eat
State is adequate to the preservation of the public order and security.
At all events, in this particular instance, it was not pretended either
that the strikers had invaded property or person, or that the police or
militia in Albany had betrayed reluctance or inability to cope with the
situation. On the contrary, the facts are undisputed that the moment the
men went out Mr. Pinkerton and his myrmidons appeared on the scene, and
the police of Albany declared their competency to repel any trespass on
person or property. The executive of the State, too, denied any
necessity for the presence of the military.

"I do not impute to the railroad officials a purpose, without
provocation, to precipitate their ruffians upon a defenseless and
harmless throng of spectators; but the fact remains that the ruffians in
their hire did shoot into the crowd without occasion, and did so shed
innocent blood. And it is enough to condemn the system that it
authorizes unofficial and irresponsible persons to usurp the most
delicate and difficult functions of the State and exposes the lives of
citizens to the murderous assaults of hireling assassins, stimulated to
violence by panic or by the suggestion of employers to strike terror by
an appalling exhibition of force. If the railroad company may enlist
armed men to defend its property, the employees may enlist armed men to
defend their persons, and thus private war be inaugurated, the authority
of the State defied, the peace and tranquillity of society destroyed,
and the citizens exposed to the hazard of indiscriminate slaughter."[23]

Perhaps the most extensive use of these so-called detectives was at the
time of the great railway strike of 1894. The strike of the workers at
Pullman led to a general sympathetic strike on all the railroads
entering Chicago, and from May 11 to July 13 there was waged one of the
greatest industrial battles in American history. A railway strike is
always a serious matter, and in a short time the Government came to the
active support of the railroads. At one time over fourteen thousand
soldiers, deputy marshals, deputy sheriffs, and policemen were on duty
in Chicago. During the period of the strike twelve persons were shot and
fatally wounded. A number of riots occurred, cars were burned, and, as a
result of the disturbances, no less than seven hundred persons were
arrested, accused of murder, arson, burglary, assault, intimidation,
riot, and other crimes. The