Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1909-01-13
D. JAn4Es q. EDGERToN.

E%HERE IS no government depart
ment concerning which less is
known than the secret service.
At the same time there is none
about which there is greater public
curiosity, which is just now heighten-
ed by the row between the president
and the congress.
The secret service is Uncle Sans
Sherlock Holmes. 1t catches counter
feiters and now and then bags a con-
gresham or senator who has not, been
content with making laws, but has
started to breaking them also, thus
working both ends of the line 1t was
this feat of getting a few legislators
into jail that caused all the trouble
between Mr.. Roosevelt and the present
session. Congressman do not like to
be imprisoned, for which we can
scarcely blame them, considering the
other infections they have to bear,
such as associating with each other
and listening to each others oratory.
President Roosevelt charges in eff
feet that 1t was because the secret
service had exposed Senator Mitchell
and an Oregon representative in the
land fraud cases that congress cut
down the appropriation for the secret
service and prohibited it's use outside
of the treasury department, whereat
certain members of the house, dignified
senators and others not so dignified
regard themselves as grossly insulted.
Come to think Of it, there is something
In the nature of a personal insult in
sending man to jail or even in init
mating that he ought to be there
though most men do not base their
objection to Imprisonment on this
ground. Now. the president did not
say that al members of congress
should go to jail. but only that the law
they had passed helped nobody but
criminals. 5and the chief argument in
its favor was that it keeps members Of
the two houses from being investigated
and prosecuted.
He went further and intimated that
IL they did not want to be investigated
If they had records that would not
bear investigation, presume he meant
they might exempt themselves by a
GDCGAuA J4Of lS4OLs Jul oAAOuAO 4OLs Up
pie the whole detective agency of the
government That is talking some,
even for Roosevelt. Congress waited
a few days, and then the senate passed
some mild hammered resolutions, adopt
ed amid OratOry not so mild and ac-
cOmpanied by thoughts positively IN
speakable, directing the committee on
appropriations to investigate the secret
service, the message and everything
else with handle on that looked as if
1T could be used to cause. trouble. Tie
house merely asked him for the facts
on which Il president based his STAGE
ments. evidently wanting him to show
his hand Eefore it did any blufing
The head-on collisions the house has
had with Roosevelt ON former Occd-
sions have apparently taught it eau
ton
Hunted Down Land Frauds.
The secret service proper belongs to
the treasury department. and its chief
duty IS to catch counterfeiters. For
twenty years, however, it has been the
habit of the chief of the service to-
lend his men to other departments
wherever needed. Among those )
borrowing Uncle Sans sleuths was Ii D
secretary of the interior, who used
them in hunting down land frauds, IN
which they gathered in the United
States senator and congressman before
mentioned. 1t is also whispered that
the secretary of the navy used one o.
the detectives in hunting down an alb
sent naval ceicial, and the place where
he was found laid the basis for ui-
vOrce s.iit. That caused another row.