The bewildering amount of material from all over the United States made condensation and classification alike difficult. It was therefore decided to separate the country into four loosely divided sections, the North, the East, the West, the South, and to throw into each division just so many condensed reports, taken at random from the whole as might be possible within the existing space limitations.
In the East and Northeast were located many or most of the great munition works and embarkation points as well as many centers of war work, manufacturing and shipping. This meant one form of work for the A. P. L. In the great middle section of the country—the semi-industrial, semi-agricultural central and north-central states—the activities of the League were slightly more varied. This cluster of inland states we have grouped as North. The South is known almost traditionally; and the West may arbitrarily be made to cover the far lands to the Pacific Coast itself, the state of California, with its great cities, alone being given subclassification in another section of this volume. Into these several hoppers the grist was thrown.
Would you like a real history of the war, a story which does convey a comprehensible picture? The simplest way is the best way. Read the Atlantic Monthly for January, 1919. Does it give a great pen picture by some artist in words? No. But it gives verbatim translations of bits of conversation heard by a nurse in a hospital full of wounded Russian soldiers; detached, disconnected comments, points of view, records of personal experiences. That is great reporting—the greatest reporting in the world. Had our more famous correspondents kept away from the routine of the alleged “front” and gone into the hospitals for a half million personal statements of wounded men of every nation, they would not have failed to show us the war. They would have written a great story of the war—a real history of the war. Now the astonishing thing about the record of the A. P. L. is that its reports came in precisely that way. The story of the League becomes a history of the country served by the League.
NEW YORK
Once in a while an operative landed a big case on a small clue. A New York operative was sent out to look up one R. R. A——, an employe of a shirtwaist factory, who was alleged to have said that he knew how to beat the draft. The same suspect was heard to say that he knew of four men, the knowledge of whom would be worth $10,000 to the United States. When interviewed by an A. P. L. operative, he denied most of the allegations made against him, but he did give the name of an Austrian army officer named L—— who had plans of submarines and battleships of the United States. This latter gentleman was followed, his baggage searched, and the plans confiscated.
Chautauqua County, New York, includes the cities of Jamestown and Dunkirk, each of which had an A. P. L. branch, the former being the first to organize, June 26, 1918. The Chautauqua County division proper was organized as late as October 28, 1919, an assistant chief being appointed for Jamestown and for Dunkirk. The entire county covers an area of about 1,000 square miles and has a population of more than 100,000.
The League was of great service in rounding up delinquents who failed to return questionnaires. Local Board No. 1 of the Jamestown District on November 20, 1918, had ninety-eight delinquents. By December 10, the A. P. L. had reduced that number to twenty-one, and since then fifteen more have reported, leaving only six delinquents out of a total registration of 2,135.
The community was carefully organized with regard to each of the financial war drives. In the war stamps campaign one E—— was discovered selling stamps without having been authorized to do so. Investigations showed that he had been secretary of the local branch of the German-American Alliance and was in constant association with alien enemies. An associate of his, who may be called R——, said that the German Club was pretty much run by a man named F——, an Austrian enemy alien who belonged to some lower order of German nobility but had moved to Austria. He became an “Austrian” when the United States declared war on Germany, but was willing to claim citizenship in any country now that diplomatic relations were severed with Austria, since he could speak several languages. The A. P. L. found means to inspect the living rooms of F——, discovering great quantities of German papers and an Austrian flag. The remainder of the story, told in the words of the Chief’s report, shows how a mighty small fire sometimes can generate an enormous volume of smoke:
We learned that F—— had admitted himself to be engaged in getting German subjects out of the United States and into the German army. Operative on the case, R——, was confidentially informed by him that six thousand men had left this country the preceding month and were to be carried by the large trans-Atlantic submarines. F—— himself was going to sail October 4.
The operative invented a German cousin whose wife was in Germany, and told L—— that this cousin was very eager to get across. The cordial clubman instructed him to write a letter to “Freiherr Hans von Ungelter,” former German Consul in New York, and enclose it in another envelope, which should be addressed to (name given), care of General Delivery, New York. The addressee’s name, operative was informed, changed week by week. Further, it was learned that the system followed by L——’s New York friends was to give men physical examinations, and if found fit, to furnish free transportation through the channels mentioned above. The sole requirements were loyalty to Germany and a sound physique. Operative stated that he showed surprise when L—— gave him this information, and said: “Then the report that a German captain was seen in New York was true?” F—— replied: “Certainly, they stay there a week at a time, taking in the theatres and waiting for their cargoes to be delivered at various ports, where they pick them up on their way to Germany.”