Coshocton, Ohio, had fifteen citizens who were suspected of being disloyal, and thirty who talked too much. Members worked when the thermometer was twenty below zero, trying to catch parties who were tearing down and mutilating Liberty Loan posters.
A quite usual form of report comes from Washington Courthouse, Ohio—and it is one of the best sorts of reports: “Assisted in the sale of Liberty Bonds and Stamps to the amount of $150,000; rounded up slackers, and did investigation work for the Red Cross. We had much automobile travel. In the eight hundred cases that we investigated, our men traveled more than twenty-five thousand miles by auto, half of this mileage being covered by one man.”
INDIANA
Indianapolis, Indiana, attributes much of its success to the care with which its membership was selected. All new members were brought in by other members who were acquainted with them, and were in a position to know of their loyalty. The Chief says: “Our men conducted themselves with dignity, tact and discretion, bearing in mind at all times that they were representing the Government and the League. We believe that much of our success in keeping down propaganda, sabotage and other Hun depredations was due to the secrecy which guarded the identity of our officers. Indianapolis had a total of 209 cases of disloyalty and sedition.”
Indianapolis caught one deserter 1,200 miles from home. He deserted from the Rainbow Division at the port of embarkation and headed west. He was found, working under an alias, in a camp forty miles from Casper, Wyoming. This case was started within fifty feet of the Indianapolis headquarters, through overhearing a chance conversation in which a woman said that a friend of hers was corresponding with a man she thought to be a deserter. The suspect at first denied he was the man wanted, but finally confessed, and was delivered to the proper authorities. The whole case was finished inside of two hours, the order for the man’s arrest going by wire to Casper from the Department of Justice. Another man deserted from Camp Sherman, Ohio, and without coming back home to Indianapolis, went to Hastings, Michigan. Here, through a woman who passed as his wife, he had gotten a novelty concession at the County Fair. Indianapolis A. P. L. got in touch with M. I. D. of Washington. Everything was waiting for the gentleman on his arrival at Hastings. He is again in the Army—or was at the time of the Armistice.
Though wireless scares are most frequent on the seaboard, almost every city can boast several of them. An Indianapolis operative thought he had discovered certain wireless antennae on the property of a family with a German name. A pole was found fastened to the roof of a shed, wires being used to connect it with the attic of the house. It was noticed that the attic had close-drawn blinds, whence lights were occasionally seen. The whole thing simmered down to an outfit put up by some young men to practice telegraphy.
Indianapolis also became interested in a man who claimed exemption on account of heart trouble. He weighed 225 pounds, and stood six feet and one-half inch, though he was only twenty-five years old. It was arranged to have this man examined by an out-of-town physician. This resulted in his being brought before the medical board in Cleveland, where he was found fit for military service. There was no direct evidence that he had been taking any depressant for his heart, although the facts were thought to point that way. It was said that some doctors gave slackers medicine to give them temporary “heart disease.”
Michigan City, Indiana, had a very busy A. P. L. division whose activities were sometimes curious. For instance, the town boasts a somewhat well advertised mayor, Fred C. Miller, who has made Michigan City famous as being the proud possessor of the only alien mayor in the United States. Miller openly violated the President’s proclamation barring alien enemies from Washington, D. C. He was held until a thorough investigation could be completed, and during this investigation A. P. L. furnished D. J. with a report showing that twenty-one of the city officials and employees of Michigan City also were alien enemies! It would seem that America has not yet been discovered at the foot of Lake Michigan. The loyal minority of the population, during the mayoralty campaign, turned over information to A. P. L. to the effect that one hundred and forty-four alien enemies had failed to comply with the President’s proclamation obliging them to register. A number of these were placed under bonds. Indeed, with the assistance of the League, the U. S. Marshal’s office registered a total of 2,200 male and female alien enemies. A. P. L. developed the evidence on which one Herman Kauffman was interned at Fort Oglethorpe. This division also caused something over one hundred and fifty draft evaders to be taken before the local board as the result of a three months’ drive under cover, which combed all the factories and railroad yards.
At Peru, Indiana, A. P. L. worked in combination with the “Loyal Citizens’ Vigilance Committee of Miami County,” an earlier organization of loyalty lovers which embraced about three thousand members of the hundred percent-loyal class. Mr. F. D. Butler was chief, and Mr. W. F. Schrader, head of the Vigilance Committee, assistant chief of A. P. L. The two organizations appear to have had amiable and efficient relations. There is something in the character of the Peru Vigilance Committee which seems to be reminiscent of the old “Know Nothing” party which had existence before the Civil War, and whose general platform was that of America for Americans. Does this Indiana Vigilance Committee, indeed, foreshadow a revival of some such political movement at a later date? It seems to have retained some of the tenets of the old Know Nothing party, which also worked in absolute secrecy, and had its grips, pass words and countersigns.
One may recall that it was an Indiana poet who wrote the line, “The Booger man will get you if you don’t watch out.” At least, between A. P. L. and the Vigilantes, a good and sufficient scare seems to have been thrown into the disloyal element around Peru.