the CIO. While critical of the strike, the public did not necessarily support the cause of equal employment opportunities for black workers. A public opinion poll conducted in Philadelphia during the strike showed that only a slim majority of the city's population felt that blacks should be hired as motormen and conductors, but that a significant majority opposed having a strike over this issue. The strikers directed much of their anger at the federal government, which they accused of overreaching and of refusing to listen to legitimate complaints by white workers. This view resonated with many white Philadelphians and with conservative politicians nationally. On August 8, Senator Richard Russell from Georgia, one of the leaders of the conservative coalition in Congress, gave a seventy-minute speech on the Senate floor, blaming the FEPC for causing the strike. Russell finished his speech by calling the FEPC "the most dangerous force in existence in the United States today". Some of the newspapers in the South also blamed the incident on the Roosevelt administration and even on First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, with Savannah News claiming that the episode was caused by "Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt's persistent efforts to force social equality on the American people". Aftermath Starting with August 7, the PTC resumed its normal schedule and there were no further disruptions. The troops remained in Philadelphia for another week and a half and rode as guards on PTC vehicles, but encountered no further problems. Seven of the eight black trainees resumed their training (one withdrew voluntarily because his duties as Jehovah's Witness minister conflicted with the PTC work schedule). On August 9, the PTC finally agreed to a favorable contact which had been approved by the TWU in June. On August 17, Hayes returned full control of the public transportation network to the PTC. Subsequent integration of black employees into the PTC workforce proceeded with no further trouble. By December 1944 the PTC had 18 black streetcar operators. An attractive new union contract helped quell the remaining discontent among the white PTC workers. Within a year, the company had over 900 black employees working in a variety of positions, including as drivers and conductors. The NAACP later blamed the PTC management for intentionally dragging its feet on the contract that the TWU approved in late June. The NAACP claimed that the PTC management had hoped to undermine the TWU's position with the workers and