The Web

CHAPTER XI
THE STORY OF ST. LOUIS

The summaries for St. Louis tell the same story of patient and indefatigable loyalty, resolved to hold America strictly American. The St. Louis story is modest, straightforward and convincing. It is given in substance as written by the Chief, Mr. G. H. Walker.

The St. Louis division was organized on April 3, 1917. The initial organization was composed of sixteen companies, organized each under a captain and lieutenants, divided into professional, commercial and industrial groups, so as to embrace all fields of activity. Only dependable and loyal men were taken into these companies, which ranged in size numerically from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five each. The business and financial interests of St. Louis responded generously to the plan and made possible the marked success that always attended the division.

Captains, lieutenants and operatives from the outset were required only to use their eyes and ears and to send in their reports, through their appropriate superiors, to Mr. G. H. Walker, the Chief of the division, who in turn submitted such reports to the Special Agent in Charge, Department of Justice, at St. Louis. It became evident in the summer months of 1917, from the increasing number and variety of reports sent in, that the facilities of the Bureau of Investigation were wholly inadequate, and that the investigating forces of the Bureau would require enlargement unless the St. Louis Division of the American Protective League itself undertook active investigation of its reports, thus relieving the Bureau to that extent. It was the same old story of the breaking down of a most important branch of the Government, and the prompt, patriotic rallying of our American citizens in support.

The decision was made, involving the opening of a suite of offices and the enrollment of a number of competent volunteers who could give their time to this work. Concurrently with making this decision, which meant so much more work, the St. Louis division undertook the formation of a geographic organization distinct from the company organizations, members of which were not only required to report all matters of interest through immediate superiors, but were also called upon from time to time for auxiliary investigation work in their respective neighborhoods. The district organization embraced twenty geographical divisions within St. Louis proper, there being from twenty-five to fifty operatives in each division, all of them responsible to a deputy inspector, who in turn was responsible to an inspector presiding over four districts. Four districts constituted a zone. St. Louis County, on the west, was similarly organized, as were East St. Louis and adjoining towns and villages in Illinois. In the summer of 1918, East St. Louis and considerable adjacent territory were separated from the St. Louis division and created into a distinct division, continuing, however, in close coöperation with the St. Louis division.

The increasing volume of work out of St. Louis headquarters required the active services of approximately fifty operatives, most of whom had abandoned their personal pursuits and were giving their entire time to the work of the League. In addition, two hundred and fifty men in the district organization were being called upon, more or less regularly, to undertake active investigations with respect to matters arising in their respective neighborhoods. The personnel of the organization was made up of loyal and self-sacrificing citizens in all walks of life. Much excellent service was rendered in investigations made at night by those who were unable to devote other time to the work. Each man did what he could.

Cases of intense and varying interest were arising daily to sustain the zeal of this large body of volunteers. One of the most interesting involved a letter, mailed in St. Louis March 17, 1917, to “Mr. W. Bernkong, Berlin, Germany,” which found its way into the St. Louis headquarters and which appeared to be a code letter written in Greek characters and words. An inspection of this, and a close following through of the case in all the hands it reached, will give a reader some idea of the uncanny sureness of the United States government experts in deciphering any sort of blind communication that may come before them.

The average unskilled person could make little out of the original letter, which was worse than Greek. Interest in this puzzle deepened when it was discovered that, although written in Greek characters, Greek scholars to whom it was submitted were unable to translate it. It was ultimately sent to the War College in Washington, that House of Mystery, which in due time returned a German translation, revealing the fact that Greek letters had been adapted to the formation of German words. It might still have remained possible for the real secret of the letter to have been concealed in an unknown code—as one may learn by reference to the brief mention of ciphers and codes in an earlier chapter (See “Arts of the Operatives”). Therefore, a first-class mystery story, indeed the best detective story of all those the League chiefs have sent in, still remains for any wise doctor who can solve it. It is easier to write a “detective story” than it is to read a cipher and double code, because a story-writer knows his own answer, whereas in the other case, no one knows the real answer.

This letter had been stopped in transit in France a few days after the entrance of the United States into the Great War. There seemed to be some small hope of finding a clue to the author through advertising it as an undelivered letter. While this plan was under contemplation, however, a report reached headquarters, from an operative, to the effect that while soliciting Y. M. C. A. subscriptions in a St. Louis office building late at night, he had surprised a citizen of German origin, alone in his office, who appeared to be attempting to decipher a letter with the aid of two books, seemingly code books.

The letter was then advertised and two operatives were assigned to watch the appropriate window at the General Post Office. After a week’s vigil, the clerk in charge beckoned to the operatives and pointed to the retreating figure of a woman of small stature, almost wholly enveloped in a black shawl, and informed them that she had inquired for the Bernkong letter. She had said that she was not the author but would be glad to pay any additional postage necessary to send it on its way. In the course of this explanation the woman had left the building and was lost in the crowd on the street. It therefore became necessary to continue the surveillance at the Post Office in the hope of the woman’s return. Within a week she did reappear, late in the afternoon, and inquired for mail under the name of a Catholic Sister. It was learned that she had been receiving mail under this name for a considerable length of time. She was followed for a number of blocks and was seen to enter a large institution conducted as a girls’ rooming house.

A woman operative of the St. Louis Division, American Protective League, that night, carrying a suit case, applied at the institution for a room, explaining that she had just arrived from a nearby city. She had a detailed description of the woman, but for a period of more than three weeks she was unable to find anybody in the place fitting the description. This woman operative was then also assigned to the Post Office, where, in due time, the woman reappeared.

The operative followed her to the institution, entering the door only a few moments behind her, and saw her enter a room on the second floor. A few minutes later the woman operative was surprised to see the suspect leave her room, wholly changed in appearance, the black shawl having been replaced by a dark sack suit and a black sailor hat. As the woman had that afternoon received a letter at the Post Office, it was suspected that, as a go-between, she would deliver this letter to some one. She left the building and boarded a street car. The woman operative entered a waiting automobile and followed. Again the mystery woman proved too elusive. The next morning the woman operative was up and on guard before daybreak and was enabled to trail the woman to a business establishment, where, it was learned, she was employed in clerical work. She was again dressed in the sack suit and black sailor hat, and apparently assumed the habit of a nun only upon inquiring at the Post Office for mail.

The most thorough inquiries failed to reveal any additional evidence indicating this woman’s connection with enemy activities, or solve the dual character she was impersonating. It was ultimately determined to take her to the Bureau, where she might be thoroughly interrogated, which was done. Her explanations were simple but unsatisfying. However, there was no violation of the law with which she could be charged, and it was necessary to permit her to go. She moved to another hotel where the St. Louis division continued to keep her under surveillance, without, however, throwing any further light upon the mysterious letter. Other apparent clues were likewise run down in vain.

The letter bears every evidence of having been a serious attempt to communicate information of more or less value to the enemy and appears to permit of further decoding through the use of some additional cipher. It is by no means sure that the ultimate code for it will not be found by some expert government man in Washington. The world little knows what marvels of unraveling secrets is done in the Intelligence work of the Government. Always the battle goes on between those trying to make codes that cannot be read by an outsider and those who say they can master any code if given time. In any case, here is a fine detective story.

Little or no successful attempt was made by St. Louis Division to keep the organization’s work a secret, and in a center so large, that always is a moot question. In the first place, any large operations, like raids and drives cannot be kept secret, and in the second place, the fear created by the thought of hidden regulators has proved a valuable deterrent, as has been shown countless times. In any case, months ago the local press was “playing up” the League in many stories that named it very frankly. Since that is true, some of the anecdotes collected may be given here.

A St. Louis German, with the boastfulness which fortunately offsets much of the cunning and industry of his species, bragged to his sweetheart that he was a member of the Imperial German Secret Service. Perhaps he showed her the card which German spies are not supposed to show. She, very proud, confided to a friend her lover’s distinction. The friend went to one of the local officials of the American Protective League. She had four brothers in the service, three in the Army and one in the Navy, and said that if there was a German spy in the city the authorities should know it. Unfortunately, she had forgotten the man’s name. The man’s room was raided, and evidence was unearthed that he was not only an unregistered enemy alien, but indeed a German spy. In his trunk were found firearms of the German army. He was promptly interned. Perhaps no sweetheart should have a spy, and certainly no spy should have a sweetheart.

A German who predicted the defeat of the Allies before the United States entered the war, persisted in his harangues afterwards, until a League operative went to the bank where he worked. The man’s dismissal resulted. He continued at times to return to the bank, assailing some of the young women clerks with abuse and threats because of their loyalty to America. He was arrested for violating his zone permit, which the United States Marshal had revoked when the bank’s notice of his dismissal was filed. Later he was interned.

One night a party from the Naval recruiting office in St. Louis was seeking enlistments at a West End theater. Moving pictures were thrown on a screen and an officer made a speech, in which he declared: “The Germans went through Belgium and France like barbarians.” A stout, well-dressed man in the audience exploded: “That’s a damned lie!” Two sailors with revolvers sprang for him over the footlights, but the first to reach him were two members of the League, who, although they had gone to the theater only for amusement, had not forgotten their duties. After a sharp tussle the disturber was overpowered. He protested indignantly that he was an American citizen, but refused stubbornly to give any other information about himself. Borrowing an automobile, the League operatives and sailors took him to a police station and notified the Federal authorities. Search of the prisoner’s effects showed that he was an unnaturalized German subject, though he had lived in the United States for fourteen years. He was interned for the duration of the war. Of such is the glorious Kingdom of Deutschland.

A client went to the office of his attorney, and after their business was concluded, tarried for a chat, in which he dropped the information that he had heard a pro-German say: “Every American child should have its neck wrung as soon as it is born. The German army could rule the United States better than Wilson—and it will, too.” The lawyer obtained from him the name and address of the offender, and the names of witnesses who heard his remarks. After the client had gone, the attorney, being a member of the League, made out a report on a blank form supplied by the Department of Justice, and sent it to the Captain of his company, signing it with his number. The lawyer’s duty ended here, for he belonged to one of the occupational units and was pledged to give information but not to investigate. The Captain took the report to League headquarters, where the officials approved it and sent it to the local office of the Department of Justice, Bureau of Information. It was O. K.’d there as a matter worth looking into, whereupon the League called upon its other arm, the investigators. They went out to obtain affidavits to corroborate the hearsay information first turned in by the lawyer. In this roundabout way was secured evidence to be placed before the Attorney General. You can never tell, even if you are a pro-German and have to spill over, when you are also going to spill, upset or overturn the legumes known in common parlance as the beans.

A naturalization department was organized on the initiative of the St. Louis office, which was followed in other divisions. On May 18, Congress repealed the law prohibiting the naturalization of aliens if they had filed declarations of intention not less than two or more than seven years before the United States entered the war. That is, citizenship was possible under these conditions, providing the applicant established his good moral character, his attachment to the Constitution, his belief in organized government, his ability to speak English and the genuineness of his wish to become a citizen and renounce forever all allegiance to any foreign Power. About eight hundred persons in the St. Louis district, according to local press data, sought to avail themselves of the opportunity provided by the new law. Their applications called for a thorough investigation in each case. This work the League volunteered to take off the shoulders of the Bureau of Naturalization. The inquiries put in the questionnaire are interesting as official tests of loyalty. The most important of them are as follows:

Can all the foreign-born or foreign-descended citizens of the United States swear before God that they are fit to gain or to retain their citizenship under a test like that?

A St. Louis journal, in commenting on the work of the American Protective League in that city, gave a rather interesting summary of the growth of the espionage idea in the United States, for which place not inappropriately may be found here.

With these agencies also worked the American Protective League, regarding which this comment was printed and should be reprinted:

The St. Louis division embraced a membership of 3,000 operatives, the large majority of whom made up the listening and reporting organization. The number and variety of cases developed and investigated are as follows: Alien enemy activities, 225; Espionage Act cases, 1,142; sabotage, 11; anti-military activities, 15; printed propaganda, 1,741; I. W. W., including pacifism, 48; bribery, graft, etc., 45; impersonation, 2; naturalization, 600; counter-espionage, 53; draft cases, 7,075; character and loyalty investigations, 589; liquor cases, 49; vice, 26; wireless cases, 52; profiteering, 80; miscellaneous, 256.

The credit for the patient and self-sacrificing labors required in this large volume of work is due not only to the patriotism and fidelity of the listening and reporting force and to those operatives who devoted their time to work of investigation, but also to conscientious coöperation of the district organizations and their deputies and inspectors. Sharing with these must be remembered, on the silent roll of honor, all those deputy chiefs in charge of the respective departments at headquarters under the immediate direction of their Chief, who must stand for all.