Brotherhood leaders have traditionally shared holiday messages with the membership throughout the long and distinguished history of our great organization. These messages of peace and good will date to 1868 — one year after the Locomotive Engineers Monthly Journal was first published.
Today’s BLET members take great pride in the deep roots of our organization. And it is with deepest appreciation of our treasured past that we take a look back on holiday greetings from years past.
The Brotherhood, founded on May 8, 1863, is the oldest labor union in the Western Hemisphere. The Journal, first published in January of 1867, is the oldest rail union publication in the world.
Today, members of the BLET Executive Committee continue this tradition in several ways, including the mailing of holiday cards, web postings, and holiday greetings in the various Brotherhood publications. This year, we are proud to share a sampling of Christmas messages from the past 150 years.
25 years ago
Christmas. Just the word fills the mind with images. Images of sharing and gift-giving. Images of hope and renewal. Images of our family and friends… It could be that, for someone you work with, the best you can give them is the gift of help. The gift of hope. Giving hope — that’s what Christmas is all about…”
55 years ago
Close to Christmas, many publications customarily reprint the famous Baltimore Sun editorial, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” which originally was printed many years ago as a reply to a real letter from a little girl. The editorial was — and is — a splendid blend of sentiment and thought.
Similarly, Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” has become a regular television show. We can expect it in some form on our screens again this year. A few years ago it was always a Christmas radio presentation.
Parents and grandparents will take down from the shelves ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’ and read the delightful poem to the children, who when they become parents will in turn read it to their own children.
Again this season, everywhere we go we will hear the familiar words and music of “Jingle Bells,” “Silent Night” and “Away in the Manger.” High fidelity recordings and stereophonic speakers may be used, but the spirit will be the same.
One of the wonders of Christmas is that all the trappings and tinsel, the written and spoken greetings, the music sung and played, are time-honored, well-worn and traditional, yet also always bright, fresh and new. Young and old delight in the customs, which generation after generation has delighted in.
Christmas… signifies to all a new birth of idealism and life everlasting. Human failings being what they are, it must be repeated every year, and the old traditions serve to remind us that faith and knowledge are constant, even if we are not.
We cannot say anything new and would not if we could. The old greetings and prayers are the best — Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men.
— BLET Grand Officers, December 1958 Journal
75 years ago
In wishing for you and yours a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we ask all of you to join in giving thanks for the Brotherhood which has rendered a service to its members and their families, the value of which can never be estimated. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers from the very beginning 75 years ago, has constantly striven to be of benefit to mankind. It has often been referred to as a Santa Claus, and it has certainly assumed that role splendidly in handling out benefits to those who have supported our worthy cause. The Brotherhood came that Labor might enjoy the benefits of decent working conditions and fair wages and thus enable all of us to be merry at Christmas and happy throughout the New Year.
— December 1938, Locomotive Engineers Journal
100 years ago
With this Journal we close the year 1913, which has had in it some striking examples that demonstrate forceful the truth that, ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves.’
We are approaching that period of Good will and peace toward all men — Christmas — when we should examine our own sentiments. We now have 73,100 members in good standing. That should be 75,000 at the opening of 1914, and will be if the right effort is made.
The Journal carries with it the hearty greeting of the Editor for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
— Editor C.H. Salmons, December 1913 Journal
115 Years Ago
We find ourselves upon the threshold of a new year, and before turning our attention to the work which pertains to the future, it is fitting to pause an instant and strive to gather up, in thought, the results of the year that is done. ‘Gone before,’ may be said of many of our number who, obedient to that Divine summons which cometh when we least expect, dropped the thread with which they were weaving the fabric of their lives, and joined that innumerable caravan which moves toward that mysterious realm, where each shall take his chamber in the silent halls of death. As we miss familiar faces, the words ‘Be ye also ready,’ spring to our lips, and while memory drops a silent tear in token of remembrance, duty bids us be up and doing.
— Peter M. Arthur, Grand Chief Engineer
November 1898, Locomotive Engineers Journal
120 Years ago
Again the whirligig of time has turned the hour-hand in its flight a twelvemonth, and we, with all good citizens of our native land, bow in a Christian spirit to the words of our President, and give assent to custom inaugurated by our forefathers… Again, let us be thankful as we look out upon the great future, in the fact that we have a common Brotherhood, in which we are laboring for the edification of our calling. Grand results have been accomplished in the past and our fealty to the principles for which we fought will prove the bulwarks for all contingencies that may arise in the future. Be true to yourselves, your calling, and the precepts of your Brotherhood, and we shall have cause to be thankful another twelvemonth.
— Locomotive Engineers Journal, December 1893
140 Years Ago
Rules to promote harmony among locomotive engineers
First — To remember that we are all subject to failings and infirmities of one kind or another.
Second — To bear with, and not magnify each other’s faults.
Third — Always turn a deaf ear to any slanderous report, and to lay no charge brought against any person till well founded.
Fourth — If a member be in fault tell him of it in private, before it is mentioned to others.
— December 1873, Locomotive Engineers Journal
145 Years Ago
The pages of history are filled with the benevolent and moral achievements of men and women prior to the eighteenth century, as accomplished in the Old Word: but what of the New — of ours? … Prominent among these benevolent protective associations I recognize the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, with their delegated representatives in this audience, reminding me of the great fact that, while God has been mindful of man, man is mindful of himself.
Sermon by the Rev. M.P. Gaddis, Published in the Locomotive, Engineers Journal, January 1868