The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-01-08

anu It's cnlef. The opening paragra pm
/ includes, for instance, statements like
| the following:
He 0he chief of the division) and his
| men are DESTROYS of doing the secret de-
! tective work for the whole government
and are not particular about drawing the
line between the lawmakers and the law
breakers. They are ready to shadow the
former as well the latter.
Then. after saying that congress will
insist that the men shall only be used
to stop counterfeiting, the article goes
on:
Congress does not intend to have
Fouche or any other kind of minister of
police to be used by the executive de-
partments against the legislative branch
of the government. 1t has been so used.
and it is suspected that it has been so
used recently. The leeislati
branch of the government will not toler-
ate the meddling of detectives, whether
they represent the president, cabinet Off
GERS or only themselves Con-
gressmen resented the secret interference
of the secret service men who for weeks
Swallowed some of the most respected
members of the house and senate.
When it was discovered that the secret
service men were shadowing congress
men there was a storm of Indignation at
the capitol, and the bureau came near
being abolished and the appropriation
for the suppression of counterfeiting cut
off At another time the chief of
the secret service had his men shadow
congressman with a view to involving
them in scandals that would enable the
bureau to dictate to them as the price of
silence. The secret service men
have shown an inclination again to
shadow members of congress. knowing
them to be lawmakers and this is no
joke. Several of the departments have
asked congress for secret funds for in
vestigation, and the treasury department
wants the limitation removed from the
appropriation for suppressing counter
feiting. This shows a tendency toward
Foucheism and a secret watch on other
officials than themselves.
At the time of this publication the
work of the secret service which was
thus assailed included especially the in
vestigation of great land frauds in the
west and the securing of evidence to
help the department of justice in the
beef trust Investigations at Chicago.
| which resulted in successful prosecu-
tons.
In view Of Mr.. Busbey's position I
have accepted the above quoted state
, ments as fairly expressing the real
meaning and animus of the attacks
made in general terms on the use of
the secret service for the punishment
of criminals. Furthermore. in the per-
Torrance Of my duty to endeavor to
find the feelings of congressman on
public questions of note / have fire.
quently discussed this particular mat
ter with members of congress, and on
such occasions the reasons alleged to
me for the hostility of congress to the
secret service, both by those who did
and by those who did not share this
hostility, We're almost Invariably the
same as those set forth in Mr. Busbey's
article. | may add, by the way, that
these allegations as to the secret serv-
ice are wholly without foundation in
fact
Real Issue Named.
But all of this is of insignificant i'm
portance compared with the main the
real. issue. This issue is simply, Does
congress desire that the government
shall have at its disposal the most
Of criminals and the prevention and
punishment of crime. or does it not?
The action of the house last May was
emphatically an action against the in
tereSt of justice and against the inter-
est of law abiding people and in its eff
feet of benefit only to lawbreakers.
am not now dealing with motives.
hot Lo
that induced the action of which 1
speak. this was beyond all question the
effect of that action. Is the house now
willing to remedy the wrong?
For long time / contented myself
with endeavoring to persuade the
house not to permit the wrong, speak
ing informally on the subject with
those members who, | believed, knew
anything Of the matter and commu-
nicating officially only in the ordinary
channels. as through the secretary Of
the treasury. In q letter to the speaker
On April 30, protesting against the cut
ting down of the appropriation v1raly
necessary if the interstate commerce
commission was to carry into effect
tLC t"ChtlClh SCStiOh VI thC IICpUulu
law. 1 added: "The provision about
the employment of the secret service
men will work very great damage to
the government in its endeavor to pre-
vent and punish crime. There is no
more foolish outcry than this against
spies Only criminals need fear our
detectives" Il inclose copy of the
whole letter. marked Appendix c."
The postscript is blurred in my copy
book. and two or three of the words
cannot be deciphered) IAppendix G
is letter dated April 30. 1908, from
President Roosevelt to Speaker Can
non protesting against the cutting
down in the sundry civil bill of the ap-
preparation for secret service work.
The only people benefited would be
the very worst of the big railroad men
whose miSdeeds we are trying to pre-
sent or correct" were the words of the
president These methods proved un-
availing to prevent the wrong. Messrs.
Tawney and Smith and their fellow
members OH the appropriations com
mittee paid no heed to the protests,
and as the obnoxious provision was
incorporated in the sundry civil bill it
was impossible for me to consider or