Background
Peter M. Arthur was born in 1831 in Paisley, Scotland. He arrived in America 1842 at the age of eleven years. His boyhood was passed on an uncle's farm in New York.
Peter M. Arthur was born in 1831 in Paisley, Scotland. He arrived in America 1842 at the age of eleven years. His boyhood was passed on an uncle's farm in New York.
He received only a meager common school education, and learned the blacksmith and machinist trades.
He worked independently on a farm at six dollars a month. Later he bought a horse and went into the carting business in Schenectady, but this proved hardly more lucrative.
At eighteen he secured work as an engine wiper with the New York Central Railroad and was soon promoted to locomotive engineer. His family name was Peter McArthur, but through an error it was entered on the pay-roll as Peter M. Arthur and so it remained.
As an engineer he became active in his union, held local offices, and was delegate to several national conventions. He was associated with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers from its inception in 1863.
In 1874 he was elected Grand Chief of the order, an office he held continuously until his death. He built up the Brotherhood into one of the strongest and most conservative of labor unions. It always maintained independence of other unions and selected its own policies, at the same time establishing cordial relations with others. Consequently, among Arthur's critics were the more radical leaders who accused him of playing into the hands of his employers and "capitalists" generally; and the officials of the American Federation of Labor, who said that his "chief mistake consisted in his policy of isolation from the general labor movement. "
At the time of his taking office the Brotherhood had been little more than a benevolent and insurance society. Arthur made it an aggressive agent for collective bargaining. In general he declared against strikes; but there were strikes and successful ones. In every case he had to be convinced that a strike was necessary. Consequently he went into a strike with the full support of his followers.
An associate editor of The Labor Movement: The Problem of Today (1887), prepared under the editorship of George E. McNeill, he contributed to the volume an article entitled "The Rise of Railroad Organization. " Through real estate speculations in the city of Cleveland he acquired a comfortable fortune in his later years.
His death came suddenly. At a district convention in Winnipeg he was responding to the presentation of a floral tribute when he was stricken with heart failure and died in the middle of a sentence.
With the formation of the BLE, Arthur devoted himself to promoting the principles of cooperation between engineers and railroad managers. His efforts resulted in the prosperity of the industry in the 1870s and 1880s. He consistently fought for the economic betterment and moral improvement of the Engineers union members’ lives.
Member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
He was known as an able organizer and a formidable fighter.
