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284 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
name "private detective," unless society awakens and
protects in some manner the honest members of the profession.
"It may seem a sweeping statement," he says,
"but I am morally convinced that fully ninety per cent,
of the private detective establishments, masquerading in
whatever form, are rotten to the core and simply exist
and thrive upon a foundation of dishonesty, deceit, conspiracy,
and treachery to the public in general and their
own patrons in particular." (5)
The statements of Thomas Beet are, however, not all
of this general character, and he specifically says: "I
know that there are detectives at the head of prominent
agencies in this country whose pictures adorn the rogues'
gallery men who have served time in various prisons
;
for almost every crime on the calendar. . . .
Thugs
and thieves and criminals don the badge and outward
semblance of the honest private detective in order that
they may prey upon society.
. . . Private detectives
such as I have described do not, as a usual thing, go out
to learn facts, but rather to make, at all costs, the evidence
desired by the patron." (6) He shows the methods
of trickery and deceit by which these detectives
blackmail the wealthy, and the various means they employ
for convicting any man, no matter how innocent, of
any crime. "We shudder when we hear of the system
of espionage maintained in Russia," he adds, "while in
the great American cities, unnoticed, are organizations of
spies and informers." (7) It is interesting to get the
views of an impartial and expert observer upon this
rapidly growing commerce in espionage, blackmail, and
assault, and no less interesting is the opinion of the most
notable American detective, William J. Burns, on the
character of these men. Speaking
of detectives he declared
that, "as a class, they are the biggest lot of black-