Union Voice, Readers Write: Clearing Casey's Name

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Was Casey Jones (r) a scab? That’s what a Union City reader wondered after seeing our March 11 UCS Today in Labor History item marking the birth of the fabled railroad engineer. The question arose because of Wobblie leader and songwriter Joe Hill’s song "Casey Jones–The Scab," which begins: "The workers on the S. P. Line to strike out a call/But Casey Jones, the engineer, he wouldn't strike at all..." Research links Hill’s song to a tune about Casey’s fatal accident in 1900, written by Casey’s friend Wallace Saunders, a black engine wiper in the railroad shop at Canton, Miss.  Joe Hill then took Saunders’ widely-popular tune about Casey and adapted it, a common practice at the time. While the original song refers to the Illinois Central railroad, in Joe Hill version’s it’s the S.P. (Southern Pacific) Line, as Hill used the tune to build morale among striking trainmen at the Southern Pacific in 1911. Bottom line: Casey wasn’t a scab. He died carrying his Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union card. – David Prosten, Publisher, Union Communication Services; photo courtesy Walter Valley Casey Jones Railroad Museum