lice. And the strange fact appears that the newest,
and supposedly the least feudal, country is to-day the only country that
allows the oldest anarchists to keep in their hands the power to arm
their own mercenaries and, in the words of an eminent Justice, to expose
"the lives of citizens to the murderous assaults of hireling
assassins."[2] It is with these "hireling assassins," who, for the
convenience of the wealthy, are now supplied by a great network of
agencies, that we shall chiefly concern ourselves in this chapter. We
must here leave Europe, since it is in the United States alone that the
workings of this barbarous commerce in anarchy can be observed.

Robert A. Pinkerton was the originator of a system of extra-legal police
agents that has gradually grown to be one of the chief commercial
enterprises of the country. According to his own testimony,[3] he began
in 1866 to supply armed men to the owners of large industries, and ever
since his firm has carried on a profitable business in that field.
Envious of his prosperity, other individuals have formed rival agencies,
and to-day there exist in the United States thousands of so-called
detective bureaus where armed men can be employed to do the bidding of
any wealthy individual. While, no doubt, there are agencies that conduct
a thoroughly legitimate business, there are unquestionably numerous
agencies in this country where one may employ thugs, thieves,
incendiaries, dynamiters, perjurers, jury-fixers, manufacturers of
evidence, strike-breakers and murderers. A regularly established
commerce exists, which enables a rich man, without great difficulty or
peril, to hire abandoned criminals, who, for certain prices, will
undertake to execute any crime. If one can afford it, one may have
always at hand a body of highwaymen or a small private army. Such a
commerce as this was no doubt necessary and proper in the Middle Ages
and would no doubt be necessary and proper in a state of anarchy, but
when individuals are allowed to employ private police, armies, thugs,
and assassins in a country which possesses a regularly established
State, courts, laws, military forces, and police the traffic constitutes
a menace as alarming as the Black Hand, the Camorra, or the Mafia. The
story of these hired terrorists and of this ancient anarchy revived
surpasses in cold-blooded criminality any other thing known in modern
history. That rich and powerful patrons should be allowed to purchas