Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-05

ton the government has by decree Sc
cured the return to the government Of over
a million acres of grazing land; in Colo
RADIO of more than 1000 acres of mineral
land. and suits are now pending involving
10000 acres more.
what Hitchcock Discovered.
An these Investigations in the land cases
were undertaken in consequence OF Mr..
Hitchcock, the then secretary of the In
terror, becoming convinced that there were
extensive frauds committed in his depart
ment: and the qualifications of the frauds
were so far-rcaching that he was afraid
to trust his own officials to deal in thor
oughgoing fashion with them. One OF the
secret service men accordingly resigned
| and was appointed in the Interior depart
ment to carry on this work. The first
thing he discovered was that the special
agents division or corps Of detectives of
the land office of the Interior department
was largely under the control Of the land
thieves; and in consequence the investiga-
lions above referred to had to be made by
secret service men.
If the present law, for which Messrs
Tawney, Smith and the other gentlemen
| have above mentioned are responsible
had then been in effect, this action would
have been impossible, and most of the
criminals would unquestionably have es'
caped. No more striking instance can be
Imagined of the desirability of having q
central corps of skilled investigating agents
who can at any time be assigned, II neces'
sary in large numbers to investigate SOM
violation of the federal statutes, In no mat
ter what branch of the public service
In this particular case most of the men
investigated who were public servants
were in the executive branch OF the gov
ernment. But in Oregon. where an enor'
n oLs acreage of fraudulcntly alienated
public lands were recovered for the gov
eminent. a United States senator, Mr.,
Mitchell. and a member of the lower
house, Mr.. williamson, were convicted on
evidence obtained by men transferred from
the secret service. and another member OF
congress was indicted.
investigation OF naturalization.
From 1901 to 1904 a successful investiga-
ton of naturalization affairs was made
by the secret service. with the result OF
obtaining hundreds Of convictions OF con-
spirators who were convicted of selling
fraudulent papers of naturalization Sub
sequently, congress passed a very wise
lew providing for a secret service and APP
preparation for the prevention of natural
ization frauds; but unfortunately, at the
same time that the action against the
secret service was taken, congress also
cut down the appropriation for this sps-
cial service. with the result OF Gripping the
effort TO stop frauds I'm naturalization
The fugitlves, Greene and Gaynor. i'm
plicated in a peculiarly big government
ccI tract fraud, were located and arrested
In Canada nv the secret service, and
thanks to this they have since gone tc
prison for their crimes.
The secret service was used to assist in
the Investigation Of crimes under the
peonage laws. and owing partly thereto
numerou convictions were secured and the
Objectionable practice was practically
stamped out, at least in many districts
The most extensive smuggling of silk and
opium in the history of the Treasury de
partment was investigated by agents Of
the secret service in New York and Seat.
tie and a successful prosecution OF tho
offenders undertaken. Assistance OF tht
utmost value was rendered to the Departs
ment Of Justice in the Beef trust investi
cation at Chicago, prosecutions were fol
lowed up and fines inflicted. The cottoT
leak scandal In the Agricultural depart
ment was investigated and the responsible
parties located. What was done in con.
~nection with lottery Investigations Is dis
closed in a letter Just sent TO me by tn,
United States attorney for Delaware, run
ming as follows:
The destruction Of the Honduras Ma
uonal Lottery company, successor TO tn,
the work OF the secret service.
This excellent work was accomplished b,
Mr. Wilkie and his subordinates.