pprenticeship as modern industrialism affords. In the course of
an eight- to twelve-hour run firemen must shovel from fifteen to
twenty-five tons of coal into the blazing fire box of a locomotive. In
winter they are constantly subjected to hot blasts from the furnace and
freezing drafts from the wind. Records show that out of every hundred
who begin as firemen only seventeen become engineers and of these only
six ever become passenger engineers. The mere strain on the eyes
caused by looking into the coal blaze eliminates 17 per cent. Those
who eventually become engineers are therefore a select group as far as
physique is concerned.

The constant dangers accompanying their daily work require railroad
engineers to be no less dependable from the moral point of view. The
history of railroading is as replete with heroism as is the story of
any war. A coward cannot long survive at the throttle. The process of
natural selection which the daily labor of an engineer involves the
Brotherhood has supplemented by most rigid moral tests. The character
of every applicant for membership is thoroughly scrutinized and must be
vouched for by three members. He must demonstrate his skill and prove
his character by a year's probation before his application is finally
voted upon. Once within the fold, the rules governing his conduct are
inexorable. If he shuns his financial obligations or is guilty of a
moral lapse, he is summarily expelled. In 1909, thirty-six members were
expelled for "unbecoming conduct." Drunkards are particularly dangerous
in railroading.

When the order was only five years old and still struggling for its
life, it nevertheless expelled 172 members for drunkenness. In proven
cases of this sort the railway authorities are notified, the offending
engineer is dismissed from the service, and the shame of these culprits
is published to the world in the Locomotive Engineers' Journal, which
reaches every member of the order. There is probably no other club or
professional organization so exacting in its demands that its members be
self-respecting, faithful, law-abiding, and capable; and surely no other
is so summary and far-reaching in its punishments.

Today ninety per cent of all the locomotive engineers in the United
States and Canada belong to this union. But the Brotherhood early
learned the lesson of exclusion. In 1864 after very annoying experiences
with firemen and other railway employees on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayn