THE DETECTIVE SYSTEM.
THE NECESSITY OF THE DETECTIVE SYSTEM GENERALLY DISCUSSED—THE STATE OF SOCIETY WHICH CREATED IT—THE REGULAR AND IRREGULAR ROBBERS—THE YOUNG MAN OF INTELLIGENCE ENTERING UPON ACTIVE LIFE, A PICTURE—HE NATURALLY ALLIES HIMSELF TO THE TYRANT AND ROBBING CLASSES—NO HONESTY IN TRADE—TRADE RULES; AND ALL ARE CORRUPT—NO CONSCIENCE AMONG THE TRAFFICKERS—LYING A FINE ART—ALL VILLAINS, BUT NONE INDIVIDUALLY AT FAULT—THE DETECTIVE BELONGS TO THE CORRUPT GOVERNING CLASSES—WEIGHING HIM—GREAT THIEVES—"THE PURVEYORS OF HELL"—THE ETERNAL TALKERS, AND WHAT THEY AMOUNT TO—THE USE FOR DETECTIVES—AN INCIDENT; "CATCHING A FLAT"—THE DETECTIVE'S VOCATION FURTHER CONSIDERED—HOW THE DETECTIVES PROTECT SOCIETY—ILLUSTRATIVE INCIDENTS—A CERTAIN GREAT DETECTIVE DESCRIBED—STRATAGEMS—WHAT THE PHILOSOPHERS SAY—ON THE WHOLE, IS THE DETECTIVE SYSTEM FROM ABOVE OR BELOW?
The chief articles of "Knots Untied" being in type, I am asked by the publishers to add thereto my views upon the detective system in general. Much misjudgment has been indulged in by some in regard to the moral merits of the system. Indeed, some writers have been so rash as to condemn it altogether. But these are persons of very peculiar mental and moral construction, in my opinion. They have not, it is evident, studied deeply or thoroughly the condition of things which demands the detective system for its protection and support.
It has been most wisely said, that "Society creates, for the most part, the crimes which it punishes." It is a sad truth, but one to be dispassionately considered—not overlooked. The wonder to my mind is that there are not more criminals in society than there are, so heartless are the institutions of civilization in general, so lax the morality of business life, so hypocritical the common tone of society everywhere, from among the least up to the greatest of the participants, in what, as a whole, we call a community, a town, a city, or a nation.
Everywhere I see injustice and wrong triumphing over justice and the right; everywhere petty political successes, vain social triumphs, and especially the victories of wealth, emulated and worshipped. The crown for which the child is usually instructed to bend all his efforts hangs on the pinnacle of vanity or pride. He is expected to obtain it in business life, by gathering under his feet a pile of gold high enough to enable him to stand up, and reach out his hand to it; and he is taught that it is no matter how he gets the gold, so that he avoids all legal difficulties in the way; and he is further instructed that when he shall have acquired a certain amount of gold he need fear no law, for he can buy juries and judges then, and be "a law unto himself;" and he grows up to manhood and active life under these holy instructions.
Looking around him, as a man, he sees that everybody is striving for the same object which he would reach; and however his own sense of right may disturb him in his first mistep from her path, he soon learns that the "common law," the highest morality, in other words, on 'Change, is to "buy at the lowest possible prices, and sell for as much as you can." He becomes extortionate when he can, and rejoices in whatever panic "sends up" his own stocks, for example, although it may ruin a thousand others, and bring desolation to countless homes. He sees, if he lives in New York, that Wall Street is a den of thieves, "respectable" ones; and he finds its counterparts all through the city, down into the lowest haunts of vice, where squalor and want, added to crime, make the last disreputable.
But his mind is logical, and he sees that there is no difference in principle between making a "corner" in Wall Street, and thus robbing a man of fifty shares of a given railroad stock, and the picking of his pocket of those shares in the graceful way in which the chevaliers d'industrie do it. He sees the real estate owner, who has already received in rents, from his tenants, ten times as much money as a certain building cost him, years ago (exclusive, at that, of the legal interest on the original investment), raising the rent as often as he dare, and frequently ejecting, into the merciless world, the family of a poor man who cannot meet the advanced rent, on the one side; and on the other, he witnesses a highway robber snatch a cloak from the shoulders of a man, or a bundle from a lady's arms; or a sneak thief escaping from a hall door with a garment in his hands; and for the life of him he cannot see any real moral difference in the two "sides;" on both are extortion and robbery.
He sees vast monopolies arising, and breaking down small dealers. He sees the merchant princes absorbing the businesses once conducted by smaller traders, and usurping even the trades; so that, now, for example, several hundred dress-makers, once scattered over various parts of the city, and then living in a good degree of independence, are to be found gathered in a herd, if they have employment at all, the merest wages-slaves of some mercantile lord turned manufacturer, too, as well: or, if without employment by some large house, forced by the lower rates which the monopolists charge for their poorly paid-for goods, to live along on starvation wages.
In short, the man sees about him the greed of gain in all its hateful and diabolical phases—and he meditates: "This is the world I am born into; this the field I must win my successes in; there are but comparatively two classes,—the successful and proud, who govern everything, and enjoy everything, and the unsuccessful and the wretched, who have nothing but woes and toils, and who enjoy nothing—but what they have. I must make my choice between the two. I cannot suffer myself to belong to the latter class."