Mexico weekly ledger., 1892-07-21
Brief History OF the Great Detee,iy,
Agency Whose Founder Was Allan
Pinkerton-Trusted by Lincoln,
Grant and Others.

the Sheriff OF the county to discover
and arrest a counterfeiter. He sue.
ceeded, That was the beginning Of
the mighty force of Pinkertons, an
organization that has been charac.
terized as a standing army of private
myrmidons in a free country.
From a member of the Chicago
police force Allan Pinkerton de.
veloped into the greatest detective Of
the age. He organized a war secret
service, and some of his feats as q
Government detective read like the
romanees of Gaboriau.
He was trusted by Lincoln, whose
life he once saved; by Grant and
the other generals of the Federal
Army. And after the war, with the
fame of his achievements as a basis,
he returned to Chicago to found the
organization which is now called
upon in emergencies by corpora.
tons and individuals in every Sec
ton of the land.
Pinkerton detectives and opera
tives We're soon securing the coun.
try from end to end. They sought
after murderers, embezzlers and
forgers, but old Allan Pinkerton
saw that there were more profitable
means of employing his men than
as mere detectives. His men be-
came watchmen for banks, and then
the vista of Pinkertonian possible
ties widened. The "Pinkerton
Preventive Watch was established
in Chicago. Small at first, it grew
in numbers as the city grew, and its
commercial and financial interests
increased. At every block in the
business district a Pinkerton police
man could be SEEN. They acted in
dependently of the regular munich
pal police, and, though ununiformed
and armed they were simply private
watchmen paid by the persons
and corporations that employed
| them.
These men were regularly drilled
and in case of emergency could be
made d very effective force. They
were instructed to remember the
emblem of the Pinkertons-an eye
land the motto, owe never
Sleep"
Allan Pinkerton was getting old
and he gave the direction of his rap
idly spreading interests as a protee-
tive agency to his two sons, William
A. and Robert A.
The Pinkertons have agencies,
with regular forces of men, in New
York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Bos-
ton, st. Paul, Kansas City and
| Denver.
1t has been charged that the Pin
kersons kept a standing army of
35, 600 men, but that is a gross ex-
aggeration 1t is true, though, that
they can concentrate a force Of
1900 men at any point in the
country on forty-eight hours no.
tice.
1t is risky work that the Pinker-
ton soldiers have to undertake, as
the Homestead affair shows. Then
pay may or may not be common
surate. The Pinkertons never work
upon contingencies. The offers Of
reward never attract them. They
wont work for rewards. Their
operatives are paid by the day, &C.
cording to circumstances. On g
detective case the price is usually
$40 a day for each detective and ex'
penses. In instances like the Penn.
sylvania riot the price is an average
of So a day, of which the man gets
half. The Pinkerton's furnish the
outfits of the men, but the firm en-
ploying them must contribute the
! board. With 300 men at Home.
stead the expense of keeping such &
force of Pinkerton janizaries OF
guard for any length of time is seer
to be considerable even for a man
like Andrew Carnegie.
The great strike on the New Yorl
Central, which cost the Vanderbilt
corporation something like $1,000,
loco, is estimated to have cost fol
Pinkerton service alone about $15,
1000. The Pinkertcns have lost meI
under circumstances that induced
the sympathy of the public. Flo.
! example, no less than five OF theil
{ detectives were killed in Missouri il
! pursuit of the James gang.
Under the laws of New jersey
now it is impossible to bring in
} company of Pinkerton men, as they
were at Homestead. In New Yorl
the efforts Of the working men havt
! been steadily aimed at the Pinker
tons. Candidates were asked te
pledge themselves to vote for any
bill that might be introduced Il
prevent the employment by corpora
tions and others of armed men +
overawe strikers. The bills falles
in previous Legislatures, and u
january, 1891, the Board Of Media
! ton and Arbitrations in making
their report on the New York Cen
, trail strike begged the Legislature e
enact a law prohibiting the importa
a