The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1908-12-29

ana the days viii rapidly slip away to
the Christmas holidays, when once more
Washington, with its many kaleido.
scopic changes, will become as quiet,
for season, as country village.
After the Calm. the Fight.
Following the reassembling of Con-
gress, Of course, will come on the little
affair of the President and Congress
in the matter of the Secret Service
clause of the Message. The President
intends to fight the matter to finish,
and the Congressman are only planning
on what they can do to rebuke the
Executive for the insinuations made by
him that the Congressman have any.
thing to fear from a Secret Service in
vestigation.
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 IS 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
| th.a- Oh 4 l.. a
| special message and attack the records
| of some Congressman as he is repre-
sented as planning to do, it is quite
within the probabilities that there
would be formal censure of the Presi
dent.
At any rate 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 presidents by which to be
guided. They find nothing like it more
recently than the administration of
| President Andrew johnson. When he
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 great admirer.
If all the facts about the operations
of the Secret Service in recent years
and about the proceedings in the Sen.
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 it's
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
safety. An effort was made to au.
thorize 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
Tawney Foe of Black Cabinet.
There were many complaints about
| the ACKNOWLEDGMENT 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 aprro.
priations that his Secret Service Blu.
reau needed, Mr.. Tawney hauled hin
over the Goals and asked questions That
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 81 the appropriately IN
hearings. There was an agreement
that Mr. Wilkie should tell all he knew
but-that it should not be made public.
Versions as to what Mr.. Wilkie said
differ. Some say he declared the Pres.
ident had embarrassed him greatly by
insisting upon Secret Service men doing
certain work, but that there was moth.
ing for him to do but TO obey or to re-
sign In any event the appropriations
committee voted the restrictions into
the appropriation law as proviso
When the bill got over to the Senate
that proviso was struck out by the
Senate appropriations committee, OF
which Mr.. Hale, now one of the most
insistent for censure of the President
was acting chairman. However, when
the bill went into conference, Mr.
. Tawney was able to have it restored
I and so it became law
The resentment at the President I
action in going ahead and doing his
win without regard especially to the
statutes, has long been very, strong
with the Senate and House appropria
, tons committees. They have to watcl
the expenditures of the government I
moneys, and as abuses are constantly
: spriuging up, the annual appropria
e tons bills are constantly hedged about
with provisos calculated to make tn,
executive departments observe thu