Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-01-06
THE SPY A NECESSITY.
His Methods Vary, But He Has Al
Ways Flourished and Always Will.


and the practice Of war. Joshua, 1t
will be remembered, sent out spies
into the Holy Land before the Iraelites
lcrossed the Jordan. The Roman ar
my always had its spies; and, as an
early instance Of the utility Of spying
one may quote the example Of King
Alfred the Great, who went in dis
guise into the enemy's lines and dis
covered his secrets.
i In the Middle Ages spies were
Everywhere; and in the middle of the
18th century the French army pos
sessed "chief Of spies," and this post
continued in existence at the ministry
of war until the Revolution.
In our own times, practically every
foreign power has military spies in its
pay, says the London Express. There
are continual incidents on the Franco
German frontier-the arrest of spies
and the consequent international ir-
ritation-and more than once since
1870 such incidents have nearly led
to the outbreak of another war.
Similarly 1t is notorious that the
German army in this respect, as 1t is
in every other, wonderfully we'll serv-
ed, has innumerable military agents
in Great Britain, and that the lay Of
the country, the condition Of roads
and the details Of such Notifications
as 1t possesses are all known quite as
completely in Berlin as they are in
London.
Military spies are naturally divided
Into two classes. On the one hand
there are the men who are willing to
|betray their own country for money
garded as infinitely despicable.
On the other hand there are the
men who, for purely patriotic reasons,
risk their lives and face the possibility
Of an ignominious death in order to
render invaluable service to their
country. This second class Is natur-
ally regarded with admiration and es-
lteem.
or the patriotic spies, the most IA
nous is John Andre, who, during the
American Revolutionary war, obtain
ed from Gen. Benedict Arnold the
plans for the betrayal Of West Point
to the British. Arnold was q traitor;
Andre was patriot. He was arrested
and sentenced by Washington to be
hanged.
There can be no quarrel with the
sentence, since the custom Of all ma
tions is that death-and shameful
death-must be the lot Of the captur-
ed military spy. But Great Britain
showed its appreciation Of Andres
motives by the erection Of q monu-
ment to his memory in Westminster
Abbey, where his remains are now
inferred.
i The late Cyrus Field, the protector
of the Atlantic cable, and a patriotic
american, erected statue to Andre
lat Tarrytown, where he was hanged
i Generally, military spy captured
during time Of peace is not tried
Iby a court-martial, but by the ordi-
mary civil tribunals. The German law
against spies was passed In July,
1903, the French law in 1866, and un-
der this French law the penalty Is
comparatively light-from two to five
Years Imprisonment, with a fine Of
from 5000 to $1,000.
incidentally, one may note that Eu-
lrope was covered with Pitts spies at
the end Of the 18th century, and that
every calamity in France, from the
defeat Of an army to tenement fire,
was popularity ascribed to them.
In addition to the spy engaged In
lH6 IuOT6 VI lcSS lOhOEdDlO oCiNiSC Va
discovering military secrets, there Is
the police spy, whose business 1t Is to
discover internal plots against the ex-
listence of governments. Such spies
have always been employed by the po-
lice of every nation, and they are
most necessary and most numerous
when the government is autocratic
and opposition is underground.
During the unrest that followed the
reformation in England, the spy be-
came, probably for the first time, a
national institution. Burghley had an
army Of spies smelling out Jesuits.
The laws against the Puritans brought
the inevitable squadron Of traitors
and informers. and spying reached Its
most Infamous depth with the exploits
of Titus Oates and his associates in
the reign Of Charles II.
| In France, Richlieu and Louvois
employed spies in all stations Of life.
and under Louis XIV, and Louis XIV,
spying was vastly extended, particu-
larly while Sartines and Berryer were
the lieutenants Of the Paris police. -
The Revolution, with its fury
fagainst aristocrats, found ample en-
ployment for the spy, and Fouche, the
notorious minister Of police to Ma
lpoleon, found congenial task In US
ing them to the full.
/ In more recent times the police spy
has been generally employed to
watch the movements Of anarchists
and revolutionists. Bismarck had
gagged in this work. The Russian spy
Is the governments chief weapon
against nihilism, and the many Irish
conspiracies during the 18th century
made 1t necessary for the English po-
lice to rely largely on the use OF the
4 spy.
The amazing exploits Of the Russian
secret police have been, Of course,
enormously exaggerated by imagina-
! tive writer's, but the service Is far
reaching and complete, and the revo-
lutionists in every foreign city are
regularly and thoroughly watched.
In nearly every instance the plans
of the Irish dynamiters were foiled
either by the greed Of a traitor or by
| the ingenuity Of spy. 1t Is not, per-
haps, attractive to the normal man
to gain the confidence Of conspirators.
to discover their secrets and promptly
to give them away; but 1t cannot be
denied that such a man as Major LIE
Caron, who time after time enabled
Scotland Yard to checkmate the
Clan-na- Gael, was a patriot in a very
real sense, and an exceedingly useful
police servant Such man carries
his life in his hand, and the paymen.
he receives is little enough in COM
parison with the risk.
Here, again, there is a great differ
ence between such man as LIE Caron
and the pitiful creatures who In near
| ly every conspiracy are found willing
to save their own necks by the betray-
| al Of their comrades
The evil that accompanies the in
stitution Of secret police is the tend
ency to create conspiracies in order
that they may be discovered. There
| is no question that the agent provoca-
tor is regularly employed in Russia,
and is not unknown elsewhere. Un-
der Bismarck there was little secret
that he was regularly used by the
police.
The policy that 1t is better to bring
conspiracies to a head and to give fa-
cilities to the would-be revolutionary
to carry out his dreams-and to be
arrested. But the whole scheme Is
fundamentally wrong, and undoubt-
edly frequently leads to the punish
ment of innocent persons.