The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-01-31

peace; there was hardly n man
~ who had ever matched wits with
the foreign government experts.
The story of how this menace met can as
yet be told only in part. But not the least in
teresting part concerns the men who have
done the work.
Chief of the weapons which were at hand was
the secret service of the department of justice.
Its agents were an unobtrusivey efficient lot, but
woefully small In numbers and, for the most
part, inexperienced in international affairs.
white slaves and predatory business had been
their chief gnme The even smaller force of
the treasury secret service almost fully oc-
cupied with Its routine duties of guarding the
currency and the presidents life. 1t, too has
rendered amazing service against the spies, but
upon the department of justice agents fell the
chief burden.
They were called upon to match the craft
the experience and the ruthlessness of the keen
est of German spes who were backed by
renowned secret service organization and unm-
tied funds
Their chief, the man who had developed the
government detective force, who had laid the
foundation for an extensive. loosely geared, even
running mechanism, and who promptly
bled 1t when the need came, Is Alexander Bruce
Bielaski ("HOme Run" Bielaski they called him
In his high school days). He entered the depart
ment n dozen years ago, when the development
of bureau Of investigation to handle secret
work for which no other provision had been made
was started.
This bureau was commissioned to wrestle with
violations of neutrality with those of the nation
al banking laws, with antitrust cases. bucket
shop cases, white slave" cases 1t was to prose-
cute those who impersonate officer of the
government, to pursue those who flee the coun
try and seek to evade the long arm of the federal
law.
There were already several detective agencies
in the government each created for n specific pur-
pose and limited by law in its operations. For in
stance, there was the secret service in the treas
ury department. There were customs agents to
prevent smuggling, land agents to protect the
public domain post office inspectors to make
difficult the misuse of the mails. But the special
agents OF the department Of justice had field
many times as broad as that occupied by any other
detective agency. One phase of its work alone
that of circumventing violations of neutrality
became herculean task when the war broke.
The department Of justice refused to follow
precedent In its creation Of detective agency. 1t
built a staff of operatives that was new thing in
the field of detective work. In doing 20 1t made
brains Its first requisite Of selection OF men and
held that education was developer OF brains
The youngsters Of this service have succeeded
where veteran police have failed Every case an
operative undertakes is entirely new problem
In which his past experience is by no means an
infable guide. 1t needs brains and initiative.
A-young agent of the bureau Of investigation
formerly a salesman for wholesale grocer, went
into the Alleghenies on his first and cleaned
up a nest of moonshiners that had dehed local
authorities and United States marshals for years.
Another of these men worked q laborer on the
docks of New Orleans and found out the meth
ods employed by the sugar samplers In so grad
ing Imported cargoes that the loss to the govern
ment was hundreds Of thousaL DIS In duties every
wear. Still another "roped IN" with Mexican
revolutionists in Ell Paso.
The Importance OF the work OF these special
agents may be measured by an account OF tne
circumstances back of the seizure OF the port OF
Vera Cruz in April 1914, and the part piayeo IN
that event by one of those ingenious men, II
was some months before that event that huee'
bearded Russian attracted the attenuon OIL
house detective in a New York hotel by the dis-
NAV of a draft for $3,OOOOOO signed by President
Uuertn of Mexico The house detective teie-
phoned the special agents, who watched the opera
tions of the Russian.
That individual bought firearms and ammuni
tion in sufficient quantities to load snip. IL
was the business of the government to see 10
IL that he did not send this to Mexico as 'nere
was an embargo firearms to that country Inc
shin however cleared for Odessa, Russia, ana the
snecIal agents traced 1t to that point and wit
nessed the refusal of the Russian government TO
allow the ammunition to be landed. because OF
a feor TINT 1t was to be used by revolutionists
They saw the ship again traverse the Meuterra-
moan and unload It's cargo at Hamburg. Inc
,neciaI agents noted, however that the RUSSIAN
had disappeared and suspected that he was more
IovaI TO his own pocket than to the Me4cah
government. ,,,
The ammunition reshipped from hamburg
m vera Cruz AS 1t approached the latter port
~. limited States, under the influence OF the In
FORMATION furnished BY Its special agents. entered
md seized the port that Huerta might not ger