I heCase Booiiof a PrivateDetediv el
True Narratives of Interesting Cases by a Former
Operative of the William J. Burns Detective Agency
Br DAVID CORNELL
(Oopyrigbt by tlx latarnaUoo! ree JUare&o.)
THE GOVERNOR'S COUP
How a Righteous Bill Was Forced
Through the Legislature .. .. ;
The investigation of the means and
ways employed in the election of a
certain United States senator, with
its muddle of exposures, plots and
counterplots, has enabled the news
paper reading public to get an oc
casional glimpse of the. parts that
private, detectives occasionally are
asked to play in the politics of this
country. There if a certain typo of
politician who is a good patron of a
certain type of detective agency.
"Go out and get something on this
guy," says the unscrupulous politician
to the unscrupulous detective, hand
ing him the name of a political oppon
ent Then the unscrupulous detective, of
which, unfortunately, there are so
many in this country, proceeds in the
most unscrupulous manner .to "get
something on" the man who is to be
harmed. This Is happening every day
in this country. The Burns agency
never took any such business, or, for
that matter, any sort of business
which was not entirely square and
above-board. But we have been called
into service in several political fights,
and there is no more exciting detect
ive work than when two groups of pol
iticians begin to fight one another
with the help of "Investigators."
A young governor in a certain state
which cannot be named had come into
office on a reform ticket. The gov
ernor I will call Braden. The state
of which he was the chief executive
Is one in which the manufacturing In
terests predominate, and up to the
time of Braden's election these inter
ests had controlled the statehouse and
what went on there as completely as
If it had been an annex to their busi
ness, which Is Just about what it was.
Sometimes the state had a Republican
governor, sometimes a Democrat; but
v it didn't make any difference. He was
the manufacturers' governor before he
had gone far in his term of office, and
the same was true of the state legisla
ture. The state house here was situated
at the top of a hill, from which a
street car ran down to the business
district of the town. At tho foot of
the hill, directly down from the main
entrance of the statehouse, was a lit
tle old hotel. The top floor of this
hotel was reserved year In and year
out for the lobbyists of the interests.
The state fancied that its affairs -were
administered from the noble structure
on top of the hill; but everybody in
politics or big business knew that the
real capitol was down in the top floor
of the old hotel at the foot of the hill.
There probably had been millions of
dollars paid out to crooked legisla
tors in that old building. Certainly
there had been more bills passed
down there than on the floor of the
house.
Naturally a Btate with its affairs ad
ministered in this fashion did not
care much for the welfare of the com
mon people. The factory laws of the
state, for instance, were about the
most backward in the country. They
were all made and passed solely for
the benefit of the manufacturers,
which, of course, made them inimical
to the interests of the workers. A
manufacturer in this state could work
a man, woman or child of any; age un
der any conditions and for any num
ber of hours; he was not liable for
what happened to them In his shop.
Wages consequently were low and
conditions were bad for all the work
ing people in the factories. They
were getting the worst of it in every
way, shape and manner; and so they
woke up and made a fight and elected
Braden governor.
Braden was a remarkable man. He
was the son of parents who had
ground out their live3 in one of the
big mills of the state. He had begun
his own active existence as a boy in
one of those same mills, beginning to
work at eleven years of age. The
mills didn't kill him, however. He
was made of tough stuff, and at eight
een he wag working his way through
college and playing quarter-back on
the football team. He came out of
college and went into a little law office
up the state. He was a brilliant law
yer and attracted the attention of
the interests. They sent for him and
made him one of their counsel. He
put in five years at it, then he resign
ed to fight the same interests that he
had worked for.
He settled down in one of the big
mill towns and opened a small law
office and let 'It be known that he
would take any worklngman's case,
no matter what it was or how small
the chance was of getting a fee. He
admitted that he expected to come
near starving at this game, and he
did ; but he made more friends than any
other , man In the state. He began to
be the people's leader. He was forty
two when the' people suddenly discov
ered that they wanted him for their
governor, and into the statehouse he
went, the sworn enemy of the inter
ests that had run the state for years.
He carried Into office with him
tneugh reform legislators to give the
Interests a fright. Two of these rep
resentatives were Murray and Schoen
lein, who were looked upon as the
governor's first lieutenants In tho
fight for reform. -
One of Braden's first acts brought
on the inevitable fight between him
self and the lobbyists. He introduced
through one of his reform legislators
a factory Inspection bill, and before
the lobbyists had fairly got their ma
chinery of delay and suppression In
working order the bill swept through
both houses and was passed by a big
margin. Next was announced the
preparation of a child labor bill, and
by that time the fight was one.
The lobbyists got their, machinery
going then. They opened their check
books and went into action. They
knew how the game was worked.
Presently the reform legislators be
gan to look less liko reformers. One
by one they began to admit that there
might be some sense in the conten
tion of the manufacturers that the
passage of such a bill might deal the
state an irreparable injury. One by
one they began to hesitate. The first
thing Braden Lmw he found himself
face to face with a proposition like
this: He had to get that child labor
bill passed or admit that he had lost
his legislature and it didn't look as
if he could do it
That was the situation when the
Bums agency was called in on the
Job. Braden numbered among his
friends an old, retired politician who
had read the signs with an experi
enced eye. Braden insisted on mak
ing his fight by calling on the people
for support; but this old fox slyly
slipped off to New York, and When he
returned to the capitol I was on the
Bame train with him, though In a dif
ferent car. -"Braden
will fight above decks,"
said he, "but we'll be down among
the crew and get at the heart of the
mutiny." v
I went to the old hotel where the
lobbyists had their headquarters and
registered from a small town up the
state.
"What's the latest thing about that
fool child labor bill?" I asked the
clerk casually as I Bigned the regis
ter. "Does that rube up at the top
of the hill think he can put it over,
or have we got him sewed up?"
The clerk grinned a little but said:
"I don't know a thing about it, sir,"
and gave me a little wink.
"Good enough," I said, laughing. "I
guess we've fixed his clock this time,
all right"
I looked over the ground for three
or four days, then I went to Braden's
old friend and said:
"Is there a reform newspaper in any
town in the state that you can get con
trol of?"
"Why?" he asked.
"If there is, buy It," I said. "Buy
it, and let me appear as the new own
er, who is hanging around that hotel
down there waiting for the interests
to hand him his bit of coin before
he begins his fight on the governor."
He sat and thought for a long time.
"Me boy," he said, at last, "that's
a big Idea you've got In your head,
I do believe. Yes, there Is a paper
we can get control of. It will take
$20,000, but I'm game If you can
show me how the thing is going to
work out."
"Well," I said, "I've got to get In
with that bunch and get in right or
there will be nothing doing. They're
too wise and too old at the game to
let any secrets slip except in their
own bunch. I could stay there a year
and be no wiser than I am now, unless
I got in right. By playing the part
of a crooked newspaper owner, wil
ling to sell his soul for money, 111 be
one of their own kind."
The paper in question was a small
dally in a nearby town. It was in bad
financial condition, and Braden's old
friend soon raised the money for its
purchase. I got a down and out news
paper man from New York to come
out and take charge of it and the
day the ownership changed hands we
came out with a front page editorial
announcing a change of policy. Where
before the paper had sought only to
harm business in a Pickwickian
sense and so to harm all classes, it
was now going to help business all it
could. We did not say so in so many
words, but we hinted that we were
not at all in favor of Governor Bra
den's "drastic and unreasonable on
slaughts on the great Interests that
have made the prosperity of the
state possible." My newspaper man
was a peach; he could write as if he
really meant anything he said.
I got some new cards printed as
publisher of the "Cronkton Daily
News,", and continued to live at the
hotel in the capitol city. I had boys
from the paper coming in to see me,
had letters and packages addressed
to me under my newly assumed title
delivered at the hotel, and soon my
Identity was well established among
the coterie that made the hotel its
home.
One morning we published a clever,
veiled attack on Governor Braden.
That afternoon a. big, genial looking
man stopped me In the hotel lobby
and said: "Mr. Cornell, I've never had
the pleasure of meeting you. I'm Gold
farber, attorney for the Union Milling
company I want to congratulate you
on that masterly editorial on the gov
ernor this morning."
"Have you seen what the governor's
own papers say about it, Mr. Goldfar
ber?" I asked, and I showed him a
reform paper that I had Just bought,
which bore the headlines:
"Cronkton News in the Hands of the
.Grafters Formerly Respectable
Paper Sells Out to the
V Interests."
We laughed heartily over the story
and adjourned to the bar. I told
Goldfarber that I had bought the
Cronkton News because I. thought it
a good business proposition if It was
run right The.e was plenty of adver
tising to be had if its editorial policy
was right I proposed to keep it right.
I hoped Mr. Goldrarber would remem
ber me if he happened to speak to the
advertising manager of the Union
Milling company.
He certainly did. Next day there
came by telegraph an order for a full
page ad to be run daily for a month,
and a check in 'full payment for the
same came in the first mail.
To show its gratitude the Cronkton
News ran a laudatory article about
the Union Milling company and about
the men who were at its head. My
editor made the company look like the
foundation upon which the welfare of
the state rested and its owners like
unselfish benefactors of the human
race. -
This was kept up until five large
companies were running big ads in
the News and until we had written
them, up favorably. I was on friendly
terms with the five lobbyists who rep
resented these concerns. They were
the men who really had been running
the state, and obviously they were the
ones who were behind the defection
of Governor Braden's one-time reform
legislature. If I could learn what
they knew abouf the change of heart
that had come over the representa
tives after the labor bill had been in
troduced, I would have finished, my
One day Goldfarber came to my
room and said: "Suppose you send
a man up to interview Murray and
Schoenleln. those celebrated reform
friends of the governor. They might
have something interesting to say."
I took the hint and wfred my editor
to get on the Job himself. Murray
thing," I saldj "but for editorials Its
rates are very high.
. "How high?" he asked.
"Twenty thousand dollars a year," I
said.
"I'll raise it before noon," said he.
In that way I got the money back
that had been paid for the Cronkton
News.
- I had , decided that Murray and
Schoenleln would be easier to "get"
than any of the lobbyists. They were
a pair of Ignorant fellows who until
their election as reform representa
tives had worked as mechanics for a
living. I knew that they were now
enjoying a prosperity that would soon
turn their heads. I decided to help
the turning.
The two legislators were staying at
the smartest hotel In the city. Pres
ently there were two stylish young
women staying at the hotel who flat
tered the pair we were after by seek
ing an introduction. The women
were in the pay of Braden's foxy old
friend. It didn't take long to make
the inexperienced Murray and Schoen
leln fancy that they were a pair of
kings. They began to buy wine in
he palm room of the hotel, bought a
motor car each, and generally began
to play the parts of a couple of fools
caught by the attractions of a couple
of clever, smart-looking women.
It doesn't take long for that kind
of a pace to bring out the braggart in
a man, especially if there is a good
looking woman to brag to. Within
two weeks our women had 'heard all
about how Murray and Schoenleln had
been reached. They had been given
$5,000 each by Goldfarber in his room
in the little hotel where the lobbyists
hung out.
"And there's lots more where that
came from," boasted Murray.
One evening one of the women
said: "There's a friend of ours stop
ping at this hotel who is interested in
a bill for a dam across a river up the
state. He said he would like to meet
some representatives who would listen
to reason. He's a millionaire."
Murray and Schoenleln said they
wouldn't mind meeting the friend if It
could be done in secret It was. A
meeting was arranged in a room at a
hotel, and they met Dawson, of the
Burns agency, acting the part of. a
millionaire. Dawson had hia bill al
ready drawn and showed it to them at
once. It purported to be a bold-faced
dence of Goverror Braden's old friend.
There Governor Braden, his four
friends and myself searched them and
found and Identified carefully the
money and bill that Dawson had given
them in the hotel. The gags were
then removed from their mouths, and
In the locked library we went to work
on them.
Braden said: "I want to get that
child labor bill passed, and I've been
forced to take means like this to do it.
You're going to help me pass it in
order to save yourselves from expos
ure. I don't want to hurt you. You've
been a couple of d n fools, but I
think I can save you and make useful
citizens of you. If I can't, I can put
you in the penitentiary, where you
won't do any harm for some time.
Now, you are going to give me the
dope on how the legislature has been
bribed by the lobbyists, first, and
after that you are going to vote and
work for that labor bill as if nothing
untoward had happened. Either that
or you are going to the pen. Take
your choice." ' -
We worked over them all that night.
When we were through we had a de
tailed and signed confession of how
they had been bribed, how other legis
lators had been bribed, and who had
done the work.
"So far so good," said Braden. "Now
we want the fellows who did the brib
ing. You say Goldfarber passed you
the money. All right you go and call
Goldfarber to a room in the hotel
down there and tell him you need $500
apiece at once. We will pick out the
room for you."
They did this. They engaged a room
and sent for Goldfarber. He came
in, smiling, and they told him what
they wanted.
"If we don't get it we'll forget you
paid us anything to fight that labor
bill," said Murray, obeying Braden's
instructions.
"Tut, tut, boys," said Goldfarber.
"What's a thousand dollars between
friends?"
He was handing over the money
when the two photographers we had
'stationed behind openings cut in the
walls of the room shot off their
flashes.
Goldfarber ran like a thief. Next
day Braden sent a note to him telliiig
him that if opposition to the child
labor bill were continued those two
photographs would be published. He
"Wife &o wteks out women kct beanl all alxatf W
Murray and
and Schoenlein up to now had been
steadily standing by the governor,
pledging themselves to fight for his
reforms to the last ditch. But the
interviews they gave to my editor
were made of different stuff. They had
been voting and talking against the
best interests of the state. They
would Btop doing this. The governor
was a headstrong fool, who persisted
in trying to ruin the state in order
to further his own ambitions.
"The bunch has got to them," said
my man, reporting to me. "I could see
It In their eyes. They've been taken
care of by your friends the lobbyists."
We printed the interview and edito
rially lauded Murray and Schoenlein
for being courageous enough to do
their duty by the state in spite of the
lash of a political boss like the gov
ernor. Next day Goldfarber came to me
with an editorial which he had written
and which be wanted me to run.
"The Cronkton News will run any-
steal of a river to make power for a
mill about to be established.
"I'll ante $1,000 apiece to you fel
lows," said Dawson, "if you'll intro
duce the bill. I'll pay anything you
need to get It passed. And when she's
through IH give you each $2,500."
"Give us the thousand now," said
Murray.
Dawson paid It out Schoenleln took
the bill and stowed it away in an in
ner pocket
"It'll go through sure," he-said;
"we've got this legislature by the
horns."
Governor Braden, four of his friends
andmyself heard and saw all that
went" on from peep-holes in the next
room. The money that Dawson hand
ed them had been marked and viewed
by all of us that morning.
Murray and Schoenleln left the ho
tel and went down a side street They
hadn't gone far before they were
seized, gagged, dumped into a closed
motor car and whirled up to the resi-
Hope in tlie
Middle Me
if
The description of the Middle As
as "the modern world in embryo" X
never more true than when appf
to the sphere of industrial life, I
even here it cannot be accepted f
tlrely without reservation, the Lj
don Globe remarks. Workmen vi
combining in order to obtain hlgf
wages and better conditions of wj
or to settle disagreements betwf
masters and men. In the fourteef
and fifteenth centuries, although,!
course, their associations were o.
much smaller scale than those of i
workmen of the present day. Inf
niflcant as their disputes Beem, c
pared to our own, they possess a d
Blderable interest for us, beca
while the action of the men in the f
periods exhibits a remarkable q
tlnuity of alms and methods, thet)
forts to end the troubles made t
both the masters and by the aj
trators called in to Judge betwl
them and their employes illustrate I
extraordinary difference between I
dieval and modern views of the rid
of labor and Bhow how enormotl
the position of the workman has
proved. '
Curb Placed Upon Combination
The black death, which desol.i
England in 1348-49, was especif
virulent among the poor and cari
off large numbers of laborers, ttf
who survived, realizing their own
ure, perhaps for the first time,
fused to work unless they recelt
much higher wages than they
been receiving. The government
sponded by passing the statute
laborers, which forbade any one!
take higher wages than he had
ceived before the outbreak of
plague, and both "givers" and "
era" of excess wages were punish!
The very year that the statute
passed there was trouble among
shearmen of London; the masl
complained that if a dispute arose
tween one of them and his man
servant went to his fellow workn
and "by covin and conspiracy betm
them" they ordered that none am
them should work until the
master and hid servant had come
an agreement. To put a stop to
state of affairs they made an t
nance, with the sanction of the mi.
and aldermen, that in the future j
putes should be settled by the war
of the company and that servant
fusing to submit to them should
handed over to the mayor for
ishment. Later regulations requj
all members of the craft to tak
stringent oath of obedience to 1
wardens and forbade any shearmal
give work to a servant at varlr
with his master. j
A Strike In the Year 1397.
In 1387 the Journeymen C?
walners were charged before the ti
or of London with forming an ill!
fraternity and with assaulting on!
the trade who would not Join it
ringleaders did not deny the acci
tion and also admitted that a Don,
can friar had agreed to petition I
pope for a confirmation of the fret
nity, fio that no man, on pain of
communication, would dare to ir
fere with it, a deed which the mr
declared would weaken the llberj
of the city and the power of itsl
fleers. He consequently commi
them to Newgate, to remain . tl,
until he should be better advised v
to do with them, and his final
clsion Is not recorded. I
The letter books of the city of I
don contain accounts of the suprf
sion of workmen's, associations
three trades the saddlers', the
ors' and the bakers. They are
very much alike, and it will suffic
quote one of them. The master
dlers asserted that the serving if
or "yeomen," oftentimes held meetil
and that they demanded double l
wages they used to have. The mp
to whom the complaint was made,
dered the representatives of the
parties to confer together and re
the result to him. ;
Meetings Were Prohibited.
On the appointed day they retur
and the serving men assured him ;
they had not tried to raise wages,
begged to be allowed to. continue t
meetings, but all to no purpose,
decreed that they should hencef;
be under the rule of the Master
the Guild, and that they should
longer have a fraternity of their !
or hold meetings. At the same t:
however, he enjoined the masters
govern them properly, and prom,
to afford them speedy Justice if g
sent him prints of the photos, too
Goldfarber took a look at them, and
packed up and left the capital for
ever. The threatened opposition to the la
bor bill did not materialize. Various
legislators were notified that they
were released from their obligations
to the interests and were at liberty to
vote as they pleased. They voted with
Braden and the bill went through.
A few days after its passage the
Cronkton News quietly went out of
business. A lot of people wondered
why; it had seemed to be doing so
well of late. Murray and Schoenlein
resigned from the house soon after
the labor bill was passed. They said
that politics was too strenuous for
them.
8hock Absorber.
To absorb shocks that might de
stroy tungsten electric lamps sus
pended by cords there hag been in
vented a wire spring with hooks at
each end to engage the cord.
i
ances were unduly . inflicted u
them, and this is the only lndica
in all the cases we have considere
any sympathy whatever being sh
with the men's point of view.
mission to the rule of the masters
wardens must have been peculiE
irksome, when, as happened in e
guilds, the Journeymen were debaf
from any share in electing them.
Labor Troubles In English Towi
London was by no means the
place which suffered from 1.
troubles. The fullers of Bristol!
dained that if servants rebelled f
would not work they should bebrot'
before the mayor, to be dealt with1
cording to law and reason. The j
neymen weavers of Coventry for
a guild three times, but each tj
it was jut down. On one occas
they not only refused to work tlj
selves, but also prevented others
Ing. Sometimes the corpora
strong as it was, could not cope
the Jourreymen. and was obllg-,
apply to the crowa tor nasi '