Background

Warren was born on February 1, 1860 on a farm near Ainsworth, Iowa, United States, the son of John and Sarah (Stewart) Stone. His paternal grandfather was an emigrant from Holland.

Education

At fifteen, after a farm boyhood with little schooling, he was able to enter Washington Academy nearby. He remained there for three years, an eager student, contributing to his own support by doing odd jobs, and then spent a year at Western College, Toledo, Iowa.

Career

In the fall of 1879 he went to work as a locomotive fireman on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad. He was soon afterward made secretary-treasurer of his local division and after a time was chosen as chairman of the Brotherhood's general committee of adjustments.

In August 1903, on the death of Peter M. Arthur, he was chosen grand chief of the Brotherhood, a post he retained until his death. On taking office he faced a critical situation. Wages were low, living costs were rising, and the organization was losing membership. After a careful study of conditions, he formulated a plan for bettering wages and reducing hours by dealing with the railway managers through regional groups and carrying one contest to a finish before taking up another.

The first struggle, with the Western group, was brought to a victorious conclusion in 1906; the second, with the Southeastern group, was settled in 1908. A bitter contest followed in 1912 with the Eastern group, the representatives of fifty-two powerful roads, who at first refused concessions.

At a critical moment in the dispute the United States commissioner of labor and the presiding judge of the United States commerce court proposed mediation, and after hearings that lasted for five months a satisfactory compromise was reached.

In the same year Stone succeeded in establishing a pension system in the Brotherhood, which was followed, nine years later, by a system of widows' pensions, the first in the history of American labor. In 1916 he led the railway unions in their successful fight for the passage of the Adamson Bill.

In 1923, during the shopmen's strike, he intervened by drawing up a plan for settlement which brought the strike to an end. He was active in the movement which resulted in the founding, in October 1919, of Labor, the weekly organ of the railway unions. In the following year he brought the Brotherhood into the banking business, and at the time of his death the organization owned or controlled twelve banks and eight investment companies. In the spring of 1925 his health failed.

Warren Stanford Stone died on 12 June 1925 of Bright's disease in a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. At the time of his death, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers had majority interests in enterprises with assets of approximately $150, 000, 000.

Throughout his tenure as head of the railway engineers, they had never had to call a strike. His last days were troubled by a controversy which arose with the American Federation of Labor over the fact that a subsidiary corporation of the Brotherhood refused to pay union wages to its employees in the West Virginia mines. The matter had not been settled at the time of his death in 1925.

Achievements

• Warren Sanford Stone was one of the founders of Labor, the weekly organ of the railway unions. Under his control the Brotherhood increased in membership by 137 per cent and greatly multiplied its resources. The vast financial structure he built up began to sag after his death, however, and suffered a series of disasters. By the end of his tenure the Brotherhood controlled investments worth over $100 million.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Brief in the Matter of the Arbitration Between the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Representing the Engineers Employed on the Fifty-Two Railways I

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

Politics

Stone was a Republican but had progressive views. He favored independent political action and was one of the leaders in the movement to bring labor to the support of La Follette in the presidential campaign of 1924. He seems to have had no political ambitions and is said to have twice rejected a cabinet post. Much of the work he did for his organization is permanent.

Stone was one of the main supporters of the Progressive Party that backed Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. as candidate for President of the United States in 1924.

Views

He did not believe in compulsory union membership and was comfortable with "labor capitalism". He supported a radical plan in which workers in an industry would take one-third of the profits, the other thirds going to capital and the public. He favored a greater degree of collectivization of industry and was a zealous advocate of the plan devised by Glenn Edward Plumb for the cooperative ownership of the railways.

Quotations: He said "We feel sure there are no better-satisfied men employed anywhere than in the Coal River Collieries. "

Stone believed that if a worker "wants to join a union, all right, but it is contrary to the principles of free government and the Constitution of the United States . . . to make him join. "

Personality

His special talent as a negotiator won many decisions for the men, and he came to be well known.

Connections

At Agency, Iowa, on October 15, 1884, he was married to Carrie E. Newell. There were no children.

Father:

John Stone

Mother:

Sarah (Stewart) Stone

Wife:

Carrie E. Newell