The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-09
President ROOSeUeu
 Sends Last Message
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1O.,

has been steady progress toward that end. The last remaining stronghold of politics in that service was the agency system, which had seen it's best days and was gradually falling to pieces from natural or purely evolutionary causes, but, like all such survivals, was decaying slowly in it's later stages It seems clear that its extinction had better be made final now, so that the ground can be cleared for larger constructive work on behalf of the Indians, preparatory to their induction into the full measure of responsible cit izenship On November 1 only IS agencies were left on the roster; with two excep- tions, where some legal questions seemed to stand temporarily in the way, these have been changed to superintendencies, and their heads brought into the classified civil service.
 Secret Service.
 Last year an amendment was incor- porated in the measure providing for the secret service, which provided that there should be no detail from the secret serv- ice and no transfer thereform. 1t is not too much to say that this amendment has been of benefit only and could be of benefit only, to the criminal classes. If deliberately introduced for the purpose of diminishing the effectiveness of war against crime it could not have been bet ter devised to this end. It forbade the practices that had been followed to a greater or less extent by the executive heads of various departments for 20 years. To these practices we owe the securing of the evidence which enabled us to drive great lotteries out of business and secure 8 quarter of a million of dollars in fines from their promoters. These practices have enabled us to discover some of the most outrageous frauds in connection with the theft of government land and govern ment timber by grSAt corporations and by individuals. These practices have en- abled us to get some of the evidence fn- dispensable in order to secure the con- victon of the wealthiest and most formid- able criminals with whom the government has to deal, both those operating in vio- lation of the antitrust law and others. The amendment in question was of beneht to no one excepting to these criminals, and it seriously hampers the government in the detection of crime and the Secur- ing of justice. Moreover, It not only affects departments outside of the treas ury but4t tends to hamper the Secretary of the Treasury himself in the effort to i utilize the employees of his department so as to best meet the requirements of the public service. It fdrbids him from pre- | venting frauds upon the customs service, from Investigating irregularities in branch hints and assay offices, and has seri- OuSly crippled l1In. u prevents tHe plo- motion of employees in the secret service, and this further discourages good effort. In its present form the restriction oper- ates only to the advantage of the crim- inal, of the wrongdoer. The chief argu- ment in favor of the provision was that the congressman did not themselves wish to be investigated by secret service men. very little of such investigation has been done in the past; but it is true that the 1 work of the secret service agents was | partly responsible for the indictment and l conviction of a senator and congress- man for land frauds in Oregon l do not l believe that it Is in the public interest 1 to protect criminals in any branch of ! the public service, and exactly as we have again and again during the past | seven years prosecuted and convicted such i criminals who were in the executive branch of the government, so in my be- lief we should be given ample means to prosecute them if found in the Legislative branch. But If this is not eonsiderered i desirable a special exception could be made in the law prohibiting the use oi the secret service force in Investigating ! members of the Congress. It would De far better to do this than to do what ac
 tually was done, and strive to prevent or at least to hamper effective action against criminals by the executive brancf of the government.