The total membership of officers and operatives in the New York Division numbered over four thousand five hundred substantial business and professional men, chosen from every field of activity. They were classified and reclassified to such an extent that, from speaking any required language on earth to expert knowledge in any profession on earth, aid could be furnished on demand. Two significant facts stand out in comparing New York with other cities. The first, the rather smaller number of men; the second, the rather small amount of money spent in the work. It is due to the excellent business system of that division that the cost per case was kept so low, for New York runs more cases to the operative, and more to the member, than any other city in the country.

CHAPTER III
THE STORY OF PHILADELPHIA

Splendid Record of a Ship-Shape Office—A Model Organization and the Way it Worked—Stories of the Silent Soldiers—A Banner Report.

The City of Brotherly Love gives us pause. Is it indeed the truth that Americans do not know their own country? The story of the American Protective League, covering some millions of typewritten words, some hundreds of thousands of pages of typewritten copy, might be called one of the largest and one of the best histories of America ever written. It offers no pretense at deductions, but only an abundance of facts, objective and not subjective, concrete and not abstract. Popular impression hath it that the city founded by good William Penn is a simple and quiet sort of community, where life goes on lawfully and all is ease and comfort, peace and content. The facts do not seem to bear out this supposition. Philadelphia was as lawless as the next city during war times, possessed of as many undesirables and offering as many urgent problems in national defense. Tucson, Arizona, reports peace. Philadelphia is bad and borderish!

Among the many hundreds of reports coming in during the closing days of the American Protective League, there are some which run forty, fifty, or seventy-five pages of single space type. A very few of such reports would make a book the size of this one in hand. It has been, let it be repeated, with a most genuine regret that such work had to be condensed by the press. The Philadelphia report, for instance, covers ninety pages, and is an absolute model in every way. Indeed, a visit to the Philadelphia A. P. L. offices would have left any visitor certain of the high level of efficiency which has been attained by that division in every phase of its work. There was not a neater, better-systematized or smoother-running division in all the League than that in bad and borderish Philadelphia. The installation in that city was not so large as some. A Swiss watch is not so large as a Big Ben clock, but the latter does not keep any better time and makes much more noise about it.

It being impossible to print all of the Philadelphia report, it is quite in order to give rather a full summary of it, that we may correct the old impression regarding Philadelphia as a place of peace. The tabulated records cover only eleven months, from December 26, 1917, to November, 1918. In that period, 18,275 persons were examined, not counting those who were released in the big slacker raids. In order that the lay reader may have a perfect idea of the many different heads of activity in any one of these great offices, the Philadelphia table is offered in full, precisely as sent in:

Department of Justice Cases.
Alien Enemy Activities.
a. Male1,575
b. Female1771,752
Citizen disloyalties and sedition.
(Espionage Act)880
Treason1
Sabotage, bombs, dynamite, defective manufacture of war material78
Anti-Military activity, interference with draft, etc.91
Propaganda.
a. Word of mouth509
b. Printed matter and publications75584
Radical organizations.
I. W. W., Peoples’ Council, League of Humanity, and all other radical organizations, including pacifist and radical “socialists”377
Bribery, graft, theft, and embezzlement66
Miscellaneous, including naturalization and jury panel350
Impersonation of U. S. or foreign officers21371
War Department Cases.
Counter-Espionage for Military Intelligence.
Selective Service Regulations.
a. Under local and district boards5,384
(All individual investigations of delinquents and deserters and of those charged with any violation of selective service regulations.)
b. In Slacker raids3,726
c. Of local and district board members47
d. Work or fight order189,175
Character and Loyalty.
a. Civilian applicants for oversea service1,013
b. Applicants for Commissions611,074
Training camp activities6
(Under Sections 12 and 13 of Selective Service Law Regulations, p. 355.)
a. Liquor587
b. Vice and prostitution8601,453
Camp desertions and absences without leave175
Collection of foreign maps and photographs for Military Intelligence Bureau—Pieces of matter (about)1,500
Navy Department.
Counter-espionage for Naval Intelligence, including:
Wireless42
Lights9
Other signalling to submarines, etc.7 58
Food Administration.
Hoarding33
Destruction1
Waste21
Profiteering6 61
Fuel Administration.
Hoarding25
Destruction0
Waste20
Profiteering5 50
Department of State.
Visé of Passport6
Miscellaneous1 7
Treasury Department.
War Risk Insurance Allotments, Allowances, Frauds, etc.53
Miscellaneous2 55
United States Shipping Board.
Under National Headquarters Bulletins Nos. 11 and 1226
Federal Investigation.
Hog Island407
Miscellaneous.33

The beginnings of the A. P. L. in Philadelphia lay in a meeting of fifty business men, who came together April 9, 1917, and organized as the Philadelphia Branch of the A. P. L. From that time on, varying fortunes and different personnel attended the League activities. On December 26, 1917, Mr. Mahlon R. Kline, who for years had been in charge of the Claim Department of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company and had been engaged in secret service work in other corporations, was appointed Chief of the division. In February, 1918, there came in with Mr. Kline, Mr. Frank H. Gaskill, formerly Superintendent of the Franklin Detective Agency, who also had been associated with the Claims Department of the Rapid Transit Company. Although no pretense is made of naming all their associates, it should be mentioned that to these two men must be accorded a great deal of the credit for the last year’s work.

Naturally the question of finances came in early. In January, 1918, Mr. Horace A. Beale, Jr., president of an iron company, volunteered to purchase any furniture and office equipment which might be necessary. This brought out the need of a permanent fund, and Mr. Beale was one of the League’s staunchest supporters along these lines. There was put before the members of the Chamber of Commerce a plant protection system which has been in practice in many American cities. Factory owners paid into the treasury of the League twenty-five to one hundred dollars a month, which, for a time, covered the running expenses of the office even in its growing condition. When this income became inadequate, Mr. Kline with the Executive Committee later arranged for an expense account through the War Chest Fund of $3,000 a month.

There was a handy little cabinet made up by the Bureau Chief in charge of slackers and deserters, which contained the following card index information: Names, addresses and telephone numbers of members to be counted on at any hour; names of members taking assignments in the several districts; names of members willing to accept assignments in any section. This cabinet contains the address and telephone numbers of all members owning yachts, motor cars, etc.; also a record of members speaking the following languages: German, French, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish, Hungarian, Swedish, Russian, Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Greek, Esperanto, Laplandish, Korean, Japanese, Austrian, Slavish and Latin.