William G. McAdoo to Woodrow Wilson

BUREAU OF INTELLIGENCE.

Dear Mr. President
At the present time we have three important services for the detection of crimes against the United States:
1. The Secret Service (a Bureau of the Treasury Department), which has been long established and which is charged with the duty of protecting the President, hunting down counterfeiters, etc.;
2. The Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice, whose activities relate to offenses against the laws of the United States peculiarly within the purview of the Department of Justice;
3. The Post Office Inspection Service of the Post Office Department, which is concerned with the detection of crimes against the postal laws.
Besides these services, the Treasury Department has two other important investigating arms, such as the special agents of the Internal Revenue Service and the special agents of the Customs Service.
It would not be possible to confer upon any one of the three Departments I have mentioned the general direction of the secret service work which will be necessitated by war conditions, and particularly that part of the work which involves international relations.
Each one of the services to which I have referred finds itself at times “crossing wires” with another in running down crimes and conducting investigations. To overcome this difficulty, we established, as you know, not long since a sort of “clearing house agency” in the State Department, over which Mr. Polk has been presiding, through which the services of these several organizations have been coordinated in a more effective degree than heretofore.
During the war it will not, I believe, be possible for Mr. Polk to successfully take care of the large volume of work that will have to be handled. He has highly important duties in the State Department which he cannot neglect. The work of an Intelligence Bureau, properly organized, ought to have the undivided attention of a suitable head and competent staff of assistants. I would suggest that you create by Executive Order a Bureau of Intelligence, and that you appoint as its Director Mr. Robert W. Woolley, giving him authority to employ such assistants and staff as may be necessary to enable him to carry on the work efficiently. The Bureau could be located in the State Department or the Treasury Department (preferably, I think, the State Department), and all of the agencies to which I have referred should be required to report to the Bureau of Intelligence such facts and information concerning matters outside of the jurisdiction of their respective departments as may come to their knowledge. This would apply particularly to international matters and questions growing out of the war not connected directly with any particular department. It would be simply a broadening of the scope of the work now carried on through the “clearing house agency” conducted by Mr. Polk in the State Department.
I think Mr. Woolley is well equipped for this work. You could pay the expenses of the organization out of the lump sum appropriation which is carried in the general deficiency bill, and which you are authorized to expend for purposes of the national security or defense. I am sure that this is the most effective plan you can adopt for the purpose and that it will give satisfaction to each of the departments concerned.
I have sent the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the Postmaster General each a copy of this letter, so that if you take the matter up with them they will have knowledge of what I have suggested to you.

Cordially yours,