The Shadowy World of 'Railroad Spotters'
A scathing editorial exposes the brutal tactics of private detectives hired by corporations to intimidate workers.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The outrage perpetrated at Seattle a week ago, in which two leading citizens were kidnapped and handled by M. C. Sullivan and his men, has justly called forth indignation. Corporations have employed these men to intimidate and oppress their employees, or to do other dirty work with corrupt legislators. Sullivan is a stupid rascal; during the construction of the Northern Pacific, he kept a small hotel at Thompson Falls, Idaho, which he relinquished to take up the more remunerative but despicable business of a railroad spotter. Finally, he established a branch office of Thiel's Private Detective Agency at Portland, from which point he makes incursions into adjoining states to do the bidding of corporations who are willing to pay ruffians for that character of work for which their brute instincts have peculiarly fitted them.
“Corporations have employed these men from time to time to intimidate and oppress their employes, or to do other dirty work with corrupt legislators.”
This reflects the volatile era of labor organizing where 'private detectives' or 'spotters' acted as de facto strike breakers and enforcers for the major railroads, a common source of violence in early Washington state labor history.
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