◆ SpookStack

< ie: “agees Fe % B: ie By OLIVER McKEE. Twenty-five years ago today. a 22-; year-old graduate of George Wash- | be revealed. Clues were reported ee remsl we WEES SUR ington University Law 8chool en-! from as far sway as the Pacific | tered the Justice Department as a | Coast. | lerk. | Officials are unable to reveal ex- Nicknamed “Speed" by his school- | *tly how many FBI agents took } mates, because of tireless energy. part in the search for the Nazi i ‘saboteurs. Because of the wide j the young man, during this quarter geographical range of the leads un- century. has become one of the! covered, they point out, « large pro- detalls of his itinerary have yet to best-known Americans of his gen- eration. He is John Edgar Hoover, direc- , tor of the Pederal Bureau of Inves- tigation sincs 1924 and 2 srincinal | Semeretis Sale eves, SFG & PramCipas ‘mid of Attorney General Biddle and ' Judge Advocate General Cramer in | preparing the Government's ease | against the eight Nazi agents in the trial conducted by the Presi- dent's military commission. His colleagues say that Mr. Hoover knows more about subversive activ- ities in the United States than any man in the country. Since the out- break of the war in Europe, Mr. Hoover has devoted much of his time to problems of internal security, and has held reguiar conferences with representatives of the Army and Navy intelligence services. Through these conferences infor- mation about foreign espionage has ‘been exchanged, and plans formu- lated for a cooperative campaign to uncover espionage, and ferret out foreign agents. As soon as word reached PBI theadquarters that Nazi agents had | Janded om the United States coast, | Mr. Hoover took the fleld to direct | in person the investigation that re- i sulted in the apprehension of the eight men who have been on trial ere for their lives, and their 1¢ accomplices, recently arrested. > ce the nunt centered largely arowu ew York, Mr. Hoover spent er ee iach od ; Portion of the field personne) had some hand in the investigation. Identification and apprehension of the Nazis landed from German submarines, and thelr accomplices, ; though achieved in a few weeks, i proved one of the toughest jobs ever {faced by Hoover and his men. When Mr. Hoover entered the Justice Department, his ambition was to become a Government attor- ney, and possibly to open a law office of his own later. His first assignment was to the newly formed War Division. This was a few months after the entrance of the United States into the First World War. The new unit co-operated with the Army and Nevy inteli- gence services in preparing evidence for Geportation of suspected and declared anarchists, Mr. Hoover soon wen recognition as thé department's best informed Man on deportation cases. His work attracted the attention of Attorney | General T. W. Gregory, and he was promoted to special asststant to the Attorney General. «Toe Bureau of Inveatigation, at that time, was « little known Fed- eral agency. Mr, Hoover hecane interes tn its operations and. in August, 1919, Mr. Gregory asked him to set up iy the bureau @ gen- eral intelagence division, From then on, investigative work became Mr. Hoover's chief interest. In 3921 he was miade asaistant di- rector of the bureau, and three years later Attorney Ge Qi i nn re ‘Harlan P.! much time in that city. The full Stone (now the Chief Justres2f tha United States) appointed him “df- rector. He accepted on condition that there would be no polities in the bureau. ' In the years immediately follow- ing, Mr. Hoover and his G-men were often in the national spotlight in the war against crime. He himself led his men in several raids against notorious gangsters. Under his leadership, the FBI not only engaged in a successful war against crime, but jaw enforcement was placed on s professionslized, meme Vessel. 2 ectentific basis. Okitimera la when Mr. Hoover dechtled to recruit his new agenta from the ranks of college graduates and those with similar educational training. The policy proved a wise one, however, for the FBI today, because 90 many of ita agents are lawyers, mows how to gather the evidence that will obtain convictions. Of the cases presented to the courts by the FRI last year, more than 97 per gent resulted in convictions. Two decades ago the FBI had ap- proximately 600 agents on the rolls Today it has more than 3,000, and s personne], in Washington and the field, of more than 16,000, The approach ef Mr. Hoovers 25th anniversary brought him many congratulatory messages. Among these was a letter of congratulation from President Roosevelt, read yee terday at the graduation exercises of the 19th class of the FBI Na- thonal Police Academy. . -“You have built up from nothing ht maf ~@.4.. 4 an extraordinarily able and sfScient service for detecting end punishing crime hout =the’ United States.“ Attorney General Biddle tald Mr, Hoover in a letter made public yesterday. oo of “To the good will of « grateful | public, I should. lke to $ideeer personal worfl of good “wishes *° your continued success.” . . ot Ga i eae