The San Francisco call., 1907-06-24
BY 9. 9. Carlton

:
NEW YORK, June 23.-various tenn
porary recruiting stations established
by the Farley detective agency in this
city for the employment of men to take
the places of the striking carmen in
San Francisco have been closed on the
receipt of information from the man
agement of the United Railroads Of San
Francisco to the effect that the strike
was practically broken, and that no
more raw recruits would be needed.
Hereafter such men as are needed in
San Francisco will be supplied by the
management of different street railroad
companies in the east 1t appears that
the streetcar companies have formed a
sort of mutual protective association
for self-prOtection. Just how far this
extends, whether there is a regular or
ganization or whether it is only a sort
of tacit agreement among the various
arrangements of street railway COM
panies to help each other out in time
of strike troubles, can not be stated
definitely at present, but it is certain
that there is an understanding among
them, and that already the United
Railroads company of San Francisco
has been aided materially by eastern
streetcar companies, notably by the In
terborough company, which controls
the elevated and subway lines of New
York city. and the Metropolitan COM
pany, operating the principal surface
lines.
BELMONT AIDS CALHOUN
August Belmont is the controlling
spirit of both of these companies en-
ploying thousands of experienced mo-
tormen. and he has cabled from Europe
to the mana cement here to spare all
the men possible to help Calhoun with
out crippling the service in New York.
In addition to this help, the Phila-
delphia company. which is embraced in
the United Railways investment COM
pany and which operates the principal
streetcar lines of Pittsburg has been
sending, all the men it could spare to
San Francisco, and more are on the way
there. Altogether, from 800 to 500 men
have been obtained and will soon be on
their way to San Francisco.
The various recruiting stations es-
tablished by Farley in this city were
to secure men hurriedly at the begin
snirg of the strike, and an attempt was
made to conduct these stations with
out having Farley's name mentioned
in connection with them. ADVERTISE
ments We're inserted in the New York
papers openly, calling for men to go
to San Francisco to take the places
of the striking carmen, but no mention
was made of Farley on account of
the low esteem in which that individ-
ual is held by union laboring men.
SECRET WORK of FARLEY
James Farley has his principal head
quarters in the Holland building at
Fortieth street and Broadway. On the
door is a sign reading ''Far1ey's De-
tective Agency" He has branch
agencies in the various cities. The
Calls correspondent has received from
Plattsburg, n. Y, where Farley has
II
formation that the noted strike break
er has been in San Francisco off and
on for several months. He has spent
most of his time there in disguise, but
has made several secret trips east on
business connected with the longshore-
mems strike in this city, which has
now been broken.
Farley has written letters to friends
and relatives in Plattsburg telling how
he has been able to conceal his iden-
tity for so long a time. He usually
assumes the name of Hanlon, but ii is
said in San Francisco that he was
known there as Frank Birch, one of
trio who appeared in San Francisco
several months ago and pretended to
be financiers negotiating for the pur-
chase of the United Railroads of San
Francisco His companions were known
as D. II. Agnew and Robert ]. Clarke.
1t is not known just who Agnew is.
but The Calls correspondent learns
from resident of Plattsburg that
Robert j. Clarke is we'll known in
Plattsburg as an associate of Farley
BREAKS IN APPRENTICES
When Farley left Plattsburg several
months ago for San Francisco he told
friends that the United Railroads were
anticipating a strike to be called about
May / and that. owing to a California
law which requires that motormen
must have had experience before they
would be permitted to operate street
cars it was necessary to take time by
the foreIock and break the appren-
tices in so that they would be eligible
for employment when the strike was
called Farley explained that the ap
prentices would be broken in by de-
grees and in blocks of 10 or so until
sufficient number were ready to take
hold the moment strike was declared
and that by that time others could be
recruited here in the east.
In addition to the motormen the
Headquarters here secured a number
of men to act as conductors. These men
needed no previous experience. Tenn
porary recruiting stations were estab
lished at various places. The first was
at So West Thirty-seventh street. Here
vacant storeroom was rented for
few days and in answer to advertise
ments inserted in the New York news
papers there was steady stream of
applicants.
CARRY OFF LEAD PIPE
They were a motley collection of
men, ranging from the hobo who only
wanted passage to San Francisco, when
he would desert at the first oppor-
tunity, to the reliable, worthy wage
worker who wanted steady employ
ment The best of the applicants were
engaged and many were turned away.
The owner of the premises was angry
because some of the men who were en-
gagged cut the lead pipes out of the
basement. Evidently they proposed to
use these sections of lead pipe for pro-
lection against the expected assaults
| of San Francisco strikers. But 1T so
angered the renting agent that he gave
Farley away.
He did not hesitate to admit to The
Calls correspondent that the men who
/ had rented the premises were agents
of Farley, although this was denied at
the headquarters of the Farley detec-
tive agency. The Farleyites deemed it
discreet. for some reason or other, to
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