Los Angeles herald., 1909-02-16
SECRET SERVICE
MEN RIDICULED
FEDERAL OFFICIALS BELITTLE
GOVERNMENT SLEUTHS
LIMITATION ON DETECTIVES Is
DECLARED IMMATERIAL
Crime Ferreters Tested Fully in Sew
eraI Departments Is Charge, and
Are Proved Useless to
Government
[By Associated Press.l

by Associated Press.1
WASHINGTON, Feb. 15.zRespon-
| sible officials connected with the detec-
tion of crime in four different branches
of the government have just testified in
| substance that the limitation on the use
of the secret service operators of the
treasury department has not been in
furious to their respective services.
They are Chairman Knapp of the in
terState commerce commission; William
l.. Soleau, disbursing clerk of the de-
partment of commerce and labor; G. w.
TroWbridge; chief of revenue agents,
and Assistant Secretary James B. Rey-
nolds of the treasury department, in
charge of the customs service.
Their testimony taken during hear
ings on the sundry civil appropriation
bill, was made public today by the
house committee on appropriations.
With the testimony of Secretary Gar
field of the interior department and of
Attorney General Bonaparte it is relied
on by the committee to refute the claim
that the limitation placed on the secret
service of the treasury department has
worked to the interest of the criminal
| classes.
Disapprove of Bureau
All who were examined on the sub
ject disapproved of the suggestion of a
central detective bureau and all eX-
pressed satisfaction with existing con-
ditions. None could recall a demand
for a secret service operative of the
/ treasury department during the last
year.
Mr.. Soleau explained that in the de-
partment of commerce and labor, are
immigration inspectors and special
agents engaged in investigating ques-
| tiOnS of violations of the law So
closely allied with the administration
are the services of these investigators
that he doubted very much if the work
could be done so effectively by a cen
| trail bureau controlled by some one in
dependent of the department.
He spoke of an imaginary violation
! Of the Chinese exclusion act.
1T seems to me it would cripple the
service to throw that case into an in
dependent bureau" he said, when we
already have men on the ground who
are able to take up those cases and
who know what to do with them on
| account of their familiarity with the
Chinese exclusion matters.
Returns to Former Duties
'I think it can be fairly said,'' con-
tinued Mr.. Soleau, that wherever we
have had a man separated from some
| service where he was an expert in
doing that kind of work. we take him
1 w
ever little work he was doing was ac-
complished he resigned from us and
went back to the place where he was
before.
eve know very well that the law
| does not permit the detail from one de-
partment to another, and as the fiscal
and financial agent of the department
l can say without fear of anybody con-
| tradicting it, that accounts do not pass
my office in contravention of law
IF the 'overcoat' is in there, some
| body so successfully did it that my
experts cannot find it and it passes. I
| hope, Mr.. Tawney, that our service will
not be included in a proposition like
that, but it would make, lots of
trouble"
Chairman Knapp explained that in
the interstate commerce commission
are a few men employed to get infor-
nation about possible infractions of
the law.
Never Employed Them
He added the commission had never
used treasury department secret
| service man for any purpose.
Assistant Secretary Reynolds de-
| scribed the force of special agents and
! confidential agents engaged in detect
ing fraud upon the customs revenues.
Since he came into office in 1905. he
| instances where the secret service
division had been called upon for as
| Sistance.
1--WE used secret service man once
to watch man who had been convict
ed of assisting in silk frauds in New
York while his case was being taken
up to the circuit court, but unfor-
| tunately the man got away" Mr.
| Reynolds told the committee, During
the last year, he said, his department
! had no reason to desire the detail OF
| any secret service men.
Mr.. Trowbridge expressed little faith
| in operatives in the secret service
| division of the treasury department for
suppression Of Illicit distilling or fer
reting out violations Of the oleomar-
| garine act.
'"They are a failure so far as our
bureau is concerned declared the
chief of the revenue agents.
"I have tried them. 1 gave them a
fair test, two bright fellows at SO per
day each and expenses for two months,
and they did not meet with any sue
| cess"
/