 Millions of Americans come to our national capital each year to view these monuments to greatness, to visit government buildings. They're waiting to tour the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building, National Headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an impartial investigative agency dedicated to serving the people of the United States. Its fundamental role to protect the innocent, to apprehend the guilty, this is your FBI. The primary investigative arm of our federal government, the FBI was founded in 1908. The scope of its responsibilities and its staff have increased many times since then. Its greatest growth occurred during the 48-year span when J. Edgar Hoover served as the agency's director. Here, in the FBI's National Headquarters and in regional offices throughout the country in most principal cities, more than 19,000 men and women of the FBI are dedicated to serving the government and the people of the United States. Each decade making its own demands, the FBI's record and its reputation for law enforcement have been established over the years. During the 1930s, criminal challenge was characterized by fast-moving, highly mechanized interstate criminal gangs and names like George Machine Gun Kelly in this reenactment giving FBI agents a lasting name. This year, in reenacting the Kansas City Massacre, coming to the end of a career of crime, Babyface Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger as they came in conflict with agents of the FBI. An expansion of responsibilities came with World War II as the FBI fought a war of its own, combating espionage and sabotage, arresting Axis agents. The war ending, foreign duplicity and espionage continued with the theft of atomic secrets and other intelligence data. In these hidden camera scenes, an FBI double agent keeps a rendezvous with a foreign agent on a New York street. The 1950s, another decade, another crime crisis to test the skills and ingenuity of the men and women of the FBI, the Brinks robbery in Boston, a mass murder of 44 innocent passengers in the sky, and other outrageous crimes solved by the FBI. With expanded jurisdiction in the fields of organized crime and civil rights, the FBI scored decisive blows against Ku Klux Klan violence, also identifying the gunman who killed Martin Luther King, loan sharky, interstate gambling, and other professional hoodlum operations were also placed within the FBI's authority. The FBI lost Director Hoover in 1972, but the name lives on. His desk and other office effects remain intact. Today, the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building houses the Bureau's Washington headquarters. Supporting local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, the FBI makes available the most scientific and proficient crime fighting capabilities ever developed. A quality over quantity approach dictates top priority in attention to organized crime, white collar crime, foreign espionage, bombings, and other acts of terrorism, police killings, and violation of rights guaranteed all of the American people. Evidence comes from many sources, from the Bureau's own network of field officers and from law enforcement agencies all across the country. The FBI assisting them better to fulfill their responsibilities to the citizens they serve. Their investigative activities are supported by the broad range of service functions and operations. Science works for law enforcement in the FBI's scientific laboratory. The scene of a crime may yield clues that can convict a criminal or absolve an innocent suspect. Samples of soil, traces of paint, metal fragments or wood chips, and explosives. Pieces of glass or even dust. Bits of thread or cord. Even a single hair may supply evidence. So might tire tread impressions or heel marks or tool marks. The characteristics of handwriting, typing, or hand printing may provide unique and individual identification. Chemical analysis supports and identifies evidence. Neutron activation analysis may detect traces of gun power residue on the hands of a suspect. Serial numbers obliterated from stolen property can be restored. Through the Computerized National Crime Information Center, millions of records relating to stolen property, missing persons, and fugitives from justice are instantly available to local, state, and federal criminal justice authorities. As positive as fingerprints, the science of firearms identification can match bullets to gun barrels. Positive identification can also be made of stolen jewelry. The FBI's work. A computerized fingerprint reader can process large numbers of the more than 20,000 fingerprint cards received daily from authorities throughout the nation. This one thing you own alone, your fingerprints. They may be here in the FBI's identification division. If you have ever served in the armed forces, worked for the government, voluntarily submitted your fingerprints or been arrested. Latent fingerprints may be compared with those of a suspect to exonerate him or convict him. The Scientific Services Division houses the best equipped firearms laboratory in the world. And here at FBI headquarters, there's the Great Gun Vault with its reference collection of firearms seized from gangsters, outlaws, and murderers. Devoted to the business of proving guilt or establishing innocence, the Bureau maintains close channels of communication and assistance with crime laboratories across the nation. An ongoing program of training, research, and development expands the range of the scientific tools and services available for criminal investigation use. Close channels of communication link the FBI's investigative staff with one another, as well as with field officers which serve as their bases of operation. The FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia. On this 333-acre campus, 700 resident students, including police officers as well as FBI agents, can train and study at one time. So you've got to keep one thing in mind today. Even though this will be an all-out physical effort on your part, you must, you must have something left when you get to the other side. In other words, you cannot be completely exhausted so that you climb out of the water and collapse right there on the bank. Why go over? These newly appointed special agents, they'll spend the first three and a half months of their careers in advanced instruction at the FBI Academy. Here they will receive training in federal laws and FBI procedures, including use of firearms and defensive tactics, as their indoctrination in the Bureau's teamwork methods begins. This and other criminal justice personnel from agencies and departments across the United States, as well as from some sister nations, some attending the FBI National Academy, an 11-week training program for experienced police officers, others participating in special courses and seminars on crime and law enforcement. Concerted efforts are also being made to help citizens reduce their vulnerability to crime. Working with business and industry, with public and private organizations including local police, the FBI tries constantly to reduce the menace of crime, encouraging a vigilant public attitude of resistance to crime through personal alertness, through active support of law enforcement and our criminal justice system. Change continues in the FBI. Reason change in response to the needs and expectations of the American people, attuning the agency to current challenges and demands. Striving constantly to broaden channels of communication and understanding, the FBI is determined to remain a competent and effective public service organization. You, the individual, representing America's millions of law-abiding citizens, this is your time and your land and your life. It's as good as history has ever recorded, there remains the relentless threat of crime and the overwhelming cost of crime. There are those who would destroy the very fiber of our society. It's against our country, our continuing realities. You can see that the tools of espionage are unlimited. In this case, a hollow nickel served as the hiding place for an entire page of microfilm secret information. But the FBI is reliably there, combating these national threats, carrying out the investigative and intelligence responsibilities assigned by federal laws and directives. With fidelity, bravery, and integrity, the men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation make every effort to guard our national freedom and your personal liberty and security. This is the unchanging, dedicated purpose of your FBI.