The Birth of the FBI by Willard M. Oliver

Author:Willard M. Oliver
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781442265042
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2019-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

Bonaparte’s solution to this problem was simple. He argued that if Justice “had a small, carefully selected, and experienced force under its immediate orders,” it could better perform its duties, rather than borrowing agents from other agencies and running up against the law. He then drove home this need by frankly stating that “a Department of Justice with no force of permanent police in any form under its control is assuredly not fully equipped for its work.”22

Congress, especially Representative Tawney, was not pleased.

Soon thereafter, on January 17, 1908, Attorney General Bonaparte was called to testify before the House Appropriation subcommittee. Although he spoke on a number of issues related to Justice’s budget, as FBI historian Fox explains, “Bonaparte reminded the House Appropriation subcommittee of his earlier request and complained that the Justice Department had ‘to rely on the secret service of the Treasury,’ which had just ‘gone up in price.’”23 This last reference had to do with an increase in the cost for other departments to hire Secret Service operatives for their investigations. This was essentially nothing more than the simple issue of supply and demand: the supply of able investigators was low, but the demand was high and rising; as a result, costs went up.

In order to alleviate the issue of supply, Bonaparte offered his proposal to Congress for the creation of a bureau of investigation. He told the subcommittee that “it would tend to more satisfactory administration and also to economy if instead of being obliged to call upon them [the Secret Service] for this service we had a small, a very moderate, service of that kind ourselves.” More specifically, he told them, “I think the best plan would be to have a service of that kind under the control of the Department of Justice and let it, if necessary, assist other departments in cases of emergency.”24 What he was calling for was a bureau of investigation run by the Department of Justice: what he envisioned was the FBI.

“In 1907 and again in 1908,” historians Althan G. Theoharis and John Stuart Cox explain, “Attorney General Bonaparte formally requested congressional approval to establish an independent investigative division within the Department of Justice, emphasizing the department’s inability to meet its increased caseload and the complexity of antitrust and interstate commerce laws.”25 Congress refused both times. Bonaparte was not going to get what he wanted from Congress, while Congress—with Tawney leading the charge—searched for ways to curtail the Secret Service investigations. Throughout February and March of 1908, additional appropriations subcommittee hearings with other departments continued to probe into their use of Secret Service operatives.

By the end of April, Tawney had all of the evidence he needed to make his proposal to amend the Sundry Civil Appropriation Bill. Because Congress had never authorized funding the, Secret Service, the agency’s budget had always been generated out of the Sundry bill, which funded a collection of all the extra things government needed to do its business. But the Secret Service had no appropriations bill derived from legislative authority.

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