Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-01-05

dix A the letter referred to. 1t makes
no such admission as that which MI
TaWney alleges. 1t contains on the
contrary, as you will see by reading
J, it, an emphatic protest against any
such abridgment of the rights dele
; gated to the secretary of the treasury
by existing law and concludes by
: asserting that he lis quite within his
rights i'll thus employing the service
of these agents" and that the proposed
modification which Mr. Tawney sue
ceeded in carrying through would be
distinctly to the advantage of violat-
ors Of criminal statutes of the United
States" I call attention to the fact
that in this letter Of Secretary Cortel-
you to Mr. Tawney, as in my letter to
the speaker quoted below, the explicit
statement is made that the proposed
change will be for the benefit of the
/ criminals, statement which I sim
Il ply reiterated in public form in my
message to the congress this year, and
I which is also contained in effect in
the report of the secretary Of the
treasury to the congress.
Quotes a Congressman
careful reading Of the Congress
sional Record will also show that
practically the only arguments adj
vanced in favor of the limitation pro-
posed by Mr. Tawney's committee, be-
yond what may be supposed to be con-
tanned by implication in certain SEN
fences as to abuses" which were not
specified. We're those contained in the
repeated statements of Mr. Sherley.
Mr. Sherley stated that there had been
| pronounced abuses growing out of
the use of the secret service for pur-
poses other than those intended" put
ting his statement in the form of a
question, and in the same form fur
ther stated that the private conduct
of Members of Congress, Senator's. !"
and others ought not to be investigat-
ed by the secret service, and that they
/ should not investigate a Member of
| Congress" who had been accused of
conduct unbecoming a gentleman and
a Member Of Congress- In addition
TO these assertions couched as ques-
tons he made one positive declaration,
/ that This Secret Service at one time
was used for the purpose Of looking
into the personal conduct of a Mem
Der of Congress- This argument of
Mr. Sherley, the only real argument as
to the merits of the question made on
behalf of the committee on appropria-
tons, will be found in columns and
2 of page 1855, and column 1 of page
b557 of the Congressional Record In
column l of page 1856 Mr. Sherley
refers to the Improperly of permit
ting the secret service men to investi-
gate men in the departments, officers
| of the army and navy, and senators
and congressman; in column he
refers to officers of the navy and
members of congress; in column 1,
page 5557, he refers only to mem
/ bers of congress. His speech puts
most weight on the investigation of
members of congress-
| "Chief WiIISic as Fouche'
/ What appears in the record is filled
out and explained by an article which
| appeared in the Chicago Inter- O ean
OF January 3, 1904. der a WASH
| ington headline. and which marked
the beginning of this agitation against
the secret service. 1t was special
article of about 5000 words, written,
| as | was then informed and now UNI
derstand, by L. w. Busbey, at that
time private secretary to the speaker
of the house. / inclose a copy of
certain extracts from the article
marked Appendix 3. It contained an
utterly unwarranted attack on the
secret service division of the treasury
department and its chief The open
ing paragraph includec, for instance
statements like the following:
He (the cEief of the division) and
his men are DESTROYS of doing the
secret detective work for the whole
government and are not particular
about drawing the line between the
/ lawmakers and the lawbreal1ers. They
are ready to shadow the former as
we'll as the latter.
TEen. after saying that congress will
insist that the men shall only be
used to stop counterfeiting. the ar
ticle goes on:
Congress does not intend to have a
Fouche or any other kind of minis
! ter of police to be used by the exc
| cutive departments against the legis-
latlve branch of the government IT
has been so used, and it is suspect
Ell that it has been so used recently
The legislative branch of
! TIE government will not tolerate the
Imeddling of detectives, whether they
represent the president, cabinet Off
GERS, or only themselves. y
Congressman resented the secret inter
ference of the secret service men, who
for weeks Swallowed some of the most
respected members of the house and
senate. When it was dis
covered that the secret service mer
were shadowing congressman there
was storm of Indignation at the
capitol and the bureau came near be-
ing abolised and the appropriation for
| the suppression of counterfeiting cut
| off. At another time the
chief of the sercret service, had his
men shadow congressman with a view
to involving them in scandals that
would enable the bureau to dictate
to them as the price of silence
The secret service men have
shown an inclination again to shadow
members of congress, knowing them
to be lawmakers, and this is no joke
Several of the department have ask.
! ed congress for secret funds for in
vestigation, and the treasury depart
ment wants the limitation removed
/ from the appropriation for suppress.
ing counterfeiting. This shows ZEN
dcncy toward FoucSeism md a secret