The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1892-07-21
The Pinkertons.

Inc ''f1nKerIOn NdLlOndl DeleCllNe
Agency has been a disturbing element in
politics and legislation for several years.
There is scarcely State in the Union that
has not been distracted by excitement
! over the delegated and assumed powers
and privileges of the Pinkertons. In the
manufacturing districts, at railroad cen
tiers, in the coal regions, the presence of
Pinkerton forces has always been a
menance of peace.
A poor Scotch lad came over here from
Glasgow long before the war. By acct
dent Allan Pinkerton. who was then a
cooper's hand in Elgin, Ill.,, was selected
by the sheriff of the county to discover
and arrest counterfeiter. He succeeded.
! That was the beginning of the mighty
force OF Pinkertons, an organization that
| has been characterized as a standing army
of private myrmidons in a free country.
From member of the Chicago police
force Allan Pinkerton developed into the
| greatest detective of the age. He organ
lied war secret service, and some of his
feats as a government detective read like
the romances of Gaboriau.
He was trusted 10y Lincoln, whose life
he once saved; by Grant and the other
generals of the federal army And after
the wal. with the fame of his achieve
ments as basis, he returned to Chicago
to found the organization which is called
upon in emergencies by corporations and
individuals in every section of the land.
Allan Pinkerton grew old and he gave the
direction of his rapidly spreading interests
as detective agency to his two sons W. 4.
and r. A. The New York bureau was es-
tablished and Robert went there to take
charge of it, William, the elder brother,
remained in Chicago. A similar institu-
| ton to the 'Pinkerton Preventive Watch
was established in Kansas City. They
have no such enterprise in New York, or
any of the Eastern cities.
| These watchmen are distinct from the
detective or operatives. The latter num-
Der several numbered men and, with the
watchmen, constitute formidable army
that can be modified at any particular
spot in a very short time. The Pinker-
tons have agencies in New Y ork, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Boston, Kansas City and
Denver.
1t has been charged that the Pinkertons
kept standing army of 80, 600 men, but
that is gross exaggeration. 1t is true,
that they can concentrate a force OF :, 600
men at any point in the country on IS
hours notice
The means used by the Pinkertons to
recruit their forces are simple, though
they are surrounded, like everything else
of the Pinkertons. with secrecy. \ force
such as they have at command could not
be collected in a day OF a week. Iii the
| first place they advertise for men. They
do this in all the cities where they have
branches. An advertisement is inserted in
the papers asking for able bodied men
with courage. Sometimes the phrase
''those with army experience preferred"
is added
The applicants do not understand that
they are to be engaged by the famous
Pinkertons. The name of the advertiser
is not inserted, only an address given In
New York the address is a building on
lower Broadway, near the United States
Express office. Here the Pinkertons have
an entire upper floor and an armory. Win
chester rifles, revolvers, policemen clubs
and uniforms are stored here and accepta-
bic applicants are equipped. There is al
ways on hand, kept available for emergen-
cles well drilled corps of from one hun
dred and fifty to two hundred men. When
a man is accepted he told off and instruct
ed upon the duties he will have to per
form
The Pinkertons never work upon con-
tlngencies. The offers of reward never
attract them. They will not work for re
wards Their operatives are paid by the
day, according to circumstances. On a
detective case the price is usually SO Il
day for each detective and expenses. In
instances like the Pennsylvania riot the
price is an average of IS day, of which
the man gets half. The Pinkertons fur
nish the outfits of the men, but the firm
employing them must contribute the
board.
The great strike on the New York Cen
trail, which cost the Vanderbilt corpora
ton something like s., 100000 is esti-
mated to have cost for Pinkerton service
alone about $15, 900. The Pinkertons had
a horde of men all along the line, but con-
centrated the largest part of their force at
Albany. For time there We're conflicts
between the Pinkerton guards, the strik-
ers and citizens nearly every day. The
raw recruits, armed with Winchesters,
tried to brighten the strikers and their
sympathizers by tlourishing their rifles,
and when demonstration was made with
stones the Pinkertons would shoot They
succeeded in killing one young man and
several others We're wounded ON various
occasions. On August II, 1890, they shot
tive persons, one of them a woman. There
were several small riots in East Albany.
IN which the Pinkertons We're alleged to
be the ones to commit the first overt act.
Several of the operatives were arrested
and punished with fine and imprisonment
At Syracuse also there were conflicts,
but no one was killed In fact, at the
critical spots along the New York Central
road where there were Pinkerton guards
there was trouble. 1t was the recurrence
of these conflicts, probably, that brought
about the anti Pinkerton bill in Albany
last winter.
There have been few strikes in the coal
regions East, West OF South where this /
agency for supplying impromptu soldiers
has not been represented. The famous
strikes in the Hooking Valley, at the
Frick Standard Mines in PENNSYLVANIA
near Morewood, at Braidwood ILL.,. and
indeed all of the great strikes where
trouble with the strikers was apprehend- |
ed, Pinkertons with glitterng Winches-
tiers mounted guard. In all the great
railroad strikes since the word-famous
one of 1877 the Pinkerton $ services were
called in.
Anti-Pinnerton legislation met first with
success in New Jersey after the killing OF
the boy near Bayonne during the strike of
longshoremen. Under the laws of New
Jersey now it is impossible to bring in a
COMPANY of PinkertOn men as thew yara