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Show over, the congress provided no substitute substi-tute whatever for the secret service. In consequence the department ot Justice was obliged to develop as speedily as possible its corps of special spe-cial detectives to take tne place or the secret servlco agents, which it bad previously used and the. nucleus of this force was made up or offlcers formerly connected tvith the secret service and trained In such methods. I call your special attention to tne fact that if the department of Justice had not taken this action, there would have been a complete failure to enforce the law against many type3 of criminals and as It was, In the early months of the present fiscal year, during dur-ing the C. H. Morse prosecution in New York and in connection with certain cer-tain other important cases, serious inconvenience and anxiety were caused to the prosecuting officers . y this action of congress in depriving, them of the aid of the experienced operatives of the secret sorvlce, on whom they had been accustomed to rely. I call your attention to the further fur-ther fact that the department of Justice Jus-tice had never taken any steps to organize this force so long as u couia get men detailed to it from tho secret sec-ret service. In other words, the action ac-tion of the congress in regard to the secret service would have caused gross miscarriage of Justice, had it not been In largo part nullified by the prompt action of the department ot Justice on its own initiative and without with-out any further legislation ot any Idnd by the congress, in providing a species of secret service within the department of Justice itself. "Your committee states that it has never been the intention ot" the congress con-gress to build up a 'spy' system. The next sentence, however, advocates the building up of precisely this 'spy' system In the department of Justice. Not only have I again and again requested re-quested that the secret service be placed under the department or Justice, Jus-tice, but the chief of the secret service ser-vice has himself specifically requested request-ed on different occasions that the same course be followed. As regards the general policy which should bo tot-lowed, tot-lowed, therefore, your committee has declared for tho policy, the adoption of which I have urged and all dim- that in the neighborhood of 1,200 men of this type were employed seven sev-en years ago and somewhat over 1,900 now; that is instead of having trebled In number, as one of the statements made above, Instead of having increased increas-ed nearly twenty fold, In accordance with the other statement, they have increased but a little over one-half, , a little over fifty per cent. Moreover, of this Increase, considerably over half was in the number of men used in securing punishment of violators of the Internal revenue laws, a matter wholly outside of that discussed by any of the gentlemen who have objected ob-jected to tho use of the secret service. ser-vice. The remaining Increase is duo to such cases as the natural growth of the postoffice department, tho appointment ap-pointment of Individuals to enforce the pure food and the meat Inspection laws, the more rigorous enforcement of the safety appliance act. the suppression sup-pression of the liquor traffic among the Indians; the protection of the public lands and timber and the like. "I call your especial attention to tho fact that the great majority of these men are not primarily or malnlr, or Indeed, ordinarily, engaged on so-secret so-secret service or 'criminal Investigation Investiga-tion or inspection work at all; I have employed these terras merely because they were so employed by members of your committees and others In tho course of debates in the house and senate; but they are entirely misleading mislead-ing Insofar as they give an Impression that the , chief work of the men mentioned men-tioned was of the character assigned by Senator Hemenwav and others In the quotations given above and in similar sim-ilar statements. As regards nlneteen-twentleths nlneteen-twentleths of these men, the proportion propor-tion of their time given to secret service ser-vice work, or criminal Investigation is altogether Insignificant and Is only an occasional Incident to their ordinary duties. "To speak of these men as having become an 'army,' or as 'three thousand thou-sand men engaged In secret service.' and similar work, Is comically out of accord with the actual facts. The number was seen hundred men, of whom but a score or two are habitually habitu-ally engaged in secret service work. As a fact, the statements in the debate de-bate in both houses are so exaggerated exagger-ated as to bear no reference what- for timber entry frauds: on January 30, four addltinal men to assist in land frauds investigation; on February 27, six men; on March 4, two more men; on April 2, three more men; on April 10, six more men; on May 28 and June 10, one additional man; on August 22, three additional men. These men were not assigned to the Interior department, but they were used for the Interior department cases under the department of Justice. How such officers discharged their duties In a previous case of which I happen to have personal knowledge, Is shown by the following letter. "'Department of Justice, Dec. 2S, 1906. " 'To the Chief of the United States Secret Service, Washington: " 'Sir: The department Is In receipt re-ceipt of a letter dated the twenty-first, twenty-first, inst, from tho United States attorney at-torney - for the district of Nebraska, representing the trial and conviction i of Bartlett Richards, and other defendants, de-fendants, on the charge of conspiring to defraud the United States of public ' lands. This Is one of the cases in ' which several operatives of your office j have been omployed under Luclen C. Wheeler, and the United States attorney attor-ney takes occasion. In making his report, re-port, to commend most highly 'the very valuable aervlce of the operative In charge. Mr. Luclen G. Wheeler, and his secret service agents." " 'The department Is al90 in receipt of a letter from the secretary of the interior, dated the twenty-second Instant In-stant expressing his appreciation of the splendid work done by the United States attorney, his special assistant, and Mr. Wheeler, and transmitting a copy of a telegram which he sent to Mr." Wheeler on the twenty-first Instant, In-stant, as follows: " 'I congratulate you most heartily on the splendid work you have done in connection with the verdict, which must give renewed confidence to all those who believe thai the law must be obeyed. " 'I desire to add what has been quoted above, the appreciation of the department here of the work done by Mr. Wheeler, who has shown himself to be a conscientious and highly efficient effi-cient instrumentality in bringing about much " desired results In Nebraska. " 'Very respectfully. '"ALFRED W. COOLEY. " 'Acting Attorney General "The limitation of the use of the so-cret so-cret service was not In the least do-greo do-greo technical; It was real and actual. If such a condition as arone in tho interior in-terior department arises again In that, department, with this limitation, we should be prevented from employing tho secret service, and the result would be harmful to the government and of benefit only to the criminal, unless, of course, we are able to buli.l up a precisely similar secret service in the department nf Justice, In which case the action of the congress would have been effective only as showing its disapproval of the admirable work don by Chief Wllkle and his division. Unless the new secret service In the department of Justice does Its work In precisely similar fashion to Chiof Wllkle's 'secret service,' il will not do good and effective work, and I call your attention to the fact that tho result of the action of congress has hitherto been by the creation of tho secret service markedly to Increase the total cost of this class of work. "The facts In reference to the detection detec-tion and suppression of the land frauds and the punishment of criminals engaged en-gaged In them have been made public again and again, but In view of the report of your committee, It Is as well to refer to them once more. Secre-tary Secre-tary Hitchcock became convinced that there were widespread frauds la his department and that his own force was unable to deal with thera. Through the department of Justice he had a number of secret servlco operatives opera-tives assigned to work on the Interior department cases, together with one secret servlco operative who was assigned as-signed direct to the interior department. depart-ment. Mr. Hemenway speaks as 11 the attorney general and the sccre- (Contlnued on Page Fire) ROOSEVELT To Senator Hemenway's Attack on Secret Service in the Senate. i Washington. Feb. 20. President Roosevelt today added another stirring stir-ring chapter to the secret service controversy con-troversy In a vigorous and lengthy reply re-ply to the attacks made on this branch, of the government in a report made recently by Senator Hemenway of the senate committee on appropriation appropria-tion upholding the limitation In the scope of tho secret service, asserted that it never had been the intention of congress to build up a "spy" system and made evident reference to the report. re-port. The president declared that if the limitation of the use of the secret se-cret service had not been In force when the sensational land frauds were unearthed a few years ago, a senator, a representative and various men of wealth and high political t influence, who at that time were ' convicted, would all have escaped punishment. The president's letter is addressed to Acting Chairman Hale, of the senate appropriations committee. Characterizing as "inaccurate and misleading in various important resects," re-sects," both Senator Hemenway's report re-port and the debato which It aroused in the senate, the president presented a mass of facts and figures in defense of the secret service during the seven years of his administration. Some of the president's data is based upon information in-formation supplied by Attorney General Gen-eral Bonaparte and Secretary of the Interior Garfield, In support of the efficiency of the secret service. The president's luiit. . . t Ki 19 follows: "I have seen the report presented by Senator Hemenway on behalf of your committee in reference to the se cret service The report is In accurate and misleading in various important respects and I desire to make certain questions in reference to statements which appears therein and in the subsequent sub-sequent debate. "Until last year the secret servlco. a small body of sixty or seventy men In the treasury department under Chief Wilkle, was practically the only body of public servants engaged almost al-most purely In criminal Investigation. The service men were assigned nt different dif-ferent times, to different departments to Investigate crime and criminals. They were thus assigned on different occasions, for Instance to tho state and navy departments, but above all to the interior department and the department of Justice. During the seven years of my administration they were Instrumental In bringing to Justice great numbers of criminals. I approved tho furnishing 0f the department de-partment of Justice during the year 1907 with secret service. They "tendered "ten-dered Invaluable assistance in securing secur-ing the conviction of many criminal of desperate character and of many other offenders of great weakh and of social and political prominence. In not one single instance during these ceven years has it been shown that their action Jeopardized any man who was not connected with illegal Uars-actlons. Uars-actlons. In not a single Instance has it be.n shown that they toolc any hut proper steps against a criminal. No pretense has been made that they' did not do their work against criminate efficiently. I desire to fut on record my emphatic belief tint the secret service under Chief Wilkle has- been composed of men of an exceptionally high grade of character and capacity who have rendered exceptional service ser-vice to the public and that Chief Wllkle Wll-kle himself. In a very trying and responsible re-sponsible position, has shown quail-ties quail-ties of the highest kind, and has been one of the main stand-bys of th government. gov-ernment. No other man ln'Vhe government, employ is so dreaded ana hated by law-breakers and they especially espe-cially desire to see his activities and those of the men under him restricted In every way. "CongresB last year forbade bv law the use of the secret service men to put a stop to crime aside from counterfeiting, coun-terfeiting, and thereby not only hampered. ham-pered. Justice in other departments, but deprived the secretary ot the treasury, trea-sury, the official guardian of a billion and a half of the national actual money of the power of effectively exercising ex-ercising that guardianship. More- culties would be met by providing specifically spe-cifically and amply for carrying out that policy. Chief Wilkle should be transferred to the department ot justice jus-tice and put at the head or the force therein organized. "But In your report and the subsequent subse-quent debate, direct and Indirect attacks are made upon the 6ecret service, with a curious persistency and a curious Indifference to the tact that your committee recommends that a precisely similar secret service to the one attacked and now established, observed that no limitation is proposed pro-posed upon tho secret service and inspection in-spection work or the government. "Senator Hemenway states that 'There arc more than three thousand men now in the secret service and inspection in-spection work ot the government,' and that In the last few years, the number has trebled and that ir they wore to march through the 'streets of Washington, they would make an 'army,' while it was also stated in the same debate that at the close ot President McKlnley's administration, there were only 167 such men on tne pay rolls, whereas it was alleged that we bow have 'over three thousand and that the appropriations on that account for the last year, amounted to about $10,000,000.' These statements state-ments arc not in accoraanco with the facts "I submit to you herewith a substantially sub-stantially accurate statement of tho number of men employed on 'Secret service work, or 'criminal Investigation Investiga-tion work.' during the year that has just passed, as compared with the years 1901-02. Owing to the very brief period which I have had to get at theBC figures it was impossible to get them with entire accuracy, but they are not out of the way more than a score or so In either direction. According Ac-cording to these figures, it appears ever to the actual figures. Thus, it was stated that two-thirds of the money appropriated for the department of justice was spent In criminal Investigation. In-vestigation. As a matter of fact, tho attorney general reports that the appropriation ap-propriation so spent, construed on the most liberal' possible basis, was In reality re-ality one and seven-tenths per cent, so that the statement in question was a thirty-fold exaggeration. In the same way It was stated that $10,000,000 (or, as one gentleman put It that $20,-000.000) $20,-000.000) represented the amount expended ex-pended for the secret service work, while the totals of another set of figures fig-ures amount to $32,000,000, as money which could have been expended for such work. A table carefully compiled covering all the departments, showG the amount actually expended during the first six months of the present fiscal year in work that can by any possibility possibil-ity be considered to come under this head, as a little less than $764,000, an estimated total for the entire fiscal year of approximately $1,600,000, which goes to show that the statements referred re-ferred to contain only from five to seventeen sev-enteen per cent of warrant In fact "Senator Hemenwav quoted the sec-rotary sec-rotary of the Interior" as the authority for the statement that but one secret service man was ever detailed to the Interior department This statement of Senator Hemenway Is completely misleading The secret service men wore used In the Interior department cases at the request of the secretary of the Interior, but for convenience In operation they were assigned to the department of Justice. This has been sot forth with the utmost clearness again and again In the reports of the Interior department By turning to the list to which I have already alluded, al-luded, you will boc, for example, that in the year 1907 the department of Justice, Jus-tice, on January 5, asked for one man In a land fraud case; that on January I 25 it asked for five men to be detailed ROOSEVELT SENDS HIS REPLY. (Continued from Page Four) tary of the interior had not known of such assignments; as a matter of fact, every such assignment was made on the written request of the head of the department. The first result of the work in question was to find that various va-rious officials had failed in their duty and some of them were accordingly dismissed. ' ' 1 "The results of the assignment of the secret service men, taken, of course, in connection with the activity of the reorganized force of special agents from the interior department, arc found in the conviction of many defendants, some of them being among ihe wealthiest and most Influential people In their communities; others standing high in the political world, one of them being a senator and another an-other a representative in congress, while a second representative was indicted. in-dicted. If the limitation of the use of the secret service which your committee commit-tee upholds had been in force at' tho time of which I speak, the senator, the representatives and ' the various men of wealth and high political power were convicted, would all have escaped punisbment. I hold that such an outcome out-come would have been in the interest of the criminals only. "Once the emergency has passed, the need for the detail of the secret service men no longer existed and they were accordingly withdrawn. But this history of these land frauds shows conclusively: the need of having some secret service body subject to emergency emer-gency detail to departments on which it is not ordinarily employed. "Before the secret service was used in the interior department, as I havo outlined above, the prosecutions for land frauds were insignificant In their results. At the time there was no effective ef-fective desire shown to limit the use of the secret service. Then the secret se-cret service agents were used In connection con-nection with these land frauds and ! secured the prosecution and conviction convic-tion of many men, influential because I of their wealth or social or political prominence. Forthwith there began that active agitation against the use of the secret service which continued until tho action of the congress last spring. "Very respectfully, "THEODORE ROOSEVELT. "P. S. This letter la. in part, based upon statements furnished by the attorney at-torney general and tho secretary of the Interior. It has been carefully read-over by them and the statements of fact which it contains, so far as they refer to the department of justice and the department of the interior, have been checked and approved by them. "Enclosing ,various documents, as follows: ."Statement showing requests of department de-partment of Justice for the assignment assign-ment of secret service operatives during dur-ing the year 1907, and the first six months of 190S. "Statements of a number of men employed em-ployed on secret service or criminal investigation work during the ' year just ended as compared with the year 1901-02." |