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Show WINTER 2013 UHQ pp 4-90_UHQ Stories/pp.4-68 12/5/12 9:38 AM Page 44 uTAH HISTORICAL QuARTERLy passed Resolution 266, which called for an “investigation of violations of the right of free speech, assembly, and of interference with the right of labor to organize and bargain collectively.” The Committee of Education and Labor was assigned to conduct the investigation and a subcommittee was appointed to focus specifically on labor espionage. From 1936 and 1941, the subcommittee, under the direction of Senators Elbert D. Thomas of Utah and Robert La Follette, Jr., of Wisconsin, held hearings and published reports on the subject, which was vigorously debated on both sides of the question.70 One of the agencies scrutinized during the hearings was the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. La Follette charged that “while the Pinkertons pointed with pride to the fact that they had refused retainers that had any connection with marital infidelity, it was within their code to pay men to spy on fellow workers and that without such work the Agency would collapse.”71 Robert Pinkerton, who was the grandson of the agency’s founder, Allan Pinkerton, defended the employment of labor spies, which had been one of the most lucrative aspects of his company’s business, with the argument that “I feel a man running a business must keep himself posted on how that business is being run.” The agency also justified its actions by submitting a file that contained evidence of more than two thousand court convictions of criminals who had been guilty of labor related crimes such as assault, bombings and murder. Pinkerton, however, refused to provide sources for this information, alleging that it would jeopardize the safety of the agency’s secret operatives.72 After the hearings were concluded, a resolution was passed stating that “so-called industrial spy systems breeds fear, suspicion and animosity, tends to cause strikes and industrial warfare and is contrary to sound public policy.”73 According to historian Robert Michael Smith, “While no sweeping legislation had been enacted, the revelations of the La Follette Committee sparked a strong public reaction against the anti-union industry. Cringing under an uncomplimentary light in April 1937, the Pinkerton board of 70 Horan, The Pinkertons, 508-509. During the Great Depression, the public’s reverence for business and private property dramatically decreased and there was an outcry against unethical business practices, including anti-union activities. In 1935, Congress passed the Wagner Act, which made the federal government the arbiter of employer-employee relations through the creation of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The Wagner Act established the rights of employees to organize, join, or aid labor unions and to participate in collective bargaining through their representatives. When the NLRB experienced obstacles in implementing the guidelines of the Wagner Act, the board called for congressional action. In 1936, a Democratic Congress responded by passing Resolution 266. 71 Horan, The Pinkertons, 508-509. . According to Robert Michael Smith, “Nearly one-third of those in the employ of the Pinkerton Agency, for instance, held high positions, including one national vice- presidency, fourteen local presidencies, eight local vice-presidencies, and numerous secretaryships.” Smith, From Blackjacks to Briefcases, 88 72 Horan, The Pinkertons, 509. Besides the Pinkerton agency, the subcommittee investigated the nation’s four other largest detective agencies: William Burns International Detective Agency, the National Corporation Service, the Railway Audit and Inspection Company and the Corporations Auxiliary Company. See Morn, The Eye That Never Sleeps, 186-88. 73 Ibid. 44 |
