A. I am not aware that he did, nor am I really aware of the means used to bring the military to Reading, or who first made the call for them. I know the military were sent there by the orders of some one in the military department of the State, who had authority upon that subject, and the disturbance was finally quelled by the action of the military, which unfortunately led to the killing of several persons.
Q. Had there been any reduction of wages on your road prior to July?
A. I think there had been no reduction of wages on the road for months before that. There had been two reductions of wages within the last few years.
Q. Since 1873—the time of the panic?
A. Yes.
Q. How large?
A. Each, I think, was ten per cent. The engineers on the Reading railroad have been for a great number of years paid according to the length of service. We have four grades, the first year the men get the lowest grade, and after they have been in the service of the company four years, they get the highest grade. That was due entirely, not to his knowledge as an engineer, but to his length of service as an employé in the company. It was understood that the men's wages should increase with the length of time they remained with us. When any man left us, and came back, again he had to go down and come up, as the lowest men.
Q. Did that apply to any other employés but the engineers?
A. It applied to the firemen.
Q. Can you give the wages that the brakemen and firemen and engineers were getting per day.