Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1909-01-08

ting down Of the appropriation vitality
necessary il the interstate commerce
commission was to carry into effect
the twentieth section Of the Hepburn
law. l added: THE provision about
the employment Of the secret service
men will work very great damage to
the government in its endeavor to pre-
vent and punish crime. There is no
more foolish cutlery than this against
spies Only criminals need fear our
detectives" Il lnclose copy Of the
whole letter, marked appendix c."
The postscript is blurred in my copy
book, and two or three Of the words
cannot be decipheredl Appendix c
is a letter dated April 80 1908, from
President Roosevelt to Speaker Can
non protesting against the cutting
down in the sundry civil bill Of the APP
preparation for secret service work.
THE only people benefited would be
the very worst Of the big railroad men
whose misdeeds we are trying to pre-
vent or correct" We're the words Of the
PRESIDENT These methods proved IN
availlng to prevent the wrong Messrs.
Tawney and Smith and their fellow
members on the appropriations com
mittee paid no heed to the protests,
and as the obnoxious provision was
Incorporated in the sundry civil bill it
was impossible for me to consider or
discuss it on its merits, as l should
have done had it been in a separate
bill. Therefore I have now taken the
only method available. that of discuss
ing it in my message to congress, and
as all efforts to secure what l regard
as proper treatment Of the subject
without recourse TO plain speaking had
failed l have spoken plainly and d.
rectly and have set forth the facts in
explicit terms.
Here the president gives instances
In which the secret service men have
been instrumental in securing convic-
lions of offenses against federal laws.
citing especially the land fraud cases
In connection with the Nebraska
the government has by de-
cree secured the return to the govern
ment Of over a million acres Of graz
ing land, in Colorado of more than
1000 acres Of mineral land. and suits
ire now pending involving 100000
acres more.
Departments Agents Dishonest.
All these investigations in the land
cases were undertaken in consequence
If MI Hitchcock, the then secretary
If the interior. becoming convinced
hat there were extensive frauds COM
nitted in his department, and the
of the frauds were so
that he was afraid to trust
lis own officials to deal in thorough
,oing fashion with them. One of the
secret service men accordingly resign
d and was appointed in the interior
department. to carry on this work. The
irst thing he discovered was that the
pecial agents division or corps of de-
ectives of the land office of the inte-
ior department was largely under the
ontrol of the land thieves. and in con-
sequence the Investigations above re-
erred to had to be made by secret
ervice men.
If the present law, for which Aessrs.
'awney, Smith and the other gentle
zen l have above mentioned are re-
ponsible. had then been in effect this
ctiOn would have been impossible and
lost of the criminals would unques-
ionably have escaped No more strik-
ne instance can be imagined Of the
esirability of having a central corps
f skilled investigating agents who can
t any time be assigned, if necessary
/ large numbers, to investigate some I
iolation of the federal statutes. in no
latter what branch of the public serv- I
e. In this particular case most of .
le men investigated who were public +
srvants We're in the executive branch
f the government But in Oregon, /
here an enormous acreage of fraudu- /
ntly alienated public land was recoy-
ed for the government. a United
tates senator. Mr.. Mitchell and a
lember of the lower house. Mr.. VIII
amsOn. were convicted on evidence
1tained by men transferred from the
,cret service. and another member Of
,ngress was indicted.
Stopped Naturalization Frauds.
From 1901 to 1901 successful inves-
CATION of naturalization affairs was
ade by the secret service. with the
suit of obtaining hundreds of convic-
ons of conspirators who We're convict
of selling fraudulent papers of nat
'alization. subsequently congress
Used a very wise law providing a
,ecial service and appropriation for
e prevention of naturalization frauds,
1t unfortunately at the same time
at the action against the secret serv-
= was taken congress also cut down
e appropriation for this special serv-
2. with the result of gripping the
tort to stop frauds in naturalization.}
lie fugitives Greene and Gaynor, i'm
icated in a peculiarly big government
ntract fraud. were located and ar
sted in Canada by the secret service.
d. thanks to this. they have since
ne to prison for their crimes.
The secret service was used to assist