50,000 NAMES

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3303, 30 May 1931, Page 6

50,000 NAMES

THE BLACK LIST OF WHITE HOUSE.

Histories of 50,000 persons who might harm the President are kept at the White House rogue's gallery. It is probably the least-known crime record in the world.

This biographical and pictorial collection of undesirable characters is maintained for the benefit of the United States Secret Service, whose job is to guard President Hoover, says The Sunday Dispatch Washington correspondent. Very few of those catalogued are aware of the fa ct that their full records, even in many instances their finger-prints, are known to the Secret Service.

Who gets into the White House rogue's gallery? Well, every Communist, anarchist, crank, scatterfanatic, and shatter-pate who has ever tried to crash the White House or has been heard to utter threats against the life of the President.

Hundreds of letters are received daily from citizens with grievances. Most of these correspondents are calmed by a politely written reply on White House notepaper. But if anyone persists in pestering the President then a Secret Service agent is quietly dispatched to the writer's home town, and he does not return to Washington until he has the man's " history," a sample of his handwriting, and if possible, his picture.

It has taken 30 years to collect the " cases " for the rogue's gallery. As the originals' die off their cards are thrown away. But a new crop of cranks is reaped every year. It is no more difficult to get into the White House than into a country club. It is easy, at any rate, to pass through the main entrance to the executive offices, but that is about all. While the President, a couple of room away, may eappear to be most carelessly guarded, not a soul can enter without being challenged before he can take three steps.

Facing the door as you go into the entrance to the main office of "the biggest business enterprise in the world" is a bare table, at which sits a policeman. That lone officer is the only visible evidence that the President has any kind of a bodyguard. Everything seems delightfulfully informal. But while they are not in evidence to the uninitiated, sharp-eyed and fully armed Secret Service men are eternally on the watch at the White House, inside and outside, night and day.

That policeman at the table picks out a stranger as soon as he pokes his nose inside the door. He jumps up from his chair at once and asks him for his name and what business has brought him there.

BOMBS. Should the visitor show the slightest sign of aggressive eccentricity he will find himself " bounced " in a jiffy. He will be surprised at the magic-like appearance from nowhere of a corps of well-dressed but huskily built men. The Secret Service has another job —that of examining the suspiciouslooking packages that are sent to the White House for the President. Of course, it is infernal machines that are feared, but 999 times out of 1000 packages are found to contain nothing more deadly than a mince pie "from an admirer," a pair of hunting boots, a case of fisherman's flies, a book, a full-mast ship in a bottle, or a petition signed by 10,000 indignant somebodies. It is never forgotten in Washington that three Presidents have died at the hands of assassins. An attempt was made on the life of Roosevelt by a crank at Milwaukee, while a half-crazy house-painter fired at Andrew Jackson in the Capitol. English visitors to the White House hardly ever fail to express astonishment at the apparent ease with which strangers may wander into the executive offices. No armed soldiers guard the portals as they do, for instance, at Buckingham Palace. There are a couple of policemen in uniform outside, but that is apparently all. This absence of men in uniform is part of the socalled American democratic tradition.