The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1909-01-08

| pIy spoke or the action or the mouse
as a whole, and as apparently there is
| desire that l should thus discriin-
mate i will state that think the re-
sponsibility rested on the committee
on appropriations under the lead of the
members whom have mentioned.
Replies to Request For Evidence.
] Now as to the request of the con-
| gress that / give the evidence for my
statement that the chief argument in
| favor of the provision was that the
congressman did not themselves wish
to be Investigated by secret service
men.
The part of the Congressional Record
to which l have referred above en-
| tirely supports this statement. Two
distinct lines Of argument were fol-
lowed in the debate. One concerned
| the question whether the law war
ranted the employment of the secret
service in departments other than the
treasury, and this did not touch the
merits Of the service In the least. The
other line of argument went to the
merits of the service, whether lawfully
or unlawfully employed, and here the
chief if not the only argument used
was that the service should be cut
down and restricted because its mem
bers had Swallowed" or investigated
members of congress and other officers
of the government. If we examine the
debate in detail it appears that most
of what was urged In favor of the
amendment took the form Of the sim
pie statement that the committee held
that there had been q violation Of
law" by the use of the secret service
for other purposes than suppressing
counterfeiting land one or two other
matters which can be disregarded) and
that such language was now to be
used as would ,effectually prevent all
such violation of law" hereafter. Mr.
Tawney, for instance. says, 1T was
for the purpose Of stopping the use of
this service in every possible way by
the departments of the government
that this provision was inserted" and
Mr.. Smith says, "Now, that was the
only way in which any limitation could
be put upon the activities of the secret
service" Mr.. Fitzgerald followed in
the same vein. and by far the largest
part Of the argument against the en-
plOyment Of the secret service was con
fined to the statement that it was in
violation Of law" OF course such Il
statement is not in any way an argU-
ment in favcr Of the justice Of the
provision. 1t is not an argument for
the provision at all. 1t is simply
statement Of what the gentlemen max
ing it conceive to have been the law.
There was both by implication ard
direct statement the assertion that it
was the law and ought TO be the law,
that the secret service should only be
used to suppress counterfeiting and
that the law should be made more
rigid than ever in this respect.
No Restrictions on Service.
Incidentally l may say that in my
judgment there is ample legal author
ity for the statement that this appro-
priation law to which reference was
made imposes no restrictions whatever
upon the use Of the secret service men,
but relates solely to the expenditure of
the money appropriated. Mr.. Tawney
In the debate stated that he had in his
possession ga letter from the secretary
of the treasury received a few days
ago" in which the secretary of the
treasury himself admits that the pro-
visions under which the appropriation
has been made have been violated year
after year for q number of years in
his own department" l append here
with as Appendix A the letter re-
ferred to. [Appendix A is n letter from
Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou tc
the chairman of the committee on APP
preparations Of the house of represent |
atlves, dated April 30, 1908, protest
ing against the proposed law abridg- |
ing the right of the secretary of the |
treasury to detail secret service men |
to work In other divisions of his de- |
partment. Such abridgement, he de- |
clared, would be distinctly to the adj |
utes Of the United States."1 1t makes |
no such admission as that which Mr.. |
Tawney alleges. 1t contains, on the |
contrary, as you will see by reading ii, |
an emphatic protest against any such |
abridgement Of the rights delegated to |
the secretary Of the treasury by ex-
listing law" and concludes by assert |
ing that he "is quite within his rights |
in thus employing the service of these |
agents" and that the proposed modifi- |
cation which Mr.. Tawney succeeded in |
carrying through would be distinctly |
to the advantage of violators of crimi- |
nal statutes of the United States" |
call attention to the fact that in this |
letter Of Secretary Cortelyou to Mr.. |
Tawney, as i'm my letter to the speaker |
quoted below, the explicit statement |
is made that the proposed change will
be for the benefit Of the criminals, q |
statement which simply reiterated in
public form I'm my message to the con-
gress this year and which Is also con-
tained In effect in the report VI the
secretary of the treasury to the con-
gress.
"Private Conduct" Of Members.
A careful reading of the COMPRESSION
al Record will also show that practical
ly the only arguments advanced in IA
vor Of the limitation proposed by Mr.. |
~,