Evening star., 1936-03-08
BY 7. A. FOX.

BY j. A. FOX.
The consolidation of the law en-
forcement agencies Of the Treasury
that Secretary Morgenthau now is
seeking to bring about with the ap-
proval of President Roosevelt is the
outgrowth of a co-ordinating effort
begun q year and q half ago that
has demonstrated its worth sufiiciently
to warrant belief wider application
Is both feasible and necessary.
This initial venture was designed
only to deal with the smuggling OF
narcotics and liquor at ports of entry
and has been confined to the coast
line with one exception-Nogales
Ariz.. where watch is maintained for
planes skimming over the line from
Mexico carrying contraband.
For enforcement purposes, seven
areas have been marked out, and in
these, the war on the lawless has
waged merrily. Thanks to the CO.
operation OF other governments In
keeping an eye on their outposts that
formerly served as bases of supply for
dry America, and afterward threat
ened to become competitors Of legal
lied trade here. liquor smuggling is
dying out. Some headway also has
been made toward curbing dope rum
ming, but there still is wide field for
improvement along this line.
Five Groups Are Involved.
There are five groups which the
Treasury is proposing to bring into the
new alignment to be known as the
Secret Service Division. These are:
Secret Service, Bureau of Narcotics,
Customs Agency Service. Enforcement
Division. Alcohol Tax Unit, and that
part of the Intelligence Unit, Bureau
of Internal Revenue. which is con-
cerned with investigation and prosecu-
ton of charges against Internal Rev.
enue personnel, and investigation of
prospective members of the staff. 1t
originally was intended to shift the
entire Intelligence Unit. but after con-
sideration it was decided to exclude
income tax functions.
There would be close to 5000 en-
ployes in the new establishment. The
largest group. .700-is in alcohol
tax, which handles breaches of the
internal revenue laws relating tc
liquor The Bureau of Narcotics
vested with regulation and control
Of the traffic in narcotic drugs, is next
largest with 409. Customs agency
hirl, be n Ia yyin n
lations and cares for charges against
its own force, has 279. Secret service
which guards the President and car
ries on against counterfeiting and
other frauds, has 271 and the re-
mainder will come from the intelli-
gence unit A chief, assistant chief
and five deputies will comprise the
administrative set-up at the top.
Considerable Overlapping.
On the face of the matter, here are
separate fields. with the functions Of
each clearly delimited, but as Secre.
tary Morgenthau told the House Ways
and Means Committee in offering q
draft of the proposed legislation
there is considerable overlapping anc
duplication Of their work, due largely
to the fact that a single criminal act
often involves a violation of different
laws enforced by different bureaus"
He explained The smuggling oil
liquor, for example, is violation no,
alone Of the customs laws, but of the
internal revenue laws as we'll. If the
smugglers, as often happens. contrive
to bring in narcotic drugs along with
the liquor, there is likewise a viola
ton of the narcotics laws. Shoulc
the liquor be fraudulently stamped
the counterfeit laws are infringed
Moreover, ventures in fraud of the
revenue are not usually carried on by
single individuals, but by efficiently
managed syndicates whose operations
may at the same time include SNUG.
Cling, bootlegging, counterfeiting anc
Illicit traffic in drugs"
Despite this situation. each agency
carries on its work under the imme.