The memorandum rests primarily on the idea that the Counselor for this
Department should be the clearing house for the secret reports of the
various Departments, and he could, if it seems advisable, and I think it
does—furnish duplicates of his information day by day to the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Attorney-General, who are especially interested
in these investigations.
I should be pleased to receive your views upon the subject, or any
suggestion which you may have as to a better plan of coordination of
work.62
[Enclosure]
Memorandum
A great amount of information, some of it important, much of it
trivial and a considerable part of it misleading or absolutely
untrue, is coming to various departments of the Government regarding
the activities of people throughout the United States, who are
alleged to be endangering the friendly relations of this Government
with other governments by undertaking unneutral enterprises, some of
which are criminal and some of which are merely indiscreet. Almost
all of the acts reported, if true, require careful consideration
from the viewpoint of our relations with other nations before this
Government’s action in the matter is determined.
The information may be divided roughly into information as to acts
violating a law and for which the offenders can be prosecuted in the
courts, and acts which are not technical violations of law, but
which are calculated to place the United States in the position of
permitting violations of neutrality if they are not stopped. Under
the latter may properly come certain acts of accredited
representatives of foreign governments. Some of these matters can
only be handled by confidential representations to the accredited
heads of the foreign governments involved that such acts are
distasteful to our Government and must be discontinued.
There is another class of acts committed by citizens of the United
States, either entirely on their own initiative or through
influences which cannot be definitely traced and which can only be
stopped by publicity, and in some cases the matters involved would
be of such a
[Page 220]
delicate
nature as to make it inadvisable even to call attention to them in
an official way.
This information is at present coming to the Department of State, the
War Department, the Navy Department, the United States Secret
Service and the Department of Justice. Doubtless other Departments,
such as Commerce, Post Office, and even Interior, receive or could
gather information as well. It is seldom that information received
is sufficiently definite even to warrant investigation and it is
only by piecing together information from a number of sources that
any practical lead can be obtained. At present there is no assurance
that the various scattered scraps of information which when put
together make a clear case will go to the same place. For instance,
one item may be sent in to Justice mentioning certain activities,
another item may be received by the Secret Service, the Navy may
receive other information—all of which, when put side by side, makes
a fairly clear case, but none of which when scattered through the
different Departments seems of importance. It is evident that a
single office where all this information must be instantly
transmitted without red tape is absolutely necessary to an effective
organization.
In view of the diplomatic questions involved it seems obvious that
the receiving office should be under the Department of State.
Otherwise grave errors may be made by well meaning but misdirected
efforts. After this information has been received there are at
present three ways in which it may be taken care of: The Department
of Justice, the Secret Service and the Post Office Inspectors. The
Department of Justice is charged with the gathering of evidence by
which the Attorney General may proceed to prosecute for a definite
crime; the Secret Service is charged with the protection of the
President and the protection against counterfeiting and customs
frauds; the Post Office Department is charged with watching for
violations of the United States mail. None of these Departments is
legally or by organization fitted to handle these matters alone and
efficient cooperation without a central directing force with
authority to supervise their operations and to assign them their
respective work can not be accomplished practically. There is the
further objection that a case turned over by the State Department to
any one of these investigating departments or bureaus is lost sight
of and its daily developments are unknown for weeks and sometimes
months.
To cure this situation, it is suggested:
That an Executive Order be issued placing all these matters under the
authority of the Department of State, directing all Government
officials and Departments to transmit immediately to the Department
of State any information received along these lines and to collect
at
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the request of that
Department any information asked for. The Order should also direct
that the Post Office Department, the Secret Service and the
Department of Justice place their men when requested at the disposal
of the Department of State for the purpose of investigating these
matters.
It is suggested that the Department of State should assign the
Counselor, as being able to decide the legal questions which
sometimes arise without waiting for reference, as the head of the
system, acting, of course, always under the Secretary of State and,
through him, under the President himself.
It is not thought that any additional force for the Department of
State would be required beyond possibly a thoroughly trustworthy
stenographer, and if the work is unusually heavy a filing clerk, as
it will be absolutely necessary to maintain a card index and to keep
each case separate and up to date.
