After leaving the Federal Building, let us say, you had also decided to visit the headquarters of the volunteer organization in Chicago. Less than a block away from the federal offices, in a stately building given over entirely to the housing of organizations whose sole aim and purpose was the winning of the war, you would have found a set of offices as large, as well equipped, as full of filed records, and of as able a personnel as those of the U. S. bureau. There would be this difference: the latter offices—those of the American Protective League—were run by men who got no pay—and there were almost one hundred times as many of them as there were of the D. J. workers. Yet the two great organizations are parts of the same system, and have worked together in perfect harmony and mutual benefit. Together, they have held German crime and espionage helpless in Chicago all through the war.
Of course, the tremendously expensive operations of so large a secret service organization could be met only by large-handed voluntary giving on the part of private citizens. For instance, the office rent alone of the A. P. L. in Chicago ran into thousands of dollars monthly. It was all carried by one public utility concern, the Commonwealth Edison Company, which turned over the needed space in a building which formerly housed its own offices. It is a part of the private history of the Department of Justice, scarcely if ever mentioned, that long before the idea of the American Protective League was broached—indeed, at the time when we had just severed diplomatic relations with Germany—Mr. Samuel Insull, afterward Chairman of the State Council of Defense for Illinois, called on Mr. Clabaugh and offered financial aid to the Bureau of Investigation. He said: “I know how meager your resources are, and I believe there is a lot of trouble not far ahead. Let me know if you need men or money, and I’ll see that you get both.” This, of course, had nothing to do with the later organization of the League, nor with the idea on which it is based, but Mr. Clabaugh always has said that Mr. Insull was the first private citizen to his knowledge to offer financial aid to the U. S. Government.
The public has heard more of “D. J.” than it has of “A. P. L.” for obvious reasons. Of the two great office systems, one has been running for many years as a known part of the Federal Government. The other was two years old, and was always secret in its work and personnel. If it ever were a question of credit or “glory,” the palm must go and has gone to the Federal arm, because that is where the dénouements of cases had their home, and where publication of the printable facts originated. A. P. L. carried the evidence to the door of D. J. and stopped. It started cases, but did not finish them.
The public never had more than a very vague idea of the workings of the vast duo-fold machine which held life and property in America so safe in the dangerous days of the war. For instance, the average man reading newspaper mention of Mr. Clabaugh’s activities as bureau head, usually thought of him as public prosecutor. He was not that. It was his duty, as it was the League’s duty, only to procure testimony. His work was not of the legal branch, and he himself never has been admitted to the bar, although he—with his auxiliary, A. P. L.—has won the largest and most stubbornly fought criminal cases in the history of the country, and is devoutly feared to-day by countless I. W. W.’s not yet arrested.
The story of all these curiously interactive agencies, official and amateur, is indeed the greatest detective story in the world, and it is very difficult to measure it in full, or to visualize it in detail, so simply did it all happen, so naturally, so swiftly and so much as a matter of course. There is no like proof in history of the ability of the American people to govern itself and to take care of itself. Mr. Clabaugh’s vivid and accurate story will bear out all these statements, and it is requested that it be read by all who wish a clear and consecutive acquaintance with the history of the American Protective League. Attention is again called to it as printed in full in [Appendix A].
CHAPTER IV
THE LEAGUE IN WASHINGTON
Summary of the League’s Results Throughout the United States—Report of the National Directors—Facts, Figures and Totals for All the Divisions.
Facts now may be made public property which until lately might not have been divulged. We therefore shall find profit now in studying the central organization by means of which the aroused Americans combined to fight the hidden forces of their unscrupulous enemy. The origin and growth, the general plans and methods of the American Protective League, have been explained; and it will now be well, before we pass on to the specific story of the League’s activities, to give some idea of the wide-reaching consolidation of those activities which followed upon the establishment of the National Headquarters.
The report of any official may seem dry and formal, but the records should be made to show how America’s amateur Scotland Yard organized to fight the forces of Germany all over America. This portion of the League’s story is therefore of great value to anyone desirous of knowing the logical steps by which the League developed into a truly national institution.
The liaison officer of the National Directors, Captain Charles Daniel Frey, made his report and summary of November, 1918, to Colonel K. C. Masteller of the General Staff, Chief of the negative branch of the Military Intelligence Division. This report was a general assembling of the national activities of the League up to the time of the signing of the Armistice. Certain extracts are made in consonance with the general outline above indicated. It should be noted that this report covers only a portion of the League’s work in Washington. The Department of Justice figures, as was to be expected, exceeded those of any other branch of the League’s work. The War Department totals were also very high—evidence of service rendered by the League which the War Department always has been very courteous and grateful in acknowledging. Captain Frey’s report reads: