The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-03-05

!sp1es were discovered at Passaic. N. !.
At the very time of their exposure, the
investigators of the steel strike were
stumbling upon evidence of the prac-
uce around Pittsburgh. Spies and
strike breakers figured in the street
railway riots of Brooklyn and Denver
last summer, in the brass strike Of last
spring n Waterbury, in St. Louis, in
Chicago. in the northwest, in Cal
ifornia. :
In: December 10 important officials
OF the labor unions CT Akron, Ohio,
were exposed as confessed and con-
vlcted spies of the Corporations Auxil-.
lary company, concern whose BUSH
ness is the administration of industrial
espionage. Last spring two similar
corporations entered the courts of
Philadelphia and left there COM
plete (and unpublished) record of
their proceedings in the employ of the
textile manufacturers of PHILADELPHIA.
From this record much of the present
evidence has been derived. Detroit
and Milwaukee have recently legis-
lated against the operations Of such
corporations. Decidedly, industrial
espionage must be the affair of the
whole country. When the commits
sion on industrial relations examin ed
the workers and employers of Ameri-
can industry. it found scarcely one
who had not an admission to make, or
story to tell of the workings of the
industrial spy system.
1t is strange that this business
should have gained such a hold. It is
strange that the employer should not
reasonably suspect it's effects. Though
he propose only to relieve immediate
labor difficulties by the destruction of
a particular union, he may we'll ac-
complish very different epds. This
labor spy, often. unknown to the very
employer who retains him through his
agency, is in a. position of immense
strength. There is no power to hold
him to truth telling. The employer
who depends upon espionage rather
than upon his own eyes is, in great
measure, at the mercy of his spy. The
very nature of the spy's business
makes it necessary for him to do
either of two things. He may falsify
his reports or create, through his own
influence upon the workers., a bias
upon which to report the truth.
Wherefore we need not be sur
prised to find situations prearranged
ih the plant Of a prospective client,
strikes prolonged rather than broken,
rioters furnished" by espionage agen-
cies along with strike breakers,
trouble fostered where peace has been.
Mr.. Coach of Cleveland, a leading in
dustrial' detective, buys the Columbus
Labor News during the street railway
strike in that city, and edits it to en-
courage the very agitation which he is
being paid to break by the street rail-
way company. In Minneapolis an In
dllstrial detective agency is caught
working for both union and employer
in the same strike. "A spy brings to
New York 500 copies of the Commun-
list manifasto printed by the radical
department Of a detective company
and distributes them about various or
iganizations Of workers. The Sherman
Service officials Of Chicago are in-
dtcted (and never tried) because they
instruct their agents to stir up as
much bad feeling as you can possibly
between the Italians and the Serbians.
Spread data among the Serbians that
the Italians are going back to work.
Call UP every question you can in ref.
erence to racial hatred between these
two nationalities.' +.
Furthermore, tits the boast and
project OF the industrial spy that hes
can corrupt o union out OF existence.
Says Mr.. Coachaof Cleveland 81 own
inv, An fl1ia Iif n tfSS