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Data from a Supposed Citadel of Pro-Germanism—Gratifying Reports from the City Which Boasts a Rhine of its Own—Alien Enemies and How They Were Handled—Americanization of America.

From its inception the Cincinnati Division of the American Protective League was vibrant with possibilities. Cincinnati was known from coast to coast as a city settled by Germans. It was presumed, of course, to be very largely pro-German as a result of this reputation. “Over-the-Rhine” meant Cincinnati to many who lived outside of its confines. The reputation of the city was at stake. Those who knew Cincinnati, however, felt that this reputation which came to us from abroad was unjustified, and that although there was no gainsaying that German blood flowed in the veins of a very large number of its people, it was still ninety-nine per cent loyal; and the record of the war has demonstrated the truth of this statement.

Under the direction and supervision of Calvin S. Weakley, Special Agent in charge of the Department of Justice, work was carried on with quietness and despatch. He approached every matter with an open mind, and it is to his excellent judgment and his avoidance of brass-band methods that the record of the Cincinnati office of the Bureau of Investigation and its auxiliary, the Cincinnati Division of the American Protective League, has been clean of criticism. In the burglar-proof steel cabinets, however, repose documents and reports which would create a sensation in the community, and perhaps the day of reckoning is not far. While the fact that many of these acts occurred before the United States became an active participant in the world war may mean legal immunity, yet the record is made, and in many cases public opinion has been the sternest prosecutor of those individuals (many of whom enjoy the rights of American citizenship), whose sympathies as well as activities will always brand them as having been unfit for the privileges which they still continue to enjoy. It has brought to many of those individuals social isolation—a punishment incomparable with anything that can be meted out by judge or jury—and they cannot help but feel the ignominy of their unpatriotic actions. Loyalty to the country and a fine patriotism for the cause was the keynote which seemed to animate the membership.

Hardly had the ink dried upon the President’s signature to the document which made operative the original Selective Service Act, when word filtered through to the office of the Cincinnati Division American Protective League that there was an undercurrent of opposition developing which would culminate on Registration Day, June 5th, 1917. So-called Socialists, who were in fact German propagandists, were the most active in their criticism. Venomous advice was being offered to young men, who, upon that historic day, would enter their names upon the rolls of the prospective great National Army.

The preliminary information which was gathered left no doubt in the mind of Special Agent Weakley, at Cincinnati, that unless an example was made of these so-called pacifists, there was danger of an incomplete registration, and it became very apparent from the preliminary investigations made that the opposition to registration centered in a local unit of a Socialist organization known as the Eleventh Ward.

Out of four operatives who entered into this particular case, three were dropped, and one became a member of the inner circle. The open meetings of the club divulged nothing, but the secret sessions of the inner circle developed the plan which would make as ineffective as possible registration in Cincinnati and which undoubtedly would have succeeded. Circulars and posters were secretly printed, and on the night of June 1 they were to be distributed broadcast throughout the northwestern section of Cincinnati. This literature not only was seditious in character, but in the opinion of the District Attorney, treasonable.

The League plan was so carefully and thoroughly developed that not a guilty man escaped. There was quite a scene at several police stations when operatives of the League, detailed with local police detectives, brought in their men, each with his pile of circulars. A. P. L. had direct evidence of where these circulars had been placed—in letter boxes, on door-steps, or handed to individuals on the street—and thus made each case complete in itself; and when, the next day, the newspapers told in detail the story of how this plan had been nipped in the bud, anti-conscriptionists became enthusiastic registrants. Even men who were arrested asked for the privilege of registration. Cincinnati not only gave the quota estimated for it, but a percentage so much higher as to elicit surprise.

After the investigation had developed the real culprits, the printing shop also was located, the form from which the circulars had been printed confiscated, and the complete chain of evidence was sufficient to bring a unanimous report from the Grand Jury, charging everyone involved with conspiracy against the Government.

This was the first real big work successfully undertaken by Cincinnati Division of the American Protective League. It was carried out with thoroughness and dispatch, and nothing was left undone that was necessary to make the cases complete. It was wonderful training for the men who had come from their business to the work of the League, and it developed some of Cincinnati Division’s best operatives, who from that time on approached every assignment with enthusiasm and understanding.

Cincinnati Division supervised the parole of enemy aliens from Fort Oglethorpe and the Federal jail in this district. These paroled men, being released from prison, were ordered to report at the office of Cincinnati Division once each week. The day selected for them to report was Saturday morning. Failure on the part of a paroled man to report on the date set resulted in a prompt investigation. So thorough was this supervision that Cincinnati Division could at any time put its hands on these paroled men, whose ranks included actors, draughtsmen, electrical engineers, art glass designers, chefs, waiters, barbers, bakers, auto experts, laborers, machinists, farmers, and merchants.

Only one man refused to mend his ways and live up to the regulations. He is now at Fort Oglethorpe. When he first was released, he tried to induce the Federal authorities to give him permission to talk pro-German so he could “find others who were against this country,” as he put it. He was informed by the Special Agent in charge of the Cincinnati office, Department of Justice, that he could do better work by telling all his former associates how foolish they were, trying to work for the Kaiser in this country. He had claimed that his prison term had changed his opinion and that now he was “for the United States.” He was instructed to tell this to his friends as he would thereby be doing more good. His term of freedom did not last long, for he was soon at his old tricks again. He was interned for the “duration of the war.”

After the German campaign against conscription in this country had fallen flat, the active propagandists looked for new fields for their malicious and insidious work. The notorious German propaganda alliance known as “The People’s Council,” newly formed in New York, was in its infancy when word of its activities was brought to Cincinnati by an advocate of the single tax, who up to that time had been considered an extremist, but honest in intention. He became associated with a certain Cincinnatian, American born of German descent, an attorney of some reputation. These two men contemplated organizing in Cincinnati a branch of The People’s Council.

From the beginning, the League was represented at both the private and secret meetings of the Council, which, for a time, were held in the attorney’s office, where four or five gathered; but as new recruits were enrolled by the Council and larger quarters were required, they were transferred to an office in Odd Fellow’s Temple occupied by a former minister, a Socialist radical, a man whose career marked him as an advocate of extreme measures, and who carried with him a considerable following which he had organized several years before. Pacifism was the big keynote of its original platform. Without interference, however, the speakers became bold. The intellectuals who enlisted under its banner included a leading Sinn Feiner, a professor of a well-known college of Cincinnati, who was chairman, a pastor of the Lutheran Church, and, of course, the attorney and organizer.

It was the day of the original Espionage Act, and it was difficult under this unamended Act to find violations; but some of the speeches rang with treasonable utterances. After months of this sort of thing, the Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, decided it was time to act. A meeting had been called for Friday night, at the office of the former pastor, at which many things were expected to happen, and on that night it was decided to make a search, not only of the meeting place, but of the homes of the leaders. The District Attorney asked every man present—League operatives, agents of the Department of Justice, deputy United States Marshals, and local police detectives who had been assigned to the work, to set their watches with his. At 8:30 o’clock prompt, the search, under due warrant of law, was made in all parts of the city, and the papers and documents which were brought to the office of the United States Attorney made it impossible forever after for The People’s Council to carry on its nefarious activities.

From that day Cincinnati was rid of openly organized anti-government activities. Some of the papers found, proved of great value to the Government. A special solicitor from the office of the Attorney General at Washington was assigned to Cincinnati to go over these papers, and the information which he gathered was of great use in many other cities. As a result of this search, the professor who had taken such an important part in the work of The People’s Council was censured by his Board, and eliminated from the local theatre of activities.

The case of The People’s Council was one of the high spots in the work of Cincinnati Division, American Protective League, and the record in this case is one of which it can well be proud. Later, the former pastor, much to the regret of Cincinnati Division, was taken in hand by citizens of Kentucky for special treatment. His experience on that dark night in the foot-hills of Kentucky evidently broke his spirit enough to dishearten him. He is no longer a factor in Bolshevism in Cincinnati.

After the reorganization of Cincinnati Division had been effected, to conform to the new plan of the National Directors, Chief Gerson J. Brown decided that it would be good policy to keep in close touch with the fifteen hundred male enemy aliens in Hamilton County. Accordingly, after fully considering the matter, he organized the Enemy Alien Bureau. The operatives were instructed as to all regulations governing these aliens, so that they could give advice whenever called upon by their charges, who did not know just what the Government expected of them. All delinquents were taken to the office of the Marshal by American Protective League members and made to complete their registration. Following out their instructions, American Protective League members fully explained to the aliens the object of their visit and just what their privileges were under the regulations. In a majority of the cases, it was found that the alien really had never fully understood what the Government regulations were.

Many peculiar situations were found. In several cases it developed that aliens, who had passes issued by the Marshal permitting them to go to their places of employment and return by the most direct route, lived above the store in which they worked. Arrangements were made with the Marshal whereby these men, when found worthy, were given permits entitling them to enjoy more privileges. Others were found who went direct to their work, and on returning in the evening, feared to go out of the house. Others would not go to church, fearful that they would be arrested and interned.

There were also cases of men who were in business which made it necessary to go into zones not mentioned in their permits. Many other odd cases, too numerous to mention, were found. All were taken up separately with the Marshal, and where the League records showed that the alien was trying to obey the regulations, necessary permits were issued.

There were found by American Protective League operatives aliens who wanted to become citizens but who did not know what to do. Others had tried to pass examinations in court, but failed. All these were sent to citizenship schools and now are on the road to becoming desirable citizens. The work of the Bureau has been such that many aliens now have a different opinion of what it means to live in a country where all men who behave themselves have an equal chance. In one day, after citizenship schools were opened in Cincinnati, the Enemy Alien Bureau issued over two hundred permits to aliens who desired to gain knowledge which would permit them to apply for the necessary papers.

This close supervision also forestalled attempts by agents of the Kaiser to induce aliens to commit acts against this Government, if they were so inclined. No meetings could be held without an American Protective League member hearing of it, as they visited the alien at his home and place of employment at irregular intervals, and never less than once a month.

After the war, there will be many, now classed as enemy aliens, who will thank Cincinnati Division for having helped them at a critical time when they were floundering about under regulations which they did not understand, and feared to ask anyone how to become loyal citizens of this country. Of the many curious cases Cincinnati handled, we may report at least one, which shows how well the A. P. L. sometimes took care of a man who didn’t deserve it.

An emergency telephone call came to the office of the American Protective League from an official of one of the largest trust companies in the city, to send an operative to the bank as quickly as possible. The two men who answered the call found they had what appeared to be a German agent in prospect.

During the afternoon a telegram came to the bank from the Empire Trust Company, New York, authorizing it to place $25,000 to the credit of Frank K——. K——, on his arrival at the bank, seemed to be a man about fifty-five years of age, typically German, with all the Hindenburg ear-marks. An over-anxiety to display his naturalization papers in proving his identity led the bank officials to put him off until they had been able to communicate with the League. He had given his room number at the Gibson Hotel, and with this information in hand and a code message to the New York Division to investigate at that end, the scene shifted to the hotel.

His room was searched but absolutely nothing was found that could possibly throw light on the use he intended to make of the money, or the purpose of his visit to Cincinnati. He was “covered” that night by operatives of the League, and on the following day was taken to the office of the Special Agent in charge, and there questioned for two hours, without his disclosing anything of importance. K—— finally told his story, and from this point on the plot quickly unravels.

He was born near Hanover, Germany, emigrated to America at the age of sixteen, settled in New York, married, and was naturalized at the age of twenty-two. Three children blessed his union. He was a stone-mason by trade for ten years after his marriage; then he entered the contracting line and continued in it for some eighteen years, later removing to East Orange, N. J., where for some five years he operated a saloon and road house, later retiring from business and removing to West Hoboken, N. J.

After a severe siege of rheumatism, he was ordered by his physician to Mount Clemens, Michigan, early in the spring of 1918. At that resort he came in contact with two very affable gentlemen, “Fred B. Grant” and “Jack Connel.” They made a lavish display of wealth and finally were successful in getting him to ask where these large amounts came from, whereupon Grant, who was the spokesman of the two, told K—— he was a wealthy coal operator of West Virginia and that he had a special system of playing the races. After taking K—— behind one of the buildings at Mount Clemens, he swore him to secrecy, and “let him in” on his get-rich-quick plan.

The party left Mount Clemens and went to the Vendome Hotel, Newport, Ky. They took K—— to a supposed pool-room and in less than a week he had won upwards of twenty-five thousand dollars in bets, whereupon the proprietor of the pool-room told him that he could not withdraw this money, under the laws of the State of Kentucky, unless he had an equal amount on deposit in the State. K—— told his daughter in Hoboken that he must have twenty-five thousand dollars to complete a business deal. He put up some of the money himself, and she secured the rest by a loan from the Empire Trust Co. Again the shuttle moved back to Cincinnati, where he arrived on Monday, August 5, 1918, and the League came to his rescue. K—— was now convinced that he was marked for a victim, and he did all he could to help land his supposed friends. All these were taken and the prisoners were held in $15,000 bond. They were notorious confidence men!

The pool-room was found with its complete telephone and telegraph outfit, which was not connected with any outside line. The money which Kaiser saw in this pool-room was paper cut from a New York Telephone directory to the size of a dollar bill. This paper was placed in stacks of probably four or five inches thick, with a hundred dollar bill placed on top and a hundred dollar bill on the bottom. The “money” lay around in great profusion. K—— stated with bulging eyes that he saw “at least a million dollars in this room.” At least, the A. P. L. saved him $25,000 by taking him for a Cincinnati German spy!