TRADE-WAR SPIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 65

TRADE-WAR SPIES.

A WELL-PAID BRANCH OF COMMERCIAL SOLDIERY.

With the advent of the American trust in Britain, and its inevitable consequence — trade warfare of a more or less fierce character, and on a gigantic seale — the industrial spy system, winch our cousins across the ""herring pond" have brought to a, pitch of perfection undreamt of among ourselves, will also be evolved and elaborated.

The American labour kin?: wages Jabour wars as other sovereigns wage wars of conquest, of aggression, or of defence ; and he has his intelligence department as highly organised as that of any European army's headquarters staff. The Standard Oil Company, to cite a typical concrete example, employs some 800 secret police, many of them men of the highest ability and 'intelligence, and commanding proportionately large salaries..

These do not by any means confine their investigations exclusively to American soil. On the contrary, wherever petroleum is, there also are they. At Bakvi on the Caspian, at Lunebergei Hdidee in Hanovei, in Austrian Gdhcia, and by the shores of the Red Sea, to mention but a few of the prime centres of the trade, is at least one man in the pay of the giganticcorporation whose blue ban els with white heads are familiar sights \\heievci the oil is consumed or handled

Tile duty of the-,e men i« to lepoit to headquarters everything that their rivals aie doing — the umn.es of their customers, the net and gross prices they obtain for the pioceeds of their uellb. .wages paid, cost of freight 01 carriage to the various distributing points, etc. If v rival corporation starts, up anywhere 011 American ground, a whole battalion of secret police is despatched to the scene of operations, and as .soon as everything legarding its scope and resources is known, Avar is declared upon it, and continued until it either consents to amalgamation, on the company's ow n terms, or is ruined.

Another variety of spy is the professional shopper. Large* retail firms, controlling many branch shops, with perhaps thousauds of assistants, will employ men and women to go round making purchases. These people go out of then way to give as much trouble as possible, the object being, of course, to test the politeness of the firm's employees. They will even occasionally leave without making any purchase at all, after looking at nearly everything in the shop. Should any unfortunate assistant's temper not te equal to the btrain, a report will infallible read head-

quarter.". Trade sacrct police are, «f cour.se. not altogether wanting in England. It is well known, for instance, that the owners of a j certain popular proprietary blend of whisky regularly employ agents to spy upon dis~i££g& jy&Aij&ag y&a*. lac J<kg aake oi &*

extra profit, may be tempted to substitute other and inferior spirit when theirs is asked for. The spy, whose educated palate can at once differentiate his firm's blend from any other, goes from tavern to tavern iv the guise of an ordinary customer,, calling for it at each bax*, and usually getting it. When, however, a substitute is palmed off on him, as occasionally happens, he does not kick up a bother about it. Instead, he sends a report to headquarters, with the result that other agents are sent to the locality, and a case worked up against the offending landlord, which frequently entails upon that worthy very heavy penalties indeed. Other big wholesale firms employ spies, whose sole duty it is to see that retailers do not sell their (the firm's) goods helow a, certain fixed price. This sounds strange to au outsider, since it would not seem to matter much to the wholesaler whether or no the retail price of his commodities was kept up or not.

But the merchant knows better. He is aware that if the retailer can make a substantial profit on the goods he supplies him, he will push these goods in preference to others, and that conversely he will discourage by every means in his power the public from buying an article upon which his profit is infinitesimal or even paltry. He knows also that competition is so keen in most branches of retail trade that there is a constant tendency to cut prices. And he therefore employs agents to see that Brown does not sell his goods below a certain price, to the detriment of Jones, Smith, and Rc'fnson, rival traders in the same locality. If he does so, he is seen and expostulated with. If he persists, his supplies are cut off. After this fashion is kept up the price of certain well-known brands of wine and largely -advertised soaps, patent medicines, etc.

Perhaps, however, the most perfect system of trade- espionage in England is that inaugurated some time back by a certain large firm of dairymen, having its head offices in London. From the moment it leaves the cow xmtil it is in the hands of the consumer the milk supplied by them is the object of a secret but ceaseless vigilance, and every person who handles it or has to do with it in any way is kept under more or less constant surveillance. Even the farmers from whom it is purchased are watched. So are the farm servant*, their wives, and their families. This is to guard against contamination through infection by disease germs. The firm's detectives, in all sorts of disguises, patrol the railway lines over which the milk is brought to London, , and hang about the stations where it is shipped, trans-shipped, or unshipped. And, finally, the hundreds of men who daily sally forth to deliver it to the firm's customers are shadowed by a special corps of female spies, whose duty it is, besides reporting any irregularity, to occasionally don cap and apron and pop out, jug in hand, as though from a near-by private house, for a pint or a quart, as the case may be. The sample thus obtained is, of course, sent to the head office, and woe betide the unlucky person whose milk is not up to the standard adopted by the firm both as to purity and measure. — Express.