New-York tribune., 1909-02-22
SECRET SERVICE REPLY
THE PRESIDENT .4NSWERS
HEMENWAY REPORT.
In Letter to Senator Hale Mr..
ROoSeueLt Calls 1t Inaccurate
and Misleading.

Washington. Feb. 21.-President Roosevelt to-
day added another stirring chapter to the Sc
cret Service controversy, in vigorous and long
reply to the attacks made on this branch of the
government in report made recently by Sena-
tor Hemenway, of the Senate Committee on Ap-
propriations Senator Hemenway. in this report
upholding the limitation in the scope of the Sc
cret Service, asserted that it never had been the
intention of Congress to build up spy sys-
tenn and with evident reference to this part of
the report the President declared that If the
limitation of the use of the Secret Service had
been in force when the sensational land frauds
unearthed few years ago. a Senator,
Representative and various men of wealth and
high political influence. who at that time were
convicted. would all have escaped punishment
The Presidents letter is addressed to Acting
Chairman Hale of the Senate Appropriations
Committee
Characterizing Inaccurate and misleading
in various important respects both Senator
Hemenway's report and the debate which it
aroused in the Senate the President presented
a mass of facts and fgures IN defence of the
Secret Service during the seven years of his ad-
ministratton- Some of the Presidents data are
based on information supplied by Attorney Cen
eral Bonaparte and Secretary of the Interior
Garfield. in support of the efficiency of the Sc
cret Service in the detection Of crime
The text Of the Presidents letter to Mr.. Hale
is as follows
have seen the report presented by Senator
Temenwav on behalf of your committee in ref
erence to the Secret Service matter The report
is inaccurate and misleading IN various impor-
tant respects, and desire to make certain cor
rections in reference TO statements which ap-
pear therein and in the subsequent debate
Until last year the Secret Service, a small
body of sixty seventy men in the Treasury
Department under Chief Wilkie, was practically
the only body of public servants engaged almost
purely in criminal Investigation The Secret
Service men We're assigned at different times to
different departments to investigate crimes and
criminals They were thus assigned on different
occasions. for instance, to the state and Navy
departments but above ail the Interior De-
partment and the Department of Justice. Dur
ing rhe seven wears of my administration they
were instrumental in bringing TO justice great
numbers Of criminals / append herewith the
occasions on which they were furnished by the
request Of the Attorney General TO the Depart
ment Of Justice during the year 1907 and the
first six months Of 1908
They rendered invaluable assistance in secur-
ing the conviction OF many criminals OF desper-
ate character and of many other offenders of great
wealth and Of social and political prominence In
not one single instance during these seven years
has 1t been shown that their action jeopardiZed
any man who not connected with illegal
transactions In not a single instance has 1t
been shown that they took any but proper steps
against a criminal No pretence has been made
that they did not do their work against criminals
efficiently. / desire TO put on record my en-
phatic belief that the Secret Service under Chief
Wilkie has been composed OF men OF an eX-
who have rendered exceptlona! service 10 the
r,,,blic and that Chief Wilkie himself, in a very
trying and responsible POSITION mas mas Sho"n quaIs
tiles of the highest kind. and has been one or
the main standbys OF the government No other
man in the government employ is so dreaded and
hated by lawbreakers, and they especially de-
sire to see his activities, and those of the men
under him. restricted in every way.
Congress last year forbade by law the use Of
the secret Service TO put stop to crime
aside from counterfeitng, and thereby not only
hampered justice in other departments but de-
,-rf41 411a TTTac TarEvT hn nf TTlQ
guardian of a billion and q half of the nations
actual money, of the power effectively to exer-
else that guardianship Moreover the congress
provided substitute whatever for the secret
Service In consequence the Department OF
Justice obliged TO develop as speedily as
possible its own corps OF special detectives 70
take the place of the Secret Service agents
which il had previously used, and the nucleus OF
this force was made up of officers formerly con-
,actad y,i+I the Secret Service and trained in
it's methods I call your especial attention to
the fact that If the Department Of Justice had
not taken this action there would have been
complete failure TO enforce the law against many
tvpes of criminals: and, as 1t was in the early
months of the present fiscal year during the
Morse prosecution in New York and IN connec-
tion with certain other important cases, serious
inconvenience and anxiety were caused TO the
prosecuting officers by this acton OF congress In
depriving them Of the aid OF the experienced
operatives of the Secret Service. on whom they
had been accustomed to rely.
I call your attention 10 the rurther fact that
the Department of Justice had never taken any
stems 10 organize this force so long it could
Ger men detailed to ii from the Secret Service.
In other words the action of the Congress in
reference to the Secret Service would have
caused the grossest miscarriage or justice had
II not been in large part nullified by the prompt
action of the Department OF Justice, on its own
initiative and without any further legislation of
anv kind by the Congress. in providing species
of secret service within the Department of JUS
tice itself
ATTACKS on THE SYSTEM.
Your committee in its report states that il
lsas never been the intention of the Congress TO
~,
however: advocates the building up of precisely