The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-04-30
SECRET SERVICE
MEN IN SCANDAL
Used as Spoilers In a Navy Divorce
SUIT

Washington, d. G. Especially A
condltion of affairs has been unearth-
ed by Representative Tawney, the
chairman of the Committee on APP
preparations, tnat indicates that there
has grown up in Washington in the
past 10 years a national police sys-
TEN that suggests the days of Ma
poleon and Fouche. The Secret Serv-
ice, which was originally provided
for solely to prevent counterfeiting,
has apparently of recent years been
made secret police whose uses have
been as varied as they have been
delicate.
II appears from the records of the
Secret Service that certain high Of
ficials of this government have not
scrupled to descend to using the Sc
-cret Service to gather testimony for
a divorce suit. II is known that not
long ago the testimony on which
proceedings for divorce were insti-
tuted, In which a naval oifcer was
named as correspondent, was obtain
ed by members of the Secret Service.
The naval officer has been dismissed
froi the service, but the divorce SUIT
is still pending
Secrets For Cabinet Officers.
1t appears from the records of the
Secret Service that this bureau of
detectives, whose sole duty under the
law is confined to preventing coun-
terfeitiDg, has been drawn upon by
almost every department of the gov
ernment for police work. According
to the records, the State Department
has during the year employed of
these men, the Navy Department has
had 4, the Department of Justice has
had 81, the War Department has had
3, and even the Department of Com
merce and Labor has had Secret
Service men in it's employ. No de-
tails have been furnished as to the
nature of the work of these men, but
there are some ugly stories of shad-
owing that has been done by the
government secret police. 1t is even
intimated that some Cabinet officers
have in their possession "dossiers"
that Is to say, complete police re-
ports of the movements of subordi-
mates who have been watched night
and day by Secret Service men, and
whose every movement from the in
stant they have left their desks has
been shadowed and reported to their
chiefs.
Whatever occasion there may be
for the use of detectives in assisting
the government to ferret out crimes,
the use of the Secret Service men for
this purpose is wholly unauthorized
by law. Under President Cleveland
the practice grew up of detailing
Secret Service men to guard the Pres
ident, a practice which has grown,
until President Roosevelt has Secret
Service men at his heels all day,
system of surveillance which Presi
dent Roosevelt knows would prove
absolutely useless in an emergency
and to which he has always objected
most strongly. The fact that Presi
ident Mckinley was assassinated, al.
though supposed to be protected by
Secret Service men, first aroused In
Congress a disposition to have these
men confined to the sphere of their
legal work, and this feeling has
grown in proportion, as 1t has been
discovered that the men have appar-
emily become a system of federal
police spies.
Congressman Shadowcd.
Chairman Tawney, of the Appro-
priations Committee, as we'll as
Speaker Cannon, have always strongly
opposed the growth of this federal
police. Whilst the Sundry Civil bill
was being prepared the committee
had before 1t Assistant Chief of the
Secret Service Moran, and from him
they have learned the conditions that
now exists. 1t appears that when
ever a department wanted some
secret detective work done it applied
to Chief Wilkie, of the Secret Serv-
ice, who then detached some of his
men from his own payroll and
turned them over to the department
that wanted them, and the men were
| paid from the contingent fund of
that department. This, 1t appears,
is proceeding wholly outside the
law, and II is very probable that the
Sundry Civil bill, when 1t is reported
to Congress, will contain some very
stringent provisions confining the
work Of the governments detectives
to the duties prescribed by law.