that time, and these were there to assist the local
authorities in taking charge of six hundred and fifty
watchmen, and to help place the latter upon the property of
the steel company. These watchmen were under the direction
of the sheriff and sworn in as peace officers of the county.
Mr. Beet seems to have confused his history and mixed up
the white handkerchief of the Huguenots of Nantes with the
strike-breakers of Pennsylvania. It is needless to repeat
(as Mr. Robert A. Pinkerton stated at the time), that the
white label story is ridiculously' untrue, and that it was
the strikers who attacked the watchmen, and not the watchmen
the strikers. One striker and one watchman were killed.

But this attack of Mr. Beet upon his own profession, under the
guise of being an English detective (it developed that he was
an ex-divorce detective from New York City), was not confined
to his remarks about inciting wanton murder. On the contrary,
he alleged (as one having authority and not merely as a
scribe) that American detective agencies were practically
nothing but blackmailing concerns, which used the information
secured in a professional capacity to extort money from their
own clients.

"Think of the so-called detective," says Mr. Beet, "whose
agency pays him two dollars or two dollars and fifty cents a
day, being engaged upon confidential work and in the
possession of secrets that he knows are worth money! Is it
any wonder that so many cases are sold out by employees, even
when the agencies are honest?"