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Experiment in Bureaucratic Centralization: Employee Blacklisting on the Burlington Railroad, 1877-1892*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Paul V. Black
Paul V. Black
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, California State University, Long Beach
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Abstract

As a personnel policy that would assure the country's rapidly expanding railroad system the best grade of employees, centralization of discharge data within a company and interchange of such data between companies struck some executives as a useful practice. Others disagreed and, as Professor Black shows, their wisdom prevailed. The problem centered upon reliability of such key operating employees as brakemen and conductors, and responded better to institution of controls that would minimize the two most important misfeasances: drinking on the job and petty embezzlement.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , Winter 1977 , pp. 444 - 459
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1977

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the first annual meeting of the Western Economic and Business Historians, April 1976.

References

1 The basic source for this study is the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad archives located in the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois. Unless otherwise specified, all un-published sources are from that collection. Much of the collection has been catalogued in Jackson, Elisabeth Coleman and Curtis, Carolyn, comp., Guide to the Burlington Archives in the Newberry Library, 1851-1901 (Chicago, 1949)Google Scholar and Werner, Herbert D. comp., Supplement of the Guide to the Burlington Archives in the Newberry Library (Chicago; 1953).Google Scholar Reference numbers in notes refer to the common classification in these two guides.

2 See Robert Harris to B. S. Henning, December 28, 1868, 3/H4.1.

3 Robert Harris to J. F. Ball, April 13, 1868, 3/H4.1.

4 J. M. Horton to J. Scheitten, September 21, 1867, 3/H4.1.

5 J. M. Horton to J. N. Harrington, November 1, 1870, 3/H4.1.

6 Robert Harris to F. H. Tubbs, November 10, 1871, 3/H4.1.

7 Robert Harris to Leo Carper, November 10, 1871, 3/H4.1.

8 William B. Strong to Harold Hitchcock, June 8, 1876 3/S8.2; William B. Strong to T. J. Potter, August 7, 1876, 3/S8.2; William B. Strong to Elijah Smith, November 4, 1876, 3/S8.2.

9 Calculations regarding the C. B. & Q. blacklist were made from a computer data base constructed from 33/1870 3.4.

10 Report on the Agencies of Transportation in the United States, Volume IV of the Tenth Census of the United States (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883); quarterly reports of the Burlington Voluntary Relief Department, 1889-1901, Pension Department, C. B. & Q. Office Building, Chicago.

11 Statistics in this paper relating to the size and composition of the work force in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri were abstracted from: State of Iowa, Annual Report of the Roard of Railroad Commissioners (Des Moines: State Printers, 1878-1900)Google Scholar; State of Illinois, Annual Reports of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission (Springfield: State Printers, 1874-1892)Google Scholar; State of Missouri, Annual Reports of the Board of Railroad and Ware-house Commissioners (State Printers: Jefferson City, 1874-1900).Google Scholar Nebraska statistics were derived from manuscript reports to the Nebraska State Census (1884) and to the Nebraska State Railroad Commission (1887-1900). These reports were stored in the C. B. & Q. Office Building, Chicago. General statements regarding the relative proportions of different occupational groups in the Burlington labor force are based on an analysis of manuscript annual reports of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company to the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1890-1901, Auditor's Vault, C. B. & Q. Office Building, Chicago.

12 T. J. Potter to Henry B. Stone, November 19, 1882, 3/P6.1.

13 C. E. Perkins to T. J. Potter, March 3, 1884, 3/P6.36, No. 5; T. J. Potter to C. E. Perkins, March 5, 1884, 3/P4.56, No. 2.

14 C. E. Perkins to T. J. Potter, March 6, 1884, 3/P6.36, No. 5.

15 T. J. Potter to C. E. Perkins, March 14, 1884, 3/P4.56, No. 2; T. J. Potter to H. B. Stone, March 20, 1884, 3/P6.13.

16 Memorandum, May 22, 1884, 3/P6.36, No. 5.

17 H. K. Cowell to C. E. Perkins, July 16, 1890, 3/P4.5, Series 2, No. 5; T. S. Howland to all managers, July 28, 1890, 3/P4.58.

18 Memorandum, March 15, 1884, 3/P6.36, No. 5.

19 Ibid.

20 C. E. Perkins to T. J. Potter, March 3, 1884, 3/P6.36, No. 5; C. E. Perkins to T. J. Potter, March 5, 1884, 3/P6.36, No. 5; T. J. Potter to C. E. Perkins, March 4, 1884, 3/P4.56; J. M. Bump to C. E. Perkins, February 4, 1885, 3/P4.5, Series 1, No. 2; C. E. Perkins to J. M. Bump, February 13, 1885, 3/P4.1.

21 Memorandum, “The Selection of Employees,” May 1, 1885, 3/P4.56, No. 4.

22 Ibid.

23 Robert Harris to H. Hitchcock, December 7, 1868, 3/H4.1; Robert Harris to C. F. Jauriet, June 20, 1872, 3/H4.1; Robert Harris to C. F. Jauriet, June 19, 1872, 3/H4.1.

24 W. B. Strong to William Wilson, May 27, 1876, 3/H4.1; W. C. Perkins to J. R. Hastings, July 5, 1880, 3/P5.1; T. J. Potter to H. B. Stone, February 14, 1883, 3/P6.13; T. J. Potter to H. B. Stone, April 29, 1885, 3/P6.13.

25 T. J. Potter to W. C. Perkins, May 27, 1879, 3/P6.1; T. J. Potter to Joel West, July 18, 1879, 3/P6.1; W. C. Perkins to O. E. Stewart, June 4, 1880, 3/P5.1; T. J. Potter to H. B. Stone, September 4, 1880, 3/P6.1; T. J. Potter to E. Ryder, December 23, 1880, 3/P6.1; T. J. Potter to J. D. Besler, February 8, 1881, 3/P6.1; T. J. Potter to W. C. Perkins, February 8, 1881, 3/P6.1.

26 This document was made available through the courtesy of Mr. J. N. Nemeth, Superintendent of Shops, C. B. & Q. R. R. Co., Havelock, Nebraska. Computations have been made from a microfilm copy in possession of the author.

27 George B. Harris to J. R. Hastings, July 21, 1892, H5.23; George B. Harris to W. F. Merrill, July 22, 1892, H5.23; G. W. Holdrege to George B. Harris, July 23, 1892, 33/1900 6.11; George B. Harris to G. W. Holdrege, July 30, 1892, H5.23; W. F. Merrill to George B. Harris, July 29, 1892, 3/H5.15; George B. Harris to G. W. Holdrege, October 4, 1895, 3/H5.23.

28 Robert Harris to C. E. Perkins, December 11, 1877, 3/H4.4.

29 C. E. Perkins to Robert Harris, December 15, 1877, 33/1870 3.6.