Mr. William J. Burns, one of the world's greatest detectives and chief of the United States Secret Service will speak informally on his experiences tonight at 8 o'clock in the Living Room of the Union. He will be introduced by Professor William MacDougall. Mr. Burns will be the guest of honor at a dinner given by the Governing Board of the Union tonight. The lecture will be open only to members of the Union.

Mr. Burns was born in Baltimore in 1861 and was brought up to be a tailor. But he grew interested in the detection of crime, and when he solved the celebrated "tally-sheet forgeries" in a State election, his fame become widespread.

With a record of 22 years in the Secret Service, Mr. Burns has had a brilliant career, and has made a name for himself in tracing and capturing notorious counterfeiters and forgers. Among his coups was the capture of Taylor and Bredell of Philadelphia, who made the Monroe head hundred-dollar silver ceritficate, declared even by government experts to be genuine.

Of his cases undertaken as president of the William J. Burns Detective Agency, the Wall Street bomb explosion is the most famous one Mr. Burns has undertaken recently. He was on the scene of the explosion one minute after it occurred with a score of men; at that time he told the reporters that it was a plan of the communist government to startle the world. The Burns Agency has been making a worldwide search for the perpetrators of the explosion, and, it is claimed, are slowly rounding them up.