The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1909-01-29

ban lines as we'll is long and pic
turesque story. The United Railways
of San Francisco finally was organized
in 1902.
At the same time that the traction
combine company was incorporated
| under the laws of California there was
| organized also the United Railways In
vestment Company of San Francisco,
| a holding company which took posses.
sion of all the stock of the traction
company except II shares necessary
to qualify certain directors. The man
ner of purchase of the San Francisco
lines was simple. Calhoun's new
| company got the whole thing for about
$1S,000,000. They issued bonds against
the property to pay for it and retained
the common stock, amounting to some
$40 100000. There also was some $685.
100000 of preferred stock, some of
which was turned over to the sellers
as part of the purchase price The
stock of the investment company was
S10,000,000 at first, but this was in
creased in 1906 to $25,OOO,0OO This
made total of about 10000, 900 CAPT
Utilization in the two companies, as
against purchase price of SIS, OOO, 900.
Of course there were a great many
millions of bonds of both companies
besides
Made Properties Pay Well.
The separate units of the street rail-
way system had not been prospecting
to any marked degree before they
were united in one company by Cal
houn. Economy in operation, for one
thing, put them on a paying basis
| quickly. The common stock of the in
vestment company scared to close to
par. Other companies in other cities
were bought with some of this stock
and some of the bonds In 1903 the
San Francisco company controlled
some lines of the ST. Louis tramway
system and that of Pittsburg. The
st. Louis company has passed out of
the investment companys hands, but
it still holds the Pittsburg tramways.
Probably if the earthquake had not
shaken and the fire destroyed San
Francisco in 1906 the stock of the trac-
ton combine would have been be-
tween $40 and 500 a share in the
market to-day. These disasters, add
ed to the six months bitterly fought
strike that preceded them, sent the
stock down so that last year in the
time of depression it was selling
| around IL for the common and q for
the preferred. Now the common is in
the 30s
The strike on the United Railways
brought the bulldog grit and fighting
qualities OF Calhoun more into public
notice than anything else he had done
or that had happened to him previous
ly. He had made up his mind that the
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 tho 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. l don't
care how you do 1t, but it must be
done. If you can't do it 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
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
Calhoun's own house, which was heav-
lily guarded and which was not seri-
ously molested. Calhoun went about