Grand Organizer and Instructor George S. Bailey was born in Edgar County, Illinois, in 1858. After receiving a common-school education, he studied law for some time, but had to abandon his studies on account of ill health. He commenced railroading in 1878 on the I. & St. L. Railway, braking on local freight. He was employed as a switchman in East St. Louis a number of years, and was prominent in the great railroad strike of 1886. When the "Q" strike occurred, he was selected to go over a portion of the road and address the railroad men. He spoke at Kansas City, St. Joe, Council Bluffs and other western points. He was a delegate from Lodge No. 37 at the Convention of 1888, and was then elected to his present position. He was a member of the Illinois Legislature in 1886, and made a creditable record. He introduced, and had passed through the House, "House Bill No. 268," which provided for a State Board of Arbitration, but before it reached the Senate the General Assembly had adjourned. Mr. Bailey is full of energy and ability, yet does not allow his enthusiasm to overbalance his good judgment. He has the faculty of controlling men and at the same urging them on to a sense of the duty they owe to themselves and those dependent upon them, as well as to their employers. It has been but a few months since the Convention of 1888, and already fifteen new Lodges have been organized, while about a dozen others are ready and are clamoring for admission to the Association. The whole Eastern section of the country yet remains to be organized, and the switchmen throughout that section are fully alive to the needs of the hour. The present year will witness the addition of several thousand earnest men to the Association. One grand element of strength is shown by this organization--namely: The absolute equality of its members. They have not permitted designing men to foster and establish a set of so-called "High-Class Runs" among them to breed discord and disunion. One switchman is the same as another, and a thousand are but as one, in all the essential points that originally brought them together. Other railway labor organizations have allowed grades and castes to grow up in their Orders, those of the lower grade having scarcely any rights that the others are bound to respect and assist them to maintain. Not so with the switchmen; the young blood in their Association will enable them to steer clear of the rocks and shoals that are sadly trying the timbers of the older Orders. In the strike upon the Burlington system this Association was not officially connected, and had no part whatever in the management or final settlement of that trouble. "We know what Master laid thy keel, What workman wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast and sail and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge, and what a heat, Were shaped the anchors of thy hope." THE GREAT STRIKE.