Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1907 — Strike Blockers Now in Demand. [ARTICLE]

Strike Blockers Now in Demand.

Now it is the “strike blocker” that" is taking the place of the strike breaker in -a secret campaign of the employers against the labor unions, according to the article by Allen Sangree in American Industries, organ of the National Manufacturers’ Association. The newcomer is the man who, when an industrial crisis approaches in any line, joins a union, and by conferring with the employer and then the members of the union, learns the exact cause of the trouble. “To do this,”_ says Sangree, “he must have the confidence of each, and to unionists, of course, his Identity must not be revealed. He is the “ounce of prevention.” Sangree goes on to say that within the last year strikeblocking concerns have been established in every industrial center of the country. The operatives number thousands, and already more than a dozen big* strikes have been averted by them. Their efforts are directed by men who combine the abilities of detective and labor leader. The phrase of the professional blocker is "reason rather than force.” Thomas J. Farrell of New York is credited with being the leader of the strike blockers. He says he believes in unions, but seeks merely to eliminate the opportunities for graft.