Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1909-02-06

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 an 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. 1 don't
care how you do it, but it must be
done. If you can't do it with your
own men I'll take a gun and go out
and help you,
Crushed the Strike.
The cars that ran in San Francisco
the next few weeks were filled with
armed men. There were practically
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
fired and few men killed. The only
safe place for Farley was in President
Calhouns own house, which was heav-
lily guarded and which was not seri-
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 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
for two or three months, however, and
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
it except at a cost that practically
would ruin the tramway company.
There are 16 steep hills in San Fran
cisco, and it 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 the
cheapest means of rehabilitating the
transportation lines Therefore Cal
houn made formal application to the
city for the privilege of installing that
system The matter languished- The
former owners of the property and
others saw chance to buy it in cheap,
and may have used various means of
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-
ited-s some 100000 in the United
States Sub-Treasury, which was the
only financial institution open, all the
banks having been put out of bust
ness temporarily by the earthquake
and fire Whether the money was for
relief purposes or bribery is the ques-
ton 1t is alleged Calhoun paid this
money with the full knowledge that
Ruef and Schmitz would get it, and
that the trolley franchise would be his
in return Sure enough, Ruef and his
followers did get hold of this $2G0, 900
and the board of supervisors granted
the franchise for the overhead trolley
that Calhoun had prayed for The