Samuel Frier of the Textile Union.
Samuel Frier was the head of the Textile Union, one of the labor unions making up the Consolidated Laborers Federation around the turn of the twentieth century. In 1900, Frier spoke up against Julius Nelson's leadership of the National Financial Administration.
Frier argued that Nelson's own low failure rate statistics indicated the extent of his failure. "The N.F.A. was not supposed to be a money-making operation, but a service to the people. A commercial bank might be pleased to show a failure rate of 13.3. To us it indicates that Mr. Nelson has not been taking the kind of risks he should. In 1899 the N.F.A. granted 314 loans and financings, nine more than the previous year. Mr. Nelson does not tell us that the N.F.A. processed 2,539 applications and culled the 314 from that amount. What of the other 2,225 men who failed Mr. Nelson's test? These are the people the Governor-General told us were to be helped, and these are the men the N.F.A. ignores."
Frier does not have an entry in Sobel's index. He appears on pages 267-68 of For Want of a Nail ....
Sobel's source for Frier's views on the N.F.A. is Marshall Perkins' Behind the Mask: The Life and Works of Julius Nelson (New York, 1920).