The League totals are tremendous, but the trouble with totals is that they do not enter into comprehension. A million dollars means little as a phrase, if left barren of some yard-stick for comparative measurement. Thus, when we say that long ago the number of suspect cases investigated by the American Protective League had passed the three-million mark, we hail the figures as grandiose, but have no personal idea of what they mean, no accurate conception of the multitude, the nature and the multiplicity in detail of the three million separate and distinct cases. It is when we begin to go into details as to the work and its organization from unit to block, from operative to chief, that we begin to open our eyes.

The government of this country had had thrown on it all at once a burden a thousand times as great as that of times of peace. We had to raise men and money, munitions, food, fuel for ourselves and all the world. We were not prepared. We had to learn all at once the one and hardest thing—one which America never yet had learned—economy. We had to do all the active and positive material things necessary to put an Army in the field across seas—build ships, fabricate ordnance, arm large bodies of men, train them, feed them, get their fighting morale on edge.

Yes, all these things—but this was only part. Our negative defense, our silent forces also had to be developed. We had to learn economy—and suspicion. That last was hard to learn. Just as delay and breakdowns happened in other branches of the suddenly overloaded government, so a breakdown in the resources of the Department of Justice—least known but most valuable portion of our nation’s governmental system—was a thing imminent. That was because of the swift multiplication of the list of entirely new things that had to be looked into with justice, and yet with speed. It is not too much to say that without the inspired idea of the American Protective League, its Web spread out behind the lines, there could not long have been said in the full confidence of to-day, “God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives.”

Besides being an auxiliary of the Department of Justice, the League was the active ally also of the Department of War, of the Navy, of the State, of the Treasury. It worked for the Shipping Board, the Fuel and Food Administrations, and the Alien Property Custodian. It ran down, in its less romantic labors, sugar-allowance violators, violators of the gasless-Sunday laws, the lightless-day laws, violators of the liquor laws, as well as the large offenders—the spies who got internment or the penitentiary as the penalty of getting caught. All these large and small activities may be understood by a glance at the report-sheet of any division chief. The heads and sub-heads will show the differentiation. The chart following this chapter will show the method of organizing the League’s personnel which was used in practically all the great cities. The table of dates which immediately follows, sets forth in outline the League’s early history, and indicates the rapidly broadening character of the League’s work.

EARLY DATES OF THE AMERICAN
PROTECTIVE LEAGUE
January 25, 1917First Call by Mr. Clabaugh.
February 2, 1917Second Call by Mr. Clabaugh (for automobiles).
February 2 to 25, 1917Automobiles and Plans.
February 25, 1917Submitted Plan.
March 1, 1917Plan Endorsed and Forwarded to Washington.
March 15, 1917Invited to Washington.
March 22, 1917League Authorized.
March 22, 1917New York Division Started.
March 22 to 26, 1917Organizing in Chicago.
March 26, 1917Chicago Division Started.
March 27, 1917Milwaukee Division Started.
March 29, 1917St. Louis Division Started.
April 6, 1917State of War with Germany Acknowledged.
April 9, 1917Philadelphia Division Started.
November 1, 1917Board of National Directors Organized.
November 15, 1917National Headquarters Established in Washington.

This will close a brief and necessarily incomplete review of the widely ramified nature of that Web which America made over night in her time of need.

There was also a confidential pamphlet, originally sent only to members, which elaborates and makes clear the basic purposes of the League, whose personnel and methods already have been covered. It is given in full as [Appendix B]. A great historic interest attaches to this document, which tells the complete inside story of the League and the manner in which it first was organized for its work. It is not necessary to say that this now appears before the eyes of the general public for the first time.

Lastly, there is for the first time made public the solemn oath taken by each member of the American Protective League. Years hence, this page will have historic value. It records one of the most singular phenomena of the American civilization.

THE OATH OF MEMBERSHIP

I, ..., a member of the American Protective League, organized with the approval and operating under the direction of the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation, do hereby solemnly swear: