The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-29
After the Calm, the Fight.
Might Lay on the Table.

A half dozen different ways have
been suggested for accomplishing this.
Some want to vote to lay the Secret
Service portion of the message upon
the table. That would be taken as in
dicative of the Congressional displeas-
ure. Others want to pass a resolution
declaring that the President s charges
have been investigated and that there
is nothing in them to warrant the Ian
guage he has used. Probably the Sen
ate and the House will both agree upon
some such course of action, although
if the President should send in hot
special message and attack the records
of some Congressman as he is repre-
scented as planning to do, it is quite
within the probabilities that there
would be formal censure of the Presi-
dent.
At any rate a high state of mind
exists at the White House and also a
high state of mind at the Capitol. The
old ones have been barking back to
find some precedents by which to be
guided. They find nothing like it more
recently than the administration of
sent a message that the Senate and the
House thought was insulting, they vOt
ed to lay the message, or the offensive
portions of it, upon the table. There
was a somewhat similar occurrence
during the administration of Andrew
Jackson, of whom President Roosevelt
is a great admirer.
If all the facts about the operations
-
and about the proceedings in the Sem
ate and House for securing the re-
strictions are brought to light, the pub
lie will have some interesting reading
Originally the Secret Service Bureau
was organized to detect and punish
cOunterfeiters. Soon after the Civil
War counterfeiting began to increase
and the government had to take some
heroic action to protect itself and its
currency. In more recent times it be-
came necessary to protect the President
from cranks and dangerous persons.
The assassination of President McKin-
ley emphasized that necessity and ever
since President Roosevelt has been in
office there has been a detail of about
half a dozen Secret Service men who
do little else than watch out for his
an ChOIb was Hldu6 TO du-
thorize a bodyguard for the President.
but Congress thought that smacked too
much of old world monarchs and pre-
ferred that the Secret Service detail,
although not strictly legal, should con
tinue
Tawnev Foe of Black Cabinet
There were many complaints about
the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of the black cabi-
net long before last year. Represen-
tative Tawney was one of the foremost
in declaiming against the growth of
the big special agents service in several
departments. and when this special
agent service was augmented by de-
tails of Secret Service men, he argued
that it was time to call halt When
Chief Wilkie was before the appropr,-
alton committee to explain the appro-
priations that his Secret Service BIZ
reau needed, Mr.. Tawney hauled him
over the Goals and asked questions ikaf
Mr.. Wilkie was willing to answer only
on condition that his words should not
be taken down by the stenographer and
printed in public document form. as
happens with al the Appropriate IN
hearings. There was an agreement
that Mr. Wilkie should tell all he knew
but that it should not be made public.