i82 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.
Western Federation thought to have found in Operative Cochran, whom they communicated with, offering him the position of National Organizer for the union at a better monthly salary than he received from the Agency.
Operative Cochran laid the Federation's offer before the Agency and Manager Wright. Neither the one nor the other had expected such a Godsend, and both were emphatic in their instructions to the operative to accept the position. Manager Wright and the Pinkerton Agency were jubilant at the pleasant prospect of outwitting their persistent antagonists.
After securing the operative's valuable services, the Federation felt confident that they could, despite Manager Wright's alertness, rebuild the Keswick union; and the operative — ^well, he must have felt much the same as did Operative Smith when President Mitchell appointed him as National Organizer for the United Mine Workers.
After the operative received his commission as organizer for the Federation, his work became valuable indeed to the company, to whom he reported one or two days in advance the names of all union miners about to apply for work at their mines.
It is really surprising that the Federation did not wake to the duplicity of their organizer; but the fact remains that despite the latter's failure to accomplish any good whatever for the order, he continued to enjoy the absolute confidence of his superiors, and was invited by the latter to represent the miners of his section as a delegate-at-large at the annual convention of the Western Federation in Denver, in 1903.
Operative Cochran now came to Denver and participated in the deliberations of the Federation as a bona fide delegate to the convention.