By Senator Yutzy:
Q. And in one sense you call it skilled labor, in addition to the risks they run?
A. Yes; we want men understanding their duties to run our trains and take care of the property and of the people in their charge. We want that in all the men, and, I think, as a general thing, we have as good a set of men as was ever organized.
By Mr. Lindsey:
Q. Was there any complaint among the men about their not being able to work full time?
A. Yes; when the depression of business came so strong, we undertook to retain more men in our service than were needed to do the work, and we did that very often at the request of men—of the older men, in order that younger men might have an opportunity to get some work and get a living out of the general result. Instead of men getting ten hours work they would probably get an average of six, seven, or eight hours, and in that way the work was distributed among a greater number of people.
By Senator Yutzy:
Q. You did that instead of discharging them?
A. Yes; the result of that was that it made the average low, and was a cause of complaint, and when this thing was all over, we had simply to compromise and in giving more hours of work, consequently, to do with fewer men.
By Mr. Lindsey: