Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1909-01-07

| obtained by men transferred from the
secret service. and another member OF
congress was indicted.
Stopped Naturalization Frauds.
From 1901 to 1904 Il successful inves-
| tigation OF naturalization affairs was
| made by the secret service. with the
result of obtaining hundreds of convic-
tons OF conspirators who were convict
cd Of selling fraudulent papers of nat
uralizatiOn. subsequently congress
passed very wise law providing IA
special service and appropriation for
the prevention of naturalization frauds,
| but unfortunately at the same time
| that the action against the secret serv-
ice was taken congress also cut down
the appropriation for this special serv
ice, with the result Of gripping the
effort to stop frauds in naturalizatiOn.)
| The fugitives Greene and GaynOr. i'm
plicated in peculiarly big government
contract fraud. were located and ar
rested in Canada by the secret service.
and. thanks to this, they have since
gone to prison for their crimes
| The secret service was used to assist
In the investigation Of crimes under
the peOnage laws, and owing partly
thereto numerous convictions were Sc
cured and the Objectionable practice
was practically stamped out, at least
I in many districts. The most extensive
smuggling Of silk and opium In the
history Of the treasury department
| was investigated by agents of the Sc
cret service in New York and Seattle
and successful prosecution Of the Of
tenders undertaken. Assistance Of the
utmost value was rendered to the de-
partment Of justice in the beef trust
investigation at Chicago: prosecutions
| were followed up and fines inflicted.
| The cotton leak scandal In the agri-
cultural department was investigated
| and The responsible parties located.
What was done In connection with
! lottery Investigations Is disclosed in a
letter lust sent to me by the United
States attorney for Delaware. running
as follows:
| The destruction OF the Honduras Ma
| tional Lottery company. successor to the
Louisiana Lottery company was entirely
he work of the secret service.
| This excellent work was accomplished by
| Mr.. Wilkie and his subordnates.
| thought it might he timely to recall this
| prosecution.
| Lottery Cases and Others.
| Three hundred thousand dollars in
fines were collected by the govern
| ment in the lottery cases. Again. the
ink contract fraud in the bureau of
engraving and printing Ia bureau Of
! the treasury Department. was inveSti-
| gated by the secret service and the
| guilty parties brought to justice. Mr..
| Tawncy stated in the debate that this
was not investigated by the secret serv-
| ice. but by Il clerk down there" con-
veying the impression that the clerk
was not in the secret service. AS a
matter of fact. he was in the secret
service. His name was Moran. and
he was promoted to assistant chief
| for the excellence of his work in this
case. The total expense for the Office
and field force of the secret service
! last year was Sl3J.OOO. and by this
one investigation they saved to the
government over 100000 . year.
Thanks to the restriction imposed by
| congress, 1t is now very difficult for
the secretary of the treasury to use
| the secret service freely even in his
own experimentation instance, to use
them to repeat what they did so adj
mirably in the case of this ink con-
tract. The government is further Grip
| Piled by the law forbidding it to EN-
| ploy detective agencies. OF course the
government can detect the most dan
| gerOus crimes and punish the worst
criminals only by the use either of the
secret service or of private detectives.
To hamper 1t in using the one and for
| bid 1t to resort to the other can inure
! to the benefit Of none save the crimi-
! nails.
! Secretary Corteiyou Sustained.
The facts above given show beyond
possibility of doubt that what the sec
rotary Of the treasury and had both
| written prior to the enactment of the
/ obnoxious provision and what | have
since written in my message TO the
congress state the facts exactly as
i they are. The obnoxious provision is
o. benefit only to the criminal class
and can be of benefit only to the Grim
inal class. If ii had been embodied in
/ the law at the time when l became
| president, all the prosecutions above
mentioned and many others Of the
same general type would either not
have been undertaken or would have
been undertaken with the government
at great disadvantage. and many
and probably most Of the chief Offend
ers would have gone scot free instead
of being punished for their crimes.
! Such Il body as the secret service,
such body Of trained Investigating
agents. occupying Il permanent posi-
| ton in the government service and
separate from local invest gating forces
| in different depart mcntS, is an absolute
| necessity if the best work is TO be
done against criminals. 1t is by far
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