CABINET: Investigators Investigated

Wrote Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau to Attorney General Homer Stille Cummings last week: “I was deeply shocked to learn that certain members of the Secret Service had taken it upon themselves to investigate activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. … I wish to take this opportunity to express my deep regret to you and your department for this irresponsible action and to assure you that suitable disciplinary measures will be taken.”

Purred back Attorney General Cummings: “I deeply appreciate Secretary Morgenthau’s fine letter. … I regard the matter as satisfactorily terminated.”

This polite exchange between two Cabinet members ended an impolite brawl between two potent departments of the Government. For the past three years the activities of John Edgar (“Speed”) Hoover and his Federal Bureau of Investigation have put all other U. S. governmental investigating agencies in the shade. Virtually ignored by the U. S. public has been the Treasury’s tried & true Secret Service, which tracks down counterfeiters, guards the person of the President. The Secret Service’s jealousy knew no bounds when it was lately rumored that all U. S. spy divisions, including those of the PWA, WPA, FHA, SEC. would be consolidated under Director Hoover’s direction.

Joseph Edward Murphy, longtime assistant Chief of the Secret Service, and Grady Lee Boatwright, head of the St. Paul office, set out to see what they could get on the G-Men. Specifically they wanted to show that in killing a minor Dillinger mobster named Eddie Green in St. Paul two years ago, the Department of Justice operatives had shot without warning or cause. This plan presumably went on the rocks when Sleuth Boatwright, posing as a magazine writer in search of new material, confided it to a onetime G-Man. It was not long before the Secret Service’s scheme was known at the Department of Justice. Enraged, Attorney General Cummings declared he would resist any attempts to discredit J. Edgar Hoover or his men. Professing great surprise, the Treasury investigated its own investigators. In addition to writing Homer Cummings an apology, Secretary Morgenthau demoted Assistant Chief Murphy to a district post, Sleuth Boatwright to that of a field operative.

Still being debated by impartial sleuths last week was whether G-Men had given Eddie Green a fair chance for his life.