We are sending you under separate cover enrollment blanks for the enrollment of your organization. You will please personally fill out one of these blanks and swear to it before a Notary signing the oath in the presence of the Notary, then forward the card to this office. After you have taken the oath yourself you will then proceed to administer it to your men.
Enclosed herewith you will find your commission card as Chief of your Division, which you will please sign at the same time you take your oath, and retain. When you fill out your commission card, please use the date on which you were appointed Chief.
As each member takes the oath, you will issue him a commission card, filling in his rank either as Captain, Lieutenant or Operative, and have him sign his card in your presence.
As each man is sworn in, you will please place his number on the commission card. Please use great care that no commission card leaves your possession until it is given to a member of your organization after having been signed by him in your presence at the time he takes the oath.
The matter of credentials was at first covered by a letter of instruction from the Superintendent to all Chiefs:
The badges to be worn by the members of the American Protective League will be ready for shipment within a few days. Your members are not required to wear a badge if they do not care to do so. In delivering the badges to your men, please caution them to wear the badge concealed at all times and not to display it unless it is necessary to do so while making their investigations. It is advisable that you consult with the Chief of your local Police or ask the local Government Agent to do so, so that the Chief of Police may instruct his officers fully in reference to our organization so that the badge will be recognized by the police in cases where such recognition is desired. You will, undoubtedly, find that the local Chief of Police will be very glad to work with your men wherever their assistance may be necessary in forwarding the interests of the Government.
It is directed that each member of your organization be sworn in by you, taking the oath printed on the back of the enclosed enrollment blank. Paste the oath at the top of a sheet of paper, and as your men take the oath have them sign on the paper below, together with the number that you will assign to each man. This list you will retain in your possession, but as soon as you have sworn in your entire membership, please send this office a complete list of your members with their new numbers.
APPENDIX D
DIGEST OF THE AMENDED ESPIONAGE ACT AS PRINTED IN “THE SPY GLASS,” JUNE, 1918
Signed by President Wilson on May 16, the amended espionage laws opens a new chapter in the work of the American Protective League. For the first time we have an inclusive law under which to operate—a law broad enough in its scope and classifications to cover and define as serious crimes a multitude of offenses which were classed as minor by our peace-time code but actually offered serious hindrances to this country’s military operations and preparations.
For the first time, too, heavy penalties have been provided for acts and speeches which before could hardly be punished at all under the law. Maximum sentences of twenty years imprisonment and $10,000 fine are not to be taken lightly either by disloyal and pacifist citizens or by unfriendly or enemy aliens who have made it their business, since war was declared, to invent and circulate discreditable stories about almost every phase of America’s war activities.