THE PINKERTONS IN CALIFORNIA — NO. 3I, FRANK E. COCHRAN.
The activity of the Pinkerton Agency is by no means limited to any particular State or territory. On the contrary, it is the constant aim of the Agency to increase its power by establishing branch offices in every city where business looks promising. Not criminal business — God forbid. There is too little of it, and there is more glory than money attached to it ; so that the Agency would have to get out of the business very quickly if it depended on the profits to be derived from this class of detective work.
This being the case, we must surmise that San Francisco and Los Angeles, in each of which cities the Agency maintains an office, must belong to that class of municipalities that look promising from a business point of view. Otherwise, it is as sure as the sun shines that the Pinkertons would never have opened up two branches in one State. From a business standpoint, CALIFORNIA LOOKS GOOD to the AGENCY.
The Agency operates along the same lines in California as in other parts of the country. The only difference one can note is, that while in Colorado it is the miners whom the Agency endeavors to combat, it is the steamship, railroad and street car employees who principally receive their undesirable attention in California. Thus, there are Pinkertons working pretty steadily the whole year round as sailors, stevedores, freight handlers, brakemen, firemen, blacksmiths, machinists, boilermakers, dining-car waiters, cooks, conductors and motormen.
But it seems that the Agency has a mania for mining operations, and even in California we find argus-