indispensable in order to secure the conviction of the wealthiest and most formidable criminals with whom the Government has to deal, both those operating in violation of the anti-trust law and others.  The amendment in question was of benefit to no one excepting to these criminals, and it seriously hampers the Government in the detection of crime and the securing of justice.  Moreover, it not only affects departments outside of the Treasury, but it tends to hamper the Secretary of the Treasury himself in the effort to utilize the employees of his department so as to best meet the requirements of the public service.  It forbids him from preventing frauds upon the customs service, from investigating irregularities in branch mints and assay offices, and has seriously crippled him.  It prevents the promotion of employees in the Secret Service, and this further discourages good effort.  In its present form the restriction operates only to the advantage of the criminal, of the wrongdoer.  The chief argument in favor of the provision was that the Congressmen did not themselves wish to be investigated by Secret Service men.  Very little of such investigation has been done in the past; but it is true that the work of the Secret Service agents was partly responsible for the indictment and conviction of a Senator and a Congressman for land frauds in Oregon.  I do not believe that it is in the public interest to protect criminally in any branch of the public service, and exactly as we have again and again during the past seven years prosecuted and convicted such criminals who were in the executive branch of the Government, so in my belief we should be given ample means to prosecute them if found in the legislative branch.  But if this is not considered desirable a special exception could be made in the law prohibiting the use of the Secret Service force in investigating members of the Congress.  It would be far better to do this than to do what actually was done, and strive to prevent or at least to hamper effective action against criminals by the executive branch of the Government.

Postal savings banks.

I again renew my recommendation for postal savings hanks, for depositing savings with the security of the Government behind them.  The object is to encourage thrift and economy in the wage-earner and person of moderate means.  In 14 States the deposits in savings banks as reported to the Comptroller of the Currency amount to $3,590,245,402, or 98.4 per cent of the entire deposits, while in the remaining 32 States there are only $70,308,543, or 1.6 per cent, showing conclusively that there are many localities in the United States where sufficient opportunity is not given to the people to deposit their savings.  The result is that money is kept in hiding and unemployed.  It is believed that in the aggregate vast sums of money would be brought into circulation through the instrumentality of the postal savings banks.  While there are only 1,453 savings banks reporting to the Comptroller there are more than 61,000 post-offices, 40,000 of which are money order offices.  Postal savings banks are now in operation in practically all of the great civilized countries with the exception of the United States.