 
many of the strikes of 1919 were "outlaw" or wildcat strikes, opposed as 
heartily by the unions as by the employers. 
these spread even to such citadels of trade union authority as the 
printing trades. 
but the most important of all was on the railroads. 
for practical purposes, the right of railroad workers to strike did not 
exist after the federal suppression of the pullman strike. 
the unions generally supported this state of affairs. 
thus those railroad strikes which occurred met the opposition not only of 
the railroads but of the unions and the government. 
this was all the more true during the war and post-war period because the 
railroads were under federal control until march, 1920. 
discontent rose with the cost of living; by april, 1920, prices had risen 
one hundred percent since 1914, railroad wages only fifty percent. 
after april, 1919, the government refused all requests for wage increases. 
