12 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WAGES 
was termed the Central Competitive Field, made up of 
[llinois, Indiana, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. The 
rates of pay in other mining areas were related to these 
ruling rates, varying according to comparative physical 
factors, such as the thickness and character of the coal 
seams, and the ease or difficulty of mining coal. Wages 
and working conditions were, therefore, practically stand- 
ardized on a national basis, with due allowance for vari- 
ations in local conditions of mining. 
On the railroads, the highly organized engine and train 
crews, popularly known as “The Brotherhoods,” at first 
carried on relations with the individual railroads. After- 
wards, negotiations and collective bargaining developed 
according to geographical sections known as the East, 
Southeast and West, the railroads being grouped respect- 
ively for these designations as (1) North of the Ohio and 
Potomac and East of the Mississippi, (2) South of the 
Ohio and Potomac and East of the Mississippi, and (3) 
West of the Mississippi River. This geographical group- 
ing for industrial relations and the determination of wage- 
rates was brought about primarily through its acceptance 
by railway managements for the purpose of protecting 
their own interests. They found it expedient to have 
wages and working conditions standardized in certain 
areas, in order to nullify the tactics of the labor organiza- 
tions in playing one individual railroad against another for 
the purpose of establishing precedents for collective bar- 
gaining. 
Standardization was also strongly supported by the rail- 
way labor organizations. Before our entrance into the 
World War the unions of engine and train crews had 
effectively organized the “Eight-Hour Day Movement” on 
a national basis. At the same time, they were attempting