Letter from the Sherman Detective Agency, Boston, Massachusetts, 1917. Maine State Museum. Gift of Caroline Lumbard, 87.62.1.
Letter from the Sherman Detective Agency, Boston, Massachusetts, 1917. Maine State Museum. Gift of Caroline Lumbard, 87.62.1.
This 1917 letter provides evidence that detective agencies actively marketed themselves to Auburn shoe company owners to undermine union activities. The author reminds Mr. Lunn, owner of the Lunn and Sweet Shoe Company, that his detective services might be as useful in the present as they have been in the past. This letter demonstrates a long history of union suppression.
In 1937, the New England Secretary of the CIO, Powers Hapgood complained to the United States Senate Civil Liberties Committee that shoe manufacturers were hiring detectives to intimidate strikers. This letter indicates that employing detectives was a long-time practice to suppress labor organizing.