Evening star., 1915-03-01
FEDERAL DETECTIVE
BUREAUS.
II.-Special Agents of the
Department of Justice.
By Frederic J. Haskin.

The bureau of investigation is the Or
ganization which handles all the detec-
tive work of the Department of JUS
, tice. 1t is the youngest of the detec-
tive bureaus of the government. hav
ing been in existence but half a dozen
years. Yet. despite it's youth. 1t is one
of the largest of such agencies in the
federal service. The range of its work
is greater than that of any other. II
handles, for instance, all the investi-
cations of violations of the national
banking laws. neutrality cases, fugi-
tive cases. antitrust cases, bucket shop
cases. bankruptcy cases, white slave
cases. prosecutions for impersonatine
an officer and many others for which
specific provision is not made else
where.
tives work are more important than
those handled by any other such
agency Their Investigations lead to
the haling into court of the most pow
erful corporations in the country. They
have to do with the rela lions that ex-
lSt between one nation and another
and may mean war or peace The men
who carry on this work are a new va
rlety of detective and much of their
work has little of sleuthing in it. Most
of them are college graduates and law
yers admitted to the bar. Many are
personality and resource. The nature
of their work places many require
ments upon them.
The Department of Justice, for in
stance, not long ago suspected that
there was a con-
One Case Is Cited spiracy in restraint
as Illustration. oar..,n r 'n , ), - - e -
turers of the kind of glass that is used
for hothouse roofing. It wanted to
ascertain the facts. 4 special agent
was assigned to the case. His first
duty was to master the detail of the
business he was to investigate. Nur-
serymen are the chief users of this
glass, SO he studied the nursery busi-
ness. He SO mastered it that he could
talk shop He was then able to as
sumo the role of a nurseryman.
He had also learned who were the
dealers in this sort of glass. As a
nurseryman who wanted to open up
new hothouses on a large scale he
visited these men. He talked prices
and bargained with them. He found
that there were certain dealers who had
uniform prices. This indicated an un-
derstanding among them. He became
friendly with some of these dealers
Eventually one of them said that he
was unable to make a better price be
cause of an understanding among the
dealers He learned further that a. new
price might be made in the near future.
as a meeting was to be held of the men
bound by this understanding. He de-
~.
before buying his glass. In the mean
time he cultivated the acquaintance OF
these dealers. He came to know them
SO well that when he appeared at the
time of their meeting his friends
among them asked that he might at
| tend as he was greatly interested in
the result of their action. So he was
present and gained information at first
hand about the deliberations of these
men and the fixing of new price.
minutes were seized and the case was
complete. There was no other course
open to the dealers but to plead guilty.
The bureau of investigation has
branch offices in most of the larger
cities and the men
Branch Offices stationed at these
in Many Cities on ol't1s ,hs s1sp classes es and
interests that might violate federal
laws. One of these special agents was
break fasting in u hotel in western
city one morning, and the cashier OF
one of the biggest banks in the city
was eating grape fruit at nearby ia
bic He squeezed the juice into a
spoon, and as he raised it toward his
mouth his hand shook to such an eX-
tent that the juice was spilled. Even
this the special agent probably would
never have noticed. if the cashier had
not glanced furtively aroun,- to see il
anvbodv had observed his nervousness
The bank of which this man was ae-
tive head was what is known as a
political bank" The cashier was a
man high In the counsels of his party
and a bosom friend of q United States
senator The banks standing was
supposed to be of the best, and the re-
ports of the federal bank examiners
had been giving it a clean bill. But the
special agent knew that the cashier
did not dissipate, and he wondered at
| his nervousness. He decided to in
vestigate.
| A few days later, at his suggestion
the bank examiner for that district
Qfoppeu lilo toNH ne Went past the
bank and intmated that he would TAX
. a look at the books d little later in the
day. After this tip to the bank the spe-
cial agent watched to see what would
happen. Soon 81 messenger emerged
and hurried to Il nearby bank. He i'm :
| mediately returned with Il package of
money. The examiner dropped in upon
| the bank to which the messenger had
gone and casually looked over the
days business. He found that the per
| sonal check of the cashier in question
| had that morning been cashed for a
sum near 100000. This cash had evil
IDENTIFY been hurried to the suspected
bank, because that institution knew