Background
He was born on September 30, 1866 in Clay, Washington County, Iowa, United States, the son of Edward B. and Isabel (Mills) Plumb. He lived most of his early life in Streator.
He was born on September 30, 1866 in Clay, Washington County, Iowa, United States, the son of Edward B. and Isabel (Mills) Plumb. He lived most of his early life in Streator.
He graduated from high school in Streator in 1885. Later he received the degree of Ph. B. from Oberlin College in 1891. In college he established a record as a runner and gymnast, and he spent part of one winter at Beloit as director of athletics. He studied at the Harvard Law School in 1891 and 1892, but in September of the latter year moved to Chicago, and received the degree of LL. B. at Northwestern University in 1893.
His summers were spent at work in a glass factory or as a farm hand.
Later he entered the law office of Miller & Starr, and continued with that firm and its successor, Peck, Miller & Starr, until July 1897, spending a large part of his time on railroad cases. He left this office to become attorney for the Chicago General Railway Company. In 1900, this company went into the hands of a receiver, whom Plumb represented; in 1903 he took charge as general manager for the reorganizing bondholders.
In 1900 he organized and promoted the Illinois & Rock River Railway Company; he was later vice-president of the Chicago Midland Transit Company and president of the Calumet & South Chicago Railroad, a street railway in the southern part of the city, until its absorption by the Chicago City Railway Company. As a result of these activities he became known as a specialist in railroad law.
Edward F. Dunne, who had just been elected mayor, engaged him in 1905 as special attorney and counsel for the city in an effort to "straighten out the traction tangle" of Chicago. In cooperation with Clarence Darrow and Edgar B. Tolman, corporation counsel, Plumb represented the city before the United States Supreme Court in the case of Blair vs. City of Chicago, known as the "ninety-nine year case. " He was also special counsel for the state's attorney of Cook County and the corporation counsel of the city in negotiations concerning the elevated railways and other public utilities. The following year he was retained by the four big railway brotherhoods to represent them in proceedings before the Interstate Commerce Commission under the railroad valuation act.
After the World War, when the question arose as to the terms upon which the railroads, which since January 1918 had been operated by the government, should be restored to their former owners, Plumb devised the so-called Plumb plan for government ownership. This proposal was indorsed by the organized railroad employees' associations, and was approved in principle by the American Federation of Labor and by radical groups like the National Nonpartisan League. It was fiercely debated for a couple of years, both in Congress and out, but never came to a vote. The plan was described by Plumb in an article in the Nation (August 16, 1919), in Labor's Plan for Government Ownership and Democracy in the Operation of the Railroads (1919), and in "An Industrial Program" (MS. ) in New York Public Library.
He died in Washington, after an illness of several months.
Glenn Edward Plumb was well-known as the author of the radical plan for cooperative railway ownership, the Plumb plan. He founded the Plumb Plan League to support the proposal, but the plan was not adopted. During most of his time he attacked corporate tax evasion and corporate privileges, winning a notable victory when the Supreme Court struck down the "eternal monopoly" laws.
Plumb began his career as a Republican, but later became a Democrat.
He invented special Plumb plan: the roads would be operated under the supervision of a board of directors consisting of five representatives of the government, five representatives of the operating officials, and five representatives of the employees. Half the profits would go to the government and the other half be divided between officials and employees.
He married on January 1, 1895, Grace Edith Clarke of Chicago, who died February 8, 1899, leaving two children; and on June 27, 1907, he married Marie Coyle of Chicago, who survived him.
