The Division Chief himself writes something regarding a matter which has brought up considerable other writing at different times from many different sources.
The story of the much discussed slacker raid in New York is known to every one, but we might give some details. In August, 1918, Mr. Bielaski, in Washington, advised the National Directors of A. P. L. that he was anxious to conduct a New York slacker raid similar to that in Chicago. The National Directors conferred with Mr. De Woody, the D. J. Agent in New York, who talked the matter over with Martin Conboy, Director of the Draft for New York City. The National Directors also went to the New York Division of A. P. L. and left a tentative plan based upon the Chicago arrangement, which was submitted to Mr. DeWoody, who, later, with these others, worked out a plan for the raid which was to come off on September 3, 4 and 5.
Arrangements were made to obtain the Sixty-ninth Regiment Armory in New York and the Twenty-third Regiment Armory in Brooklyn, and about 1,000 sailors and 750 soldiers from posts in New York City were obtained for assistance in the raids. Two American Protective League operatives were detailed to each of the one hundred and eighty-nine local boards in New York, and two to each police station. There were seventy-five operatives on duty in the Armories in New York and about fifty in Brooklyn. There were ten special agents of D. J. in Brooklyn and twenty in New York. Mr. DeWoody prepared printed instructions to be used by the sailors, soldiers and A. P. L. operatives in the work.
The system used on the streets was to interrogate a man, and ask for his registration card and his final classification card. If he had none, he was taken to the nearest police station, where he was questioned further by the operatives in charge, and if thought to be a delinquent, was then sent by a motor car to the armory to be held. From that point his local board was communicated with by telephone or telegraph, and the true status of the man obtained at the earliest possible moment. In these raids, there were apprehended 21,402 men, of whom 756 were inducted into the service. There were found 2,485 men who were delinquents from their local boards.
Up till December 11, 1918, there were 45,150 filed cases of a general nature in the New York Division: 3,610 civil service case, 2,920 passport visés, 471 passport cases, 2,507 overseas investigations, 2,539 investigations of officers’ commissions, and 29,680 cases connected with selective service matters. This makes a total of 86,877 cases.
It is to be noted that the above numbers apply to folder numbers only, and many folders contain more than one case, some of them as high as 250 cases. For instance, the investigations of a jury panel would be carried all in one folder under the name of the trial on which that jury was to sit. The figures in selective service matters are the actual number of cases turned over to the League at the time they started work with the various local boards. Subsequent to this date the A. P. L. officers in charge of the work at the various boards were given thousands of cases which they reported directly to the board, there being no file in the office in such instances. The A. P. L. Chief of New York therefore thinks it a very conservative estimate to say that the number of individuals investigated by the New York Division would run between 300,000 and 400,000. All these cases in the New York office system were filed alphabetically under the name of the person or firm to be investigated; for that reason definite figures could not be given in any summary. As League operatives became better acquainted with the Chairmen of the Draft Boards, more and more cases would be turned in directly to the Local Boards, which left the files incomplete also in cases of this character.
On Long Island, near New York, there were several large military camps, including Camp Mills and Camp Upton, and several aviation fields. The A. P. L. zone inspectors in charge of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, together with the Deputy Chief, in charge of Long Island, coöperated closely with the Intelligence officers of these camps. A. P. L. quite often was of assistance in locating deserters from these camps, it being the usual thing for an officer to telegraph A. P. L. to pick up the pursuit.
A. P. L. also investigated a great many cases for the camp authorities at Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, South Carolina, because this camp was occupied for some time by the New York National Guard. Sometimes the League would be asked to investigate the statement of a man who wanted a furlough because his family in New York was sick. A great many fraudulent requests of this kind were discovered. The War Department detailed a special officer to handle cases of deception of this character, and A. P. L. turned over to him a great deal of information of this nature as well as many reports which had come in to A. P. L. of the sale of liquor to men in uniform. Captain Peiffer, the officer in charge of this work, at one time investigated some thirty hotels in New York City. For more than two weeks these hotels were covered by A. P. L. operators. This officer had a lieutenant detailed to watch liquor and vice matters on Long Island, who made his headquarters at Hempstead. A. P. L. officers coöperated with this lieutenant in every way and gave him much assistance in closing up saloons and hotels that came within the five mile limit of the various camps.
Military Intelligence Division, of the General Staff, sent a great many character and loyalty investigations of overseas cases, officers’ investigation cases and a large variety of cases of special investigation of both positive and negative nature, to A. P. L. in New York. A separate department was established in New York headquarters exclusively to handle the cases coming to New York Military Intelligence in Washington. Within the seven months ending December 11, 1918, the New York office received 5,046 cases of the types above mentioned. Perhaps a man going overseas would give from one to ten references, say an average of four references to each case, which would mean the interviewing of more than 20,000 individuals at the request of the War Department in Washington. The men who did this work did not get a cent for it. The territory covered by the Division extends from Poughkeepsie, New York, to Montauk Point, Long Island, a distance of about 200 miles. The cases would be scattered all over this territory, and very often the same case would require two or more investigators.
Beside all of these rather heavy duties in connection with the big government work, A. P. L. had daily requests from the Intelligence Office at Governor’s Island, the Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, and the various other Intelligence Offices in and around New York City. Every possible assistance was rendered these various officers. It was impossible to classify all of this work in the files, so that the entire number is not available.