R—— furnished the name of the New York man for the current week, and a good operative went to New York to confer with the Special Agent of D. J. there and with the New York Division A. P. L. General Delivery was covered, but nothing showed. A second week was tried with the same result. Operative was then asked to arrange an interview with F—— for his supposed cousin, but F——, according to operative, refused to talk or to see this cousin.
R—— came back to us declaring that F—— knew he was being watched and suspected him, and might kill him. Tension was high at local headquarters. Then we started in to investigate R—— who had been our informant right along. We learned that his record was none too good, for he had offered to procure releases for drafted men for amounts ranging from $15 to $30 a head. We then traced R—— back to Buffalo and got this report: “Great talker and fine salesman, but always away over his head.” In other words there was no case and never had been one. By this time we had almost forgotten E——, the thrift stamp man. We were younger in detective work then than we were later.
A report comes from Jamestown, New York, regarding one whom we will call Henry D——, described as follows: “Known to many in this town as strongly pro-German; a radical socialist; believed to be an anarchist; has been very active going from one town to another. He left Jamestown for Rockford, Illinois; he went thence to Chicago, thence to Grand Rapids. From the latter city he came back to Jamestown. He has now gone to New York. We understand he is contemplating a trip to the old country. Has been very secretive about his movements. Seems to spend a great deal of money in travel, although he is only a workman; has boasted that he had strikes called in every shop to which he was sent.” This man was put under surveillance by the New York office of the American Protective League under charge of being a dangerous alien enemy, and was properly dealt with.
There were no instances of violence in Chautauqua County arising out of the war situation. The community was at all times right side up. Those who have sought to belittle or impede any war activity were effectively stilled.
Schenectady, New York, organized its division on March 1, 1918, with one chief, two captains, four lieutenants, and eighteen operatives. The division conducted sixty-seven investigations for character and loyalty; forty-two under the Espionage Act; twenty-six cases of propaganda, and fifteen of draft evasion. The division was commended by the War Department for showing a high standard of efficiency; also by the Federal Reserve Bank at Albany. Schenectady has a large foreign population, among whom may be found quite a good proportion of radical Socialists. These people were expected to make trouble when we went to war, especially as two of the largest local industrial concerns, the General Electric Company and the American Locomotive Company, were engaged on munitions and other war work. There was no overt act, however, but on the contrary, the people of the city proved intensely patriotic, over-subscribing every loan.
Rochester, New York, reports routine work for its division, but had a good many operatives ready for any emergency that might arise. The record-cases do not represent the amount of work actually done, but yield the following figures: Character and loyalty reports, 190; selective service, 4; training camp activities, 2; liquor and vice, none; war risk insurance, 1; sedition and disloyalty investigations, 25. Rochester would seem to have been much more pacific—not pacifistic—than at first would be expected.
Albany, New York, offers an instance of a phenomenon more or less frequently recurrent during the war—namely, the apprehensiveness of the feminine mind as regards mysterious flashlights in the stilly night. The informant stated that for some time she and her neighbors had been watching flashes which came from a certain house at night and kept up for a long time. She was very much excited. Two operatives visited the vicinity shortly after dark. A light did appear which might have been that of a lantern. It would dim and come on again. The informant stated that sometimes the light would grow as bright as an automobile light, and sometimes it would seem to be red. The next morning the operatives found a farmer plowing near the suspicious house. He admitted that he owned the house. He said he and his wife were American born, of British grandparents. The operatives asked him about the mysterious lights. Smilingly he asked them to go through the house. It then was clearly evident that the light they had seen came from a lamp in the middle of a room. The mysterious intermittent flashes were only due to persons passing between the lamp and the window. The farmer also said he often worked nights bundling up beets, carrots, radishes, etc., which he had pulled during the afternoon and expected to take to early market the next morning. He usually did this work just outside the house on a bench. On inquiry as to what he used, he showed a large carriage lantern with a reflector, in the back of which was a piece of red glass. So the women had been right after all. He would move this lantern from one end of the bench to the other as he worked, and this made the changes in the color of the light. The intermittent flashes were due to his passing back and forth in front of it.
A big chemical poison scare was nipped in the bud by the investigation of a German woman who was found putting up capsules of a white powder in her house. Of course, nothing less than poison for our soldiers and sailors could be predicted. Investigation proved that though the woman was of German descent, she was entirely loyal to this country. She made a little extra money at home filling capsules for a drug house in the city. These capsules contained bicarbonate of soda, tartaric acid, etc., and the woman took a few of them in the presence of the operatives to show that they were harmless. Thus, another case proved to be a “dud.”
An alien enemy was wanted at Albany, reported by D. J. to be traveling on a motor-cycle. It was known that he had a girl not far away and called on her or wrote to her occasionally. The mails in this case, as in many others, were used for decoy purposes. A registered special delivery letter, marked for personal delivery only, was mailed to him at the girl’s address, with the idea that she would give forwarding directions to the messenger who delivered the letter. The result was better than expected. When the messenger arrived at the house, he saw a man just about to leave on a motor-cycle, and thinking that this might be the man, he hailed him and presented the letter. The suspect signed for the letter and was at once arrested and turned over to the Department of Justice.
Syracuse, New York, had a man at the head of its division who, before he came an A. P. L. chief, had made four hundred investigations, and since that time has directed one hundred and fifty more. A very close liaison was maintained with the Department of Justice and the local police department.