authentic voice to the whole movement in his recent book, The Present Economic Revolution in the United States. He says (p. 118):
"The saving power of American workingmen is so great that if they would save and carefully invest their savings in ten years they would be one of the dominating financial powers of the world."
As for the railroad workers, says Carver (p. 124):
"If the railroad workers would save merely the increase which they have recently received in their wages … (and) if they bought railroad stocks at par, they could … buy $3,490,000,000 in five years. This would give them a substantial majority of all the outstanding stock."
The most extravagant estimates were made on all sides regarding the future of labor banking and other phases of trade union capitalism. In the Saturday Evening Post of Nov. 6, 1926, Frank Stockbridge, in an article directly inspired by B. of L. E. officials, says typically:
"New labor banks are being projected and organized at the rate of dozens a year. I was told in one place of fifty which are expected to be in operation before the end of 1927."
The B. of L. E. Leads the Way
Undisputed leader in this capitalistic banking movement was the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Its vast financial structure and dizzy array of banks and investment companies dwarfed all the rest. Its officials set the pace for the whole movement. It was a pioneer in every branch. Its word on labor banking was gospel to the trade union officialdom.
The question of establishing a labor bank was first proposed to the B. of L. E. at its convention in 1912, but it was voted
