◆ SpookStack

1 fing: - - eyeglasses Sate lives, and it stuffed its 7s to overflowing. uring the First World War. ° worst fears of the bureau's nents were realised when it igilante raids on suspected Ht dodgers. Some_ 60,000 ‘Ces by were dragged off the ts by armed men and de- ined without a shred of legal ority. Not untfl 1919 was Hoover - eoeat with the Bureau of vestigation. He became, at e impressively early age of .: - head of the General Intel- gence Division of the Justice ep two years earlier he had: - jfped the department as a M-a-year clerk with a brand- % ras degree, his was & or someone a pane His father oyryanking public serv- RB ES “pl aatak? ‘there rere two children old- ‘abt John Edgar, atl devout Sbyteriang and dutiful schol- Master’ Hoover himself ont at Sunday school, some- ties proudly attired in the — et DESCRIPTION: Full, florid: ’ Pace: barrel-chested3... | ~ broken nose; "> conservatively; wears crony, Williara Burns, head of a adresses. for reading 2 oad uniform of his .¢ high school cadet corps. The distinctive broken nose was gained in a church bascbell game. His father died in 1922, and until his mother followed in 1938, John Edgar lived at home. Even now he lives in a small Washington suburban house, alone save for a housekeeper. . Apart from an occasional day at ‘ the races, his main recreation is. gardening. .. aa 4 ‘Unsavoury~ first task of the Ger " eral Intelligence Division “was to organise a wave of * raids-and deportations amon. aliens in the panic that grippe “America after the Bolshevik. Revolution. . Hoover directed these with zeal and a staggering lack of concern for fun mental rights or legal niceties. - The experience commended him to President Warren Hard- ing, and, then only 26, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the F.B.L This was led by Warren's at hoe cal ney-General Harlan Fiske Stone, ~ pelvata detective agency . ess than savoury reputation. There followed a shameful ; period in which the F.B.L accu- Ammulated a grubby record of “tstrike-breaking, .frame-ups and ; lcorrmuption. Political hacks ex- {changed favours with it. Agents *Isearched the private offices of {Congressmen . and breached [their mail. °°" ete S27 Mire Hoover. — an honest : : man and a true professional ‘whatever his failings— recorded that he eontemplat- ed resignation. But he held on, and, at the. same time, - _mounted ‘a shattering attack “on the Ku Klux Klan, which “was then becoming a national : menace, ~ - This was a truly praiseworthy’ accomplishment, but it is some- alle ve nacit : warded when, in 1924, ‘Attor- determined to reform the bur- ‘-eau, made Hoover its chief, with |. “_orders .to clean -: Pledge that he would never ,be - subject to. political control.". The ¥F.B.L under Hoover pre- ferred to concentrate on gory, “Vheadline-grabbing” gun battles with gangsters of the depression years, who could just as easily have been dealt. with by local . |police. ..- . Indeed, the local police usual: . ply did ‘all the leg work, then twere forced to watch the G-men walk off with the credit. Even Dillinger was turned in to the Chicago police by an informant, "Ped menace" OP the wartime and post-|} war years, when the “Red menace” was the enemy, the F.B.I, did more to intiml- date gentine liberals than could ever be balanced by the capture of a few spies. The ‘two areas in which a }national police force could have “Ibeen most effective remained virgin .territory: rackets and rule by. the. mob. They still flourish, although the names of every top mobster, his property and - organisation, are common knowledge. | ‘¢ The law is adequate. Why -- Hoover: has never considered organised crime a proper target _ is mystifying. . : Until. yery recently, prosecu- "tons under Civil Rights legisla- tion have been token. Mr. Hoo- ver never saw fit to exert the formidable machinery of the F.B1J. on behalf of deprived citizens. Dr.- Martin Luther King _ budget without demur.- I ~ more than Ri45-million " Sonnel. * as house and: a. had no illusions about wherg : Mr. Hoover's sympathies: ‘lay 3 nor those of the many fe f Southern agents, <; This year ‘the director‘jhas |’ already given Congress its “an-| +: nual fright, warning-that com-|% munists infest the Black Power Be movement and the anti test groups...“ Congress, as always, voted -which’ to- maintain ‘ 16,251" per- MERICA’ is “gurrently“n- bere ite a~ law - re The. Supreme | aera line with ge, ited guaran that have alway. “Capital punishmen abandoned by the. rest: te the civilised world, is” also * ing edged out. A: ‘itual | mo to rium: exists on . Spectach the public abattoir . Mr Hoover has pokenjout > against these important,’ pro-f: ” gressive steps. In the rapidly-|: '.: changing,* humanitarian? Six. >~.tles he remains-a: “lowering, -Implacable ‘figure™’ of © {the ‘” heartless: "Thirties. EET TF “Not the least of his’ shortéom: : ings is the conformity .and.hu- ‘mourless moulding - imposed upon the idealistic young law- ¢ yers who become F.B.i. agents. t « . at . ‘ . scene ee ne cate since eas eee elets cee e ee tame tree oa Lene - .. : 7 ' Dh De remem mptg ome aires .