Like the members of the brotherhoods, the shop workers began early to perceive that their trades could not successfully fight alone. It was not enough that their respective crafts be highly organized. It was necessary also that they should co-operate together as against the common enemy, the companies. Dozens of lost strikes emphasized this lesson. So the shopmen entered upon a long course of drawing up their unions into federations, much as the brotherhood men have done, but without quite so many complications and refinements.
The first definite form of active co-operation among the shop trades was the familiar system federation. This type of organization did for the shop men what it did for the transportation men, expanded their scope of action from one craft on one system to several crafts on one system. They began to spread over the railroads of the country about 1905, and in a few years were established on many systems. But the shop men, less strategically situated in the industry than are the brotherhood men, have always had to fight harder to win concessions from the companies. Consequently their system federation movement met heavy resistance from the companies in a number of strikes, chief among which was the great Harriman Lines-Illinois Cential walkout.
This big strike started in September, 1911, and lasted forty-five months, until June, 1915. It was one of the most bitterly contested strikes in American labor history, and one of the most important. About 38,000 men were involved, scattered over the twelve railroads comprising the 'enormous Harriman Lines-Illinois Central system. The issue at stake was the question of federation; the nine unions insisting upon dealing collectively with the management, and the management insisting that they act one at a time. Both sides desperately fought out their issue. President Markham of the Illinois Central explained the company's opposition as follows:
