erican society.
Ostensibly conducted for the repression and punishment of crime, they
are in fact veritable hotbeds of corruption, trafficking upon the honor
and sacred confidences of their patrons and the credulity of the public,
and leaving in their wake an aftermath of disgrace, disaster, and even
death."[4] He pointed out the odium that must inevitably attach itself
to the very name "private detective," unless society awakens and
protects in some manner the honest members of the profession. "It may
seem a sweeping statement," he says, "but I am morally convinced that
fully ninety per cent. of the private detective establishments,
masquerading in whatever form, are rotten to the core and simply exist
and thrive upon a foundation of dishonesty, deceit, conspiracy, and
treachery to the public in general and their own patrons in
particular."[5]

The statements of Thomas Beet are, however, not all of this general
character, and he specifically says: "I know that there are detectives
at the head of prominent agencies in this country whose pictures adorn
the rogues' gallery; men who have served time in various prisons for
almost every crime on the calendar.... Thugs and thieves and criminals
don the badge and outward semblance of the honest private detective in
order that they may prey upon society.... Private detectives such as I
have described do not, as a usual thing, go out to learn facts, but
rather to make, at all costs, the evidence desired by the patron."[6] He
shows the methods of trickery and deceit by which these detectives
blackmail the wealthy, and the various means they employ for convicting
any man, no matter how innocent, of any crime. "We shudder when we hear
of the system of espionage maintained in Russia," he adds, "while in the
great American cities, unnoticed, are organizations of spies and
informers."[7] It is interesting to get the views of an impartial and
expert observer upon this rapidly growing commerce in espionage,
blackmail, and assault, and no less interesting is the opinion of the
most notable American detective, William J. Burns, on the character of
these men. Speaking of detectives he declared that, "as a class, they
are the biggest lot of blackmailing thieves that ever went unwhipped of
justice."[8] Only a short time before Burns made this remark the late
Magistrate Henry Steinert, according to reports in the New York press,
grew very indignant in his court over the shooting of a young la