against you in the department store is possibly watching with
her cloudy but eagle eye for shoplifters. The tired-looking
man on the street-car may, in fact, be a professional
"spotter." The stout youth with the pince nez who is
examining the wedding presents is perhaps a central-office
man. All this you know or may suspect. But you are not so
likely to be aware that the floor-walker himself is the agent
of a rival concern placed in the department store to keep
track, not only of prices but of whether or not the
wholesalers are living up to their agreements in regard to the
furnishing of particular kinds of goods only to one house; or
that the conductor on the car is a paid detective of the
company, whose principal duty is not to collect fares, but to
report the doings of the unions; or that the gentleman who is
accidentally introduced to you at the wedding breakfast is
employed by a board of directors to get a line on your host's
business associates and social companions.

In the great struggle between capital and labor, each side has
expended large sums of money in employing confederates to
secure secret information as to the plans and doings of the
enemy. Almost every labor union has its Judas, and less often
a secretary to a capitalist is in the secret employment of a
labor union. The railroads must be kept informed of what is
going on, and, if necessary, they import a man from another
part of the country to join the local organization. Often
such men, on account of their force and intelligence, are
elected to high office in the brotherhoods whose secrets they
are hired to betray. Practically every big manufacturing
plant in the United States has on its payrolls men acting as