

Who knows. a Brotherhood man might occupy it sometime in the future, or a member of the Auxiliary as Franklin D. Roosevelt had in his cabinet, a woman as secretary of labor, known to everyone as Ma Perkins.

Christmas at our Auxiliary Home was a gala day. Our matron, Sister Braden, did everything possible to make our guests happy, and the generosity of the members and the lodges was more than gratifying and we sincerely thank each one for their kindness in making this a real holiday long to be remembered.

It has been interesting to follow the articles in the TRAINMAN NEWS since Oct. 8, 1951 regarding the fight to encourage legislation to bar dynamite-laden trucks from the highways. The legislative representatives in both organizations might try to win back freight and express shipping in their own localities for the railroad companies. They have the proof of safety in shipping by rail, they can secure figures from any tax returns at the Court House as to the amount of taxes left in each city by the railroad companies, they can secure the number of railroad people living in the city who are the shoppers of the community.

This was done in the years 1930 and 1931 when the trucks first started to solicit business from the business people in the State of Illinois. Brother Richard Abram and some of his assistants kept shipping on the railroads at that time. Another selling point is the heavy loss to business firms by the hi-jacking of the trucks loaded with valuable merchandise. The FBI reports these robberies have increased 33 per cent since the start of the Korean War, where bank robberies have only increased two per cent. It is interesting the methods used by hi-jackers and how few are caught. More shipping by rail means more jobs for the railroad man. The old-timer says: "You got to keep your feet on the ground, sure enough, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't use em to get someplace in the world."

The TRAINMAN NEWS and Brother Kennedy's December circular lists new lodges organized by the Brotherhood at Minot, N. D., St. Louis, Mo., Klamath Falls, Ore., and Toledo, Ohio.

Sisters, please do not let these opportunities slip by, we cannot rest on our oars. Remember,