The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-22
Adds Another Chapter to
 Controversy.
VIGOROUS AND LENGTHY
 REPLY TO SENATE REPORT
President Tells What Government
 Detectives Have Done.
.rsyv That Statements of Expenditures For This Department As Used h Debates in Senate, Were
 Thirty-fold Exaggerated.

Washington, Feb, 21--President Roosevelt today added another stirring chapter to the secret service contro- versy in a vigorous and lengthy reply to the attacks made on this branch or the government, in a report made re- gently by Senator Hemenway. of the Senate committee on appropriation.
 Senator Hemenway in this report, upholding 1t never had been the in- tention of Congress to build up "spy" system and with evident refer .ence to this part of the report. the President declared that if the limita- tion of the use of the secret service had been In force when the senatorial land frauds were unearthed few years ago. a Senator. Representative and various men of wealth and high political influence, who at that time were convicted, would all have escaped punishment.
 ~>The President's letter. dated Febru- ary 1s. in referring to the report pre- sented by Senator Hemenway, says:
 The report is inaccurate and mis- leading in various important respects. and desire to make certain icorrec- tions
 Until last year, the secret service
 
 lie servants engaged almost purely in criminal investigation. The secret service men were assigned to different departments to investigate crime and criminals. They were assigned above all to the interior department. and the department of justice. During the seven years of my administration, they were instrumental in bringing to jus tice great numbers of criminals. They randafad invaluable afar fn securing the conviction of many crimi- ynals of desperate character. and of many other offenders of great wealth and of social and political prominence. 1n not one single instance during fhese seven years. has 1t been shown that their action jeopardized any man who was not. connected with Illegal made that they did not do their work against criminals efficiently. Chief Wilkie hinnselF has been one of the main stand-bys of the government No other man in government employ is so dreaded and hated by law breakers"
 Congress' Limitations.
 The President then refers to Con- gress forbfdding the use of secret ser vice men except to stop counterfeitIng. says that this action deprived the secretary of the treasury, guardian of a billionn and a half of the nations money" of the power to exercise its guardianship effectively; that no sub stitute was provided for the secret ser vice protection removed; and that the department of Justice developed it's own corps of special detectives He continues:
 During the Morse prosecution in New York and in connection with OCT tain other important cases. serious in- convenience and anxiety were caused to the prosecuting officers by this action of Congress in depriving them or the aid of the experienced operators or secret service on whom they had been accustomed to rely. I cali your attention to the further fact that the department of justice had never taken any steps to organize this force so long as 1t could get men detailed to 1t rom the secret service. The action of the Congress would have caused inc grossest miscarriage of Justice had if not been in large part nu!iir,ad hv the prompt action of the department of justice. '''''A'
 nour committee in its report states hnat t has never been the intention 'Vt the congress to build up a spy svs- ss. The next sentence. however. uxocates s%, the building up of precisely justice. 'Anehl or
 Tn your report and the Sub bseoua,& uepate' direct and indirect, attacks are made upon secret service, with a en- irious persistancy. and @ curious indtf- terence to the fact that your commit- zee recommends that a precisely simi- liar secret service 10 the one attacked, 'pe now established in the Department of Justice, and be 1t observed that no limitation is proposed for the new se- 'cret service; so that the limitation ts only Imposed upon the secret service which has already become an object of Iferror to criminals. Senator Hemen- way states that there are more than and inspection work Eof the Govern imens.' and that in the last few years Itne number has trebled; while 1t was also stated in the same debate that at the close of President McKinley's ad- mlnistration there were only l67,' and that appropriations on that account 1or the last year amounted to about
 Number of Detectives
 These statements are moi in ac- cordance with the facts. submit to you herewith a substantially. al- though not entirely accurate statement of the number of men employed on 'se- 'cret service work or criminal tnves- tigation work. during the year that @ss~S j1Sk PeSSSNs So NCAAPdA OQ with the years 1901-02.
 They are not out of the way more than score or so in either direction. It appears that In the neighborhood of 1.200 men of this type were em- ployed seven years ago. and somewh over 1900 now. They have increased but @ little over one-half. Moreover. of this increase, considerably over half was in the number of men used in se- curing the punishment of violators of the internal revenue laws. a matter wholly outside of that discussed by any who objected to the secret service. The remaining increase is due to the natural growth of the police. enforcing the pure food and the meat inspection laws, more rigorous enforcement of the safety appliance act, suppression of the liquor traffic among the Indians, pro- lection Of public lands and timber and the like. I call your especiay atten- ton to the fact that the great major ity of tn ese men are not ordinarily en- gagged on secret service work at all. As regards nineteen -twentieths of these men, the proportion -ot their time given to secret service work or crimi- nal invstigation is 'altogthr insignii- cant. The increase was roo men. of whom but a score or two are habit ually engaged in secret service work A IA