Q. Have you any knowledge of the causes leading to the riot, at all?
A. Oh, yes.
Q. From personal knowledge?
A. Yes; I suppose I have as good a knowledge of that as most people, because you mingled with railroad men and heard them talk. They were clamoring on account of the reduction of wages and the double-headers. These two were the arguments they plead their cases on. As a general thing they had a good deal of sympathy, I think.
Q. What do you mean by sympathy?
A. They represented their case so that a great many people thought that they were imposed on.
Q. What cause did they assign—a reduction in wages?
A. The reduction in wages was such that, for instance, one brakesman I know to be of good character, he had his last check or warrant, showing that eighteen dollars and some cents was all he could make during the month. His argument was in this shape: Brakesmen would not go out for a day or so, and they could not make a living at the wages they paid; that too many of them were employed. He did not use that argument, but his argument went to show that there was too many of them employed, and that they could not get steady work, and it was still being cut down lower. That was the argument of one man, as a sample.
Q. He seemed to express the ideas of all of them—he was a man of intelligence?
A. He was a very nice man, a man I have known for some time. I think he has a wife and some children. He pulled out his warrant and showed me, as a part of his argument.