The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-22
SPECIAL AGENTS
ARE AC|TATED
Secretary Shaw Gives Them a
Terrible Shaking Up for
Reasons of His Own.
GLOBE UpeciaI Washington Service,

IL u
WASHINGTON, D. c., Nov. Il. =
The special agents of the treasury de-
partment, who are the official detect
ives and censors of the customs SerV-
ice, have been reduced to state or
panic by recent acts of Secretary
Shaw. The shaking up of the special
agents division was begun several
months ago, and an incident OF this
reorganization was the transfer OF
Walter S. Chance from the position of
supervising special agent in Washing
ton to that of special agent in the
Northwest, with headquarters at st.
Paul. Mr. Chance had asked for a
transfer on account of the state of his
wffe's health, but the fact is, also, that
Secretary Shaw wished to appoint an
other man to the position of supervis-
ing officer of the division.
Within the last week Converse j.
Smith, special agent on duty at Bos-
ton was ordered to be transferred to
Galveston under circumstances which
placed Mr. Smith in an embarrassing
position. There were hints OF charges
against him, and, rather than suffer
humiliation, he resigned from the
service and his resignation was &C
known as a special agent and was con-
sfdered one of the ablest members of
the corps. He was prominently men,
toned as a candidate for assistant sec
rotary of the treasury at the time
Robert B. Armstrong was appointed.
The New Hampshire delegation IN con-
gress is mad because Mr.. Smith was
virtually forced out of the service, but
Secretary Shaw refused to heed their
protests.
1t is regarded as significant that the
secretary will soon appoint an Iowa
man, who has been a special agent only
a. short time, as special agent at BoS-
ton to succeed Smith. 1t has caused
no surprise in view of the fact that
the secretary has made many appoint
ments from his own state of Iowa, and
that many of the national banks desig-
mated as federal repositories in the
last few months are located in that
state.
Mr.. Shaw declares that the special
agents service is one Of the most cor
rupt branches of the service. 1t is true
that many cases of corrupt agents
have appeared in connection with the
smuggling of Chinese across the
Southwestern border, and in other de-
partments of the service. These Off
GERS have been weeded out as rapidly
as possible. It is obvious, however,
that the secretary has dismissed sew
etaI special agents during the last few
months against whom no serious suspi-
cion had been directed. In the case of
the enforced resignation of Special
Agent Lynck, of the Puget sound dis
trict, it was said that Mr.. Lynck had
become a part of the customs ma
chinery of the district rather than a
critic and censor of it." The plea was
made that Mr.. Lynck might be trans
ferred to another post, but this was
not done.
In the case of Supervising Special
Agent Chance, who is now at st. Paul,
there wereS never any charges of any
kind, and could be none MIR. Chance
was highly esteemed 1by Secretary
Gage as one of the most efficient Of
fieers of the treasury department. Sec
rotary Shaw never made any criticism
of Mr.. Chance, but he wished to ap-
point another man to the position. 1t
happened that Mr.. Chance had some
time before asked to be transferred.
There is a feeling of great uncer-
tainty, amounting almost to demorali-
cation, among the members of the spe-
cial agents Division, for other changes
in the corps are promised for the near
future Walter E. Clark.