The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-11
HAVOC WROUGHT BY
 RAILROAD STRIKE.
Comerford Sketches Condi- ditiOn of LabOrers Before
 Industrial c Commission

Cnicaso, April 1o-Havoc wrought among the so.ooo shopnen whose strike against the so-cailed Harriman n lines in 1911 was lost was sketched satisfactorily today before the federal commission on industrial relations by Frank Comerford, for many years at torney for the men. One thousand aues- tion blanks were sent at random to the strikers 34 months after the strike. His figures. Mir. Comerford explained. applied to those thousand men and he thought that a fair social survey of the whole number could be obtained by multiplying his figures by 30
 or the thousand men whose replies were checked up, according to Mr. Comerford, 1S6 were single when the strike was called September 30. 1911. There were 1743 children, a small number, which he thought might be traced to low wages and a subnormai scale of living. Forty-two per cent Of the men owned their homes or were buying them. The strike cost Is per cent of these their homes and of the whole number 91 per cent moved from their lowly domiciles to even cheaper quarters Twelve per cent of the strikers had to sell their furniture and 10 per cent to seek charity The average period of idleness occasioned by the strike was one year. The wit ness claimed that he had traced 16 cases of suicide to the strike and nine cases of insanity.
 This, in brief, is an attempt to rep resent human values in dollars, sad Comerford
 Portions of his testimony and that of Julius Kruttschnitt, chairman of the hno orH ,f 1a Doc 5 8 symposium on the force of public opinion and the channels by which 1t is influenced
 Public Opinion Important
 MT Kruttschnitt expressed the view that public opinion settled most strikes and generally gave a correct decision. He suggested the need of vehicle by which both sides of a labor controversy could be presented to the pubic
 MT. Comerford stated that of 116 cases of strikers defended by himself, 115 re- suited in acquittals, mot through any cleverness of mine but on the merits of the cases. The arrests appealed more to the news instincts of the editors than the dismissals. however, and the fact that l15 of the men were innocent received far less publicity than the facts of their ar lests''
 ''l do not attempt to criticize the news pdpers m this connection-it just happened that way the witness continued Yet, public opinion was influenced against the strikers just in proportion as their ar rests were more widely published, than their acquittals One page of the metro politan advertising which the railroads bought broadcast would take year s salary of a shopman. We believe in pub lie opinion, as MT. Kruttschnitt does, but these facts speak for themselves
 MT Comerford said Illinois Central em- pioyes were scattered along the railroad towns in influential positions Lemon & Lemon. Clinton, H., attorneys for the road at that point, control Clinton's pol itics,' asserted the lawyer. 'The mayor of the town is a paid surgeon of the road and the business incomes of other officials of the city depend to some extent on the railroad It seems unlikely. in this con nection that honest mistakes were made in the arrests of 115 men out of 116.