Austin Garretson

Background

Garretson was born on September 4, 1856 in Winterset, Iowa, the son of Nathan and Hannah (Garretson) Garretson. His father was a lawyer and a Quaker.

Education

Garretson's father believed that every boy should learn a trade and apprenticed his son, after he had received a common-school education, to a wheelwright. Austin learned the trade but his interest was in railroad work.

Career

Garretson obtained a position as brakeman on the New Virginia, which subsequently became a part of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and later was promoted to conductor. After a time he moved to Denison, Texas, and was connected with the Osceola & Southern, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Mexican National, and the Mexican Central railroads. In 1884 he joined the Lone Star Division No. 53 of the Order of Railway Engineers and at once became active in its affairs. He was chosen delegate to the convention of the Eighteenth Grand Division, held in Louisville, Kentucky, the following year, and was nominated and defeated for the office of grand junior conductor. At the next convention, in 1887, however, he was chosen grand senior conductor, without pay. He held offices in the organization continuously thereafter until 1919. In 1890 he was one of the leading spokesmen for the progressive wing, which was successful in transforming it from a purely fraternal and beneficiary association into a protective one which exercised economic functions as well. In 1906 Garretson succeeded Edgar E. Clark, who had been appointed to the Interstate Commerce Commission, as grand chief conductor, the name of which office was changed in 1907 to that of president. In this capacity he served for thirteen years. Throughout his office-holding career Garretson espoused the policy of reasonable but not high salaries for labor officials. He practised what he preached and refused to allow an increase in his salary from $8, 500 to $10, 000, which the union sought to vote him in 1916. His greatest services to the general labor movement were while he was a member of the federal commission on industrial relations, 1912-1915, in the hearings of which he took an active part, and as chairman of the committee of the four railway brotherhoods - engineers, firemen, brakemen and conductors - to negotiate for the eight-hour day with the representatives of the railroads. In this difficult position he displayed tact and understanding, and, while refusing to compromise, he avoided as far as was possible antagonizing management and the public. These negotiations finally led to the passage of the Adamson Act by Congress, which established the basic eight-hour day on the railroads. After the First World War he espoused the Plumb plan of government ownership of the railroads, which would have given labor an important voice in operations. After his retirement in 1919 he relinquished the editorship of the Railway Conductor, which he had supervised for many years. He continued to serve as adviser to the organization until his death. Garretson was a middle-of-the-road labor leader. He opposed limiting the right to strike even on the railroads, but he believed in sparing use of that weapon. He died of the infirmities of old age in a hospital at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Achievements

Garretson gained national prominence in 1916 when he averted a nationwide railroad strike in exchange for an eight-hour day with time-and-a-half overtime pay.

Politics

Politically, Garretson was perhaps more liberal than most labor leaders. He did not recoil from basic reforms and fundamental economic changes, but he had scant sympathy for violence and the more aggressive methods of militant unionism.

Views

Garretson was against any restrictions on the right to strike, but believed in avoiding use of that right where possible. He was opposed to militant unionism and violence. He was a Christian, and would often use Biblical quotations to support his case during negotiations. Garretson thought that the public had an interest and a right to be represented on boards of arbitration, but only where there was some danger to the public.

Personality

Garretson was a man of wide reading and his knowledge of the Bible stood him in good stead during negotiations, at which times he would frequently drive home a point with an apt quotation. He was highly respected by railroad officials, although they usually met him during controversies over wage increases or changes in working conditions. He was of the generation of labor leaders who had to win over public opinion to their cause.

Connections

On September 2, 1878, Garretson married Marie Ream, by whom he had three children.

Father:: Nathan Garretson
Mother:: Hannah Garretson
Spouse:: Marie Ream
Daughter:: Marie Garretson
Daughter:: Vida Garretson
Son:: Ivan Garretson

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