Judiciary Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives were instructed to investigate the nature and methods of the Pinkerton Agency's business.
A great number of witnesses were examined, including William A. and Robert A. Pinkerton; but it is almost needless to say that nothing of the least importance was elicited from either the Messrs. Pinkerton or anybody else which shed any new light on the secret business of the Agency. This has been the only investigation ever made of the Pinkertons, and it was absolutely barren of results.
Since 1892 the principals of the Agency have prudently refrained from furnishing watchmen for strikes, which measure had the hoped for eflfect of diverting an undesirable public attention from them.
After the Homestead excitement had died out, the Pinkertons sank into comparative obscurity until the Spring of 1906, wlien they again came prominently before the public with sensational and hair-raising charges of felonious conspiracy, murder and dynamiting against Charles H. Moyer, William D. Haywood and George A. Pettibone, respectively president, secretary and ex-member of the executive board of the Western Federation of Miners.
The fact that James McParland, the famous Molly Magiiire detective, made these charges, and his bold public announcement that he had personally worked on the case and had evidence sufficient to hang these men, aroused unprecedented interest throughout the country. Organized labor, in particular, became furiously indignant at what they termed the kidnapping of the labor leaders on trumped-up charges and false confessions. In a different place we shall deal with this matter; but a description of the Agency's construction and system of operation is essential to an understanding of the history and narrative which follows.
4 The Pinkerton Labor Spy.