Evening star., 1938-07-26
By REX COLLIER.

{ 1lHtS scdls ago tOuhy ATTORNEY
General Charles Joseph Bonaparte,
grand-nephew Of Emperor Napoleon I,
signed an order which was to become
the birth certificate" of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. crime-fight-
ing organization of the G-men.
The order created in the Depart
ment of Justice new investigative
group Of special agents to perform
general investigation service" under
, chief examiner" The nucleus of
| the organization was a group of
! Secret Service agents who resigned
from the Treasury to accept the new
assignment, l3 Department of JUS
tice employees who had been engaged
in peonage inquiries and IL exam
iners" who had been making special
Investigations for the Attorney Gen.
eral
Attorney General Bonaparte was
man Of discernment and ambition
typical Of his distinguished lineage
but he could never have envisioned
the growth which the new baby"
was to enjoy, nor the fame which was
to come to it within the next three
| decades
"a Investigators at Start.
At birth the agency consisted of "a
investigators and several clerks. To-
day it is a highly efficient. far-fung
organization of $50 carefully selected
and trained special agents and more
than 1000 fingerprint examiners.
clerks and other employees and with
AZ field offices spread over the Nation
but closely tied together by network
of telephone and teletype lines
Creation of the unit in 1908 re-
suited from congressional ban on a
practice that had existed of lending
Treasury agents to the Department of
Justice for special Investigations.
Prior to that the Department of JUS
| tice had no regularly constituted bu-
| reau for crime Investigations Since
1871 it had depended on a special
agent" appointed by the Attorney
General, for work Of this sort With
the assistance of several examiners, ="
the special agent audited accounts
"a h'oA oAAoAop SllCSACO VII dCGlflUlCO VI
district attorneys and made sundry
other administrative and criminal in
quiries.
At the turn of the century the
department occasionally employed the
Plnkerton detective firm to investigate
Federal violations, but this practice,
like that Of borrowing Treasury agents,
was frowned upon by Congress and
eventually discontinued.
Couldn't Help Kidnap Victim.
In 1903 the department was so
handicapped by lack OF investigators
that the Attorney General wrote the
father of a kidnapped girl that the
department could not help in the case
unless the father supplied "the names
OF the parties holding your daughter
In bondage, the particular place, and
the names Of witnesses by whom the
facts can be proved"
Action of Congress in banning use
OF Secret Service employees by the
Department of Justice prompted Pres
ldent Theodore Roosevelt, in a mes
sage to Congress. to declare: The
chief argument in favor of the pro-
vision was that the Congressman did
not themselves wish to be investigated
oy Secret Service men" This explo-
slve statement brought demands for
an investigation by Congress OF the
Presidents use of Secret Service men
for special Investigations and demands
were made for an explanation" of
the presidential remark. Mr.. Roose-
welt replied he intended no reflection
on Congress as whole, and he rec
commended transfer of the Secret
Service from the Treasury to the
Justice Department, where it prop
erly belongs"
Less than eight months after Attor-
ney General Bonaparte organized a
regular investigating unit in the
department, his successor, Attorney
General George w. Wickersham,
formally designated the unit the
Bureau of Investigation" in charge
OF a chief" Attorney General Cum
mings. in his book, Federal Justice"
foAAA"' ooo eilot Vic CIlltl uuUl6S Ol UQe
bureau in those days were in connec-
tion with national banking laws, anti
trust laws, peonage laws, bankruptcy
frauds, impersonations of Federal off,
cials, thefts and murders on Federal
reservations, etc.
Mann Act Increased Work.
Inc work OF the new bureau was
greatly increased in 1910 when Con-
gress passed the Mann Act, outlawing
interstate white slave traffic.
The beginning of the World War in
1914 also brought the bureau added
responsibilities, and two years later
nearly all criminal investigations were
consolidated in the bureau.
Receipt Of the famous German SUBJ
marine note in this country on jan
uary 81, 1917, caused the bureau to
begin an inquiry into German ac-
tivties, and this work was expanded