Taking Thieves to Catch a Thief
Harlan said that he had been in constant touch with Benson, and was yet. Burns wanted to know how he expressed himself in his communication. Harlan recited a sample letter. "Write it," said Burns, and Harlan wrote a letter to Benson. Then Burns wanted to know how Harlan addressed this man, and he made him prepare a typical envelope. After Harlan had gone, Burns put the letter in the envelope and mailed it. He believed Harlan would write another letter warning Benson, and, sure enough, no reply was received from Benson to the first letter. So Burns called Harlan down hard.
"You are still playing with Benson," he said. "You wrote and stopped him from answering that letter which you gave me as a sample and which I posted."
Burns did not say, of course, that he only guessed this. He talked as if he knew it and Harlan, thinking no doubt that the detective had spied upon him, admitted having warned Benson. In his humiliation Harlan was brought completely under the will of the detective who had a use for the man. He ordered Harlan to sit down and write again to Benson, and this time Burns dictated the letter. It was brief. It told Benson that "everything was O.K. once more." Expecting that the contradictory letters would puzzle and alarm Benson, the detective hoped that he would come in person to Washington; and that's just what Benson did do.
When Benson arrived, one of Burns' shadows was on him, and when he sent for Valk, which he did at once. Burns sent for Valk. Valk reported first to Burns and Burns told him to go to Benson.
"But what if Benson offers me money?"
"Take it," said Burns, "and bring it to me."
And Benson did offer Valk money, and Valk took the money, or, as Benson called it, the "pictures." After talking about the investigation and being reassured, he proceeded to talk "business." He had new schemes to work, new reserves to put through, and after arranging for these, Benson asked Valk about the "market for pictures." Valk said they were scarce. Benson, he says, stepped into his bathroom and, coming out, asked Valk if he didn't want to go in there, too. Valk went in and he found $100 lying on the washbasin.
Exactly the same thing happened in the same way when Harlan (similarly instructed by Burns) called, except that the Major found $200 in the bath-room. Both men brought their "finds" to Burns, who marked the "pictures" and felt finally that his case was complete. He so reported. Benson was arrested. He jumped his bail of $5,000 and went to New York, but Burns had him rearrested and put him under a bond of $20,000. Benson protested and he carried his protest from the United States Commissioner up through the United States Circuit clear to the Supreme Court of the United States, but he was held. And thus he and Hyde, the business men, and Dimond, their attorney, and Schneider, their tool, were indicted for conspiracy to defraud their government.
The politicians (Prior, Allen, Taggart, et al.) who conspired with them were not indicted with them. They are to go free. Having been compelled finally to serve, as state's witnesses, the government they were betraying, they are to have immunity. That was, and it is, the policy of these government investigations; and it is a practical, official recognition of the theory that business is the source of political corruption; that "bad" politicians are mere agents of "good" business men. Business men protest bitterly at this policy. They say that a man can't do business without bribing these bad politicians, and they say true. A lot of bad American business couldn't go on without corrupting politics and government. Railroad men have told me they must, and they do, corrupt every state they pass through. Public utility men plead they have to contribute to the corruption of the cities,—all the cities,—which grant them privileges. But that doesn't justify them. Does it? To an uncommercialized mind, even good business seems to be less important than good government. And if there is something about these businesses which makes it necessary for the managers of them to degrade themselves, debase their neighbors, and debauch their cities, their states, and the United States, why, then, it would seem that we are to conclude, not that our institutions are to go, but that all such businesses must be either taken away from private owners or put under public control.
