Omission of Important Content in "The Great Railroad Riots"

I was recently reading “The Great Railroad Riots of 1887”, as I am sure most of you have done as well, and I feel obliged to say that this reading stood out –I mean compared to the previous stories in the course packet.  What I found to be of such interest, in this narrative, was the poor job that the author did in exposing the issues which led to the uproar of the citizens. Of course, I am certain that this issue was not the effect of a humble mistake.

In the “Flour Riot of 1937”, the author makes it clear that he is opposed to the riot and all of the destruction and lawlessness that comes with the riot.  But there are moments in the narrative that help the reader understand and even try to justify the actions of the rioters. The author constantly mentions the hunger and frustrations that the high cost of living.  This is not the case in the railroads riots narrative. In the aforementioned, the narrator spends dozens of pages describing a storm of death and anarchy; yet he writes less than a paragraph presenting the conditions that led to the violent actions of the insurgents. I must also point out that even though the author wastes only a few milliseconds describing the rioters’ frustrations, he does not hesitates in negating the validity of these conditions.

In my opinion, the author deliberately avoids adding any content that might make the reader believe that the behavior of the insurgents can be justified.

What do you think?