The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-03
WORK OF THE SPOTTER
SECRET SERVICE or STR CAR COMPANIES WE'LL ORGANIZED.

Conductors Under Constant Espionage
 of a Defective Force-Not Only Hon.
 esty, but General Conduct, Is
 Watched.
 Don't blame the street car conductor if he refuses to violate some rule of the company in your favor-if he declines to give you transfer after collecting your fare or if he sternly refuses to &C., cept transfer ticket two blocks be- low the transfer point. He does not know but his job or at least few days pay may depend upon keeping stiff upper lip and enforcing the rules. He does not know but you may be spot ter" trying to lead him into violating a rule that you may report him. At all hours of every day the street car con ductors on all the roads are under the surveillance of the company's detec- tives-the 'spott "-or at least they may be under surveillance for all they know, and that amounts to the same thing The wise conductor trusts mo- body. The chatty young man who stands on the rear platform and be- rates the corporation for it's grasping policy cannot get smart conductor to agree with him. The conductors criti- cism of his employers may be set down in writing and read off to him in the su- perintendent's office in explanation of why he is fired"
 And these violations are but the mi nor lapses of conductor-those prompted by good nature and with no hint of dishonesty, yet they are report ed from time to time if the man who receives the favors or who witnesses the granting of them happens to be 'spotter'' on the pay roll of the compa- ny. Passengers occasionally marvel at the hard -heartedness of a conductor who refuses to be moved by the story of some woman that she has lost her pocketbook-has been robbed while shopping-and begs ride home, prom ising to pay a nickel next time.' If the conductor relentlessly demands the fare and reaches for the bell rope to stop the car and puts the hapless wo- man off some indignant made passen- ger advances nickel and talks about the meanness of the conductor for the next month Yet the chances are about even that if the conductor had violated the rule of the company and allowed the woman to ride free his number would be reported, with an account of the incident By whom? By the wo- man "spotter" who pleaded for the ride. You never can tell.
 How many "spotters" there are is known to nobody save sertain officials of the street car company. Absolutely no information is ever given out about them and their very existence is denied by the officials. Some street car men at general offices grow indignant when the subject is mentioned and loudly declare that the company trusts it's employees implicitly and has no use for "spotters." Yet the fact that they are employed is amply proven by the steady falling out of conductors from the ranks. The conductor who has been taking an occasional nickel with out ringing it up grows overconfidential as time goes on without bringing detec- tion and he gradually forgets the pre- cautions he at first exercised Then comes the fatal day when the ''spotter' TlQeS mile or tWo Witi hiAii, N'NiiS' the register and the passengers or pos sbly is an eyewitness of knocking down" while apparently buried an a newspaper or book. The next day the conductor Is called in on the "carpet and dismissed or possibly he is relieved from duty that evening when his last trip is ended at the barn.
 Anyone may be "spotter.' The old man sitting next you as you ride home in oil-stained clothes and with all the outward signs of 8 hard-working man may be there for the sole purpose of observing whether the conductor rings up all the fares he takes in during the evening rush. The well dressed man who climbs in with the theater crowd at night and appears to be studying the programme of the play he has just wit messed may have an odd eye on the cash register most of the time, and the woman with the paper-back novel who is barred to death as she rides down town may ride back almost as soon as she alights from the car, watching the conductors on all her trips. The prin- cipal requisite of the successful spot ter" is to guard absolutely his or her identity. As soon as a member of the railway company's secret service be- comes known his usefulness is gone. In some inscrutable way the identity of the 'spotter" becomes known to prac- tically all the men on the line and he might as well retire from the business.