The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1909-01-08
these assertions, couched as Questions,

tneSe assertions, cOucned as Questions,
he made one positive declaration that
this secret service at one time was
used for the purpose Of looking into
the personal conduct Of member of
congress" This argument Of Mr.. Sher-
ley, the only real argument as to the
merits Of the question made on behalf
of the committee on appropriations,
| will be found In columns 1 and Of
page 5000 and column 1 of page 5557
Of the Congressional Record. In col
umn 1 of page 5556 Mr.. Sherley refers
to the improperly Of permitting the
secret service men to investigate men
In the departments, officers Of the
army and navy and senator's and con-
gressmen. In column 2 he refers to
| officers of the navy and members Of
congress. In column l, page 5557, he
refers only to members Of congress.
His speech puts most weight on the
| investigation of members of congress.
Newspaper Article Reproduced.
| What appears in the record is filed
out and explained by an article which
appeared in the Chicago Inter Ocean
| of Jan. 3, 1904, under a Washington
headline and which marked the begin
ming Of this agitation against the Sc
| cret service. 1t was special article
of about 5000 words, written, as l was
then informed and now understand, by
Mr.. l.. w. Busbey, at that time private
| secretary to the speaker of the house.
l inclose a copy Of certain extracts
from the article, marked Appendix b.
[Appendix b consists of an article
from the Chicago Inter Ocean of Jan.
3, 1904. In this John e. Wilkie, chief
Of the secret service of the treasury
department, is described as ambitious
of becoming "the Fouche Of the United
States" in imitation Of Fouche, chief
of the secret police of Napoleon /. The
article declares that the secret service
bureau exists without warrant of con-
gressional action and that congress has
always been antagonistic to the bu-
reau.l 1t contained an utterly unwar-
ranted attack on the secret service
division of the treasury department
and its chief. The opening paragraph
includes, for instance, statements like
the following:
He Che chief OF the dlvsion) and his
men are DESTROYS of doing the secret de-
tective work for the whole government
and are not particular about drawing the
line between the lawmakers and the law
breakers. They are ready to shadow the
former as well as the latter
Then. after saying that congress will
N a
TO stop couuterfeiting, the article goes
on:
Congress does not intend to have a
Fouche or any other kind OF minister of
police to be used by the executive de-
partments against the legislative branch
OF the government. 1t has been so used.
and it is suspected that it has been so
used recently. The legislative
branch of the government will not toler-
ate the meddling of detectives, whether
they represent the president, cabinet off,
or only themselves. Con-
gressmen resented the secret interference
OF the secret service men who for weeks
Swallowed some of the most respected
members of the house and senate. .
When 1T was discovered that the secret
service men were shadowing congress
men there was a storm of Indignation at
the capitol. and the bureau came near
being abolished and the appropriation
for the suppression of counterfeiting cut
off. AT another time the chief of
the secret service had his men shadow
congressman with a view to involving
them in scandals that would enable tho
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
~ fhA - &c
asked congress for secret funds for in
vestigation, and the treasury department
wants the limitation removed from the
appropriation for suppressing counter
feiting. This shows a tendency toward
Foucheism and a secret watch on other
officials than themselves.
At the time of this publication the
work of the secret service which was
thus assailed included especially the in
vestigation Of great land frauds in the
west and the securing of evidence to
help the department Of justice in the
beef trust Investigations at Chicago,
which resulted in successful prosecu-
tons.
In view Of Mr.. Busbey's position l
have accepted the above quoted state
ments as fairly expressing the real
meaning and animus of the attacks
made in general terms on the use of
the secret service for the punishment
of criminals. Furthermore, In the per-
Torrance Of my duty to endeavor to
find the feelings Of congressman on
public questions Of note l have fire.
quently discussed this particular mat
ter with members of congress- and on
such occasions the reasons alleged to
me for the hostility of congress to the
secret service, both by those who did
and by those who did not share this
hostility, were almost invariably the
same as those set forth in Mr.. Busbey's
article. i may add, by the way, that
these allegations as to the secret serv-
ice are wholly without foundation in
fact
Real Issue Named.
But all of this Is of Insignificant i'm
portance compared with the main, the
zeal, issue. This issue is simply, Does
congress desire that the government
shall have at its disposal the most
efficient instrument for the detection
Of criminals and the prevention and
punishment of crime, or does 1t not? |
The action of the house last May was