Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-01-08

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 | and 2 Of
page $3.50 and column l of page 555T
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 senators and con
gressmen. In column he refers to
officers of the navy and members Of
congress. In column /, page 555T, 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 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 | was
then informed and now understand. by
MIR. l.. w. Busbey, at that time privase
secretary to the speaker of the house.
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.
B. 1904. In this John Z. 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 l. 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. 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 division) and his
men are DESTROYS of doing the secret de-
.
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
insist that the men shall only be used
to stop counterfeiting, 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 medding of detectives whether
they represent the president. cabinet Off
GERS 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 it 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 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 departments have
asked congress for secret funds for in
vestigation. and the treasury department
wants the limitation removed from the
appropriation for suppressng counter
fntHr nrH
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-
lions.
In view of Mr.. Busbey's position
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 1 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. l 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
real, issue. This issue is simply, Does
congress desire that the government
shall have at its disposal the most
efficient instrument for the detection