At the death of the founder of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency in 1884, he was succeeded by his two sons, who continued the business as a co-partnership, Robert A. Pinkerton residing in New York City, and William A. Pinkerton in Chicago, each of them known by the title of "Principal."
In 1903 the Agency consisted of twelve offices located in the following cities: Montreal, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, St. Paul, Denver, Portland (Oregon), Seattle and San Francisco. Within the last three years crime must have been fearfully on the increase, for the Agency opened new offices in Buffalo, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Qeveland, Minneapolis, Omaha, Spokane and Los Angeles.
Each office is divided into four distinct sections known respectively as the clerical, criminal, operating and executive departments.
The clerical department usually consists of a private janitor or janitress, office boy, cashier, bookkeeper and a variable force of stenographers, all of whom are under the direct charge of a chief clerk, who is responsible to the superintendent of the office for the proper management of his department and the work of every employee under him. It is this department which keeps the accounts, typewrites the reports of the detectives, and assists the other departments in getting out the correspondence, of which there is always a great volume.
The criminal department is composed of a "Rogues* Gallery," a card index file and a number of correspondence files, all of which are usually in charge of one assistant superintendent, who handles all the criminal work and correspondence of the office in addition to considerable other work. The Rogues' Gallery contains as many photographs of criminals as can be obtained; and while no office, with the possible exception of Chicago and New York, does much criminal
The Pinkerton Labor Spy. 5