The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1909-02-22
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT RE-
PLIES TO CRITICISM OF Sc
cRET SERVICE.
TAKES HEMENWAY TO TASK
In Long and Rigorous Article Chief
Executive Answers Report Made by
Member Of Appropriations Commit
tee in Which Latter Dubbed Detec-
tive Branch Spy" System.

Washington, Feb. q. = President
Roosevelt has added another stir
ring chapter to the secret service con-
troversy in rigorous and lengthy re-
ply to the attacks made on this
branch of the government in a re-
port made recently by Senator
Hemenway of the senate committee
on appropriations. Senator Henem-
way in this report, upholding the lin
itation in the scope of the secret serv-
ice. asserted that II had never been
the intention of congress to build up
spy" system, and with evident
reference to this part of the report,
the president declared that if the fm-
itation of the use of the secret service
had been in force when the sensa-
tional land frauds were unearthed
few years ago. senator, a represen-
tative and various men of wealth and
by political influence, who at that
time were convicted, would all have
escaped punishment. The presidents
letter is addressed to Acting Chair
man Hale of the senate appropriations
committee.
Facts and Figures.
Characterzing as inaccurate and
misleading in various important re-
spects," both Senator Hemenway's re-
port and the debate which 1t aroused
in the senate. the president presented
mass of facts and figures in defense
of the secret service during the seven
years of his administration. Some Of
the presidents data are based upon
information supplied iby Attorney Gen.
eral Bonaparte and Secretary of the
Interior Garfield in support of the ef-
ficiency of the secret service in the
detection of crime The presidents
letter dated, February 10, follows:
II have seen the report presented
! by Senator Hemenway on behalf of
your committee in reference to the
secret service. The report is inaccu-
| rate and misleading in various impor-
tant respects, and l desire to make
| certain corrections in reference to
statements which appear there and in
the subsequent debate.
Until last year the secret service,
small body of so or 70 men in the
treasury department under Chief Will
public servants engaged almost purely
in criminal investigation. The secret
service men were assigned at differ
ent times to different departments to
investigate crime and criminals They
were thus assigned on different occa-
sions, for instance, to the state and
navy departments; but above all, to
the interior department and to the de-
partment of justice. During the seven
years of my administration they were
instrumental in bringing to justice
great numbers of criminals. / append
herewith the occasions on which they
were sent to the department of justice
during the year 1907, and the first six
months of 1908. They rendered inval-
liable assistance in securing the con-
viction of many criminals of desperate
character and of many other offenders
of great wealth and of social and po-
litical prominence. In not one single
instance during these seven years has
it been shown that their action jeopar-
died any man who was not connected
with Illegal transactions. In not a sin
they took any but proper steps against
made that they did not do their work
against criminals efficiently l desire
to put on record my emphatic belief
that the secret service under Chief
Wilkie has been composed of men of
an exceptionally high grade of charac-
ter and capacity, and who have rem
dered exceptional service to the pub
lie, and that Chief Wilkie himself, in
a very trying and responsible position,
has shown qualities of the highest
kind, and has been one of the main
standbys of the government. No other
man in the government employ is SO
dreaded and hated by lawbreakers,
and those who especially desire to see
his activities and those of the men un-
der him restricted in every way,
Forbade by Law.
Congress last year forbade by law
the use of the secret service men to-
put a stop to crime aside from coun-
terfeiting, and thereby not only ham,
pered justice in other departments,
but deprived the secretary of the
treasury, the official guardian of a
billion and a half of the nations act
ual money, of the power effectively to-
exercise that guardianship. Moreover,
| the congress provided no substitute
whatever for the secret service. In
consequence, the department of justice
was obliged to develop as speedily as
possible its corps of special detectives
to take the place of the secret serv-
ice agents. which it had previously
| used, for the nucleus of the force was
| made of officers formerly connected
with the secret service and trained in
such methods. L. call your especial
attention to the fact that If the de-
| partment of justice had not taken this
action there would have been a COM
| plete failure to enforce the law
against many types of criminals, and
as it was. in the early months of the
present fiscal year during the Morse
prosecution in New York, and in con-
nection with certain important cases.