Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-01-29
CONGRESS TRIED TO INVESTIGATE
ACCOUNTS OF DEPARTMENT
IN 1916.
POLK REFUSED STATEMENT.
Chief Executive Claimed That Secrecy
Was for Best Interests of the
Government.
HOUSE SUSTAINED PRESIDENT.

investigate the secret service, on suspi-
cion that this service has been misused
| by the government officials, history, aft
er all, is merely repeating itself.
The first attempt by Congress to inves-
tigate the holy of holies, the secret
service. was made in 1916, when a mem
Der of the House. Iugersoll by name,
charged Daniel Webster with perverting
the use of the secret service for his
own ends and brought in a resolution
asking President Polk to report to the
House just what had been the activities
of the secret service for a number of
years before.
President Polk Refuses.
This attack upon Webster in the
| House and upon the secret service, pre-
cipitated a lively fight in Congress. And
when President Polk did send a mes
| sage on the secret service to the House
he said that he did not believe it COM
patible with the good of the public serv-
ice to make public the records of the
secret service. If Congress wishes this
| information, he declared. it should re-
peal the laws which provided for abso-
lutte secrecy on the part of the President
as to the use made of the service. This
was all the satisfaction Congress got out
1t remains to be seen what the Sixtieth
| Congress Will accomplish in its efforts
to gain information regarding the secret
service from Theodore Roosevelt.
The profound secrecy of the secret
| service had never been violated until the
investigation was suggested in 1916. All
acts relating to the service were held sub
rosa. The resolution brought before the
House by e. G. Ingersoll, representative
from Pennsylvania, calling for all pa
Ders and certificates in connection with
the secret service since March 4, 1871,
to prove that Webster had misappropri
Gted funds, was a great surprise. I'm
prepared as the members of the House
were on a subject thrust thus suddenly
upon them, they nevertheless were quick
to leap to the defense of ''the godlike
man. Daniel Webster.
House Sustains President.
Others were just as quick to seize the
opportunity of q thorough investigation
into the secret service, with the inten-
ton of making all its transactions pub
lie and limiting the power of the Presi-
dent, whose control over this service had
hitherto been absolute. But the major
ity rose to the defense of the secret serv-
ice, enumerating its many efficient acts
and the necessity for profound secrecy
about. its movements. if important re-
suits were to be obtained, especially in
! llul6S Ol war, WUen secret service opera
tons must be undertaken to surprise and
defeat an enemy.
The case was clearly stated by Repre-
sentative Mckay. He said that he could
not vote for Mr.. IngersolFs resolution
Every year certain sum was placed at
the disposition of the President for the
expenses of foreign intercourse. and n
part of it could be used for secret serv-
ice. A law made at the time of the for
nation of the government authorized a
settlement at the treasury department
of the accounts on the certificate of
the President Such a resolution. said
Mr.. Mckay, would defeat the object of
the law authorizing these expenditures.
1T would, moreover, be a precedent to
justify similar proceeding in the flu
ture.
During the course of the debate in the
House the administration of President
Tyler came in for a severe scoring at
the hands of some of the representatives.
, 1t was while Webster was secretary of
state under Tyler that he vas charged
with having used some of the secret
service funds to control the party press
, an accusation which he refuted in his
great speech before the Senate Repre-
! sentatives Droomgoole and Baylv both
severely criticised the Tyler administra
! ton.
IngersolPS Argument Refuted.
The latter called it a disgrace to the
country and to the then secretary of
STATE, Mr.. Webster. But Mr. Bayly add
, ed that he did not believe the House had
the right to call upon the President to
disclose what disposition had been made
of the secret service fund.
Representative Ingersoll interposad at
this point to say that he called only for
, information to detect an abuse and neg
, lect of duty. Mr.. Bayly replied thar IL
this fhp aud IT. n
j would modify his resolution so as to re-
fer only to improper use of the secret
service funds within the United States
not contemplated by the law creating
the fund. he might change his mind and
, vote accordingly. He said, however tho :
he thought the resolution, as it stood
too strong. He pointed out that the
activities of the secret service must he
: kept from the public if they were to no
, of value to the country. Some of the
, fund was undoubtedly used, he said to
! employ foreign subjects and once their
; identity became known to their own gov
r ernments they not only became useless
to the United States. but stood in crave
danger of losing their heads.
I Representative Bayly said that ho
4 doubted the .propriety of a republican,
t government, founded upon the yirtne of
. its citizens and of which publicity in ali
2 its transactions was a vital chorao+a--
istic-even at the cost of conducting fcr.
t eign MISUNDERSTANDING this SECRET
e service fund. In this remark he strn,i.
e the keynote of all the criticism which
' has been heaped upon the secret service
S past and present. But the fact havin..
been accomplished, he continued +
: would be perfdious on the part of the
e government to publish to the world tbo
$ uses which had been made of that
! fund. He pointed to the fact that tbs
law distinctly stated that the Presi.
5 dent should not be made accounta HE
! for the manner in which this fund was
I used.
Law Enacted in 1898.
Representative Mckay called alton
ton to the fact that the first Law on his
suoJect was enacted in 1893, and sub
| Sequentiy re-enacted in 1910. The mr.
: visions of the law are as follows:
. Where any sum Of money shslI be drav-,
from the treasury under any law msSing
, appropriation for the contingent expenses
q | OF intercourse between he So