The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-09-23
STRIKE. BREAKING
AS A BUSINESS
JIM FARLEY SAID TO BE WORTH
a OVER A MILLION.
Personality and Methods Of a Man Who
Plays Tag With Sudden Death The
Lust for Excitement Keeps Him at It.
Public Opinion.

! &
4 In the evolution Of strife between
organized labor and capital in this .coun-
try, and more especially capital ex-
pressed in the form of urban street and
lnterurban transportation corporations,
the professional strike breaker has
come to be a permanent and potential
factor.
About fifteen years ago jim Farley
was keeping a hotel in Plattsburg, N. Y,
then attaining his majority, with as
much education as one could have who
had tried to stay away from school as
much as possible. One day he went
to a dentist to have an liberated tooth
treated and accidentally swallowed an
overdose OF cocaine. He recovered con-
seriousness tWenty-four hours later pos
sessed OF an insane desire to smash
everything animate and inanimate with
In reach. He was chased into the
woods and hunted for weeks as wild
broke away from his captors, until
finally his right senses returned and he
went back to Plattsburg to hear the
hailed as a wild man. - He sold his
hotel and drifted down to Long Island,
and when the Brooklyn strike of 1895
came along, he was penniless and seek
ing employment.
said to myself then,'' is the way
ne puts it, that if other men didn It
care to work [ did, and / applied for a
Farley does not say that it was the
lust Of excitement and his nerve which
prompted him to seek this dangerous
work, but it was. The men who en-
Ployed him then read him just as he has
been reading others since. He was
made fore-hand Of a squad Of non
union employees, and in directing this
small s! force he conceived the organiza-
ton of the powerful one he controls to-
day. When the strike was broken he
took the names and addresses of the
men oyer whom he had been working
and asked them if they wanted to break
another strike. They said they did.
They had not heard that the great
Philadelphia strike was brewing A
few weeks later each one Of those men
got telegram from Farley, directing
him to report to him in the Quaker city,
and not one failed him.
Went over to Philadelphia from
Brooklyn said Farley in speaking of
that time, Sand asked them if they
could use some men who could run cars
and would take chance They told
me to ret together all p could, and that
was the real beginning Of my bust
ness.'' f.
Since then there has not been labor
disturbance affecting street railway
companies on this continent in which
Jim Farley has not played a part. He
has been assaulted by strikers, he has
been shot at hundred times, and plot
after plot has been laid to assassinate
him. Two bullets have found their way
into inconsequentia1 parts of his an.
or hoo ~
His skin is a network Of scars. He
| wears his dark hair short, and one
looking, closely, can see little white
marks in the scalp where missiles and
! clubs have brought blood.
1t takes but a few minutes talk
with this man of strange profession tt
understand that he has in him the stuff
to control and direct others. There is
nothing of the blusterer about him
nothing in accord with the popular
idea of what a man of his vocation
two of six feet of him, and he is built
on lathy, springy lines. His hands are
bony, yet well fashioned and we'll kept
Ills lower jaw is firmly hinged and runs
as straight to the chin as the barrel Of
a Colts forty five. The lips are thin
but heavy black mustache dropping
low covers the mouth, and only occa
sionally when he laughs does golG
tooth show in the upper Of two splendid
rows Of teeth. The nose is Roman ani
fitted well into the brow, which comes
out over two blue eyes Of medium size
They have been called "mankiller'
eyes because Of the CLINT Of cold stee
gray which plays, in them. The fore
rounds into the temples. The head
which has little hair on top, is deepl,
backed and, unusually wide over tn,
ears. Withal the features are good, bu
the skin has an unyarying pallor .ex
cept when Farley is excited, and the1
a hectic flush appears over each cheek
bone. ,sl
The most remarkable thing about thi
man is his voice. Its timbre is ligh
and it never, under any circumstances
rises above an ordinary Conversations
tone; but if there was ever a miro
4 Of character, it is one. It is pleasan
to hear when Farley, has pleasant thing
to say, but otherwise there is a crue
rasp Of chilled steel in it that make
one brace instinctively for trouble. /
;. heard that rasp sound above the rattl
Of trains and the roar Of machiner
the other night in the repair shops Q
| the Interborough company at One Hun
dred and Forty eighth street and Len
OK avenue, where James Farley had hi
subway force of strikebreakerss quar-
tered. @
There was disquiet among the me
because Of the sudden ending of til
strike in which they thought they sa,
: feeting their hopes of getting positions
! They had asked to see the chief,
! and Farley was in no pleasant moo
: when he came to face them. STAND
: ing on a. case Of bread, with Ion
; his shoulders, and his hands plunge
! deep into his pockets, he looked owe
: the 200 and more of his followers VIII
! had been commanded to appear befor
: him.. with the air of potentate, VIII
J had but to wave his hand to have ever