¥ The graduation programe of the nineteenth session of the FBI Na-
tional Police Academy, July 25, was also the twenty-fifth anni-
versary of J. Edgar Hoover's career on the Justice Department. 11
Secretary of the Navy, I'rank Knox, was the principal speaker.
Graduate Robert A. Allen is here seen receiving a diploma from Mr.
Hoover (right), who in the accompanying article emphasizes the need
of eternal and intelligent vigilance as the price of liberty.
Teg HI essential task of law entorce-
MM ment is the preservation of
American democracy. In this, I
believe, the IFBI reflects the
tempo of the times. From 1924 until 1932
the FBI was preparing for the tasks which
appeared inevitable. It was building an
organization of young, alert, educated men
of a type never before known in law en-
forcement. Tor the first time in history,
here was a law-enforcement organization
wherein every man was being schooled to
problems which did not then exist, but
problems which certainly would arise in the
future, problems for which the FBI must
be readv—that was our program of pre-
paredness. Thus, when the challenge came
with the rise of kidnaping, bank robbery,
and the nation-wide operations of organ-
ized crime, the FBI was ready to act as
soon as its forces were unleashed by Con-
oressional enactments. Within a matter of
months it transformed itself into a gang-
smashing organization—athletic in body.
as well as in mind and spirit, and scien-
tifically developed for the job of facing the
gangster on his own ground with his own
weapons. The battle lines were drawn, and
one by one the lords, the masters, and the
NOVEMBER, 1942
faa dt]
hangers-on of the under-
world who had sneered
at all law and order fell
into disgrace and obliv-
101.
With the same type
of assistance which
America has given to the
FBI in its assaults upon
criminality, this Bureau
will make espionage and
sabotage equally as dan-
verous for those who
seek to defile our land
as kidnaping and bank
robbery have been.
In its efforts to defeat
these persons who seek
to slow up America, the
FBI is giving attention
to the task of surveying
industrial plant protect-
ive facilities. Every as-
sistance must be given
to the industrial world
maintaining safety
against those who would
hinder or harm it. This
blood stream of Ameri-
can defense must not be
allowed to clot. For
months, highly trained Special Agents
have been conferring with industrial
executives and carefully studying every
protective measure within manufacturing
establishments in order that vulnerable
points may be fortified in the interest of our
national security.
The trailing of the spy or the saboteur
is a job for men of experience. This is not a
task for the amateur sleuth, and certainly
there is no place here for roving vigilantes,
or groups organized by some promoter seek-
ing personal gain or publicity. We cannot
and should not debase ourselves to using
the same methods to which our enemies
stoop, but we must, through the orderly
processes of our established democratic
methods, seek them out and properly de-
fend ourselves by bringing a halt to their
operations. Above all, we must not lose
our heads in a rising tide of hysteria. This
job can best be done by entrusting the task
to men who are trained for it. To this end,
citizens, when cognizant of acts inimical to
our national defense, should immediately
communicate the facts in their possession
to the nearest FBI Field Office.
The same subversive forces which at-
tempted to wreck America twenty years
AMERICA, FREE-
DOM'S BULWARhA
By J. Edgar Hoover, llirector,
Federal Bureau of Investigation
ago,—which burned our wheat fields, which
blew up our factories, which killed our
workmen, which incited strikes, fomented
bombings, ruled mobs, and brought about
gunplay and bloodshed,—still hate the
Federal Bureau of Investigation with rank-
ling venom. I am happy to say that this
Bureau has never weakened before their
unwarranted and false attacks in defending
the principles of freedom, democracy, and
liberty, in the American way.
United, we can shout the challenge that
America is for Americans and those who
want to be Americans; that the FBI will
not permit the spy, the saboteur, and the
international confidence men with their
retinue of killers and murderers to slay and
maim and run amuck through the high-
ways, the byways, and the homes of our
land.
But Americanism must be protected in
the American way. We must not allow our
patriotism to be commercialized. If we
deprecate the activities of isms, then we
must not lower ourselves by fighting these
forces with their purgatives, their intern-
ment camps, or their firing squads. We will
ficht them in the good old-fashioned Amerl-
can way, fairly, squarely, and relentlessly.
Beyond this, we must plan for tomorrow.
If our form of government is to survive, it
will be upon the foundations of justice
which support our democracy. If those
foundations are to endure, the generations
to come must be properly taught and
trained in the great American institution-—
the home.
Today is the time for an intensification of
the teachings of Americanism to the rising
generations—tomorrow may be too late.
We have neglected too long the thrilling
lessons found in the histories of Washing-
ton, of Jefferson, and of Lincoln, while we
have a disgustingly large number of
propaganda-purveyors who would educate
our youth along dictatorial or communistic
lines. Too many of these are today in our
schools and colleges, maintained by public
funds, while they attempt to pervert the
teachings of democracy.
There is no place in this country for any-
thing but home-honoring Americans; there
is no place in our schools for the advocates
of destructive isms. Either this is to con-
tinue a Nation dedicated to the ideals of the
America we love or it will sink into shape-
less ruin. It is our sacred duty to defend
our honored land against such a catas-
trophe. The place to start is in the home
(Continued on page 11)
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