From the beginning of the chapter:
It might be argued that besides responding to the larger policies of the
federal government, the Bureau of Investigation's course during the
Red Scare was to a large degree influenced by its institutional interests
and ideology. Like the military intelligence agencies, the Bureau had
experienced a dramatic growth during the war. For example, its budget
had increased from a mere $485,000 in fiscal year 1916 to $1,100,000
in FY 1918 and $2,350,000 in FY 1919, and at the same time the
staff of special agents had increased from only 300 just before
America's entrance into the war in 1917 to 579 in 1920. With the
Armistice, however, the Bureau not only faced a halt in this bureaucratic
expansion but even a cut-back to pre-war levels. First of all, the
legal basis for the Bureau's internal security investigations was made
up of a number of wartime laws, such as the Espionage Acts of 1917
and 1918 and the Selective Service Act, and it was generally held, even
by Justice Department officials and conservative politicians, that they
were only temporary and would not be enforced with the end of
hostilities. Secondly, President Wilson had been determined to avoid
the establishment of a permanent internal security apparatus during
the war, and he therefore opposed military jurisdiction in espionage
and sabotage cases and approved that the government utilize the services
of volunteers, who would be discharged after the war.
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