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Origins and Progressions of the FBI
In 1908 a group of Special Agents started the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the large contribution of Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Bonaparte and Roosevelt had first met when they both spoke at a meeting of the Baltimore Civil Service Reform Association. Roosevelt, at the time was the Civil Service Commissioner, boasted of his reforms in federal law enforcement (Kessler 5). It was 1892, and this was a time when law enforcement was often much more political rather than professional. Roosevelt was very persistent of his wanting that Border Patrol applicants must pass marksmanship tests, with the most accurate individuals getting the jobs. Even in the late 1890 s and early 1900 s physical test taking was still a very effective and often
used method in selecting the best men for jobs. In this case the best marksmen were selected. Following Roosevelt on the program, Bonaparte countered and questioned Roosevelt s choice of selection, that target shooting was not the way to get the best men. "Roosevelt should have had the men shoot at each other, and given the jobs to the survivors. Roosevelt and Bonaparte both were "Progressives." The two men shared the same conviction that efficiency and expertise, not political connections, should determine who could best serve in government (Douglass 23). Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States in 1901; four years later, he appointed Charles Bonaparte to be his Attorney General. In 1908, Bonaparte applied their Progressive philosophy to the Department of Justice by creating a corps of Special Agents. It had neither a name nor an officially designated leader other than the Attorney General. Yet, these former detectives and Secret Service men were the first forerunners of the FBI.
Today, most Americans take for granted that our country needs a good effective federal investigative service which looks out for the common good, but in 1908, the establishment of this kind of agency at a national
level was highly disputed and extremely controversial. The U.S. Constitution is based on "federalism": a national
government with power and control over matters that crossed boundaries, like interstate commerce and foreign affairs, with all other powers reserved to the individual states. Through the 1800 s, Americans usually looked to cities, counties, and states to fulfill most government responsibilities. But, by the 20th century, easier transportation and communications had made an atmosphere of opinion more favorable to the federal government establishing a strong investigative agency which would help the people and the government. The feeling among the American people toward an open federal government, along with an impractical, reformist spirit, essentially showed what is known as the Progressive Era, from approximately 1900 to 1918 (McCarthy 37). The Progressive generation believed that government intervention was needed to produce justice in an industrial society. Also, it looked to "experts" in all different aspects of industry and government to produce that just and well running society.
President Roosevelt truly personified Progressivism at the national level. A federal investigative force made up
of well-disciplined experts qualified in most areas of law enforcement were then established to fight corruption and crime. This force fit President Roosevelt's Progressive
design of government. Attorney General Bonaparte shared the President's Progressive philosophy. However, the Department
of Justice under Charles Bonaparte had no investigators of its own besides for a few Special Agents who carried out specific assignments not dealing with serious issues as now needed. Even then they were only for the Attorney General. They also had a force of Examiners (trained as accountants) who reviewed the financial transactions of the federal courts. Since its formation in 1870, the Department of Justice had used funds set aside to investigate federal crimes and to hire private detectives first, and later investigators from other federal agencies. (Federal crimes are those which are considered interstate or occurred on federal government reservations.) By 1907, the Department of Justice most of then called upon Secret Service "operatives" to conduct investigations. These men were very well-trained, dedicated and extremely expensive. Moreover, they reported not to the Attorney General, but to the Chief of the Secret Service. This situation really upset Charles Bonaparte, who really wanted complete control of
investigations under his power. Therefor Congress provided the impetus for Bonaparte to acquire his own forces (Kessler 75). On May 27, 1908, it decided to make a law preventing the Department of Justice from using Secret Service operatives.
The following month, Attorney General Bonaparte selected a force of Special Agents within the Department of Justice. He used ten former Secret Service employees and a number of Department of Justice, employees. Along with the investigators they all became Special Agents of the Department of Justice. On July 26, 1908, Bonaparte had ordered them to report to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch. This particular action is considered as the beginning of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Both Attorney General Bonaparte and President Theodore Roosevelt, who completed their terms in March 1909, made strong recommendations that the force of 34 Agents become a permanent part of the Department of Justice. Attorney General George Wickersham, Bonaparte's successor, named the force the Bureau of Investigation on March 16, 1909. At that time, the title of Chief Examiner was changed to Chief of the Bureau of Investigation (Douglass 81). During a
time when crime was starting to rise and criminals were getting away a new crime organization was needed. When the Bureau of Investigations was first started Theodore Roosevelt was President and it began operations in the year of 1908. It was also a time when: Henry Ford launched the Model T, Orville Wright was hired by the U.S. Government to make military planes for the army. Billy Murray hit the music scene with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" a major influenza widespread right through the U.S. killing more than 20 million people. In the Olympic scene figure skating had made it to the rank of sports featured at the Winter Olympics, and the Oldsmobile Model 37 family car sold for a super price of $1,185. The Bureau of Investigation (BOI) began operations with nine Special Agents (all who were former Secret Service employees), 13. Peonage investigators, and 12 Examiners (McCarthy 51). At first, the BOI was just responsible for investigating around 25 different kinds of crime: antitrust, interstate train robberies, copyright violations, land fraud, neutrality violations, peonage, crimes on the high seas, forgery, and crimes on the U.S. government (Kessler 97). The first major expansion of the BOI's jurisdiction came in June 1910 when the Mann ("White Slave") Act was passed it
provided a way by which the federal government could investigate criminals who got away from state laws but had no other federal violations. The BOI s power and jurisdiction was once again increased in 1917 and 1918 (after World War I broke out) with the passage of the Espionage Act, the Selective Service Act, and the Deportation Statute. Finally, in October 1919, Congress
passes the Motor Vehicle Theft Act, yet another way to prosecute criminals who got away from the law by crossing state lines. Because of its constantly increasing
investigative responsibilities, the BOI grew tremendously during this time frame and by the end of the decade, the BOI employed more than 200 Special Agents and over 250 support personnel (McCarthy 74). At the beginning of the decade, the Bureau of Investigation had already established field offices in nine United States cities. By 1924, at the time J. Edgar Hoover (who is probably the most recognized name in the FBI family) was named Director, the Bureau of Investigation had approximately 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents. Towards the end of the decade, there were 30-some field offices shortly after Hoover took over, he fired Special Agents he considered unqualified and began to professionalize the organization
(Douglass 61). He abolished the seniority rule of promotion and introduced uniform performance appraisals. Hoover had began regular inspections of Headquarters and field offices. He also made new requirements that the new Agents had to be between 25 and 35 years old. He established a formal training course for Agents. He made it very clear he preferred Special Agents with law or accounting experience. Essentially Hoover had raised standards and solidified the agency more than ever before. Even though Prohibition violations fell under the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department, the Bureau had some pretty limited success using its narrow
ability and jurisdiction to investigate some of the gangsters of that period. The Bureau of Investigation also had some success against the KKK, The Ku Klux Klan which had been dormant since the late 1800 s, was revived in part to counteract the economic gains made by African Americans during World War I (Harrison 63). The Bureau of Investigation used the Mann Act to bring Louisiana's philandering KKK "Imperial Kleagle" to justice. During the 1930 s The Bureau's jurisdiction grew marginally. The first large event of the 1930 s was the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932. The kidnapping forced Congress to
passed the federal kidnapping statute. Next, during 1934, Congress passes a series of federal crime bills that gave the Bureau even more additional responsibilities in such areas as stolen property, extortion, racketeering, killing or assaulting federal officers, bank robberies, and fleeing from one state to another to avoid prosecution (Theoharis 101). In the wake of the dreadful 1933 Kansas City Massacre, Congress also gave the Bureau Special Agents the right to carry firearms (Wiener 89). In 1939 right before the United States coming into World War II President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an order stating that the Division of Investigation (as it was called then) would investigate all espionage, counterespionage, and sabotage matters, along with the intelligence divisions of the War
Department and the United States Navy. As the 1930 s slowly came to an end the Division of Investigation had now field offices in 42 different cities, and employed 658 Special Agents along with 1,141 support personnel (McCarthy 109). With the aftermath of the 1930 s came the 1940 s. During the 1940s and World War II, the FBI spent a great deal of its time working war-related investigations into activities of subversion sabotage, and espionage. On Dec. 7th 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. After that President Franklin D.
Roosevelt issued an emergency announcement and the Attorney General authorized the Bureau to act against any dangerous enemy aliens, J. Edgar Hoover immediately ordered that existing war plans be readied. On April 1945, President Roosevelt dies, and Vice President Harry Truman takes over the office as President. Before the end of the month, Hitler commits suicide and the German commander in Italy finally surrenders. Although the May 1945 surrender of Germany ended the war in Europe, the war continued in the Pacific until August 14, 1945. The world that the FBI faced in September 1945 was extremely different from the
world of 1939 when the war began. American isolationism had effectively ended, and economically, the United States
had become the world's most powerful nation. Back at home, in the U.S. organized labor had achieved a strong foothold. The Bureau even increased its Special Agent work force with National Academy graduates for a while during that time, the number of Bureau "employees" rose from 7,400 to a whopping 13,000, including 4,000 Special Agents (McCarthy 111). A Presidential Directive created the FBI's Special Investigative Service (SIS)(forerunner of the Legal Attache Program) in 1940 (Quenton 39). The SIS was created to provide information on Axis activities in South America and
to destroy its intelligence and propaganda networks. By the time the 1940 s ended the Bureau had expanded to 51 field offices and four Legal Attache Offices overseas in Ottawa, London, Madrid, and Paris. The temporary Bureau "employees" returned to their own agencies, and the FBI rolls dropped back a bit to 3,741 Special Agents and 5,559 support personnel (McCarthy 116). As the dreadful 1940 s ended the new and innovative 1950 s came. As it did for most of the 1950s, the FBI's Fiscal Year 58, had in its Annual Report to the Attorney General cited that the Communist Party, along with the USA, as "the foremost domestic threats to
our democracy (Harrison 88). The Bureau's work also showed up in the arrest of numerous alleged spies and Smith Act
violators, and as well in the uncovering of communist front organizations. At the beginning of the 1950s, J. Edgar Hoover had strongly showed his opposition to further expansion of federal criminal jurisdiction in a speech, saying he believed state and local law enforcement were already well-equipped to handle most crime problems. Congress, however had much different ideas; during the decade, FBI jurisdiction was expanded in several areas, such as kidnappings, interstate transportation of stolen property, labor racketeering, gambling, and bank robberies.
The bank robbery which widespread during the 1950s was so bad that the FBI had sponsored more than 100 regional bank robbery conferences for the state and local law enforcement along with banking representatives (Findley 41). By the end of this decade, the FBI had once again expanded....
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