Evening star., 1921-04-17
AIM TO CONSOLIDATE
|ALL SECRET SERVICES
Believed One Great Bureau Would Result
in Economy and Increased
Efficiency.

investigating services within i:s avn
department One has been growing
in size and activity for years. and
has charge Of all OF tho investigating
work which that department finds II
necessary to conduct in it's work OF
handling the big law business OF
the government. The alien property
custodian has q secret service OF
Its own. This was an outgrowth
OF the war. and is still functioning.
1t looks after the Investigations in
connection with the property OF
alien enemies which was seized NV
the government at the outbreak Of
the war.
inere to an intelligence branch in
the customs service, also under the
Treasury. which looks after those
who seek to defraud the government,
OF the payment OF customs duties. Its
operations are world wide, as it's
operatives .-.>t do considerable
sieuthing In foreign countries in
order to keep an eye on the people
before they leave for this side. There
is also the secret service of the in.
tefnal revenue bureau-two. in fact.
Tor one looks into matters affecting
trauos in internal revenue and the
other the well known prohibition en-
iorcement squad. which is an intelli-
gence service to bring to justice
those who would have liquors in vio-
lation Of the prohibition amendment
and the Volstead law. which put that
addition to the Constitution into
effect.
Scattered All Over World.
The bureau of immigration of tho
department of Labor must have ita.
sieuths scattered all over the worla
to watch for violations of the irani.
grafton laws. and tip of those on
this side when they find an effort to
bring immigrants into the country in
violation OF the country's statutes.
The Post Office Department haA for
years had an extensive corps Of inves-
tigators to ferret out those who not
only attempt to steal from the mails,
but those who attempt to defraud the
people through the use of the mails.
Foreign trade requires it's corps OF
investigators to keep the govern
ment and the business men in close
touch with the activities of the ma.
tlonals OF other nations. as well as
the nations themselves, in attempting
to undermine the trade activities of
the United States government and
its nationals. Likewise, the State
| Department has its secret agents out
in foreign lands getting data which
| is valuable in the formulation of
policies in the field of diplomacy.
In the Military Arm.
Two Of the largest services, aug
! mented and grown considerably in
proportions since the beginning Of
the war. are the intelligence services
of the Army and Navy. which have
their officers all over the world
gathering every bit of data possible
for the benefit of these two impor-
tant branches of the service. These
two, however. use only the officers
who have put their lives to the task
With the exception of the last two
named, it is the belief that all of
these secret investigating activities
could be consolidated under one gil
gantic bureau or department. The
Investigations and collection Of data
for the military and naval services
are SO peculiar to those branches that
it is doubtful whether they could be
considered in the general scheme of
consolidation now being given atten-
ton by the administration. The coll
lection Of data for them requires the
expert ground training incident to
service in the field with tho military
and naval branches.