Evening star., 1901-02-25
THE WORK QF SPOILERS
ARE EMPLOYED eAIl BRANCHES
OF BusINEss.
Railroads Use Tm to Advantage
and Uncle Sam Ms Large and
well-orsaasd System.


wen-orsas <a system.
From Ainslee's Ma:azin
Uncle Sans largA and well-organized
secret service is ma =. up mostly of men
who come properly Nhder fhe head of de-
tectives with police fower5, but it has it's
class of bona fide spottets, whose entire
duty it is to ingratiate themselves with per-
sens suspected of having designs to evade
the custom house duties and to warn the
baggage inspectors at this end of the i'm
pending swindle. In cleverness, address and
adaptability the secret service spotter Is
easily at the head OF his profession. and
even ranks with the trained experts of the
European diplomatic corps II is essential
that he should be a man of the world. for
he must associate with all kinds Of people
on equal terms. He has no fixed abode,
but lives In various European capitals when
he is not on shipboard where he is much Of
the time. He must never let himself be In
the slightest degree suspected. There Is
always a number OF these agents in Paris,
because of the great American trade there.
They live at the fashionable hotels and live
the life apparently, Of faneurs and boule-
vardiers. In all lines of trade that concern
dutiable goods they are experts, and
large purchase by an American in Paris Is
unknown to them. Their circle of ac-
uuaintance is enormous, but nobody knows
them for what they are. In one way or an
other they contriye to make the acquaint
arce of any person whom they suspect, and
unc cstenta atiously but unremitting1y trail
him. Many a time some man who has made
a heavy purchase of diamonds or laces and
a. dispOsed them that he felt sure of being
able to get them through the port undis-
covered has been passed on the dock by
chance acquaintance of the voyage, over
who, unseen, presses little note into the
hand of the customs Inspector. That note
tells all that the willy smuggler would wish
to keep secret, and his baggage Is merci-
lessly ransacked until the hidden articles
are brought to light. He has been followed
over by the spotter. Men employed in this
line get good pay-as high $40 a day-but
it costs them much to, live in the manner
in which they must maintain themselves.
No Spoilers in the Treasury.
Suspicious as it is of swindles from with
out the government is more trustfui Of the
en- ployes In It's financial center than in any
priv ate corporation. In the United States
treasury the whole output Of the nations
currency is handled by men who under
neither surveillance nor bond. The paying
teller handles forty or fifty million dollars
a year The exchange clerk has every day
S6O,OOO in change at hand. The money in
charge OF the keeper of the cash room runs
from $4,000. 900 upward, and the chief Of
the issue division, who is negro, handles
millions every day. Any OF these men could
get away with enormous amounts of money
and be reasonably secure against detection
for a considerable length of time. Never
theiess peculations from the treasury have
been few and small in amount during its
history. There is an axiom In the depart
ment which runs as follows:
Wherever money is handled there is a
point at which the honesty of the individual
must be the main reliance,
And so the treasury dspenSeS with the
services of spoilers However, private bust
;,fa inv In hn "a nf
large sums of moneyAare not likely to fol-
low this example. Spoilers may be an evil,
but they are necessity in the present
phase of human development. and until
some psychological chemist devises some
prepara ton to make men honest the type
Is likely to persist.
Police Spoilers.
Concerning the reg uiatiSn police spotter
there is little to be said. The work of the
stool pigeon. unsayory, as It is, is legitimate
and even necessary. More sinister are the
duties Of the '.inside man. In the present
constitution of the New York police depart
ment II is obvious to all but official boards
and investigating committees that there Is
a vast amounts Of k'foicer business adj
mirably systematized which is kept strictly
within departmental lines. The inside man
is the agent and operator of this business.
In every fat precnct-that is, precinct
where vice pays its regular toll to the po-
lice-the powers that be in the central office
have representative. This man ranks as
patrolman, though he is not in uniform He
is de facto the captain OF the precinct. With
him the de jure captain 'consults' on any
matter. Of Importance that may come up,
and his advice" given after a visit to po-
lice headquarters, is always accepted. He Is
always within reach of the station house,
and the sergeant at the desk, though many
degrees higher in official rank, comes 10
him for orders. All the keepers of gam
bling houses and houses of ill-fame who
make their visits openly to the station house
ask not for the captain, but for the ward
man. He knows the exact amount of reve-
nue. that can be extracted from the Sporty
interests of the region, and he sees that
the proper proportion reaches those in
whose interests he is working, reserving
percentage for himself Any one who cares
to study the transfers of policemen for the
good of the service will find the trail Ct
his punitive powers. 1t is estimated by other
and envious policemen that the inside man
in what is usually regarded as the fattest
of uptown districts pockets an income of
more than $4,000 a year.
Most Perfect Private System.
Probably the most perfect spotter sys-
tenn achieved by any private corporation is
that of one of the big eastern railroads,
which is to some extent modelled on the
secret service system Of some Of the Euro
pean governments, though by no means so
complex. So far-reaching and so direct,
however, are its lines Of communication
tHdI lHe pIcSlutIll Ol- tue VI 5dHiAdtioh 10
himself kept constantly informed of the
trend of affairs, and the changes of senti-
ment among the employees of every division
and subdivision of the whole railway sys-
tenn, and that without the knowledge of
any other persons but his own special
corps of clerks and secretaries. Nobody
but himself knows the entire personnel of
the wonderful service that he has perfect
ed His agents are drawn from every
branch of the roads operating staff. They
are engineers, freight brakemen. passenger
trainmen. conductors, signalmen. yardmen
station agents, track walkers and even di-
vision officials Should, that road have a
strickland strikes are far less likely to
occur than they We're before the present
system was put into operation-the presi-
dent will have detailed warnings of 1t from
all the storm centers long. before the first
mutterings find cautious utterance in the
newspapers. While It also acts as a de-
fense against thefts by employees, this sys-
tenn is intended primarily to prepare, so to
speak, a diary Of the disposition, character,
working efficiency apds sentiments toward
the road of the mem ,whs, constitute the
vast human machineRYa aefsthe corporation.
The feeling which cahnissates in general
strike Is not the result 1af one act alone,