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Victor
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The
Pinkerton Labor Spy
by
Morris Friedman
CHAPTER XXII.
THE PINKERTONS IN CALIFORNIA—
NO. 31, 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 arguseyed Pinkerton operatives watching every move of the miners, especially those who are suspected of having anything to do with the Western Federation of Miners. The officials of the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices have been so zealous in slandering this union that now, thanks to the Agency, if a miner should confess his affiliation with it, a California mine owner would refuse him employment. The members of that order are presumably cut-throats, assassins and dynamiters.
One California mining company, in particular, seems to have got this false impression from Pinkerton officials, and the result was a strike. We do not intend to describe this strike, which was of small consequence in comparison with the strikes in Colorado. But it is worth while to describe the Pinkerton spy who is the central figure of the episode.
In Shasta County, Cal., there is a flourishing mining camp named Keswick. The inhabitants of this camp are chiefly miners in the employ of the Mountain Copper Company, Limited. At the time of our story, in the early part of 1903, Lewis T. Wright was the general manager of the company. Manager Wright apparently became imbued with bitter animosity toward the Western Federation of Miners, which led him to hire a Pinkerton operative to discover which, if any, of his employees, belonged or wished to belong to that union.
The operative engaged on this work was Frank E. Cochran, No. 31 as he was known at the San Francisco office. No. 31 combined in his person traits which justify us in comparing him to Operative Crane of Colorado City, Operative Gratias of Denver, and Operative Smith of Trinidad.
Operative Cochran, like Operative Crane, furnished the company with the names of all those who secretly belonged to the Federation. This information resuited in a number of union employees being summarily discharged.
After a considerable number of union men had thus been let out, Manager Wright flattered himself that the rest of his employees would profit by the experience and give the Federation a wide berth. Safe in this thought Manager Wright left Keswick on a trip to Europe.
Directly the manager was gone, a reaction set in, and despite the reports of the operative, a strong union was soon organized, and a strike ordered on the Mountain Copper Company, for recognition of the union. As Mr. Wright's lieutenant was absolutely at sea, not knowing what to do, the strike dragged on for some time, without any prospect of a settlement.
However, on hearing of the trouble, Manager Wright hastened home, and on his arrival at Keswick the strike collapsed. He hired a large number of nonunion men, which brought most of the strikers to terms, and put an end to the conflict.
After the strike was over, all the leaders of the defunct union were compelled to leave Keswick, for, under no conditions, would Manager Wright agree to reinstate them. This decision also affected Operative Cochran, the latter having figured prominently during the trouble as an active leader among the strikers. If the company were to reinstate the operative, they would perforce be obliged to reinstate the other leaders of the strike in order not to reveal the identity of No. 31 by making such a notable exception in his behalf. Much as Manager Wright disliked to give up the services of Operative Cochran, the idea of re-employing the other union leaders was still more distasteful to him. He therefore told the operative to leave Keswick in company with the other leaders, and asked the San Francisco office to detail a new operative to take the place of No. 31.
The Agency saw the wisdom of Manager Wright's action, and proceeded to look for a new operative. However, pending the hiring of a new man, the Agency ordered No. 31 to remain at Redding, a little town very close to Keswick, and to report from there to Manager Wright if he discovered any union men on their way to seek employment at the mines of the Mountain Copper Company.
No. 31 did as instructed, and in order not to draw suspicion on himself, got all kinds of odd jobs about Redding. In this manner the operative hid his identity, and at the same time kept Manager Wright posted as to every union man who was about to apply for work at his mines. It goes without saying that none of these men had luck.
Operative Cochran's work at Redding enabled Manager Wright to turn away such a large number of union applicants, that he finally became very desirous of keeping No. 31 at Redding indefinitely. Mr. Wright's only fear was that if the operative stayed too long at a little place like Redding, without steady employment, he would be suspected, and his usefulness destroyed. But, unexpectedly, an event, lucky for the Agency, Mr. Wright and the operative, occurred, which solved this problem.
The executive heads of the Western Federation felt chagrined at the total destruction of the Keswick Local of the order, and, naturally, were anxious to revive it. The only way they could hope to accomplish this was to have a large number of Federation men obtain employment in the company's mines. This, they figured, would be comparatively easy, as many Cripple Creek strikers were Westward bound, and would no doubt apply for work at Keswick. The Federation therefore felt if they had a trusted agent at or near Keswick to look out for the interests of the union and post union miners how to get work without arousing suspicion, that the Keswick union could once more be put upon its legs. Such a trusted agent the 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. He wrote up daily reports of the convention's proceedings, and mailed them to a secret post office box of the Denver Agency. The Denver office revised and wrote up his reports as fast as they came in, and in thrifty, Associated Press style, serving many clients at once, sold complete copies to a number of Colorado mine and smelter owners, at twenty or twenty-five dollars per copy. This underground associated news service is a feature of labor conventions. In this phase of the game, the work of Frank E. Cochran may well be likened to the work of A. W. Gratias.
After the convention was over, the operative returned to Keswick and recommenced his old knavery with renewed energy, until the Federation, disappointed at his utter lack of progress, revoked his commission and discontinued his services.
The work of the Agency in this case resulted in the disruption of a small local union. We shall now describe how it broke up and totally destroyed a powerful national railroad order in the State of California.