The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1921-04-09
non-union workers and so provoke
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| non-union workers and so provoke
trouble for the union.
Employers and employees alike
have made a practice OF. deceiving
each other until the whole industrial
work is snarled beyond dfsentangle-
ment Strikes have been provoked to
break agreements which have become
onerous to the employer, spies set to
turn conservative unions Bolshevist
and more spies to force the federal
authorities to interfere.
1wankew, a Russian Jew, an agent
of Armesworth and Cavett, Industrial
detectives Of Pittsburgh and former
Pinkerton" men, organized local OF
the Communist party in Youngstown,
Ohio. He was. at the time, detailed to
the service of the Youngstown Sheet
| and Tin Company.
This firm mad: efforts. to obtain his
release and furnished bond for him
after the raid which he provoked on
his own organization and in which,
as blind, he, too, was arrested. Sec
rotary Post refused torelease HIM. He
was last heard of awaiting deporta-
ton on Ellis Island and still the hero
"a considera BILE agitation.
James Henderson of the Machin-
lists Union, "Pitchfork Jim" to the
world Of labor: IS perhaps the oldest
| and most efficient foe of espionage In
the entire American labor movement.
AS he sums it up, it is not the spying
that does the harm but the exploita-
ton of the worker incidental to the
spying. The union which has nothing
to conceal has little enough to fear
from the mere informant. But that
the employment and welfare Of it's
members should be dependent upon
tn, exigencies of detective agency's
business does not seem to him ter
| rible thing.
There has been exploitation of en-
| ployers and, finally, of spies them
selves. For there is reasonable evil
dence on which to accuse a certain
firm of clothing manufacturers Of hir-
ing detectives to provoke a strike in
it's plant to the end Of collecting strike
insurance in the slack season. And
| this in spite of the detectives of the
strike insurance company, which was
also and independently spying in the
same plant to secure evidence against
| the paying of the insurance.
How Employers View It.
The employers in the case may be
very briefly classed. There are those
who say, with Mr.. Carter of the West
| ern Union Telegraph Company: Il
! don't like the fellows, but what else
can we do" There are those who,
like Mr.. Kirschbaum of Philadelphia,
acclaim the value of the practice and
extol it's practitioners. There are those
who say with Mr.. Atterbury of the
Pennsylvania Railroad:
I'VE have a very efficient police
organization, and we know in advance
everything that is going on, just ex-
actly as the organizations themselves
know what is going on with us. We
have emissaries in our ranks just as
the organizations have emissaries in
| their ranks
1--WE have our own employees, who
may volunteer information and we
employ the Pinkerton Service. They
are men already in the labor organi-
cations, who may have union cards
and have been employed somewhere
else.
eve ask the Pinkerton Company to
assign certain number Of operatives
to our service; we do not know wh1
they are; they come along in the nat
ural course of events and then we get
reports"
Lies-An Lies.
And, finally, there is the legion OF
those who say. with the mill opera
tors of Passaic: "Lies-all lies.''
It is unfortunately not possible to
clear labor on the score Of practicine
espionage itself. Parallelism between
capital and labor is present char
acteristic Of industrial development
parallel1sm in both organization and
policy. It is a we'll known fact that
strike committees do retain thugs to
intimidate non-union workers. There
Is an organization in New York, The
Active Detective Bureau, which ad.
vertises espionage service to labor or.
carnations only. Unions boast OF the
spies they have planted in the office:
of3the spying detective agencies. There
was even case in Minneapolis II
which the same agency was found tc
be serving both union and employer
in the same strike. ~e;. !"
All this considered, however, the
balance is still on the side Of capital
Espionage is included in the Ameri:
canism Of q great group Of American
~, AZ Att SE~..