Corporations Auxiliary Company

Corporations Auxiliary Company was a corporation created to conduct "the administration of industrial espionage", essentially, providing labor spies who could propagandize, sabotage, or act as goons in exchange for payment. In 1921 the Corporations Auxiliary Company was known to masquerade under a dozen different names, and specialized at electing its agents to union office in order to control or destroy unions.

In 1903, Corporations Auxiliary Company, which operated out of the Chamber of Commerce building in Cleveland, sent a letter signed by that company's vice president to the D.R. Whiton Machine Company of New London, Connecticut, offering to supply labor spies for that company. Corporations Auxiliary Company reported that it was able to furnish "workmen of all classes for various corporations" who would "work and live and act with the working men of their establishments, and to keep employers in complete touch with all movements among the men, to give advance information of labor disturbances, and to make possible the discharge of aggressive agitators before their objects have been accomplished." The letter declared that Corporations Auxiliary Company had paid representatives in labor unions, "high up in their confidence," reporting to employers, and in some cases controlling the unions. The letter stated,

The Corporations Auxiliary Company, through its system of industrial inspection, is prepared to keep a manufacturer closely and continuously advised of conditions in his own particular plant, of breakage and leakage, of agitation and organization, of the dissatisfaction and discontent, if any, that exists, and of the feeling of the workmen at all times, making it possible to give promotion strictly on merit, eradicate any discontent or abuse, and render it easier to establish and maintain a constant harmonious relation between himself and his employes [sic], thus assisting in preventing strikes and all labor difficulties. This system is not an experiment, but has become recognized in many factories, railroads, &c., as a necessity, as much so as insurance.

The company offered to furnish "union or non-union men, American Federation of Labor men, or any other class of men desired. Other services could not be written down, the letter stated, but a phone call would follow.

In a subsequent phone call from the General Manager of Corporations Auxiliary Company, a representative stated that some of the informants currently operating in existing businesses were officers of unions, and delegates to labor conventions, both state and national, and on official union boards. The General Manager state that he had been in the business for seventeen years. Any particular operation would be tailored to the "interests and desires of their clients, from breaking up unions to simply running them quietly and avoiding trouble." Corporations Auxiliary Company also obtained advance notice through their spy network of proposed labor legislation, such that it could be promptly and efficiently opposed. In this particular instance, however, the letters and phone call reached Lucius E. Whiton of D.R. Whiton Machine Company, who took offense at the secret nature of such a business, and published a pamphlet at his own expense to alert others to the offered practices.

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