Officials of This Department Talk About Their Work—How Criminals Are Traced, Caught and Punished—Its Work Extending to All Departments—Secret Service Districts—Reports Made to the Treasury Department—Good Money and Bad—How to Detect the False—System of Numbering United States Notes Explained—Counterfeiting on the Decrease—Counterfeiting Gold Certificates—Bank Tellers and Counterfeits—The Best Secret Service in the World.
The secret service bureau of the Treasury Department is not an old concern. It has not been in operation many years, compared to the existence of other bureaus, but it grows in importance each year. There are now a large number of investigators, by some called detectives, in the field, but the exact number is not known and will not be made public.
Counterfeiting money is an old offense. It was done before the United States became a government, but does not seem to have become so widespread until the United States began making its own paper money during the Civil War. Prior to that time the offenses had been dealt with by states and municipalities, with such help as the general government cared to give. The increase in the crime, however, caused recognition by Congress in 1860, when $10,000 was appropriated for its suppression to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. This sum was paid out in rewards to private detectives, municipal officers and others instrumental in bringing to trial and punishment those engaged in making bogus money.
With the turning out of greenbacks by the government an increase in the appropriation and a more organized fight against counterfeiting were necessary. In 1864 Congress appropriated $100,000 and placed upon the solicitor of the treasury the responsibility and supervision of keeping down counterfeiting. This really inaugurated a methodical system of hunting and punishing counterfeiters. The solicitor of the treasury gathered about him a corps of men experienced in criminal investigations and set them to work. The plan worked so well that when John Sherman was secretary of the treasury he gave his approval to the organization of a separate bureau for suppressing the output of spurious currency. Under foreign governments the handling of counterfeiters is in control of a centralized police organization, which looks after all kinds of criminal offenses against the general governments. The one bureau has surveillance over criminals of every class. The tendency is in that direction in this government. The secret service bureau is now being used by a number of departments of the government.
The operations of the secret service are confined by law to the suppression of counterfeiting and the investigation of back pay and bounty cases. This is all the law permits the officials of the service to work on, but every day they are at work on other matters. That the law may not be openly violated the secret service operators assigned to do other work are practically taken off the secret service rolls and the department employing them is required to pay their salaries and expenses. Nearly all the departments now recognize the efficiency of the service and call upon the bureau at any time for a man. The Department of Justice has used a number of the operators in the last few years. In the course of time this will become so general that this government will probably build up a great criminal bureau, one that will supply officers for investigation of any crime. The Postoffice Department now has its own system of inspectors, who investigate violations of postal laws, and the plan of pitting specialist against specialist is regarded as perfect. This could be continued, though, if all the criminal organizations of the government were centralized.
The United States is divided into thirty secret service districts, each in charge of an operative who has under his direction as many assistants as the criminal activity of the section demands. The force is concentrated in one district if there are counterfeiting operations in progress, and then sent to another district as required. A written daily report, covering operations for twenty-four hours, is exacted from each district operative and from each man under him. These daily reports frequently contain many fascinating stories, many details of criminal life and espionage that would make columns. The reports received by the bureau in Washington are carefully filed away in the offices of the Treasury Department. Accompanying the reports are the photographs and measurements of every man arrested for counterfeiting. The Bertillon system of measurements is used by the service, as well as a plain indexed card system. The two are so complete that even without the name of a man his name and record can be obtained if his measurements are forwarded.
Hanging on the walls and in racks in the two rooms that are occupied by the chief and his two assistants are the photographs of every known counterfeiter in the country. Among these are the faces of William E. Brockway, the veteran dean of counterfeiters; Emanuel Ninger, the most expert penman the service ever knew, and Taylor and Bredell, who hold the record as the cleverest counterfeiters in history next to Brockway. There are hundreds of others who have at some time or other gotten into the clutches of the service, many of them the most desperate characters. Some of these have taken human life with the same ease they would make a paper dollar or a silver coin.
The development of modern processes of photolithography, photogravure, and etching has revolutionized the note counterfeiting industry. So famous a counterfeiter as Brockway realized this. In the old days all counterfeiting plates were hand engraved and it took from eight to fifteen months to complete a set. Now this part of the work may be done in a few hours.
Information as to the personnel and operations of the secret service is carefully withheld from the public. The names of the heads of the various districts and the operators are unknown and are seldom published unless in case of the arrest of a counterfeiter and the the facts get into the newspapers. The bureau is managed by John E. Wilkie, chief. He has held the position since 1898, when he succeeded Chief Hazen. Mr. Wilkie is a newspaper man having held responsible positions on many large papers. He began his career as a reporter and worked his way up to city editor of one of the big Chicago papers. He has a great "nose" for criminal investigation, and his work is regarded as brilliant.
All the United States notes are printed in sheets of four notes of one denomination on each sheet. Each note is lettered in its respective order, in the upper and lower corners diagonally opposite, A, B, C, and D, and this is the system for numbering notes: All numbers, on being divided by 4 and leaving 1 for a remainder, have the check letter A; 2 remainder, B; 3 remainder, C; even numbers, or with no remainder, D. Any United States note the number upon which can be divided by 4 without showing the above result is a counterfeit, and while this rule is not infallible in all instances it will be found of service in the detection of counterfeits.