The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-05-28
ON THE
CAPITALS CUFF
By HENRY ION

| OSDfNH.fN-
concerned with reduction of monde
tense" expenditures. Efforts are be-
ing made to get the President and
Secretary of Treasury to tell congress
Just where $1,00O,000,00O can be
Topped off.
A good starting place, it has been
suggested, would be j. Edgar Hoovers
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Here
are the figures.
During the world war years of 1917,
1918, and 1919 the FBI got $617, 900,
81, 900 and $2,27200O. In 1871 it
had an Appropriation of $13,768,000 and
for 1912 the House has already voted
it $16,35O,OOO In 1889 it got $6,17S,-
076.
The entire Department of Justice
appropriation, during the three war
years of 1917-18-19, amounted to a to-
tai of $23, 1865. This was sufficient
for the regular work of the entire
department and the war work.
Appropriations for the years 1941
and 1912 for the FBI alone amount
to $3O,11S,O 900
Thus, in these two non-war years,
the FBI will have gotten 300 more
than the entire Department of Justice
had for all its work during the three
years that the U. S. actually partici
pated in war.
Put in another way, the proposed
appropriation for the FBI for next
years national defense activities
alone-aside from it's regular work
amounts to $8,750,000. During the
fiscal year of 1919, the peak year of
the FBPs expenditures during that
period, expenditures for defense work
to about $1,762,657.
The FBI is thus asking for, and
getting, five times the amount it used
for defense during the year of its peak
during the last war.
Then, as now, the FBI handled reg
ulation of alien enemies, investigated
hostile to this government,
oversaw registration of aliens, pro-
tected shipping in our ports, detected |
enemy plots, investigated trading with
the enemy investigated false pass
ports, was concerned with violations |
Of the selective service act, probed !
war frauds in government contracts,
and defended against sabotage.
Nor was the volume of work any
greater, according to the official rec
1rds.
The latest Attorney-Generals report
states that during the fiscal year of
1910 there were 1886 national de-
ense cases requiring investigation
When Hoover testified on appropria-
ions for that year he estimated that
here would be $4,000 such cases.)
The annual report of the Attorney
General for the fiscal year of 1918
ays that the daily average of com
,laints examined by the FBI was well
ver 1,500. Then, as now, the bureau
bought it necessary to examine every
received
1t appears, therefore, that neither
he kind of defense cases handled by
asses handled by the FBI was greater
n 1918 than now. Yet the appro-
riation is five times greater.
The general contention is that the
'BI has much more work to do now
4 connection with sabotage. That is
phony and is so proved by the Of
icials of the FBI.
Hoover's last annual report says,
There has been negligible amount
f sabotage during the present world
rar in contrast to a similar period
d the first world war"
AS far as preventing sabotage, John
ord O'Brian, head of the War Emer- :
ency Division of the Department of
ustice during the world war, laid
own the rule that the department Z
ould not be expected to assume re- !
mo government on I
arth has or can have either the man
over or the physical means or the
machinery for
IMPLYING the precautionary methods
eeded in and about the innumerable
rivate plants and facilities manufac- !
lring war material" he declared.
The answer to Hooyer's fivefold APP 0
reputation is the establishment of
covers investigation of opinions and S
olitical beliefs. He headed that t
ork from 1919 to 1924, when an out
lged public demanded that it be dis
ontinued, and he re-established it in I
y39. S
4