The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-08-28
SECRET SERVICE WORK
WHAT GOVERNMENT AGENTS DID
IN ONE YEAR
Arrested More Than Seven Hundred
Offenders, Recovered Over $I,OOO,-
100000 in Counterfeit and
"FIash" Money, and Destroyed
Many Tools Used by Crooks-
War Work.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27.-The report
of Chief Wilkie, Of the secret service,
is the first Of the bureau offices Of the
treasury department which has been
made this year to the secretary of the
treasury. It has been the policy of Mr..
Gage, as secretary Of the treasury, to
partment as soon after the end Of the
year to which they relate as possible.
Last year the report Of the secretary,
which is known as the financial report
was delivered to congress at the OPEN
ing OF the session, whereas in former
years 1T was not ready for delivery
until several months after conrgesa
had convened. The following is a sum-
mary OF the secret service work Of the
last fiscal year:
Arrests, 705, Of which 1877 for counter
feiting or altering paper money, 523 for
coming and Do for miscellaneous Of
lenses.
Convictions, 269; awaiting action of
courts, 200; acquitted, IA; died, Ii flu
gttive on forfeited bond, 1.
Missouri led the states with the larg-
est number Of cases. Sc; Pennsylvania,
SO; New York and Illinois, So each; Tex
as, So; Ohio, "a; Arkansas, q; Indiana,
26; Alabama, 25: Nebraska and Vir-
ginia, "a each; Georgia, %; Michigan,
Il; and the other states less than 20.
There were no cases in Maine, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont,
New Mexico, the Dakotas, Idaho, Utah
nor wyoming.
Representative value Of counterfeit
notes recovered, S117, 1856; representative
value Of coin recovered, $1,000; total,
$127265.
over $1,000 ooo,o 900 in flash" notes.
Confederate facsimiles. etc., were selz-
ed and destroyed.
TOOLS DESTROYED.
There were recovered 514 plates for
the printing of counterfeit and Flash"
notes, 17h sets of dies for counterfeit
ing coins and 1854 sets for molds for
the same purpose. The division act
ing under the advice Of the law officer
Of the department inaugurated a cru
sade against war advertising devices,
printed In imitation of United States
notes and coins, and confiscated them
wherever found. It supplied details
of men to other departments for spe-
cial investigation Of naturalization and
customs frauds, with satisfactory re-
suits.
Nineteen new counterfeits appeared
dnring the year, only five of which were
in any degree dangerous. The maker
OF three of them was arrested and con-
victed. One had so limited a circula-
ton as to be Of no danger, while the
fifth, the 500 silver certificate, still
threatens the business community with
its maker unknown.
SEEKING SPIES.
On the outbreak of hostilities be-
tween this country and Spain, the d.
vision was called on by the war depart
ment to investigate numerous cases of
persons suspected Of furnishing infor-
nation to the enemy. The demand for
this service was so great and increased
so rapidly that an emergency force
was organized outside of the regular
division, and the operatives were so
active and successful in their investI-
cations that numbers Of Spanish
agents were arrested, and the princi-
pals In the spy system were driven
from the neutral territory in which
they had taken refuge. From the spe-
cial funds set aside for the national
defence appropriation and made AVAIL
able for the necessary expenses in con-
nection with these Spanish investiea-
tons, there had been drawn at the
close Of the fiscal year $7,779.