 comfortable stance, line up your sights, aim at six o'clock, squeeze the trigger, don't pull it. Practice, they said, and you'll be as expert as the Coast Guard instructor. That guy could put 10 shots through a hole the size of a quarter. Well, if he could do it, maybe I could learn. I was certainly learning a lot of other things. A month before, after my appointment to the United States Secret Service, I reported to the Treasury Building in Washington. I had butterflies in my stomach. My instructor, Walter Holt, took me through the exhibit room in the Treasury Building. There, I had a quick look at the work of some of the other Treasury enforcement agencies. I knew that the Treasury's intelligence unit investigated tax frauds, but I discovered that the Treasury also fights crime on many fronts, like the Bureau of Narcotics with the captured opium pipes and marijuana cigarettes and heroin and other drugs, all used in the dirtiest racket in the world, bar none. The alcohol tax unit, like most of the others, never gets into the headlines much, but its agents hunt down bootleggers and keep a lot of poison liquor out of circulation. They have another job, too, enforcing the National Fire Arms Registration Act. And there's the customs bureau, which nabs smugglers who pull all kinds of tricks to sneak contraband into the country. These crooks use everything from hollow heels to kids' play things to hide their goods. But the customs men know all the tricks. Then there's the Coast Guard. That's part of the Treasury, too, except in wartime or at the President's direction, when it becomes part of the Navy. The Coast Guard works closely with the others, especially with the customs and narcotics bureaus, in fighting the smuggling and dope rackets. The counterfeit section was really an eye-opener. $300,000, and all of it phony. And when Walter Holt showed me what a counterfeit looked like, I realized then that it isn't hard for the average President to tell the difference between the good and the bad if they know what to look for. Magnifying glasses and microscopes aren't necessary, but the Secret Service uses them in making exhaustive studies of each new counterfeit. Walter showed me some of the contraband seized in counterfeiting cases. For example, a typical press captured from a counterfeiter now doing 15 years in Atlanta Penitentiary, and some counterfeit plates made by an engraver who had his plant in a log cabin in the Ozarks. These plates were certainly a far cry from the works of art made in our own Bureau of Engraving and Printing. You see, the counterfeiter cannot buy the highly complex machinery used by the government in money making, and even more important, he has neither the knowledge of certain carefully guarded technical secrets, nor the skill of the master craftsman who engrave Uncle Sam's steel plates. Well, Walter got down to brass tacks about how to detect counterfeits. Government plates give clear lifelike expressions to the portraits on our genuine money, especially in the eyes of the portrait. But because most counterfeit plates are etched with acid, they make blotches or broken lines, particularly in the eyes and the fine screen background. The best way to tell whether a questionable bill is counterfeit is to compare it with one known to be genuine. When the good and bad are side by side, the difference is very noticeable. All the features on our bills have names. For example, those fishnet lines in the border are called the geometric lathe work and are named for the machine which makes them. It costs about $50,000 and it turns out the beautiful lacy pattern which the counterfeiter has so much trouble imitating. It's no wonder there's such a difference between the work of the perfect machine and the work of the crook. On many counterfeits, the serial numbers are defective or out of alignment. Now most folks would never notice the tiny check letter and the faceplate number in the lower corner of every bill. But the Secret Service calls attention to them for identification purposes in its printed warnings of new counterfeits. Another thing to look for are the sawtooth points on the colored treasury seal. On most counterfeits, they're blunt or rounded off. On the genuine, they're sharp. Incidentally, something new has been added. The Federal Reserve seal may have points or it may not. The points were added to the Federal Reserve seal beginning with the series of 1950. Before that, the black circle just had a smooth edge. But counterfeiting was only one of the things I had to learn about. Knowledge of scientific methods of crime detection is a must for Secret Service agents. Of course, I knew it wasn't a cloak and dagger outfit, but I was surprised at the new things I had to learn and how thoroughly they would drill into me. All my learning wasn't done in the treasury building. I had a bone up after hours on counterfeiting, modern criminal investigation and law. Yo, boy, what happened to me with a Marine Corps judo instructor should happen to some of those storybook private eyes who always find swell clues and beautiful blondes. At first, I thought this was just like going to college again, but I soon found out that the subjects were not elective. You had to take everything, and I mean everything. Even first aid. I never realized there were so many different kinds of bandages and so many ways to use them. A little more of that judo, and I'd be using the first aid on myself. Didn't take me long to figure out that there's no glamour in this business. It was just plain hard work and plenty of it. Early the next morning, the grind began again. This time to the dispersing office, where Uncle Sam issues about one million checks every working day. They go to a big cross-section of America. To war veterans and families of soldiers and sailors. To retired social security beneficiaries. To farmers. And to thousands of other Americans like you and me, for instance. I learned that thousands of these checks are stolen and forged every year by crooks. Most of them, however, get caught by the Secret Service. When a stranger wants to cash a check, your best protection is to have him vouched for personally by someone who's known and reliable, as there isn't any one card or paper or document which can't be faked or tampered with. And don't forget, social security cards are not intended for personal identification and cashing checks. A crook named Eddie tried this gag on E.G. White, a grocer. But after looking at the Social Security card, Grocer White used a few trick questions on Eddie. For example, Eddie's check was addressed to George B. Tuttle at 1500 Allyson Street, Northwest, Washington, D.C. Well, Grocer White said, oh, I see you live at 5100 Allyson Street, Northwest. That must be right next door to E.G. White, isn't it? He gave the street number in reverse and mentioned his own name. Now, most foragers don't pay attention to small details and Eddie was no exception. Mr. White also said, say, are you Charlie's brother George? And then the suspicious grocer told Eddie that he had to have all checks initialed by the cashier and he walked away to call the police department. Well, the good work of Grocer White put Eddie right behind a polygraph machine. Walter and I watched as the lie detector scratched out the verdict. I was fascinated by the little pens which recorded the reactions on the chart. When the operator asked if Eddie stole the check, the answer was no. But I saw a slight variation on the chart. Well, maybe he was lying, maybe he wasn't. But Eddie didn't bat an eye until the $64 question. Do you know who did steal the check? The answer was the same, no. But the chart showed a direct hit. After Eddie saw the charts, he told how a friend stole the check while he himself forged the endorsement and tried to put the check over on Grocer White. Walter showed me what a widespread racket this forgery business is. The Secret Service has thousands of cases on hand, stacked up, waiting to be investigated. And new cases come in at the rate of about 3,000 every month, maybe more. But Walter suddenly remembered we had an appointment. I didn't know where we were headed, but I soon found out. You know, I guess anybody who goes to the White House gets a thrill, especially a small town boy like me. The chief wanted me to see our White House detail and to learn a little about our most important job of protecting the president. The White House police are part of the Secret Service and it's their job to protect the executive mansion and grounds. I guess it'll be a long time before folks forget how these men stopped an attempt to kill the president at Blair House. And how one of them gave his life in the performance of his duty. I had always thought the Secret Service protected the president since the service was established back in 1865. But Walter explained that this duty actually began with Theodore Roosevelt after the assassination of President McKinley in 1901. Before that, there was no regular protection. Today, of course, watching over the president is the number one job of the Secret Service. Walter introduced me to several of the men on our White House detail and while we waited for the president to come out, I got a lot of information about this phase of the work. For instance, Walter told me how important the local police are and how the Secret Service gets fine help from them. Suppose the president is to attend a banquet at a hotel. The entire security plan, including routes of travel, timing, posts of duty, and preparation of orders is discussed by the Secret Service with the chief of police and his staff. When the plans are completed, the building in which the banquet will be held is carefully inspected from seller up. Even the preparation of food is supervised. If the president goes by train, he occupies a specially built armored railroad car. In advance of his trip, the Secret Service has talked with railroad officials, arranged for protection of the train along the way, and sent advance agents ahead to see that the schedule is followed as closely as possible. An important part of the presidential train is the communications car operated by the White House branch of the United States Army Signal Corps. This car is really a voice and ears on wheels. By shortwave radio, by telephone, even by teletype, it keeps in touch with Washington or with any part of the world wherever the train may be. Whether the president travels on water, on land, or in the air, the Secret Service is close by, prepared for any emergency. An important part of that protection is the classification and analysis of threatening letters sent to the president. These letters are processed in a unit of the Secret Service, known as the protective research section. Many letters are anonymous, but a big percentage of them are identified by this section's elaborate handwriting classification system. Sign threatening letters are checked with investigation files which show the writer's potential danger to the president and are coded according to the handwriting and other characteristics. New letters are compared with files previously received and carefully investigated. Even typewritten letters are classified and identified. In crowds, most of the Secret Service men keep as inconspicuous as possible. Many will mingle with the people or patrol the fringe of the crowd. Others keep vigil in automobiles close to the crowd and by means of two-way radio, they keep in touch with each other and with the White House detailed. In this way, they know exactly where the president's motorcade moves and exactly when it will approach the crowd. If you've attended gatherings where the president has appeared, you've probably noticed a few young men who stay close to the president but who keep their eyes on the spectators and not on the speaker. What do they look for? Oh, many things, bulky or suspicious packages, movements which might mean danger, or sometimes just autograph hounds or gate crashes with purely personal objectives. These are the Secret Service agents who are prepared to give their own lives to protect the commander-in-chief. Each of these men must be tactful, firm, agile, decisive, quick of thought and quick of act, for no Secret Service man can tell when his training and his judgment may save the life of the president of the United States. I'll never forget the afternoon that Chief gave me my credentials. Chief Boorman, youngest chief in the history of the service, came into the organization as clerk and rose through the ranks to the top job in about 20 years. When I said that I was anxious to go to work, he grinned as though he remembered how he felt when he first became an agent. Then he handed me my credentials as a special agent. I was excited and proud and happy. Before I left, the chief reminded me that protection of the president was our number one job, but he also said that suppression of counterfeiting and forgery was important, too, because they are crimes against the people. And they hit where it hurts, in the pocketbook. Well, I made it. And now I'm ready to go into action for you. I'm proud to belong to a great outfit, a crime-fighting organization of the Treasury Department, which for nearly a century has specialized in security for us all, the United States Secret Service.