Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
In my last annual Message, in connection with the subject of the due
regulation of combinations of capital which are or may become injurious
to the public, I recommend a special appropriation for the better
enforcement of the antitrust law as it now stands, to be extended under
the direction of the Attorney-General. Accordingly (by the legislative,
executive, and judicial appropriation act of February 25, 1903, 32
Stat., 854, 904), the Congress appropriated, for the purpose of
enforcing the various Federal trust and interstate-commerce laws, the
sum of five hundred thousand dollars, to be expended under the
direction of the Attorney-General in the employment of special counsel
and agents in the Department of Justice to conduct proceedings and
prosecutions under said laws in the courts of the United States. I now
recommend, as a matter of the utmost importance and urgency, the
extension of the purposes of this appropriation, so that it may be
available, under the direction of the Attorney-General, and until used,
for the due enforcement of the laws of the United States in general and
especially of the civil and criminal laws relating to public lands and
the laws relating to postal crimes and offenses and the subject of
naturalization. Recent investigations have shown a deplorable state of
affairs in these three matters of vital concern. By various frauds and
by forgeries and perjuries, thousands of acres of the public domain,
embracing lands of different character and extending through various
sections of the country, have been dishonestly acquired. It is hardly
necessary to urge the importance of recovering these dishonest
acquisitions, stolen from the people, and of promptly and duly
punishing the offenders. I speak in another part of this Message of the
widespread crimes by which the sacred right of citizenship is falsely
asserted and that "inestimable heritage" perverted to base ends. By
similar means--that is, through frauds, forgeries, and perjuries, and
by shameless briberies--the laws relating to the proper conduct of the
public service in general and to the due administration of the
Post-Office Department have been notoriously violated, and many
indictments have been found, and the consequent prosecutions are in
course of hearing or on the eve thereof. For the reasons thus
indicated, and so that the Government may be prepared to enforce
promptly and with the greatest effect the due penalties for such
violations of law, and to this end may be furnished with sufficient
instrumentalities and competent legal assistance for the investigations
and trials which will be necessary at many different points of the
country, I urge upon the Congress the necessity of making the said
appropriation available for immediate use for all such purposes, to be
expended under the direction of the Attorney-General.
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