Just as valuable as though it recorded some great crime is the report from Hudson Falls, New York: “Our community is made up of loyal, patriotic citizens, who responded to each and every call to duty. We have been active in local, state and national matters throughout the war.”
PENNSYLVANIA
It is hard to tell what is going to become of all the military fakes and pseudo-heroes now that the war is over. Take, for instance, the case of one Captain Robert H——, ostensibly in the United States Navy, who fancied Philadelphia as his residence. This worthy captain was also known by other names. Sometimes he wore a uniform of an ordinary seaman with overseas service wound stripes, although he never saw service abroad. He wrote to his wife that he had been wounded and told her to hang out a service flag with a silver star, which she dutifully did. The star had not hurt Captain H——, so why not put it in the window? This gentleman spoke of a great many flag-raisings and elaborated on the seventy-two days he had spent in the trenches. He told all about German atrocities, and quite often took up collections for sick and wounded soldiers and sailors in the name of this or that hospital. There never yet has been found a hospital to which he has turned over a dollar. Naturally a good organizer, this young officer invented a good Navy of his own, the “Naval Home Defense,” and at one time had enlisted one hundred and fifty-six members, including one lady and her two young sons. The project came to grief because of a generous order for some uniforms, costing something like $1,000, which was placed with a local clothing firm and had to be paid for. It is too bad, because the organization also had a ladies’ auxiliary, his wife being president thereof. This is only one of a very great number of cases of imposters parading as officers of this or that country.
Bradford, Pennsylvania, is in the heart of the big oil country, and it had its own troubles by reason of its necessarily motley population. A very interesting report on local conditions, submitted by the Chief of McKean County Division, says:
At the outset we were confronted with a situation fast becoming serious, as so many industrial claims had been allowed by the district board. Only one or two young men of social prominence had been inducted into the service, and charges were frequently made that the Government did not intend taking men of wealth or prominence and that it was the laboring men who would have to do the fighting. The Socialist element was quick to take advantage of this situation, and men who left here for the service went away feeling that they had been discriminated against.
We took up this situation with the Department of Justice, who sent us a Special Agent. A contingent of boys leaving for the front did some printing reflecting very seriously on the methods of the draft board and scoring the local slackers. They had planned to put a banner on their train with such inscriptions as, “My father owns an oil well, but I didn’t claim exemption”; “We have a garden in our back yard, but I am not a farmer”; etc. We headed off this plan, but the worst thing about it was that many of the names upon the slacker list referred to were of men who had legitimate reasons for exemption. At the same time, there were some men named who clearly ought to have been inducted into the service. To silence criticism, we had a district draft board man come to Bradford, and with him we went over a lot of cases which had caused trouble. As a result, many of these cases were reclassified, and many men inducted into the service. This caused an entire change of opinion here, and since then we have had no trouble of that nature.
We had one exemption claimer, a young Jewish merchant, who told a very pathetic story about dependents—among others, a blind father and an invalid brother. This young Hebrew was of the belief that he could do so much more for his country if left at home to take care of these unhappy relatives of his. Investigation did not seem to bear out his point of view. He was not, however, turned over to the authorities for action in regard to his statements, as he was wanted for the army more than for the courts; and yet, when he was turned over to the medical men for examination, it was found that he had something which he did not know he had—serious heart trouble which actually exempted him! There are some people you can’t beat any way of the game.
A Bradford pro-German, born in Germany but naturalized before the war, has always been socialistic. Put under observation, he was heard to say in the presence of many, at a meeting in honor of a man who was going to join the colors: “Here is your —— —— capitalistic system taking the best men we have and leaving men like ——” His remarks were resented and caused a row. Investigated and reported to Department of Justice at Pittsburgh, this pro-German was arrested and placed under indictment.
At one of the plants the loyal workingmen had fixed it all up to paint a man a nice yellow color because he did not subscribe to any Liberty loans. A. P. L. operatives arrived just in time to prevent the frescoing above mentioned. The suspect himself was taken aside and argued with by the A. P. L., with the result that he presently disclaimed his disloyal remarks, said he was sorry, and wanted to buy some bonds with the other boys.
The Chief goes on to say that Bradford operated under cover as much as possible. A good many townsfolk, he says, could not identify A. P. L. at all, although there were very few who did not know that there had been some sort of checking up of pretty much the entire population in matters of interest to the Government. This impression aided in suppressing a great deal of radical and seditious talk, and served as a warning to others not to begin that sort of thing.