Untitled

290 VIOLENCE AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT
"Convict Christ. Populist." "Convict anyone. Democrat."
(14) This great detective even had the audacity,
it seems, to telegraph William Scott Smith, at that time
secretary to the Hon. E. A. Hitchcock, the Secretary of
the Interior :
"Jury commissioners cleaned out old box
from which trial jurors were selected and put in 600
names, every one of which was investigated before they
were placed in the box. This confidential." (15) It is
impossible to reproduce here some of the language of
this great detective. The foul manner in which he
comments upon the character of the jurors is altogether
worthy of his vocation. That, however, is unimportant
compared to the more serious fact that a well-paid detective
can so pervert trial by jury that it would "convict
Christ."
I shall be excused in a matter so devastating to republican
institutions as this if I quote further from the
disclosures of Thomas Beet : "There is another phase,"
he says, "of the private detective evil which has worked
untold damage in America. This is the private constabulary
system by which armed forces are employed
during labor troubles. It is a condition akin to the feudal
system of warfare, when private interests can employ
troops of mercenaries to wage war at their command.
Ostensibly, these armed private detectives are hurried to
the scene of the trouble to maintain order and prevent
destruction of property, although this work always should
be left to the official guardians of the peace. That there
is a sinister motive back of the employment of these men
has been shown time and again. Have you ever followed
the episodes of a great strike and noticed that most of
the disorderly outbreaks were so guided as to work harm
to the interests of the strikers . . . Private detectives,
unsuspected in their guise of workmen, mingle