D. W. B——, from St. Louis, was once in the 108th Infantry, but vanished therefrom, leaving his uniform in New York with a friend. One paragraph, the last page in the file, will cover the case of Mr. B——: “As subject was apprehended in Buffalo, the commanding officer at Fort Niagara was communicated with, and he detailed a sergeant to come to Buffalo on December 17. The sergeant took B—— into custody and conveyed him to Fort Niagara, where he is at present.”
Kansas City, among other cases, turned in a love letter written by a local young lady to a Japanese, Heroshirmo, at present living in Japan. The letter begins: “Dear Heroshirmo: How I want to write to you pages and pages of something, I am not sure what. I want to tell you first about the beautiful summer that has just passed, how beautiful the trees and flowers were, how infinite and blue the sky”—but perhaps that will be enough.
The A. P. L. noticed the post-mark and thought that this sort of correspondence ought to be looked into. It should. The Japanese had once stopped in Kansas City as a member of a Commission on its way to Washington, and had visited local friends. No international plot was unveiled in this case. Just the trees and flowers were discovered to be beautiful and the sky very blue. To be sure, the writer being a woman, the letter had a postscript: “Just because I have been sick, would you like to send me a genuine Japanese kimona? I must tell you that all of the first page of your last letter except the first few lines were cut out by the censor. D——n the war.”
Jefferson City, Missouri, has jurisdiction over several counties but the division consisted of only twenty-one members. These men were of great value to the Department of Justice at Kansas City. The sparsely settled nature of the country around Jefferson City meant a great deal of automobile travel. The Chief says he has traveled as high as ninety-five miles in his own car on one case. This meant a vast amount of work for the small membership of the League at that point. It acquitted itself admirably.
Clinton, Missouri, faithfully performed a large volume of routine work such as comes to most of the divisions—some three hundred cases in all, under various headings. The Chief concludes: “Our activities have been abundant. We mean to continue our organization here until there is no further need for it. Our personnel is made up of the best men in this county. Our system of warning by red-white-and-blue cards has been adopted in many States and by the National Council of Defense.”
Monett, Missouri, had some trouble from the fact that drafted men were at first able to obtain alcoholic beverages there. This was stopped by the local League. There was considerable propaganda by word of mouth in this locality which was choked off. One deserter defied all local officers to capture him and take him back to camp. Nevertheless he was taken, returned to camp, court-martialed and sentenced to a term in the federal prison. As a whole, the people of this community are law abiding 100-percent Americans. Hence the League’s work was light.
Fayette, Missouri: “Thirty investigations resulted in reclassifying twenty-five men. We arrested three camp deserters and two men for disloyal acts. Found three men hoarding sugar and made them take it back. In some cases we just warned parties that their conduct had been reported to be reprehensible, and evidence was produced by them to prove their later love and loyalty to the United States.”
IOWA
Des Moines, Iowa, the very prosperous capital of the prosperous state of Iowa, had an A. P. L. man attached to the Intelligence Service of the Army. He spoke German fluently and in order to investigate conditions inside a neighboring camp, he pretended to be a conscientious objector, thus being confined to barracks with other conscientious objectors, some real and some camouflage. A picked War Department Committee, including the Governor of the State, was combing out these objectors and ran across the A. P. L. man. The latter was unable to explain, and had to go through as a conscientious objector and listen to a good lecture to boot!
Des Moines had another case of a fine looking young man who weighed about 175 pounds and who sported a clever little military mustache. He was caught in a slacker drive and on the following morning hesitatingly handed the agent a telegram sent by his father, which read: “I have told you that damned eye-brow on your upper lip would get you into trouble. Tell the Government I say you are only twenty—you look older, but act younger. If you wish to please your father, enlist in the Navy.” The son enlisted.