Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-08-18

/ ooASAAAOACI AAACA PANfAAN0 PAAhokN SASOAo
| for him.
At Harvard he was a brilliant
scholar, graduating in the class Of 70.
Two years later he had completed the
work in the Cambridge law school and
September /, 1875, married Ellen
Charming Day Of Newport, r. I. He
began to practice at once in Baltimore
Having money, he put himself on the
side Of justice. Public cases appealed
to him. so he allied himself with the
local reform rings. He became mem
Der Of the Baltimore Reform League
and helped found the Civil Service
Reformer, organ of the Maryland
Civil Service League.
Earned Sobriquet in 1884.
It was at this time, 1884, that he
earned a sobriquet which followed
him all his days thereafter AS a
Catholic who was never absent from
his pew in Baltimore Cathedral on
| Sunday mornings, Bonaparte was vio-
lently opposed to the public schools
system. just then getting on its legs
in America.
"As ridiculous the State should pro-
vide free schools" he argued, "as that
it should supply free soup houses!"
A newspaper wit took up the phrase,
and descendant Of the American line
of a reigning royal family in Europe
became "Souphouse Charlie
Through his civil service reform &C.
tivities. Roosevelt heard of him. They
met first in 1859, while Roosevelt was
a member of the Civil Service Com
| mission. Both Harvard men, they
worked together Later, as President,
he sought Bonaparte's services on the
Board OF Indian Commissions, then as
special counsel to prosecute alleged
frauds in the postal service. These
Offices lasted from ls02-05.
In 1905, with the expectation of sue
ceeding 10 the Attorney Generalship
on the retirement of William H.
Moody, he accepted the portfolio of
Secretary Of the Navy in a long
winded letter TO Roosevelt.
At the time. there was great news
paper raillery directed at him: THE
granddaughter Of the Little Corporal
as head Of the United States Navy"
But then. as all his life, he was in
different to newspaper comment He
was probably one of the most indolent
Secretaries the Navy has ever had.
For weeks running his attendance at
his office waJ limited to an hour a
day. He still kept his residence in
Baltimore and. leaving there by the
II o'clock train daily, he got to WASH
ngton at moor, dashed to the Navy
Department and then caught the /
o'clock train back to Baltimore. He
| fingered longer in the Capital only on
cabinet-meeting days.
Became Attorney General.
In December, 1906. when he was As,
he became Attorney General This
office suited his abilities better. He
appeared before the Supreme Court
personally in $50 cases during his in
cumbency and delivered 1873 opinions
through the Department of Justice to
the President and heads of depart
ments. Only three Of these latter
were not completely his own He
argued 40 cases orally before the
court and submitted seven on briefs.
Twenty of these cases came under the
antitrust laws, helping to dissolve the
American Tobacco Co. and earning
him another epithet - the trust
buster only amused him.
While in this capacity he aided in
the organization Of the body of special
agents which in later days have come
to be known as Omen" They
gained no great reputation during his
regime, it is said, because, wishing Ito
make his own mistakes" Bonaparte
kept such close check on his detective
force that he left little room for in
itiative.
An interesting sidelight at this point
would reveal the origins of this force
OF men, about whom so much has been
in print lately. but about whose be-
ginnings little has been told.
Contrary to prevalent opinion, the
Omen are in no sense a recent gov
ernmental development. A specific
act Of Congress of May 81, 1908, is
responsible for their establishment,
and J. Edgar Hoover, far from being
their first head, is their sixth.
Archives Aid Story.
Pieced together from interviews
with two men-David D. Caldwell and
Stanley Finch, both still active in the
Department of Justice-and old rec
ords from the archives of the Attor-
ney General, the story, briefly, is this:
Part of the reason Bonaparte had
been appointed to the office of Attor-
ney General by Roosevelt was to give
over his special talents to the prose-
cution of offenders in the vast land
fraud activities going on in the West
at that time-1905-l0. When he came
into Office the newspapers were also
carrying frightful stories Of timber
frauds, peonage and crimes against
the Treasury laws of one sort or an
other.
AS far back as 1878 the reports of
the Attorney General had called to
the attention of Congress the fact that
he had really no force for the inveSti-
CATION of official acts, records and ac-
counts" of district attorneys, marshals
and clerks. The following year
small appropriation was provided for
such a group of examiners. The re-
port for 1884 shows that the Attorney
General was using examiners to look
up the accounts Of the court Offices in
the field, where there was also much
corrupt practice.
Records then become vague for
time, but 1t Is certain that these ey-
aminers were being hired from othAr