Watch us in hd, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter. Each week, reel america brings archival films that tell the story of the 20th century. This is a 1953 Treasury Department film which shows a new recruit learning to protect the president , added to the duties of the secret service after the assassination of William Mckinley in 1901. The secret Service Director retired after a security breach. In one, a man made it into the east room of the white house before being stopped. [gunshot] not bad for a beginner. , take aoting business comfortable stance, line up your sites, aim at 6 00, lisa trigger, practice squeeze the trigger. If he could do it, maybe i could learn. I was certainly learning a lot of other things. A month before, after my appointment, i reported to the treasurer building in washington. I had butterflies in my stomach. My instructor took me through the exhibit room in the treasury it, maybe i could learn. I was certainly learning a lot of other things. A monthbuilding. I had a quick look at the work of some of the other treasury enforcement agencies. I knew the Intelligence Unit investigated tax fraud, but i discover the treasury also fights crime on many fronts. He bureau of narcotics the alcohol tax unit, like most of the others, never gets into the headlines, the agents on down bootleggers. They have another job, enforcing forcing the National Firearms registration act. There is the customs bureau, which nabs smugglers which sneak contraband in the country. The customs man know all the tricks. Hen there is the coast guard that is part of the treasury, too. Except in wartime or at the president s direction from a when it becomes part of that navy. The coast guard works closely with the others in fighting the smuggling of the [. Of dope rackets. The counterfeit section is really an eyeopener. When he showed me what counterfeit looks like, i realize it is not hard for the average person to tell the difference between a good and the bad if they know what to look for. Mind new find glasses and roscopes are necessary magnifying glasses and microscopes. Some counterfeit. Lates made by an engraver these plates were 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 and moneymaking. He has neither the knowledge of certain carefully guarded technical secrets, nor the skill of the master craftsmen who engrave uncle sams steel plates. Walter got down to brass tacks about how to detect counterfeits. Government plates give lifelike expressions. Especially in the eyes of the portrait. Because most counterfeit plates are etched with acid, they make broken lines. 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 sidebyside, the difference is noticeable. All the features on our bills have names. They are named for the machine which makes them. Itcost about 50,000 and turns out the beautiful pattern which the counterfeiter has so much trouble imitating. It is no wonder there is such a difference between the work of the perfect machine and a work of the crook. The serial numbers are defective on many counterfeits. Noticepes would never the face plate number in the lower corner of every bill. The secret Service Called attention to them for identification purposes. Another thing to look for are the sawtooth points on the treasury seal. On most counterfeits, they are blunt. N the genuine, they are sharp the Federal Reserve seal may have points or it may not. The points were added beginning with a series of 1950. Before that, the black circle just had a smooth edge. After fitting was only one of the things i had to learn about. Only onerfeiting was of the things i had to learn about. I knew it was not a cloak and dagger outfit. All my learning was not done in the treasury building. I had to bone up after hours on counterfeiting, modern criminal investigation. At first, i thought this was just like going to college again. I soon found out the subjects were not elective. You had to take everything and i mean everything. Even first aid. I never realized there were so made different kinds of bandages in so many ways to use them. Judo and ire of that would be using the first aid on myself. There is no glamour in this business. It was just plain hard work. Early the next morning, the grind began again. Were uncle sam issues about one million checks every working day. They go to a big crosssection of america. War veterans and families of soldiers and sailors, two retired Social Security , andiciaries, to farmers to thousands of other americans like you and me. I learned that thousands of these checks are stolen and forged every year by crooks. Most of them get caught by the. Ecret service when a stranger wants to catch check, your best protection is to have him doubt for personally. Have him vouched for personally. Check, your best protection is to have him doubt dont forget, Social Security cards are not intended for personal identification in cashing checks. A crook named eddie tried this gag on a grocer. After looking at the Social Security card, he used a few trick questions on eddie. Eddies check was addressed to george toduttle. I see you live at 5100. That must be right next door to e. G. White. He gave the street number in reverse and mentioned his own name. Mr. Wright also said, are you charlies brother, george . The suspicious grocer told patty that he had to have all checks initialed by the cashier and he walked away to call the police department. The good work of grocer white put eddie right behind a polygraph machine. Collided sector scratched out the verdict. I was the lie detector scratched out the verdict. The operator asked if eddie stole the check. The answer was no. But i saw a slight variation. Maybe he was lying, maybe he wasnt. But he did not bat an eye until do you know who did steal the check . The answer was the same. The chart should he direct hit. 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. New cases, and at the rate of about rethousand every month, 3000 every month, maybe more. I did not know where we were headed, but i soon found out. I guess anybody who goes to the white house gets a thrill, especially a smalltown boy like me. The chief one of me to see our white house detail and to learn about our most important job of protecting the president. The White House Police are started are part of the secret service and it is their job to protect the executive mansion and grounds. It will be a long time before folks forget how these men stopped an attempt to kill the president and how one of them gave his life in the performance of his duty. Id always thought the secret service protected the president since the service was established back in 1865. This duty actually began with Theodore Roosevelt after the assassination of president mckinley. Before that, there was no regular protection. Today, watching over the president is the number one job of the secret service. Walter introduced me to several of the men on our way. While we waited for the president , got a lot of information about this phase of the work. Walter told me how important the local police are and how the secret service gets help from them. Suppose the president is to attend a banquet at a hotel. The entire security plan, including travel, timing, is discussed by the secret service with the chief of police and his staff. When the plans are completed, the building is carefully inspected, even the preparation of food is supervised. If the president goes by train come he occupies a specially built armored railroad car. In advance of the strip, the secret service have talked with robert officials have arranged for the protection of the train along the way, and sent advanced agentsahead. An important part of the president ial train is the communications car operated by the White House Branch of the United States army. This car is a voice and the heirs on whales. Whether the president travels on water, land, or in the air, the secret service is close by prepared for any emergency. An important part of that protection is a classification and analysis of threatening letters sent to the president. These letters are processed in the unit of the secret service not as the protective research section. Many letters are anonymous. A good percentage of them are identified by this handwriting classification system. Yours are compared with files previously received new letters are compare with files previously received. Even typewritten letters are classified and identified. In crowds, most of the cirque ash secret service men keep as inconspicuous as possible. Many of the secret service men keep as inconspicuous as possible. Radio, theytwoway keep in touch with each other and with the white house detail. They know exactly where the president s motorcade moves and exactly when it will approach the crowd. If you have attended gatherings where the president has appeared, you probably noticed a few young man who stayed close to the president , but who keep their eyes on the spectators and not on the speaker. What do they look for . Many things. Suspicious packages, movements which might mean danger, or sometimes just autograph hounds were gatecrashers. These the secret Service Agents who are prepared to give their own lives to protect the commanderinchief. Each of these men must be tactful, firm, agile, decisive, with the thought and quickly quick quick of act of thought and quick of act. Forget ther afternoon the chief gave me my credentials. The youngest chief in the history of the service, he came into the organization as clerk and rose the ranks to the top job in about 20 years. When i said i was anxious to go to work, he grant as though he remembered how he felt when he first became an agent. Then he handed me my credentials. I was excited and proud and happy. Before i left, the chief reminded me that protection of the president was our number one job. He also said that suppression of counterfeit and forgery was because they, are crimes against the people. I made it. Now i am ready to go into action for you. I am proud to belong to a great outfit, a crimefighting organization of the Treasury Department, which has specialized in security for assault. For us all. The United States secret service. You can watch reel america every weekend on cspan 3. You can view our archive of programs online at www. Cspan. Org. Search for reel america. 2015 student cam competition is underway. This competition for middle and High School Students will award 150 prizes totaling 100,000. Reate a 57 minute documentary videos need to include cspan programming, show varying points of view, and must be submitted by january 20. Org for morecam information. Today at 6 00, we explore an exhibit of the library of Commerce Congress marking the anniversary of the pan am panama canal opening. That is on american artifacts, American History tvs Weekly Program that takes viewers into archives, museums, and Historic Sites around the country. Monday night, jeremy grant talks about ways to increase Data Protection with alternatives to passwords and basic security. The government is not looking to endorse any particular solution. Be privacyo enhancing, it easy to use, and interoperable. Pilots weng at the have, we have some that are looking at smartphonebased apps which will be used in lieu of a password. Others are testing different types of biometrics. Voice recognition. Theyre the kinds of things we are testing out. Monday night at 8 00. Next, it was a great surprise to the American Government when the soviet union tested their first atomic bomb in 1949. Into National Spy Museum historian Vince Houghton talks about soviet spies who infiltrated atomic bomb resear