The sun-kissed Southwest handled its A. P. L. work in a wholly modern way, as perhaps some of the sidelights will show. How quaint and curious some of these chuckle-making anecdotes—and how grave some of the serious ones—will seem fifty years from now, when California will be looking back on another generation of her large and swift history!
The report from the city of Los Angeles is one entirely consistent with the reputation of that busy community, and as usual the totals ran large. Los Angeles handled 2,136 cases of alien enemy activity; 5,275 selective service investigations; 1,494 examinations for disloyalty and sedition; 289 cases of propaganda by word of mouth and 61 by means of the printed page. There were 289 investigations of radicals and pacifists, and 648 of all other natures, not mentioning those which had to do with food hoarding, waste, etc., which made a formidable total of themselves. There are not many sections which report a wider or more interesting range of experiences.
As in the case of practically all our cities, at the time the war broke out, the Department of Justice for Los Angeles was inadequately equipped with men, motor cars and data-chasers to deal with the numerous alien enemies, German sympathizers and non-patriotic citizens. Los Angeles frankly says that this species of the human fauna seem to be peculiar to Southern California, and certainly the totals of Los Angeles would indicate as much. The Chief says:
Some of us regretted that we could not do more for the Government, for the work of the A. P. L. appealed very strongly to us. When we saw the local Government situation, a number of us at once offered to help. The outstanding feature of all this work was the absolute cowardliness of the pro-German individual. In all our cases I cannot recall one where anything like courage was displayed on the part of the subject. The moment they realized they were confronted by anything like authority their fear and their efforts at self-protection were, to say the least, extreme. Individuals were brought to the attention of the various departments who did not understand and cannot to this day realize how the intimation was received. They did realize, however, that there was authority back of us. In many cases, the Military Intelligence Department called us to their assistance where information could not be secured in any other way. We also were able to help the Food Administration.
There is distinct food for thought in the closing remarks of the all too modest Los Angeles chief, made before the dissolution date of the A. P. L. was announced:
In conclusion, I will say that a great deal of good could be done by some form of permanent organization of the A. P. L, or at least the retention of a nucleus for a continuation of this work if it becomes necessary. From time to time certain conditions are certain to occur in this country, brought about either by war measures or discontent among a certain class, which will require drastic handling. The American Protective League can secure more valuable information and better assist in bringing the attention of the authorities to such facts than any other similar body of citizens in the country.
These are words of gold and show the heart of Los Angeles to be certainly in the right place. It is a new and troubled America that we have all got to face now, with or without an A. P. L.
As to the odd and interesting stories noted by the Los Angeles operatives, the latter as usual seem to take more delight in telling of their fiascos than they do of their successes, but saving grace was usually there. For instance a woman and her husband living in Glendale were very rabid about the war, and hence received a visit. The informants turned out to be church members and apparently desirable citizens. The female suspected fell into hysterics, cursed the Frenchman who lived next door and the Englishman who lived several houses beyond, and declared she had bought Liberty Bonds and had up flags enough to be left alone. The German himself demanded to know by what authority he was visited. The League man told him there was plenty of authority all right, and that he did not need to specify. The suspect took a good hint, and from that time neither the man nor his wife was guilty of any public utterance of any sort whatever on war matters.
One Herman F. H—— claimed that he was a “secret service man” and showed a badge and some handcuffs, but still talked very pro-German. He said among other things that the American people would wake up—that the Kaiser would show them something—that we could not win the war. His nearest friend was an army sergeant by the name of Paul S—— of Fort McArthur. These two would talk together in German. The doughty U. S. sergeant was also of the belief that our army had no chance and said the soldiers were all dissatisfied. They were both investigated. The sergeant was put in jail at Los Angeles. Military Intelligence took over the rest of the case—and M. I. D. has never been noted for its mercifulness.
An over-zealous woman in one instance reported suspicious activity on the part of a family which had a great many mysterious packages delivered at their address. She said they had quantities of large pipe which they would fill with guns and ammunition, also boxes of rifle cartridges. Investigation proved that some of the mysterious packages were only lunch baskets; that the trucks were hauling large pieces of well-casing and sometimes small articles of grocery or hardware were slipped into the pipes to save space. They had no packages of ammunition at all, and the packages of cartridges were only pasteboard boxes containing shelled walnuts. Jumpy times.