The Irish standard., 1905-05-06
With Him Strike Breaking is Business. He
Has No Antipathy to Organized
Labor or to Unions.
The Disagreements Between Employers and
Labor Unions Furnish His Busi-
ness Opportunities.

and then the cheek bones are painted
with delicate red, the eyes take on
sparkle and the hands open, close and
move uneasily.
The voice of Farley is the voice of
a man. In timbre it is light, and there
are no circumstances in which it rises
above conversational tone. When
Jim has pleasant things to say 1t Is q
pleasant voice to hear, but when he is
in one of his cruel moods, there Is g
rasp which hurts and penetrates and
disturbs. 1t instinctively suggests that
there is to be trouble, real able-bodied
trouble, accompanied by strenuous
rudeness, certainty of blood-shedding
and probable death.
AT Is Farley was attendant in the
billiard room of a small hotel; then
| he became a bartender; not liking the
| job he was made night clerk, ana was
| soon promoted to the day shift. At 18
he was manager Of the hotel, but the
business was too slow for him, and ha
went to New York to try his luck as
a detective. In 1895 he was in charge
of fifteen special officers during the
Brooklyn street car strike. After that
| he was timekeeper for 1000 strike
breakers in Philadelphia. 1t was his
| experience In these two strikes that set
him thinking, and his thinking result
ed in his career. He saw his opportu-
nifty and he seized it.
| In those davs Of strikes the various
detective agencies furnished men to
take the places of strikers. Each
agency would furnish number of
men, controlling its own quota, while
company officers exercised the gen.
eral supervision. There were too
many heads, and the result was usual
ly chaos. Farley saw new field. He
decided to become a strike breaking
general. He figured that such man,
having under his command an army of
experienced workmen whom he could
throw into the positions vacated by
strikers, could demand almost any fee
for the contract of taking entire con-
troll of strike and breaking it. Far
ley was undermining the scheme Of the
old professional soldiers of fortune.
Determined to become strike gen.
eral, he decided to specialize on street
car strikes. He worked out his plan,
and, that he might prepare himself for
his new business from the bottom, he
gave up detective work at 81 day
and became conductor on the Allan
tic avenue line in Brooklyn at SLIGO a
day. That job understood, he became
a motorman, an oiler in the engine
house, fireman in the power-house,
an inspector, and finally landed in the
Office He shifted readily, for the man
agement knew his plan. In two years
he felt that his course in the strike
breaking school was completed, so he
graduated himself and began to look
for clients. At first he supplied small
squads of strike breakers. Then he
supplied companies and took larger
and still larger part in the manage
ment of strikes. In Providence, r. l.,
he attained his present rank as strike
breaker general with absolute power.
! Now he will work under no limitation.
; When Farley Is on the ground the
president of the road is not in COM
mand. The men look to Farley, and
Farley runs the road.
In thirty.hve strikes Farley has not
a loss charged against him. He is
usually engaged to break a strike long
before it actually begins, for the Off
cials of the company can usually see it
coming and have time to make their
arrangements. If they make con-
tract with Farley he makes study Of
the situation and plans his campaign.
He collects his strike breakers and
holds them in readiness in some city
near the scene of the trouble. In the
New York strike he held small army
of men in Philadelphia and had them
, in New York the day before the trou-
BILE began. The union men stopped
work at three o'clock in the morning.