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The bus company was just as determined as Mike Quill. Said big, jowly John A. Ritchie, whose Omnibus Corp. controls the struck bus lines: "Impossible and wholly beyond the financial means of the companies." His employes, he claimed, were the highest paid of any busmen in New York City, drew down better average annual salaries than autoworkers or aircraft workers. Muscular Mr. Ritchie, who enjoys a scrap, had broken a strike in Chicago on his Motor Coach line seven years ago. He was confident he could win this one. Shouted Quill: "We do not want trouble. . . . One of our men might be killed and we might have a public funeral. . . . God help our enemies if they give us such a public funeral. . . ."
As Mayor LaGuardia's efforts to mediate collapsed, bus riders continued to plod to remote and unhandy subway stations, wedge themselves into already congested trains. Mad as wet hens, these citizens of the nation's metropolis were also beginning to feel pretty sore about little Red hens.