IN placing before the reading public a work of such character as this, we feel that no special apology is needed at a time, when the system with which it deals is engaged in manipulating the prosecution of a case which promises to become a most noted landmark in the history of the United States.
Our object in publishing this work was neither to create a temporary "sensation" nor to Warn the trades unions of the country against the insidious enemies in their midst. We recognize that to know every detail of the methods employed by the "secret 'operative" of the Pinkerton Agency in Ae union, is absolutely no defence against him, however interesting the knowledge may be. If there is a lesson for the trades unionist in this work, it is rather the indisputable conclusion that the emancipation of labor through purely economic effort is simply impossible.
Nor do we expect that this exposure will in the least degree tend to the elimination of the nefarious institution whose methods it uncovers. We recognize the Pinkerton Agency as an indispensable instrument to the capitalist class in the great and unceasing struggle with labor. Such institutions will of necessity last as long as our present industrial system.
We believe that the work will have its effect chiefly in opening the eyes of the public to the nature of the methods employed by the "Agency" in its efforts to convict Messrs. Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone, now awaiting trial in Boise for the murder of ex-Governor Steunenberg of Idaho, and who have been recently branded as undesirable citizens by no less a person than the president of the United States. On the other hand, we believe that something may be accomplished