FARLEY'S STRIKE-BREAKING BUREAU.
As millions of men, women, and children, billions of dollars, the rights of man, and the public peace are affected by labor troubles, we recount the history of a new development wearing a militant aspect. When a burglar-proof safe is invented, burglars find a way to open it, and then follows a new invention, and so on, and the end is not yet. When corporations grow despotic, labor unions project a strike; when labor unions become unreasonable and threatening, employers order a lockout. But who would have thought of a Strike-breaking Bureau, to be at the service of any single employer or corporation or association of employers, whichever may have the equity of the case? But such a bureau was needed, for organization can be met only by organization. James Farley is the “boss” or president of the first of these bureaus. He thought of the scheme in 1897 and first put it in operation in Providence, R. I. Later there was a strike on the interurban service of the Hudson Valley system. It lasted for three weeks, when the Farley Bureau forced the old men to return to work on the company's terms. November, 1902, Farley summoned the men who had served under him in Hudson Valley to Scranton, Pa. The system had been tied up some time when they arrived, but they took the cars out and for three months were the only men who dared to operate the road; finally the union men were forced to arbitrate. The Waterbury strike in 1903 was one of the most hotly contested; a policeman protecting the strike-breakers was killed; a mob tied two men to the track with the intention of crushing them under the wheels of the car which they were operating a moment before, and from which they had been dragged and the leaders had started the car when the police broke through the crowd and saved the men. The strike was broken soon afterward. In the same year a strike declared in Bridgeport, Conn., lasted a month. The mayor was credited with sympathizing with the strikers, and public opinion was against the strike-breakers. Riots resulted, cars were thrown off the tracks, many were injured. A combination of the fire department and police broke up the crowd. The same year the strike at Richmond, Va., which lasted one month, was broken; and still later that in Chicago. In the latter case Farley was in the city directing, but this was not generally known. January 1 of this year the Bureau went to Bloomington, where the strikers held out for two months; thence they were summoned to Ashland, Ky., with the usual result. In May they went to San Francisco. Meanwhile the fame of Farley's bureau had reached Toronto, and June was spent there. Last week Farley and his lieutenants came here, and his men, five hundred in number, as thoroughly organized as any labor union, arrived here from all parts of the country. They declared that if put to work they would go in a body to the elevated railroad yards and take the cars out of the barns. Many of these men are opposed to labor unions; others have had troubles with their lodges; some have been expelled; all of them claim to be as proficient in their business as any union men. Farley's men are ready to follow him at any and all times. Some come for the excitement, having the spirit of soldiers; besides, they receive $4.50 per day and a bonus of $100 if they succeed in breaking the strike. We have collected and authenticated these facts from various sources, largely from an interview with one of the men who has been with Farley from the beginning, published in the Evening Post. Farley is said to be a calm, quiet man, strictly attending to business, a skilful organizer, and devoid of fear. When men attack him he rushes upon them9with a kind of blind fury, which is almost irresistible. He is said to be liberally paid, and as he is called only in a dire extremity, he can almost make his own terms. There may be more of these bureaus; if so, we have not heard of them. But if labor troubles increase, their number also will undoubtedly increase.—Christian Advocate.