The Gate City of the Great West in the War—If K. C. Ever was Wild and Woolly, That was Long Ago—Let Us Have Peace, if We Have to Get It With a Gun—All Quiet Along the Missouri.
Kansas City claims and has claimed for a long time the title of Gate City to the Great West. This is hers by legitimate right and has been ever since wheel-power first went west of the Missouri River. Independence, Missouri, which we may call the mother of the modern Kansas City, was for years, early in the last century, the jumping-off place for all the great western transcontinental trails. That way lay Oregon, on the upper fork. The left fork of the main traveled road led to Santa Fé. The men bound for the Arkansas Valley passed by here, and the old fur hunters said good-bye to civilization at this point even before the wagon had replaced the pack saddle on the Santa Fé trail. Here began the wagon-road that later was railroad, and all the time, from the wildest to the tamest days, whether in staid 1842, or in wild 1882, Kansas City was the Gate of the West, letting in and passing out a wild and tempestuous life in the days of the Homeric West.
Time was when Kansas City was bad, and had her man for breakfast with the best of them. But always the worst was farther West, and Kansas City sat tight. She did not care for the movies of the future, but quickly went in for law, order and business. So she has grown up, by very virtue of her geography, her situation, and her history, into an immense commercial center, solid, law-abiding and prosperous.
There was no reason to expect any great outbreaks of violence in Kansas City at this date of her history, nor do we find any; but the A. P. L. was there as it has been in every other great city of the Union throughout the war. That it was active may be seen by a glance at the totals. In D. J. work, forty-five cases of alien enemy activities, 1,237 cases of disloyalty and sedition, and eight cases of propaganda cover the list. The War Department offered more work, the selective draft alone involving under its several heads 3,182 cases. There were 410 investigations connected with character and loyalty; 227 cases of investigation of civilian applicants for overseas service. Raids to obtain evidence for illegal sale of liquor to soldiers brought visits to fifty-three doubtful saloons, and twenty-five convictions of violators. Kansas City is dry, so far as the Army is concerned, as may be witnessed by an editorial of September 17, 1918, in the Kansas City Star—which also shows why it is dry:
The sale of liquor to soldiers has been going on in Kansas City for months. Officers at Leavenworth and Funston have complained of it. The consequences have been apparent to everybody. Yet the police—Governor Gardner’s police—did nothing. It took a voluntary organization to get the evidence and force the arrests. The law-breakers whom the police—Governor Gardner’s police—could not find, were run down by the volunteers of the American Protective League. They discovered the most open and flagrant violation of the law. It was no trick for amateurs to get evidence and find the people who deserved arrest.
A tough North-end colored saloon was visited by A. P. L. operatives late one Saturday evening. A large crowd was encountered. Most of them had been drinking heavily and were in rather a noisy condition. The A. P. L. men first encountered a large colored fellow. He explained that he was past the age, but that he had served in the 21st Kansas (colored) in the Spanish War, and produced his papers to prove his assertion. A colored fellow was encountered who refused to show his card. He said he had one, but stated he would not go to headquarters and that it would take a fight to get him there. Whereupon this ex-colored soldier stepped up and informed him that if there was to be any threshing done, he asked the first opportunity, and that no. 2 would show his card or he would take it off him. He was supported by two or three other colored men, with the result that every man in the crowd brought out his card. This story is given to illustrate one fact—no matter how tough and disorderly the crowd, eighty-five percent at least still had manhood enough left to be loyal.
In another saloon a big fellow was leaning on the bar. He was notified that operatives outside were looking at the cards, and he said: “I have my little old card right here,” slapping his breast, “but the man who sees it will first have to walk over my dead body.” Operative B——, who had entered the saloon a few minutes before, was leaning on the bar facing the fellow and when he finished his tirade, he said quietly and very low: “Let me see your card, please; I am from the American Protective League”—and he showed his star. Instantly the fellow replied: “Oh, certainly, here it is”—accompanied by a roar of laughter from everybody in the saloon.
A man was reported by neighbors as having taken down a flag that was put on his house. It was said that he read the reports of German victories in the early part of the war on the front porch to the neighbors and gloated over them. He also said he knew how far to go, what to say and when to quit. A. P. L. operatives had a quiet interview with this party. He was well educated, held a good position, and was desirous of arguing the question. At that moment he was reinforced by his wife, who immediately ordered the operatives out of the house, with the statement that no one could accuse her husband of being disloyal. She was very determined and unusually long of wind. His change was immediate. He took his wife to a back room. Evidently he runs the house, for she did not reappear. He assured us he had made a mistake, and, in fact, termed himself a plain d——d fool. He promised to be loyal and said that he invited checking up.
It was the experience of the Eastern District of Kansas City that about twenty percent were American-born citizens of German descent, or naturalized Germans who looked upon the war as simply a question of taking sides, instead of a question of loyalty. A. P. L. pointed out to these the need of being loyal, what they owed this country, why they should be subservient to the law—and what was going to happen to them if they were not. This twenty percent either was made into good citizens or it remained a class of people who said nothing and did no harm. The five percent of bad stuff represented the actual Germans who were interested in the success of the Germans, and the slackers, deserters and men who had violated the law and had to be apprehended.
A typical Kansas City case was commented on in the “Spy Glass,” the national A. P. L. paper: