The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1909-02-04

strike must be crushed at any cost.
He got James Farley, the noted strike
breaker, from New York. Farley took
with him his best lieutenants and
some of his hardest men, and had
others sent from various points in the
west, where he had men waiting for
just such ane emergency When Far
ley reached San Francisco and saw
Calhoun the latter said TO him:
you've got to run cars on Market
street as often as you can and on GER
tain other lines at stated intervals in
order to hold our franchises. ! don't
| care how you do it, but 1t must be
done. If you can't do 1t with your
own men I'll take gun and go out
and help you"
Crushed the Strike.
The cars that ran in San Francisco
! the next few weeks were filled with
| no other passengers There were
many sharp encounters between the
desperate strike-breakers and the
| equally desperate men who were
striking. A great many shots were
fred and few men killed. The only
safe place for Farley was in President
Calhoun's own house, which was heav-
ously molested. Calhoun went about
San Francisco through yelling, shoot
ing crowds quite as fearlessly as Far.
ley, who was used to that sort of thing
After a few weeks Farley's men had
gotten control of the situation, and
their chief went elsewhere to another
job. The strike was not actually over
finally it was crushed completely, ow
ing to Calhoun's iron nerve and tenac
ity of purpose. 1t passed into history
as one of the most bitterly fought
traction strikes in the history OF
America.
Then came the earthquake and fire
and shortly after this was the alleged
bribery of the supervisors, for which
Calhoun is to stand trial The earth
quake had damaged the cable system
so that it was not possible to repair
1t except at a cost that practically
would ruin the tramway company
There are 16 steep hills in San Fran
cisco, and 1t was thought by many ex
perts that an electric system would
not work successfully, as the cars could
not be controlled on the heavy grades
But the overhead trolley was thu
cheapest means of rehabilitating the
transportation lines. Therefore Cal
houn made formal application to the
city for the privilege of installing tina
system. The matter languished. Tit
former owners of the property ant
others saw a chance to buy il in cheap
and may have used various means o
delaying the granting of the new fran
chise that Calhoun asked for. Mean
time money was flowing into San
Francisco from all parts of the coun
try for the relief of the sufferers from
the great disaster.
The Alleged Bribery Deal.
Just about this time Calhoun depos
tied some 100000 in the Unite,
! States Sub-Treasury, which was tn
only financial institution open, all tn
[ banks having been put out of bus
, ness temporarily by the earthquake
, and fire. Whether the money was TO
! relief purposes or bribery is the ques
+ ton 1t is alleged Calhoun paid thi
! money with the full knowledge tina
Ruef and Schmitz would get 1t, an
5 that the trolley franchise would be hi
: In return. Sure enough, Ruef and hi
C followers did get hold of this 5000, 90
Q and the board of supervisors granite
J. the franchise for the overhead trolle
6 that Calhoun had prayed for. TIL