A. I cannot give it exactly. I think at the time of this disturbance the highest grade engineers were paid $2 97 per day. I think the firemen were getting about $1 50 to $1 60 per day. In the coal trade on the Reading railroad there were opportunities for engineers, during the busy seasons, to earn more than six days per week. Since the strike, or shortly after this trouble occurred, in April, as a mark of our appreciation of the fidelity of those who remained with us and resisted the temptation to leave when the Brotherhood of Engineers left—a good many of them, indeed, were members of the Brotherhood that stayed with us—we made a new grade of engineers, which no new men thereafter could enter, except after five years of service, and we put all the faithful men who remained with us in that grade, and gave them $3 23. We have also that system among the conductors of the passenger trains. They are paid according to length of service, and there is an amount of their pay kept back from them, and invested for their benefit which increases with length of time.
Q. What were the wages of the brakemen?
A. I think from $1 50 to $1 60.
By Mr. Larrabee:
Q. Were you at Reading during the riots?
A. I was not there.
By Mr. Means:
Q. Did any of those firemen or engineers who left you at that time, ever make application to come back?
A. A great many, and it was a very sad thing.
Q. Was there a man by the name of Clarke who made that application to you personally?