d by
these private officers. "I think it an outrage," he declared, "that the
Police Commissioner is enabled to furnish police power to these special
officers, many of them thugs, men out of work, some of whom would commit
murder for two dollars. Most of the arrests which have been made by
these men have been absolutely unwarranted. In nearly every case one of
these special officers had first pushed a gun into the prisoner's face.
The shooting last night when a boy was killed shows the result of giving
power to such men. It is a shame and a disgrace to the Police Department
of the city that such conditions are allowed to exist."[9]

Anyone who will take the time to search through the testimony gathered
by various governmental commissions will find an abundance of evidence
indicating that many of these special officers and private detectives
are in reality thugs and criminals. As long ago as 1892 an inquiry was
made into the character of the men who were sent to deal with a strike
at Homestead, Pennsylvania. A well-known witness testified: "We find
that one is accused of wife-murder, four of burglary, two of
wife-beating, and one of arson."[10] A thoroughly reliable and
responsible detective, who had been in the United States secret service,
also gave damaging testimony. "They were the scum of the earth.... There
is not one out of ten that would not commit murder; that you could not
hire him to commit murder or any other crime." Furthermore, he declared,
"I would not believe any detective under oath without his evidence was
corroborated." He spoke of ex-convicts being employed, and alleged that
the manager of one of the large agencies "was run out of Cincinnati for
blackmail."[11] Similar statements were made by another detective, named
Le Vin, to the Industrial Commission of the United States when it was
investigating the Chicago labor troubles of 1900. He declared that the
Contractors' Association of Chicago had come to him repeatedly to employ
sluggers, and that on one occasion the employers had told him to put
Winchesters in the hands of his men and to manage somehow to get into a
fight with the pickets and the strikers. The Commission, evidently
surprised at this testimony, asked Mr. Le Vin whether it was possible to
hire detectives to beat up men. His answer was: "You cannot hire every
man to do it." "Q. 'But can they hire men?' A. 'Yes, they could hire
men.'

"Q. 'From other private detective agencies?' A. 'Unfort