Excerpt from Argument and Brief Submitted on Behalf of Locomotive Firemen and Hostlers Numerous complaints, from almost every section of the country, were received during the year 1917 from locomotive firemen and hostlers against existing wages and working conditions. These complaints usually included statements that at present wages, with increased cost of living, the past standard of living was being greatly depressed. As early as July, 1917, formal request for the institution of a continental wage movement was received. These requests came from individual members, and increased in number until the demand for another wage movement became so pronounced that formal applications were received by the President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen from General Grievance Committees. Particularly was this demand vigorously pressed by locomotive firemen and hostlers in the Eastern District, with the result that a special meeting of the Association of General Grievance Committees of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen for the Eastern District was convened in the City of Cleveland, November 5-9, 1917. At this meeting resolutions were adopted and wage requests formulated, which were to be referred to the membership in the Eastern District for approval, as provided in the laws of the organization. Resolution was also adopted inviting the Western and Southern Districts to join in one movement instead of three distinct movements. Already many similar requests for the institution of a wage movement had been received from the Southern and Western Districts, with the result that the Association of General Grievance Committees of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen for the Southern District met in the City of Washington on November 27-28 and took similar action. The Association of General Grievance Committees for the Western District met in Kansas City on December 10-11, and also took similar action. At each of these three meetings resolutions were adopted by which representation was delegated to a sub-committee of six, with instructions for each sub-committee to join with the others in a "Joint Committee" in preparing a wage proposition to be presented to the railroad companies. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.