Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-22
assigned to work on the Interior Depart

assigned to work on the Interior Depart
ment cases, together with one secret
service operative. who was assigned d.
rect to the Interior Department.. Mr..
Hemenway speaks as il the Attorney
General and the Secretary of the Interior
had not known Of such assignments as
matter of fact every such assignment
was made on the written request of the
had Of the department.
The first result of the work in ques-
ton was to find that various departmental
officials had failed in their duty: and some
of them were accordingly dismissed
The results Of the assignment Of the
secret service men-taken. Of course. in
connection with the activity of the repre-
sentatives Of the Department of Justice
itself and of the activity of the reorgan-
lied force Of special agents of the In
terror Department-are found in the con-
viction Of many defendants. some OF
them being among the wealthiest and
most influential people in their communi-
ties; others standing high In the political
world. one of them being a senator and
another a representative in Congress.
while second representative in Congress
was indicted.
IF the limitation OF the use of the Sc
cret service which your committee up
holds had been in force at the time of
which 1 speak, the senator. the represent
atives. and the various men Of wealth
and high political influence who were
convicted would all have escaped punish
ment. hold that such an outcome would
have been in the interest of the criminals
only.
Need Of an Emergency Service.
"Once the emergency had passed. tho
need for the detail of the secret service
men no longer existed, and they were &C
cordingly withdrawn. But the history of
these land frauds shows conslusively the
~
subject to emergency detail to depart
ments in which 1t Is not ordinarily EN-.
ployed.
Before the secret service was used In
the Interior Department as 1 have above
outlined. the prosecutions for land frauds
were insignificant In their results. At
that time there was no effective desire
shown to limit the use OF the secret serv-
ice. Then the secret service agents were
used in connection with these land frauds :;
and they secured the prosecution and
conviction of mAny men, influential be-
cause Of their wealth or their social or
political prominence. Forthwith there be-
gan that active agitation against the use
Of the secret service which continued I'M
til the action of the Congress last spring.
Very respectfully,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT"
"P S-This letter is in part based on
statements furnished by the Attorney
General and the Secretary of the Interior.
1t has been carefully read over by them,
and the statements of fact which it con-
tains, so far as they refer to the Depart
ment of Justice and the Department of
the Interior. have been checked and ap-
proved by them.
II inclose various documents as follows:
Statement showing requests of Depart
ment of Justice for the assignment of
secret service operatives during the year
-r,I t1,A Rvc$ civ Of
Statement of number of men employed
on secret service or criminal investigation
work during the year just passed, as COM
pared with the year 19O1-O2.'