The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-10-22

Betraying Their b Class 5: for Pay . g.:
48 Strikes We're: Broken
Breaker Farley and Hi. Lueretve Business. Exposed

street railway Complies of Baltimore,
san Francisco Newark. Jersey City,
waterbury, Bridgeport and Scranton.
Each company has its list Of 200 or
more men who are at Mr.. Farley's
command. The moment they receive
Telegram or postal card from him they
quit work for their own company.
sometimes they don't go to the scene
or the strike at all, simply wait at
home for orders.
MT. Farley gets a few Of his men
on the ground ready, for the immediate
emergency. The others are, as it were,
at the other end of the telegraph wire
waiting Tor orders. But he always has
plenty OF men on hand. For instance:
1t takes about $50 men to- run the cars
OF the 1nterborough company Mr..
| Farley, you know, had 800 men, over
twice the number needed, ready on the.
spot.
Inc men ran some risks, of course,
out Mr.. Belmont had provided that on
every car there should be three police
men, and, If necessary, three soldiers,
Tor the militia would have been called
out to protect these men. But the
men don't worry about the danger.
Ihey all like the adventure and the
ready money.
Some Of the men know all about
running the car at both ends. Those
that don't know we teach.
MIR. Farley won't have any but or
DERBY men in his little army. He has
some rules that it's understood must
never be broken.
When a man goes back to the COM
pany ne takes up his work where he
lett 1t, has the same job. It helps him
rather than hurts him to be a strike
breaker.
But the, man that he has let 20 can
never fool Farley. He's a. man that
never forgets face, and when he's
| once seen you, he always remembers
you.
The kilograms or postal cards that
are sent to the men always read the
same. There is trouble here. Come
to (giving address). Report sick,
James Farley
l. That is the signal between the COM
pany and the chief of the strike
breakers. The man shows it at the
company offices and goes home to
walt and draw his $3.50 a day. II he
is needed he is wired, Come at once"
Mr.. Farley used to follow the horses.
Before he got into this business he
| was racetrack man. That was when
l first knew him. To go further back
than that he was born in Plattsburg,
N. Y, more than forty years ago.
| When he was quite a youngster he ran
a hotel there, and the first newspaper
! paragraph ever published about him
called him wild man. A dentist had
given him an overdose of. cocaine, and
he rambled about, out of his head, for
a week. When he got his senses back,
ne sold his hotel and played the horses.
Career Began in Brooklyn.
He was in Brooklyn when a strike
broke out over eight years ago. He
heard that the. company. needed: men
TO- guard ltE their propert and applied
for the Job. While he Was doing guard
he learned all about how to run a car,
and that has been Of use to him, you
can see. What man knows he can
teach and make money out Of
Soon after that he went to 'Phila-
delphia with a small gang of men and
helped to put down a street railway
strike, more for love Of the excitement
!
that strike that he conceived the idea
Of getting companies that employ non
union men to combine and have a draft
list ready to help out other companie.
that are having strike troubles. So
he got the companies in the seven ci-
ties I mentioned to unite in kind OF
mutual protection against strikes
agreement, and it has resulted In
Farley's army, with Farley as COM
mander-in -chief.
In 1897 he took his men to Provi-
dence, r. l., to down the strike of
the interurban service on the Hudson
Valley system. The strike lasted for
three weeks, but Farley broke it and
forced the men to 20 back at the COM
pany's terms.
He took the, same men to Scranton
in 1902 and found the system tied up
We took the cars out and for three
months Farleys men were the only
crews. The union men at last consent
ed to arbttrate.
The Waterbury strike in 1908 was
one of the worst ordeals we have had
Inc Bridgeport strike was a tough
one. It lasted for a month.
Although 1t was not generally known
Farley was in Chicago several days
before the strike there, several men re-
ported to him personally for work. The
mobe made lot of trouble in. thai
strike, and a dozen or more of our mer
were badly beaten at the corner oil
F1alstead street and Wentworth avenue
one morning. It looked for a while az
though the men were going to pay fo1
their bravery-for it takes bravery tc
be strike breaker The strike was
settled by arbitration and the trouble
ended when the church bells were
ringing for services on Thanksgiving
Day.
We went to Bloomington, ILL.,, or
New Years Day this year and com.
menced work in breaking one Of thu
most tedious strikes ever Unknown II
this country. After a. two months
struggle the strikers gave up the figh,
and went back to work. We were