The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-22
Roosevelt Defends /
 The Secret Serlyce

I---=------------------- ----------- A@ ments In the debate in bs Houses are so exaggerated as to bee V 10 reference whatever to the actual ngures. It waa stated that two -thfrds of the money appropriated for the Department of Justice was spent in criminal investi- gation. The Attorney General reports to me that the appropriation 60 spent was in reality one and seventeenth per cent. so that the statement in ques. ton was Q thirty-fold exaggeration. . It was stated that e10.o00.000 Cor aa one gentleman put 1t. @20.000.0 .000l rep. resented the amount expended. while the totals of another set of figures amounted to $32.000.o00. A table care- fully compiled covering all depart ments shows that the amount actually expended during the first six montha of the present fiscal year, in all work that can by any possibility be con- sidered to come under this heading, aa little less than $764.000. an estimated total for the entire fiscal year of ap. proximately $1.600.000.
 Misleading Statement.
 Senator Hemenway quoted the Sec. retary of the Interior as authority that but one secret service man was ever detailed to the Interior Department. This statement is completely mislead. ing. Secret service men were used in the Interior Department cases, but for convenience fin operation they were assigned to and paid by the Depart ment of Justice. This has been set forth with the utmost clearness again and again. As the prosecutions had to be carried on by the Department of Justice. 1t was~desirable that the secret service men should work under De- partment of Justice oficials."
 The President then cites cases in which the Department of Justice in 1907 used thirty-one men. who althou01l not assigned to the Interior Depa6- ment. were used for Interior Ds16rt, ment cases.
 The President quotes from 4 letter to Chief wiikie, on December 2s. 1908, from Acting Attorney General. Alf6rd W. Cooley. commenting the work of Secret Service men for their help in Nebraska land frauds in which Bart lett Richards and others were con- victed.
 The President continues;
 The limitation of the use of the se- cret service was not in the least de- gree technical; 1t was real and actual. If such a condition as arose in the In- terior Department some four years ago again arises in that department. with this limitation we should be pre- vented from employing the secret ser- vice and the result would be harmful to the Government and on benefit only to the criminals, unless. of course. we are able to build up a precisely similar secret service in the Department of Justice. Unless the new secret service In the Department of Justice does it's work in precisely similar fashion to Chief Wilkes secret service, 1t will not do good and effective work. and I call your attention to the fact that the result of the action of Congress has hitherto been. by the creation of two the total cost of this class of work !"
 Referring further to land frauds. the
 "secretary Hrtchcock became con vinced' that there were widespread frauds and that his own force was un- able to deal with them. Through the Department of Justice he had num- Der of secret service operatives as- signed to work on the Interior Depart ment cases. together with one secret service operative who was assigned directly to the Interior Department. MT. Hemenway speaks as if the Att torney General and the Secretary of the Interior had not known of such as- signments, as a matter of fact every such assignment was made on the written request of the head of the de- pertinent. The first result of the work was to find that various departmental officials had failed in their duty. and some of them were accordingly dis- charged.
 Prominent Men Convicted. =
 The results are found in the convic- being among the wealthiest and most influential people in their communities; others standing high in the political world, one of them being a Senator and another a Representative in Congress; while a second Representative in Con- gress was indicted. If the limitation of the use of the secret service which your committee upholds had been in force at the time of which I speak, the Senator. the Representatives and the various men of wealth and high polit- ical influence who were convicted would all have escaped punishment. I hold that such an outcome would have been in the interest of the criminals only.
 "Once the emergency had passed the need for the detail of the secret ser vice men no longer existed, and they were accordingly withdrawn. But the history of these land frauds show con- clusiveIy the need of-having some se- cret service body subject to emer- gency detail to departments in which 1t is not ordinarily employed.
 Before the secret service was used in the Interior Department; the pros- cautions for land frauds were insig- nificant in results. Then these secret service agents were used in connec- ton with these land frauds. Forth with there began an active agitation against the use of the secret service which continued until the action of the Congress last spring.
 ''very respectfully,
 Theodore Roosevelt"
 "P. S.--This letter Is in part based upon statements furnished by the At- torney General and the Secretary of the Interior. It has been carefully read over by them and the statements of fact which 1t contains. so far as they refer to the Department of Justice and the Department of tho Interior, have been checked and approved by them"
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