No. 36 found it an easy matter to secure work at one of the mines near Telluride, and also found it easy to become a member of the union. He did his
The Pinkerton Labor Spy. 119
level best to accomplish the work he was sent to do at Telluride, but, after working on the case for two years, at an expense of over $7,000 to the Telluride Mine Owners' Association, he retired without bringing to light any evidence of importance or value. So far as the Inner Circle was concerned, No. 36 found no trace of any such secret group, although he was on terms of great intimacy with Vincent St. John and all the other leaders of the union at Telluride.
This was the only operation which the Pinkerton Detective Agency ever undertook for the avowed purpose of discovering the Inner Circle of the Western Federation of Miners, and despite the fact that No. 36 worked for two years under the most favorable conditions, he could not bring to light anything that would tend to incriminate any member of the Western Federation, nor could he substantiate the libelous charge of the Agency that the Federation had any such secret committee as an ''Inner Circle" whose business it was to plan murders and other crimes.