All sorts and conditions of men were enlisted and carried on the A. P. L. rolls; but did you ever hear of an anthropologist A. P. L.? There was one at San Francisco. It was reported that a man living in Alameda, a geologist and mining engineer employed by an oil company, was fitting out a launch to go to Mexico and purchase supplies. His trip was alleged to be for the purpose of oil prospecting. He appeared to tell a straight story, and said he had bought surveying instruments and food and intended to clear duly.
Two days later another A. P. L. operative heard that this man had left for Washington, stating that he must get some passports, although he was known to have passports already. As a third man from the San Francisco A. P. L. office was going on to Washington, these facts were given him and he was asked to give the man the once-over in Washington. He did this and found that the boat-owner was getting passports to England. He found also that this person was associated with Professor M——, who claimed to be looking up oil conditions in this country and studying anthropology on the side.
As this operative also was interested in anthropology, he and Professor M—— got on very well, although the San Franciscan was not very much impressed by the learned man’s fundamental knowledge in a scientific way. There was nothing, however, to show that the professor was engaged in any enemy activities. But the San Franciscan operative gathered the notion that the visiting passport-seeker might possibly be engaged in spreading German propaganda among the many negroes about the city of Washington. He finally discovered in his possession a lot of pictures of a very undesirable sort, intended for German distribution among negro troops in France, with the intention of creating dissatisfaction among such troops. These pictures carried the legend, “See what is happening to your wives and families while you are in France.” Copies of these pictures were obtained. The operative made the further discovery that Professor M—— was in the employ of this pseudo-mining-engineer, who now stood revealed as an active German propagandist. It was also learned where this latter Kultur-spreader got his pictures.
Arrangements were made with one of the professor’s photographic subjects so that the operatives might listen in on certain flashlight performances by night. To cut all that unprintable sort of thing short, it may be said that the operatives, while seated on the porch, heard and saw all they liked of the German color-blindness.
The learned professor, however, having his suspicions aroused by the fact that the door kept opening and would not stay shut as it ought to have done, came to the door, poked his head out and saw the operatives sitting on the porch. One operative sat there with a camera in his lap and a flash gun in his right hand, intending to make pictures of the picture maker himself, so that evidence of the reprehensible nature of his own pictures might be discovered. The professor, however, sprang back into the room and presently came out armed with a gun and a bayonet. The operatives at once fell off the back of the porch. Lunging at the first man, the professor missed; but he caught the second operative with the bayonet in the wrist and ripped up his forearm. The men closed in upon him and there was a warm fight for quite a while. Details are not desirable and need not be given. It is sufficient to say that the nature of the photographs was disclosed and details turned in to the proper quarters. The anthropological German professor later was arrested and turned over to the Department of Justice. At last accounts he was in jail at Washington awaiting trial. Regarding his performance, it is only fair to say that his anthropological tendencies seemed to run true to German scientific form.
The A. P. L. in Sausalito
Not so far from San Francisco by way of the crow’s flight is the Marin County Division of the A. P. L. at Sausalito. This division also had a case of mysterious light flashes—from Belvidere Island. Signals came from several different directions and several different sources, but no one could ever be located as receiving them. Across the bay from Belvidere is Angel Island, a large internment camp, and in either direction lies a neighborhood which is very pro-German. There might have been signals, but no one seemed to be able to trace the code or get anything intelligible. Investigation of this thing lasted for over a year, and finally the division concluded it was the action of someone trying to intimidate the residents of that vicinity. It was not run down.
Located in the hills was an organization known as the “German Tourists’ Club,” which had been incorporated in Vienna, Austria. Prior to our entering the war it was visited by many alien enemies and many German-Americans, so that it was under constant surveillance of the Intelligence services of the United States and also by the A. P. L. of Marin County. Considerable information was furnished to the authorities, and one alien enemy was interned. Another alien enemy was apprehended who had $2,500 cash on his person and was trying to get to South America, whence he intended to return to Germany. The same club turned out yet another man who, on a railroad train, was heard abusing this country. An A. P. L. man heard him and asked a constable to arrest him at once. He was taken to the county jail, where his remarks were so abusive that the Department of Justice immediately took him into custody for internment.
The hilly, wooded and mountainous character of Marin County, bordering on the ocean, made it a favorite resort for hikers, hunters, fishermen and the like, and it has many locations which would afford excellent rendezvous. It kept the A. P. L. operatives busy in all their spare time walking and driving through the country. On one such trip along the sea shore, in a very remote place, a Navy torpedo was found. It proved to be only a practice one, having no war head, but it might have been worse.
The A. P. L. in Los Angeles