y system
by which armed forces are employed during labor troubles. It is a
condition akin to the feudal system of warfare, when private interests
can employ troops of mercenaries to wage war at their command.
Ostensibly, these armed private detectives are hurried to the scene of
the trouble to maintain order and prevent destruction of property,
although this work always should be left to the official guardians of
the peace. That there is a sinister motive back of the employment of
these men has been shown time and again. Have you ever followed the
episodes of a great strike and noticed that most of the disorderly
outbreaks were so guided as to work harm to the interests of the
strikers?... Private detectives, unsuspected in their guise of workmen,
mingle with the strikers and by incendiary talk or action sometimes
stir them up to violence. When the workmen will not participate, it is
an easy matter to stir up the disorderly faction which is invariably
attracted by a strike, although it has no connection therewith.

"During a famous strike of car builders in a western city some years
ago, ... to my knowledge much of the lawlessness was incited by private
detectives, who led mobs in the destruction of property. In one of the
greatest of our strikes, that involving the steel industry, over two
thousand armed detectives were employed supposedly to protect property,
while several hundred more were scattered in the ranks of strikers as
workmen. Many of the latter became officers in the labor bodies, helped
to make laws for the organizations, made incendiary speeches, cast their
votes for the most radical movements made by the strikers, participated
in and led bodies of the members in the acts of lawlessness that
eventually caused the sending of State troops and the declaration of
martial law. While doing this, these spies within the ranks were making
daily reports of the plans and purposes of the strikers. To my
knowledge, when lawlessness was at its height and murder ran riot, these
men wore little patches of white on the lapels of their coats that their
fellow detectives of the 'two thousand' would not shoot them down by
mistake.... In no other country in the world, with the exception of
China, is it possible for an individual to surround himself with a
standing army to do his bidding in defiance of law and order."[16]

That the assertions of Thomas Beet are well founded can, I think, be
made perfectly clear by three tragi