Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1909-01-04


bureau to dictate TO Inem as the price or
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 suppressing counter
feiting. This shows q tendency toward
Foucheism and 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-
tiOnS.
! 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 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
Z fact.
4 Real Issue Named.
! But all of this is of insignificant i'm
portance compared with the main, the
real, issue. This issue is simply. Doe:
congress desire that the government
shall have at its disposal the mos
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 wal
emphatically an action against the in
terest of justice and against the inter
est Of law abiding people and in its eff
feet Of benefit only to lawbreakers.
am not now dealing with motives
Whatever may have been the motiv,
that induced the action of which
speak, this was beyond all question tn
effect of that action. Is the house nov
willing to remedy the wrong?
For long time / contented mysel
1
house not to permit the wrong. speak
ing informally on the subject witt
those members who, l believed, kney
anything of the matter and commu
, nicating officially only In the ordinar.
channels. as through the secretary o
the treasury. In letter to the speake
On April 80. protesting against the cut
. ting down Of the appropriation vital,
necessary If the interstate commerce
commission was to carry into effec
the twentieth section Of the Hepburn
J law, l added: 1.-The provision abou
the employment of the secret servic,
men will work very great damage t.
, the government In its endeavor to pre-
: vent and punish crime. There Is NJ
more foolish outcry than this agains
5 Spies Only criminals need fear oul
: detectives" Il inclose copy Of tn,
whole letter, marked appendix c.
E The postscript is blurred in my cop.
t book, and two or three of the words
J cannot be deciphered) [Appendix {
, is a letter dated April 80, 1908, from
President Roosevelt to Speaker Can
$ non protesting against the cuttin:
down in the sundry civil bill of the ap
preparation for secret service work
1.-The only people benefited would b.
e the very worst Of the big railroad mel
whose misdeeds we are trying to pre-
/ went or correct" were the words Of tn
! PRESIDENT These methods proved un
8 availing to prevent the wrong. Messrs
4 Tawney and Smith and their fellow
a | members on the appropriations com
( mittee paid no heed to the protests
{ and as the obnoxious provision wa
: Incorporated In the sundry civil bill
9 was impossible for me to consider o
8 discuss 1t on its merits, as l shout,
: have done had 1t been in n separat
: bill. Therefore l have now taken til
: only method available, that of discuss
e ing it In my message to congress, an,
> as all efforts to secure what l regar,
:. as proper treatment Of the subjec
t without recourse to plain speaking ha,
: failed I have spoken plainly and d.
;. rectly and have set forth the facts Il
n explicit terms.
t Here the president gives instance
= in which the secret service men hav
been instrumental in securing convit
G lions Of offenses against federal law:
: citing especially the land fraud cases.
In connection with the Nebrask
prosecution the government has by dc
cree secured the return to the govern
ment Of over million acres Of graz
ing land, In Colorado of more tina
1000 acres Of mineral land. and suit
are now pending involving 10000
acres more.