The Web

CHAPTER XV
THE STORY OF CALIFORNIA

Time was when there were just two really cosmopolitan towns in the United States. Merely being mixed in population does not mean cosmopolitanism; but San Francisco and New Orleans were two towns which could offer any American something to see. The fire changed San Francisco to a certain extent, and the North has ruined New Orleans all it could; but the soul of each of these two towns still goes marching on, incapable of destruction. If sudden wealth could not make San Francisco avaricious, nor solid prosperity leave her sordid; if earthquake, fire and famine could not daunt her unquenchably buoyant heart—what reason have we to believe that a small matter like a world war would much disturb her poise?

‘Frisco by the Golden Gate—that last viewpoint where America faces the Orient and her own future as well—took her war philosophically, allowed her Hindu conspiracies to run their course, and viewed with none too great agitation the flood of disloyalty which inevitably was caught by the western shore, just as once a better sort of material was caught in the sluices of her old Long Toms. San Francisco knows she is here to stay, and believes that this Republic also is here to stay.

The A. P. L. in San Francisco

That there would be an A. P. L. organization in San Francisco admitted of no doubt. The city was ably organized and certainly took able care of Fritz and his Boche-loving friends. But all California is divided into three parts: Northern California, Southern California—and all California! An offense to one means a fight for all, although each allows a certain amount of thumb-biting on the part of a native son. The A. P. L. in California followed precisely this ancient line of cleavage, so that there was established a Northern Division, a Southern Division—and a State Inspectorship! The State Inspector was Mr. Douglas White, who himself is a traveling man, and therefore cannot be accounted as belonging to either North or South. Mr. A. J. DeLamare had the division office in San Francisco, where the organization so closely followed the general lines already described in other cities that it perhaps is not needful to go into details here.

That California’s polyglot population meant potential trouble may be seen in the heads of the Frisco reports: a total of 1,612 cases of disloyalty and sedition, 277 cases of propaganda, and 105 of radicalism, such as that of I. W. W., etc. The work for the war boards—slackers, desertion, character and loyalty, etc.—footed up 2,415 cases in all, the grand total carried on the records as actual “cases” amounting to 5,691.

The Department of Justice labors, as usual in all the great cities, meant a vast amount of time and energy expended on the part of A. P. L. men, with the usual percent of win, lose, and draw—all offered in the infinite variety afforded by the California climate. Some of the cases were odd, some mysterious, and a good many of them big. Perhaps a few from the many turned in by Frisco may be found interesting, though chosen practically by chance. One of these is a wireless case. It should not be dismissed as another “mysterious signal” flivver until read quite through to its close.

Mrs. B—— and her mother had moved into a flat on Williard street. The persons who occupied the flat before them came back to get some plates and other material, which looked so strange that Mrs. B—— thought there had been a wireless plant there, so she reported it. They refused to give up the fixture material then in their possession. The place was on a high hill overlooking the bay and would have been an ideal locality for a wireless plant which might have given information to the enemy.

Operative No. 440 took over this case. He found that the house stood at the edge of a wood on a rocky hill. The two women explained that the place had been occupied by a man named G—— who seemed very mysterious. He would hang around the house all day and come home at different hours. He moved away suddenly. He used to make trips in the woods with people not known about there. Operative found in the house several base plates for electric light plugs, also electric wires grounded on the water and gas pipes, and also a hole cut in the side of the house, as is done when a high tension wire is passed through.

Mrs. B—— stated that at night sounds similar to those made by a wireless sending outfit often were heard, also that a sound representing rapping signals occurred at the rear of the house. The operative, making all allowances for a woman’s nervousness, returned that evening. Sure enough, he heard the sounds persistently as described. They did come from the rear of the house, and, although examination was made there at once and next day by daylight, he was unable to tell what made the sounds.

The case now looked promising, so the operative again went over the premises. He could not find any trace of wireless apparatus. He did find a pipe starting at the edge of the woods and tried to follow this. It led to the brink of a high bluff. Just at the edge of the bluff the operative almost stepped on a rattlesnake, and in attempting to escape he rolled to the bottom of the bank, carrying the pipe with him! When he came to, he was free of the snake. He looked at his pipe, but found it clogged with dirt. It therefore could not have been used lately as a wire conduit.

Nothing could be learned of the former occupant, G——, except that he was a musician. Inquiry among musical societies and unions finally located him as a player in a place called the “Hoffbrau”—since very patriotically changed to the “States Café.” Reports were that he had been born in the city of New York and served honorably in the United States Navy. His wife’s father had fought in the Civil War. After G—— had been found, the operative had a talk with him. Soon thereafter, light was offered on a very mysterious situation. G—— explained that he had to move very quickly as his wife had rented a new house without notifying him. When he moved he had forgotten those base plates—which were intended only for household use, percolators, etc. But when he went away the dog was not taken. He had come back a number of times to the old place trying to locate the dog. At last he had remembered these base plates and tried to secure them, as he had put them in himself. It looked like a clean bill of health for G——; but how about the mysterious noises?

The operative once more secreted himself at the edge of the woods at about ten o’clock that night and began to watch the house. At eleven o’clock he again heard the mysterious sounds at the rear of the house. He slipped up quietly and there found the solution of his really wireless mystery. The “signals” were made by the home-sick dog, which was trying to locate its former owner! He would come to the house in the night and scratch on the screen door, making sounds like a wireless discharge. His tail knocking on the boards made the rapping noise. When a strange person would open the door he would disappear in the darkness of the woods, so no cause for the sounds could be traced. So there you were—a perfectly beautiful mystery! It is told in the report in a very unagitated style, but really it is a pretty good case of A. P. L. work.

All sorts and conditions of men were enlisted and carried on the A. P. L. rolls; but did you ever hear of an anthropologist A. P. L.? There was one at San Francisco. It was reported that a man living in Alameda, a geologist and mining engineer employed by an oil company, was fitting out a launch to go to Mexico and purchase supplies. His trip was alleged to be for the purpose of oil prospecting. He appeared to tell a straight story, and said he had bought surveying instruments and food and intended to clear duly.

Two days later another A. P. L. operative heard that this man had left for Washington, stating that he must get some passports, although he was known to have passports already. As a third man from the San Francisco A. P. L. office was going on to Washington, these facts were given him and he was asked to give the man the once-over in Washington. He did this and found that the boat-owner was getting passports to England. He found also that this person was associated with Professor M——, who claimed to be looking up oil conditions in this country and studying anthropology on the side.

As this operative also was interested in anthropology, he and Professor M—— got on very well, although the San Franciscan was not very much impressed by the learned man’s fundamental knowledge in a scientific way. There was nothing, however, to show that the professor was engaged in any enemy activities. But the San Franciscan operative gathered the notion that the visiting passport-seeker might possibly be engaged in spreading German propaganda among the many negroes about the city of Washington. He finally discovered in his possession a lot of pictures of a very undesirable sort, intended for German distribution among negro troops in France, with the intention of creating dissatisfaction among such troops. These pictures carried the legend, “See what is happening to your wives and families while you are in France.” Copies of these pictures were obtained. The operative made the further discovery that Professor M—— was in the employ of this pseudo-mining-engineer, who now stood revealed as an active German propagandist. It was also learned where this latter Kultur-spreader got his pictures.

Arrangements were made with one of the professor’s photographic subjects so that the operatives might listen in on certain flashlight performances by night. To cut all that unprintable sort of thing short, it may be said that the operatives, while seated on the porch, heard and saw all they liked of the German color-blindness.

The learned professor, however, having his suspicions aroused by the fact that the door kept opening and would not stay shut as it ought to have done, came to the door, poked his head out and saw the operatives sitting on the porch. One operative sat there with a camera in his lap and a flash gun in his right hand, intending to make pictures of the picture maker himself, so that evidence of the reprehensible nature of his own pictures might be discovered. The professor, however, sprang back into the room and presently came out armed with a gun and a bayonet. The operatives at once fell off the back of the porch. Lunging at the first man, the professor missed; but he caught the second operative with the bayonet in the wrist and ripped up his forearm. The men closed in upon him and there was a warm fight for quite a while. Details are not desirable and need not be given. It is sufficient to say that the nature of the photographs was disclosed and details turned in to the proper quarters. The anthropological German professor later was arrested and turned over to the Department of Justice. At last accounts he was in jail at Washington awaiting trial. Regarding his performance, it is only fair to say that his anthropological tendencies seemed to run true to German scientific form.

The A. P. L. in Sausalito

Not so far from San Francisco by way of the crow’s flight is the Marin County Division of the A. P. L. at Sausalito. This division also had a case of mysterious light flashes—from Belvidere Island. Signals came from several different directions and several different sources, but no one could ever be located as receiving them. Across the bay from Belvidere is Angel Island, a large internment camp, and in either direction lies a neighborhood which is very pro-German. There might have been signals, but no one seemed to be able to trace the code or get anything intelligible. Investigation of this thing lasted for over a year, and finally the division concluded it was the action of someone trying to intimidate the residents of that vicinity. It was not run down.

Located in the hills was an organization known as the “German Tourists’ Club,” which had been incorporated in Vienna, Austria. Prior to our entering the war it was visited by many alien enemies and many German-Americans, so that it was under constant surveillance of the Intelligence services of the United States and also by the A. P. L. of Marin County. Considerable information was furnished to the authorities, and one alien enemy was interned. Another alien enemy was apprehended who had $2,500 cash on his person and was trying to get to South America, whence he intended to return to Germany. The same club turned out yet another man who, on a railroad train, was heard abusing this country. An A. P. L. man heard him and asked a constable to arrest him at once. He was taken to the county jail, where his remarks were so abusive that the Department of Justice immediately took him into custody for internment.

The hilly, wooded and mountainous character of Marin County, bordering on the ocean, made it a favorite resort for hikers, hunters, fishermen and the like, and it has many locations which would afford excellent rendezvous. It kept the A. P. L. operatives busy in all their spare time walking and driving through the country. On one such trip along the sea shore, in a very remote place, a Navy torpedo was found. It proved to be only a practice one, having no war head, but it might have been worse.

The A. P. L. in Los Angeles

The sun-kissed Southwest handled its A. P. L. work in a wholly modern way, as perhaps some of the sidelights will show. How quaint and curious some of these chuckle-making anecdotes—and how grave some of the serious ones—will seem fifty years from now, when California will be looking back on another generation of her large and swift history!

The report from the city of Los Angeles is one entirely consistent with the reputation of that busy community, and as usual the totals ran large. Los Angeles handled 2,136 cases of alien enemy activity; 5,275 selective service investigations; 1,494 examinations for disloyalty and sedition; 289 cases of propaganda by word of mouth and 61 by means of the printed page. There were 289 investigations of radicals and pacifists, and 648 of all other natures, not mentioning those which had to do with food hoarding, waste, etc., which made a formidable total of themselves. There are not many sections which report a wider or more interesting range of experiences.

As in the case of practically all our cities, at the time the war broke out, the Department of Justice for Los Angeles was inadequately equipped with men, motor cars and data-chasers to deal with the numerous alien enemies, German sympathizers and non-patriotic citizens. Los Angeles frankly says that this species of the human fauna seem to be peculiar to Southern California, and certainly the totals of Los Angeles would indicate as much. The Chief says:

There is distinct food for thought in the closing remarks of the all too modest Los Angeles chief, made before the dissolution date of the A. P. L. was announced:

These are words of gold and show the heart of Los Angeles to be certainly in the right place. It is a new and troubled America that we have all got to face now, with or without an A. P. L.

As to the odd and interesting stories noted by the Los Angeles operatives, the latter as usual seem to take more delight in telling of their fiascos than they do of their successes, but saving grace was usually there. For instance a woman and her husband living in Glendale were very rabid about the war, and hence received a visit. The informants turned out to be church members and apparently desirable citizens. The female suspected fell into hysterics, cursed the Frenchman who lived next door and the Englishman who lived several houses beyond, and declared she had bought Liberty Bonds and had up flags enough to be left alone. The German himself demanded to know by what authority he was visited. The League man told him there was plenty of authority all right, and that he did not need to specify. The suspect took a good hint, and from that time neither the man nor his wife was guilty of any public utterance of any sort whatever on war matters.

One Herman F. H—— claimed that he was a “secret service man” and showed a badge and some handcuffs, but still talked very pro-German. He said among other things that the American people would wake up—that the Kaiser would show them something—that we could not win the war. His nearest friend was an army sergeant by the name of Paul S—— of Fort McArthur. These two would talk together in German. The doughty U. S. sergeant was also of the belief that our army had no chance and said the soldiers were all dissatisfied. They were both investigated. The sergeant was put in jail at Los Angeles. Military Intelligence took over the rest of the case—and M. I. D. has never been noted for its mercifulness.

An over-zealous woman in one instance reported suspicious activity on the part of a family which had a great many mysterious packages delivered at their address. She said they had quantities of large pipe which they would fill with guns and ammunition, also boxes of rifle cartridges. Investigation proved that some of the mysterious packages were only lunch baskets; that the trucks were hauling large pieces of well-casing and sometimes small articles of grocery or hardware were slipped into the pipes to save space. They had no packages of ammunition at all, and the packages of cartridges were only pasteboard boxes containing shelled walnuts. Jumpy times.

A man by the name of M—— came from Chicago, and closely following him came a report that he was wanted by the Chicago police. Operatives located the man and thought he would look well in the uniform of the United States Army, but the recruiting office, inquiring into the reason for the Chicago telegram, found that the man had served a term in the penitentiary. He was not, therefore, classified even as a slacker and he did not get into the Army, which will not receive anyone who has served a prison sentence.

Los Angeles had considerable to do with the stoppage of propaganda by means of motion pictures, that city being the capital of filmdom. Newspaper reports of the cases of the film “Patria” and of “The Spirit of 1776” are familiar to the reading public. A. P. L. was always on hand for film censorship purposes.

A case which attracted considerable attention was known as the von H—— case. The subject was a native of Germany, fifty-three years of age, a resident in the United States for thirty-two years. He never had become a citizen, although once employed in the California post office. Von H—— was a movie actor who did spy parts. He fraternized with the soldiers and sailors in propria persona, and liked to ask them to his room for conversations over the war. At length he was arrested. His rooms turned out a mass of evidence, including four hundred snap shots and some forty letters of the vilest nature. He had intended to send this material over to Germany to show the lack of morale of the American soldiers and sailors. He had an oil painting of the Kaiser, a picture of von Hindenburg and one of the German flag. He was sentenced to five years, but it is not thought that he will live out his sentence. Perhaps we can struggle along without him.

There is no character in whom the public more naturally reposes confidence than in the tried and true negro Pullman porter, but this is the story of one such porter accused of draft evasion. He was confined in jail but was offered release if he would go into the Army. He told the operative that he would go all right, but that his check for forty dollars was not on hand and that he needed about five dollars to “float himself.” The operative loaned him the five dollars and the Pullman porter is still floating. Neither Army nor anyone else has heard of him since.

Most of the more groundless suspicions and imaginings of Americans regarding German spies arose among the women of the country. Their apprehensions at times would lead them to report almost anything. One small demure little woman once applied to the headquarters of the A. P. L. in Los Angeles and said that she knew parties—German spies—who received money from Germany and who had no resources other than the funds of the German Government. The chief asked her upon what she based her information. The little lady looked carefully around the room, under the table and out of the window, and then came close up to the chief before she gave him the real basis of her charge. She said that the parties referred to were the possessors of a cuckoo clock which she was sure was made in Germany; hence they must be pro-Germans, and therefore spies!

The German ministers, it seems, infest the Pacific slope as well as the northwestern part of the United States. Herewith the case of Emile K——, minister of a German Methodist church. An operative went into his church and took his seat in the last pew. He reports:

An operative was sent out to get a deserter who seemed to be rather of an inventive turn of mind. He found his man in a barn, and when the suspect came out, the operative ran up and called him by name. The suspect turned and asked him if he was arrested. When the operative asked him, “Arrested for what?” he replied, “You know, all right.” He then admitted that he was a deserter from the Navy at San Francisco. He wanted to go into the house after some letter paper, but the operative would not let him. Afterwards he said he wanted to go in to get a gun, and would have shot the operative rather than go with him. Returned to San Francisco from Los Angeles jail.

A carload of A. P. L. men went out to a deserted spot in the San Fernando Valley near the Los Angeles aqueduct. A mysterious German had been seen about, possibly with evil intent. Operatives surrounded a small cabin which was occupied by a very arrogant German and two women. The man on the case reports: “I noticed a big revolver on the dresser, secured it and put it in my pocket before we went on with the investigation. We went through all his letters, mostly in German, but discovered nothing in the way of evidence. We told him why we had come and warned him to keep away from the aqueduct. He took it all very submissively, so I thought it would be all right to leave the revolver which I had captured. When I took it out of my pocket to look it over, I found that it was empty, the hammer had been knocked off and it could not have been fired.” But “you will note,” writes the operative with an exultant note, “that I responded fully to the demands of the occasion in the way of bravery!”

A case came down from Seattle to Los Angeles, having to do with an itinerant slacker who came from Pennsylvania and who, since then, had lived in Idaho, Washington, and California. The suspect’s physical description was that of a man six feet tall, weight about 220 pounds, health apparently the best, appearance very shabby, an additional circumstance being that he had a pronounced aversion to the use of water which was very evident at close range. It was stated that the man owned at least nine different properties, and although indolent, was apparently well to do. He was found in possession of Socialist literature, and declared that he would not buy bonds or assist the Government or have anything to do with the Red Cross. He was asked how he would like to join the Army. Since he did not like the proposition, he was arrested for violation of the Selective Service Act, found within the age, and indicted September 20, 1918, by the Federal Grand Jury for failure to register for the draft.

Los Angeles had a practicing physician who fled from Germany to escape the rigors of its military laws. When war broke out between this country and Germany, this suspect—for he very soon became a suspect and was placed under the espionage of A. P. L.—planned to turn a pretty penny by the practice of sabotage, not upon property, but on personnel. There were some cowards in this country of so yellow a type that they were willing even to have their eye-sight tampered with that they might escape the draft. This monster in human guise assisted such depraved beings, sometimes perhaps to the permanent loss of their eye-sight—they took their own chances. This man got a sentence of ten years in the penitentiary and a fine of $5,000. A woman accomplice was sentenced to eleven years penal servitude.

A German, von B——, was a close friend of R. B——, the two rooming together. The latter was with the National Guard of California in the Mexican trouble, was mustered out, but registered for the draft, being exempted on the grounds of having a dependent wife and child. After he had received his exemption, B—— was told by von B—— to get into the Aviation Corps at San Diego, and that he would show him how. The exempted man was admitted to the Aviation Corps in the United States Army, went to Berkeley for three months’ training, and then was transferred to San Diego. He is a German and his wife is also. These two men were reported to have made a great many mysterious trips together. Subject was interned on presidential warrant, it being obvious that neither he nor his room-mate meant well towards the United States.

Can a leopard change his spots? The answer would appear to be that he cannot—if he is a German leopard. For instance, one William S——, a German small grocer in Los Angeles, was doing a good business and living very well. He had a son enlisted in the Aviation Corps of the United States Army at the outbreak of the war. There was no reason why he, himself, should not have remained loyal to this country, which had been kind to him. But although he had been away from Germany for a score of years, he was foolish enough to retain all the German spots. He said that Wilson was a Kaiser and that the people ought to kill him; and he uttered a good many additional sentiments of like sort against this country and its Government. He was so bitter in his pro-German attitude that he lost practically all of his customers. As a result he began to worry, not only for the Imperial German Government, but for himself. And then one night he died—which closed the case for A. P. L. and opened it for a Higher Court. Since it has been shown in many instances that the River Jordan has not been able to wash out the German spots, the query is whether the River Styx is any more able to do so? That is the question in which all admirers of German Kultur and its practices are interested.

The A. P. L. in Santa Barbara

There is an unsettled rivalry between the two types of beauty, blonde and brunette, which never will be concluded so long as women live and men admire them. So also, one supposes, time will not last long enough to determine which is the more beautiful and lovable spot—Monterey in Northern California, or Santa Barbara in the South. You can start a riot over that question on any railway train on the Pacific slope. One man will be ready to shoot anybody who does not agree that the Seventeen Mile Drive out of Monterey is the most beautiful region in all the world, bar none. It is—it is! Who can deny it? But who, also, can deny even at the point of a gun that the Santa Barbara coast is also the most beautiful spot in all the world? Besides, the latter community has scientific records as ground for the assertion that Santa Barbara has the finest mean temperature on the North American continent, and hence is the one ideal dwelling spot for human beings. It is—it is!

But, very naturally, so fair a region as that of the California slope must have attracted all sorts and conditions of men, evil men as well as good, designing transients as well as those calling California home. For this reason Santa Barbara also had her organization of the A. P. L.

One of the colony of wealthy men who had built palatial homes in and around Santa Barbara was a certain millionaire who had what might be called advanced ideas or free thinking tendencies. Early in the year 1917, Mr. H—— associated himself actively with the pacifist movement. He had, as a co-agitator, a reverend doctor who was pastor in a church at Santa Barbara. They both printed pamphlets in opposition to the war, and finally came out with a book which was a very violent denunciation of war in general. The two gentlemen divided the authorship of this book, H—— doing the first part and G—— the second. Reverend G—— had the advantage of also being able to deliver sermons from the pulpit. He denounced the United States Government and referred to the American flag as a “worthless rag.” After we had declared war with Germany these men kept on with their activities, hence A. P. L. took their cases under advisement with instructions from the Los Angeles Department of Justice. There were hundreds of operative reports turned in on these two men.

After a time another book, published by H——, came out—a very violent arraignment of the Government for its stand in the war, and very hot anti-draft literature. These publications attracted to H—— and G—— a large number of the weak-minded people who affiliated themselves with the “Fellowship of Reconciliation”—a society which ought to go strong in Berlin, now that the war is over.

Reverend G—— was expelled as the pastor of his church, following a very seditious letter which he wrote, saying that he had relegated the American flag to the flames, expressing sympathy with I. W. W., and opposition to the draft. It has always been understood that the climate of California attracted a great many people, and the state has always seemed to be prolific of great differences of opinion among those people, but when it comes to a minister of the gospel uttering such things as these, it is going a little strong even for the most free-thinking country in the world.

The H—— case kept on attaining proportions, and heavy shipments of literature were made into Santa Barbara and distributed out of that city to various points. All of these shipments were followed and full reports were made. In the latter part of 1917, another reverend doctor, F. H——, and one C. H. B——, became active associates with the foregoing. Pacifist meetings in Los Angeles were raided, and all these parties managed to get themselves arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace.

In April, 1918, a letter addressed to a man in Santa Barbara, California, who had a name quite similar to the first man above mentioned, fell into the hands of A. P. L., because the wrong recipient had opened it. It was found to be a letter from the secretary of the I. W. W. organization at Los Angeles, setting a definite date for a meeting at Los Angeles where Mr. H—— was to be present and address the assembled multitude. The Chief of A. P. L. at Santa Barbara notified D. J. in Los Angeles. At the same time, Santa Barbara was requested to locate the new reverend, Mr. F. H——, whose whereabouts now were unknown.

There now came into the case a Miss E——, a prominent young woman who had been a canteen worker and Red Cross nurse in France. Her family were friends of the H—— family, but Miss E—— was a friend of the United States Army above all things. She learned that the second reverend was at Modesto, California, and that Mr. H—— would leave Santa Barbara on Sunday, April 7, for Los Angeles; that he would stop at the Alexandria Hotel, and would address the meeting on April 8.

This information was turned over to D. J. at Los Angeles.

It was decided to arrest all the foregoing alphabetical gentlemen. About twenty members were assigned to the work and these arrests were duly made at 9:00 P. M. on the night of April 8. Certain residences of the above parties were searched and an immense amount of literature and pamphlets on pacifism and radical Socialism were discovered. Most of the books were seized.

The first mentioned Mr. H—— was hard to catch, the deputy marshal being obliged to chase him through the streets of Los Angeles for several blocks. H—— had to spend his night in the county jail. The next morning he telephoned to his mother that he had “spent the night with some friends of his, the Marshalls.” At least, he had a sense of humor, because the only “Marshals” he knew were the deputy United States marshals at that time, and he had indeed been their guest temporarily.

All the defendants, excepting two incidentally connected with the case, were convicted of violation of the Espionage Act. The wealthy pacifist millionaire was fined $27,000. The vitriolic clergyman first mentioned, and his ally, the clergyman of the second part, were fined $5,000 apiece. Two lesser fines of $500 and $100 were imposed also. The second reverend doctor was arrested on information furnished by Santa Barbara A. P. L. to the Los Angeles office. Other persons of ultra-pacifist tendencies in Santa Barbara have been kept constantly under surveillance. So it would seem that in peaceful Santa Barbara all is not always peace—unless it is the right sort of peace.

Santa Barbara made twenty-three arrests and secured fifteen convictions. Fines were collected by the Government through A. P. L. investigations amounting to $37,100. Santa Barbara had the usual percentage of flivver cases, especially as to mysterious signal lights. One of these proved to be nothing more dangerous than a night watchman on a railroad track, signalling with his lantern. The operatives uncovered one rather tragic case. A Franciscan monk wrote to the draft board that his own brother claimed exemption falsely, that he was living with another man’s wife, and had been guilty of forgery. The couple were found making their confession. They confessed further before the draft board that they both were married but had separated from their respective mates. They fell in love and began living together within two weeks after they had met, and they had lived together as man and wife for some time. The woman was released; the man was inducted into the service and sent to camp.

A Santa Barbara operative evinced a certain sleuthing ability in a case which reached its climax when someone blew up an old barn at the rear of the place belonging to the complaining couple. There was a box containing a setting hen, malignantly maternal over thirteen eggs. This box was within six feet of the place where the explosion occurred—but there was not a mark on the box, although the barn door had been blown to bits. It seemed that something was wrong. Matters simmered down to a spite case of a middle aged couple against some neighbors, who finally had determined to get their kind of justice by blowing up their own barn—but they did not wish to blow up their valuable hen, so they removed her before touching off the charge.

Santa Barbara County—not the town—reported 94 cases of disloyalty and sedition, 24 male alien activities and 20 female alien enemies, besides the 34 I. W. W. cases. The man does not live who can predict the end of all the vast social problems which will have to be worked out eventually on this beautiful Pacific slope.

The A. P. L. in San Diego

We have on our southern borders the Mexican situation, not yet settled, but one day to be settled. Germany did all she could to set Mexico on our heels, and her atrocious Zimmerman note was one more instance of her venomous but blundering diplomacy. Perhaps she wonders still how we got that note when it first was despatched from Mexico; and how we sat tight so long with knowledge of it in our possession. This is by way of saying that the old Spanish city of San Diego is an important naval base, located close to the edge of the intriguing border of the Southwest—and a borderland is always a zone of espionage.

It is, therefore, not surprising to say that San Diego had 65 cases of alien enemy activities and 842 cases of disloyalty and sedition, 286 instances of propaganda and 32 I. W. W. cases. For the War Department, there were 554 investigations, 98 of these being character and loyalty investigations. So that, on the whole, it may be seen that this once indolent city of the Southwest, now a busy center of affairs, also had an A. P. L. during the war.

There is a curious range of cases reported from one and another corner of the country to the National Directors of A. P. L. Sometimes an extraordinarily troublesome case has had very little at bottom; and again a simple case often turned out big. Yet again, a case might have all the ear-marks of simplicity and prove full of trouble. For instance, if you were sent to arrest a woman, you customarily would not expect her to disclose herself to be a walking arsenal of offensive weapons—a woman’s portative appliances, lacking pockets as they do, not seeming to give her natural facilities for heeling herself in any way practical for quick action. Such, however, proved to be a wrong estimate of a certain young lady whom we may call Miss M. E——, reported in connection with certain alleged “German activity.” She certainly turned out to be active.

An operative found Miss M. E—— living in a garage about six feet square. The room was in much disorder, showing trunks, boxes, tin cans and literature all about. Some ammunition was found, which the operative left in place. He did not open the trunk. Suspect was reported sometimes around a print shop, which next was visited. The proprietor said that the suspect sometimes did some printing herself in his little shop. Neighbors seemed to be afraid of suspect, and said she had been seen with a revolver in her coat pocket.

Operative interviewed the suspect herself and asked her how about the literature she had been printing. She admitted she had distributed about one hundred copies of a circular. We may at this point allow the operative to tell his simple and uneventful story in his own words.

Nothing much further seemed to disturb the calm of the scene, so the operators took the lady to the county jail, where she was later turned over for examination to the Department of Justice. The two operatives then went back to the subject’s room and found in every conceivable place ammunition of every description. It was sewed in the mattress, stuffed in tin cans, concealed in her trunk. There were also found a Winchester repeating rifle and a Remington repeating rifle, and ammunition in all amounting to about 1,000 rounds. When her hand-grip was searched at the office, it was found to contain four tobacco pouches of bullets, sixty-six in all, and a full clip of .32-caliber bullets. In the garage where the lady lived, some bottles were found and some cans containing powder, which were taken away for analysis.

The District Attorney recognized in Miss M. E—— a woman who had been tried twice for insanity, having been sent once to an asylum. She was committed to the State Asylum at Patton, and the authorities there were notified that in case of her future release she should be kept under surveillance. Thus endeth the first lesson, about Miss M. E——. If she had had more money, probably she would have bought more guns. A pleasant day’s work for men not on anybody’s pay roll.

San Diego had another case which kept the local division going for a time. Among its operatives was a crippled newsboy who once belonged to the Army. This lad had both his legs cut off in a railroad accident as he was changing from one train to another, on his way to a new army post. To make a livelihood, he took up a newsboy’s occupation and became a familiar figure on the sidewalks. He had a board to which he fastened a pair of roller skates, and by means of a small block of wood he learned to push himself along the sidewalks at a very good rate of speed. It came to the attention of the division that this newsboy was a very keen observer and it was known he had a knowledge of six languages. He was enrolled and became very useful—indeed he was at the bottom of one of the biggest and most dangerous cases San Diego ever had; which shows that no crippled soldiers ought ever to despair.

The crippled newsboy ate in a certain restaurant, and there by chance he overheard a conversation between some Mexicans. He got a mass of information and turned it into the office, where a report was made to the Navy Department, which later ferreted out a plot that was laid in Mexico. With no more than this passing mention of the A. P. L. operative who, like so many others, gets small glory beyond the reward of his own conscience, some mention may be made of this plot, which really involved the extensive machinations of Germans in Mexico against the United States. It ended in the capture by the United States vessels of the Hun raider Alexander Agassiz.

A young woman owned the Agassiz, but had not been able to make much money out of it, and so sold it to one Fritz B——, once a German naval reservist and for a time chief officer on a German ship interned at Santa Rosalia. At another period in his career he had been interned at Angel Island as an alien enemy. At any rate, he made his way to Santa Rosalia, and thence to Matzatlan, where he got in touch with the German Consul. B—— was sent to Mexico City for a conference with the German Ambassador there. There were Germans from all parts of Mexico who appeared at that meeting. When B—— came back, he sought out the acquaintance of the young woman who owned the boat and induced her to sell it to him. The boat then was hauled out and thoroughly overhauled by German sailors who had arrived from the fleet of German ships at Santa Rosalia. The hull was calked, new sails were bent on, the machinery was overhauled, and in general the boat was made ready for her career as a raider.

In the meantime B—— obtained full armament and instruments for his ship. He had some of his arms on an island seven miles northwest of Matzatlan, but the rest of the equipment was taken aboard the Agassiz. This was carried on openly and the news got out to the American Patrol Fleet. A cruiser put in an appearance off the mouth of Matzatlan Harbor. Hence, instead of sailing out with a crew of twenty Germans, only five Germans were put aboard the Agassiz, with two American women and six Mexicans. B—— figured that the boat would be taken as a harmless trader and allowed to go out. He guessed wrong. The Agassiz made a dash for the open sea. But by this time wireless had brought up two other American warships. They closed in on the incipient raider and signaled her to heave to. Not being obeyed, they planted a shell in front of the raider’s bow, which brought her up.

Before the naval men could get aboard the Agassiz, her crew worked as hard as they could to throw overboard everything of an incriminating nature. They also tried to wreck the engine and destroy the bearings in the magneto. The blue-jackets found some rifles and revolvers, some German flags and a secret cipher. From the papers it was learned that B—— was in hiding at Venados Island. This was on Mexican soil, so he could not be seized.

It was learned that the German Consul at Matzatlan had forced all the crew to take the oath of allegiance to the Kaiser. He had instructed B—— to capture speedier boats, and after raiding Pacific shipping to work the Southern Pacific, thence to go by the west coast of Africa and north on a dash for some German port, so that he might send to Wilhelmstrasse—Germany’s Scotland Yard—the package of papers entrusted to him by the Mexican German ambassador.

Had this raider gotten into the open seas and taken captive a faster and better equipped ship, it might have done a very considerable damage to shipping, just as did the several German raiders which for a time harrassed the Allied commerce. That her career was stopped at the outset was due to the keenness of a legless newsboy, anxious to do his bit for the country whose uniform he once had worn. There is enough, let us repeat, in this very story to give hope to every crippled soldier coming back from France—for this, taken in all its bearings, was about as important a piece of work as this busy division had, and is one of the biggest of all the A. P. L. cases.

The A. P. L. did not disband at the signing of the Armistice, and it is well that it did not. San Diego, like many another city, has had more than its share of bootlegging and vice investigations to carry on, owing to the fact that the growing feeling of license, which had developed since the Armistice, had spread among our troops. Among those quartered near San Diego, there were, of course, some not above reproach, and the bootlegger was known here as elsewhere. This pleasant and peaceful town in the sun-kissed South also had its share of the German-born. It would take a Luther Burbank, perhaps, to change them, and even Luther “would need time.”

There was one man of great wealth naturalized in California in 1898, who held a prominent position in San Diego business life. He was known to have been in close touch with all the famous Germans, and had a pretty good insight into affairs American and Mexican. When we went into the war, this suspect became distinctly pro-German and was one of the most active propagandists along the border, apparently entirely forgetful of the fact that he owed allegiance to the United States. Being well acquainted with the German population in Mexico, he and others are alleged to have aided in the establishment of a wireless plant in Mexico, and to have financed people who ought not to have been financed, in view of their past records. It was charged against him by fellow-citizens that he worked to some extent with German money; that he was connected, at least indirectly, with the Hindu plot case, and that he knew more than he should about the illicit shipment of arms in the Annie Larson steamship case. In fact, he was charged rather openly with having been interested in the German efforts to give aid to the ship Maverick in the Pacific Ocean. The wireless plant in Mexico was located and wrecked, which spoiled the attempts of an enemy clique to establish wireless communication between Mexico and German ships in Honolulu.

This same man was linked with the scheme of buying arms in New York and shipping them via San Diego into Mexico. British Military Intelligence also charged this man with being head and front of the most complete pro-German organization in that part of the world. He was charged with delivering coal from San Diego to a German steamship. The British Government and that of the United States joined hands in following out this pro-German citizen of America. He was traced to Europe and found to have gone to Berlin instead of to Paris. He was alleged to be guilty of fraudulent transactions at an Army post, and a man connected with him in his operations has been convicted. He succeeded in getting his son and son-in-law exempted from the draft, and attempted to get his son a commission in the Quartermaster Department. For months United States agents from various departments have been after this man, recording every move he made. Finally a joint meeting of the several agents of the United States, gathered in San Diego, decided that the time was ripe to get out a search warrant and go through his place of business, his safety deposit box, and his residence. Just then there came a change in the personnel of D. J.—and after this adjustment the Armistice ended it all! The investigation, therefore, is not closed at this writing, and the Department of Justice is still on the trail of this disloyal “American.” He is one of a great many of his type claiming citizenship in this country.

It would seem that after a native of Germany had passed forty-two years in the United States, he would learn to feel a certain pride and appreciation of the benefits he had enjoyed here. That was not always the case—certainly it was not true in the instance of the gentleman who is filed away as Case No. 392. This worthy had abused the Allies in language too foul to print, and seemed to think that no one in this country would resent anything he said. When called down by a loyal citizen, he dared anybody to make him stop talking. He said that England started the war and had an agreement with Belgium whereby England could go through Belgium in order to strike at Germany. He said England sunk a great many boats and then blamed it on the German submarines. He said that England sent one hundred and fifty newspaper men here to write up stories against the Germans; that he hoped the submarines would blow up every damned American boat on the ocean, and sink all the transports and ships carrying munitions; that the men the Yankees had in France in March, 1918, did not amount to anything; that the United States couldn’t make him fight; that this —— —— Government was rotten to the core. He made other remarks of like violent nature, and his remarks against the President of the United States were coupled with such language that swift hanging would really have been about the only just punishment for him. He was arrested and undertook to deny the remarks reported against him. The jury found him guilty. He was sent to prison for three years. He ought by all means to be deported when he gets out of jail, and so ought any German in this country who has been found at any time to be guilty of any such talk. We do not need that sort of “citizens” in America, and we are not going to have them here.

There was another case, No. 300, in peaceful San Diego, in which the suspect seemed anxious to spread broadcast every manner of pro-German propaganda. He had been a naturalized citizen of this country for twenty years, and through his position in one of the city banks, he had been closely associated with many of San Diego’s leading business men. Yet, still deep in his heart was that love for the Fatherland which made him willing to fight this free country where he claimed citizenship and where he had all the benefits of our too weakly-lenient Government. It finally dawned on the minds of some of the customers of the bank that this man was not right. A. P. L. was called on to investigate him and worked on the case for months. The man was finally taken into custody, and the issue was joined between the United States Government on the one hand and this suspect and his influential friends on the other. A long trial was had and the jury disagreed. A second trial came off and A. P. L. had fifty witnesses ready to testify. The result was a conviction and a sentence of four years at McNeill’s Island. Truly, anyone reading the San Diego cases must agree that that division did not lack in energy and diligence.

The A. P. L. in Pasadena

Life is so idyllic in Pasadena—roses—oranges—that sort of thing that you would not suspect that anything evil could happen there, or that anyone ever could suspect anyone else in those select surroundings. But Pasadena had her A. P. L., and they were not in the least above suspecting the right people once in a while, as a brief tale or so may prove. In short, Pasadena had more than 100 cases of alien enemy activities, 321 cases of disloyalty and sedition, of which thirty-six were concerned with persons not citizens of the United States. These totals show distinctly the amount of investigation required of transients, for the War Department cases, having to do with the Selective Service Act, came to only 155 investigations.

The B—— family of Pasadena were known as prominent pacifists. They held some very pleasant pacifist meetings in their houses until the Home Guards and the A. P. L. got after them. After that their meetings were neither so pacifistic nor so pleasant. There was a professor of languages at Throop College, who was always a German sympathizer and who always was very outspoken for Germany. He was reported a number of times to the Pasadena A. P. L. Throop was made over into a military training school, and that was about all for Professor B——. He did not last.

Mrs. Jack C——, a society woman of the Maryland Hotel, was gay and liberal with officers and soldiers—would even give them a drink without the formality of their removing their uniforms. Reported to the authorities. No action could be taken under the law at that time.

Miss Helen F—— was a very ardent pacifist and a very ardent Socialist as well, and a great friend of some of the Socialists who write books and have a national reputation. She was investigated by the Department of Justice at Pasadena, and when she went east to New York last summer, the Navy Intelligence had her under its watchful eye all the time. Perhaps she does not know that.

Dr. H—— of Pasadena was arrested by Federal authorities, it having been alleged that he “doctored” the eyes of boys who were subject to the draft.

“Friends of Irish Freedom”—a branch of the Sinn Fein organization—contributed to the defense of leaders of the latter organization who were on trial in New York. Their meetings were attended by two A. P. L. operatives who reported to Department of Justice. Meetings discontinued.

M. J——, a prominent Russian, staying at a prominent hotel with a prominent count and countess, was kept under very prominent surveillance for some time and reported daily to the Department of Justice.

Ben and Robert L—— were not so prominent, but were content with evading the draft, so it was charged. They and their mother fled the country and went to San Salvador in South America. Pasadena Division, A. P. L., greatly assisted D. J. in Los Angeles in locating these parties. The case was of international interest.

Then there was the case of Madam P——, reported to be the wife of a Russian count who is now a citizen of Germany and an officer in the German army. Subject arrived in America by way of Scandinavia, by way of Germany. She pronounced herself as frankly pro-German in a talk with the A. P. L. operative, who speaks very good German and who claimed to be in sympathy with Germany. In public, Madam is more guarded. She confided to the operative that she is getting mail from her daughter in Munich through the president of the Norwegian-American Steamship Line, who arranged with the captain for the forwarding and receiving of letters. The Department of Justice got all of this as well, as did the Postmaster General in Washington.

In Pasadena you might run against a count or countess or baroness almost any way you looked. There was the Baroness P——, wife of a Philadelphia man, who spends her winters in a Pasadena hotel. Very pro-German before we went to war, but more quiet since then. She is watched whenever she is in Pasadena. It’s getting so a lady can do hardly anything at all without those vulgar, dreadful people knowing all about it!

The A. P. L. in Whittier

This division had thirty-three sedition cases, in spite of the glorious climate of California. For instance, information came that one Jack H—— and his wife were pro-Germans. They were running a fake jewelry business in Los Angeles. An A. P. L. investigation discovered that the gentleman had two names; that he left the Pacific Coast in 1910 with another gentleman and that they conducted a fur business in New York, where they failed handsomely and went into elegant bankruptcy. Suspect was alleged to have been convicted of perjury and sentenced to two or three years in the Federal prison at Atlanta, Georgia. It was developed further that he was given a stay of execution under bond of $10,000. The bond was forfeited and subject came to Los Angeles, where he resided with his purported wife and did business under the name of Jack H——. Upon said information, duly secured, the gentleman with the alias was arrested, returned to New York, and re-sentenced to three years in the penitentiary. His wife is still trying to find out where A. P. L. learned all about these things. Tut, tut! Cannot an honest jeweler be allowed to get away from his past in the wilds of the Far West?

Whittier is reported to be a quiet Quaker community. It has a population of approximately 25,000, being, in effect, a suburb of Los Angeles. The local division had forty-three men. Whittier always has boasted that it is a place where crooks do not congregate. There are Whittier oil fields, which are the second best on the Pacific slope, but there were no I. W. W.’s in this territory, and no pro-Germans of any very outspoken sort, no depredations, but for the most part calm, as becomes a Quaker capital.

The A. P. L. in Orleans

Perhaps you do not know where Orleans, California, is located? And perhaps you did not know that a branch of the A. P. L. was located in Orleans? That, however, is the case. There were just three members of the Orleans A. P. L., and, since there were but three, why not break the more or less inexorable rule about names and just give them in this case? J. A. Hunter was Chief at Orleans; C. W. Baker was Secretary; and P. L. Young was the third member.

The Chief reports:

We may be content to close the story of California, ragged and incomplete as it has been, with this report from a little mountain community of California. It is what the author is disposed to call incontestably the best report that has been found in all the great Golden State, if not, indeed, in all the United States.

Only three men, away out in the hills—but all of them Americans and all of them ready to work for America—that is why this League was great; because it had men such as these ready to do its work, as best they could, in whatever form it came to hand for the doing. One fancies that in all the stories of the many different towns reported in these pages, there will not be one better received by the great brotherhood of the A. P. L. than this one from Orleans, 102 miles from the nearest rails, with no telegraph and no telephone. The author of this book hopes to see Orleans some time. He believes it may be American.