Q. This reduction was arrived at by yourselves without any understanding with other roads?
A. Yes; we thought it proper to be done. I think, and believe now, that we were paying men then twenty per cent. above the average price paid for an equivalent amount of labor anywhere else.
Q. Do you remember the prices paid the trainmen?
A. I don't recollect, but I can get you the data if you want them. I don't recollect the details. Our wages differ a little on different divisions—they are not entirely uniform. There are some places where the living is more expensive, and there the compensation is higher. They are paid according to locality. There are some places where the cost of living is a great deal less than in others, and a difference is made in wages. It is always been so both on the track and roadway and the trainmen also.
Q. Do you know whether arrangements were made at Chicago to pool the earnings of the three trunk lines?
A. An attempt was made.
Q. But never carried out?
A. No.
Q. You don't know whether this question of wages was discussed at that meeting?
A. I don't know.