CHAPTER III
THE STORY OF THE SOUTH
The South is, in its percentage as to population, the finest, cleanest, truest and most loyal part of the United States to-day. It holds more of the native born Americans, fewer of the foreign born, and fewer alien enemies than any like extent of our National possessions. The only pure-bred American population, sufficiently so to entitle it to a distinct origin-color of its own on the government census maps, lies along the crest of the southern Appalachians. There, in parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, lower Virginia, there are Americans who for generations have known no admixture of any foreign blood. You will find illiteracy there, poverty, small industrial development. That has come about by reason of a topography which has left transportation undeveloped. The people have been held back from the westbound progress of the nation almost as though caught by the cleats of the great flume through which poured our early Scotch-Irish, Indian-fighting, wilderness-conquering ancestry. But it is the finest of gold that those cleats have caught—a clean-bred, persistent type, of the highest honor, the highest courage, the highest intellectual quality, the highest physical qualities. Here and here alone you will find a true American type, come down with little change from our Colonial days. Would God that every state in the North and West had these men as the real inheritors of America, and not the snarling mob of foreigners who in the last few decades have come to be called American citizens. We have seen in some part how loyal these last have been, how much they cared for the flag of America.
The stock of our Highlands has furnished us many strong men, many of our greatest leaders, our greatest statesmen. Above all, it is fierce fighting stock. It has been held back by lack of education. These stark mountaineers are far more illiterate than were their grand-parents. To-day, in a Cumberland cabin, you may find a Latin grammar, or a tragedy in the original Greek, of which the owner will say, “I kaint read none of hit. Grandpap fotched it across the mountings when he come.” “Across the mountains” lay the Carolinas and Old Virginia, seats of the most cultured and aristocratic life this country ever knew, and equal to the best of any land. When we lost that, we lost the flower of the American civilization. We never shall replace it. There is no America to-day. There never can be, unless the seed of the old American stock—never lacking in leaders—one day shall raise its voice as of old in councils where it will find hearkening.
The South is a wide country, covering a certain diversity of nature, but it remains singularly like throughout its borders. Politically it is still the slave of the color question, whose end no man can see. That same question restricts the South largely to agriculture. Of late, Northern money and methods have been reaching out for the raw wealth of Southern mines and forests, even farming lands. It is in respect of these later slight changes in the character of the southern life that the A. P. L. has found its main function there. Had it not been for imported labor, the A. P. L. would have had no alien and seditious cases, no propaganda and no disloyalty to report, because it is absolutely true that our Southern States, which once thought themselves constitutionally justified in secession, to-day are more loyal to the American flag man for man, town for town, state for state, than any or all the remaining states in this Union.
This is true; and yet it is also altogether true that a few Southern States furnished more cases of desertion or draft evasion than thrice that number of states in any other portion of the Union, even though with heavy foreign-born population. How can these two statements be reconciled?
It is easy, and the level-headed A. P. L. chiefs time and again have made it plain in their reports. A large percent of the selective service work had to do with brave young fighting men to whom liberty and personal freedom made the breath of their nostrils. Many of them were ignorant—more is the pity. While we have coddled the treacherous European immigrant, we have forgotten our own children. Better had we thrown the maudlin Statue of Liberty into the sea, or turned its face about the other way!
The young Southerner who could not read grandpap’s Latin book, or any other book, who saw no daily paper and knew nothing of the outside world, knew only that he did not want to fight in a war of which he knew nothing and in which he did not think he or his had any stake. Nobody had threatened him, no men had stolen anything of his, he did not know where Germany was, and he had never seen a German to learn to hate him. Why should he fight? He concluded he would not fight. He would just hide till this war was over, because it was none of his war.
Very much of the A. P. L. work in the South had to do with getting into the young man’s comprehension that our Flag was in danger; that our women and children had been killed by men that did not fight like men but like brutes. Once that got into the mountain man’s mind, the day for desertion was past and gone. There are no braver or more skilled fighting men in the world than in these Southern hills. There are none more loyal. They did their part and were ready to do it wherever called. They helped win the war for America as well as those from richer states. Now that the war is over, let America forget Europe’s sordid sycophants, the grinning reservists of the “unbeaten” German Army, and turn attention to these, her own children—no cuckoo product without an ancestry to claim, who have no love for this country beyond their love for this country’s easy money.
MARYLAND
Largely Southern in its population, traditions and political sympathies, yet Northern in its aggressive spirit and industrial enterprise, the city of Baltimore perhaps is entitled to be called “American” more than any other big city on the Atlantic seaboard. It has always been American, and in this war has only proven anew what has always been known by those who knew Baltimore. A hundred years or so ago, in the War of 1812, its citizens fought and fell gloriously in defense of their city before the British. A beautiful monument commemorates their heroism. In this war, there was no city in the country more loyal to our Government and our Allies.
Let it not be thought, however, that the enemy was inactive in Baltimore. Trouble, active and potential, was present at all times. That it did not flare up into open destruction was no fault of the trouble-makers. Like all ports of entry, Baltimore has a considerable foreign element. Thousands of foreigners were employed in its shipbuilding plants, on its docks, and in the Bessemer steel works located near the city. Of pro-Germans and alien enemies there was a plenty. Many of them, indeed, remembering the landing of the Deutschland at Baltimore before the war, would have welcomed and aided a wholesale submarine raid by the enemy—were this possible.
However, this did not come to pass, nor did many other things come to pass that were justifiably feared. The pro-German, the alien enemy, the agitator, the Bolshevist were held safe at all times. Baltimore’s many industries were guarded well. Happily, that industry which has given her world-wide fame—the oyster industry—required no protection, and it is a pleasure to record that the nation’s supply of sea-food was uninterrupted during the war.
A prolific source of trouble for the Baltimore Division lay in the city’s proximity to the national capital. The overcrowded condition of Washington during the war forced a huge overflow of population into Baltimore, and thus doubled the amount of work that otherwise would probably have been required. This work was tackled with energy and efficiency by the Baltimore Division, which was one of the very largest for a city of its size in the country. When the Armistice came, there were 2,500 operatives engaged in the multifold activities of the League. The following report does not begin to tell the full story of their achievement:
| Alien enemy cases | 110 |
| Sedition and disloyalty | 685 |
| Character and loyalty | 309 |
| Draft evasion | 546 |
| Deserters | 225 |
| Liquor and vice | 100 |
| Food Administration | 3 |
| Miscellaneous | 110 |
Baltimore Division organized and was on the job during the very first month of the war. Its first Chief was Mr. Edmund Leigh, who solved the many knotty problems of organization and finance which arose in the early stages of the League’s growth. Mr. Leigh was succeeded by Mr. William J. Neale in August, 1918, who acted as head of the division until November, 1918, when Mr. Tilghman G. Pitts became Chief.
VIRGINIA
Norfolk, Virginia, was fortunate in having as its chief a gentleman very prominent in all the war charities, and also of such generosity of nature that he paid all the expenses of the League out of his own pocket.
Conditions might have been much worse at this seaport locality, for only eight cases of alien enemy activity are listed, and five cases of disloyalty and sedition. This division, however, was able to do a great deal of work for the War Department, and among other matters found one illicit still and made four I. W. W. investigations. Another phase of the work was supplying the M. I. D. officer at the Army Supply Base—Quartermaster’s Terminal—near Norfolk, with many photographs of alien enemies and slackers. The Division had operatives in Army and Navy headquarters, among workmen, etc., and had such men included in its personnel as bookkeepers, timekeepers and others whose work was much appreciated by Military Intelligence. The chief had twenty-one assistants, all good men.
White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, had one typical pro-German case. Adolph S——, a baker of this town, held certain opinions which would not strictly classify as American. When asked to purchase War Savings Stamps, he expressed himself as follows: “To hell with your War Savings Stamps. If Uncle Sam didn’t have money enough to finance the war, why did he go into it? When the American soldiers get to France, you’ll find they won’t do anything but run like hell.”
He said a great deal more in similar vein, which “was hardly suitable,” says the Chief’s report, “for polite ears.” In the U. S. District Court, at Charleston, S—— confessed to a violation of the Espionage Act, was fined $100 and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary.
Lynchburg, Virginia, reports that it was rather quiet. One thing it did was to draw the fangs of an organization which was formed to punish such pro-Germans and war obstructionists as the law did not touch. The A. P. L. has always done its work hand in hand with the law, and throughout the war has resolutely set its face against anything savoring of lynch law.
Considerable local trouble arose from returned negro soldiers, discharged from service, who stated that they had saved the world from Hun oppression and were entitled to recognition. These statements had effect on the ignorant population, and it is firmly believed by the Chief that the “South has a problem on its hands in this connection which will require considerable time, effort and patience, if not bloodshed, to solve.” Any one acquainted in the least degree with the great problem of the South will realize the gravity and sincerity of this comment.
WEST VIRGINIA
There were “hot times in the old town” of Hinton, West Virginia, in good part by reason of the activities of one man, the local Chief, who, for some time was cook, captain and mate of the Nancy brig. Local disloyalty induced him to go to Washington and ask government help, and the League organization followed. One pro-German in Hinton had the Kaiser’s picture on the wall. It is not there now. The head of this family was a locomotive engineer. The Chief notified railroad officials not to allow him to handle any troop trains. Another engineer expressed the belief that a troop train was carrying “some more fish bait.” He was also relieved of any future work on troop trains. Two school teachers, after talking with the Chief, hung up four United States flags and began to sing all the latest war songs as well as take an active part in Loan drives, Red Cross work, etc. The largest hotel in the town did not speak well of the war, and the Chief notified the officers in charge of troop trains to get their meals somewhere else. A local newspaper printed an article reflecting on the Red Cross canteen. “I had all the papers publish an article over my signature,” says the Chief, “that any criticism of the Red Cross should be addressed to the Bureau of Investigation at Washington. For this I have been commended by the Red Cross membership.” It appears that he ought to be commended for his own record, which, on the face of it, is in the blue-ribbon class.
NORTH CAROLINA
Lexington, N. C., is in the southern mountains. The Chief says: “Owing to the peculiar reaction of the mountaineer’s philosophy to the draft laws, many of them ‘stepped back’ into the ‘brush’ to wait until the war was over. We spent much time in traveling around among the lumber jacks and sent out word to many delinquents. It was a simple thing to reach most of these men through the medium of some trusted friend—much simpler than sending armed men into the laurel thickets after the fugitives. I don’t believe there is one case out of ten in western North Carolina where any of our men avoided the draft through a malicious motive. Whenever a friendly adviser could reach them to explain the situation, the majority of them gladly came out. We often made trips of from thirty to fifty miles into the isolated sections. At one point thirty miles from a railroad we got information which was sent across the sea to France and stopped an undesirable appointee to Y. M. C. A. work there. Some humorous things came up in our mountain travels. One day our road dwindled to an almost obliterated trail with grass growing all over it. We sighted an old woman, the first human being seen for several hours, and asked her if that was the right way to Doeville. The old woman looked at us with great contempt, and remarked: ‘Lord bless us, you-all is right in Doeville dis minute!’”
The Chief of Lexington says that not everyone understands the mountain boys and that they certainly make excellent fighters when in the army. “One of them in my district,” reports the Chief, “had to be run down and captured by his own father, who delivered him over to the authorities for military service. This boy was the first of his company to distinguish himself in France.”
The Chief of Salisbury, North Carolina, Division sends in his final report in homely and convincing phrases, a mark of the good common sense employed in his work. One pro-German was called into the office and the Chief said to him: “Mr. ——, I hear that the next time you and your family come to town over the public road, you are going to be blown up without any warning.” The man struck the table with his fist and said: “I’d like to know how! The public road is mine and I’m going to travel on it.” The Chief said: “So our ships had a public highway to Europe. The Germans have destroyed vessels, women and children without warning. What do you think of it?” The pro-German thought this over a minute and exclaimed: “Why hasn’t some one talked to me like that before? I never saw it that way before.”
Hickory, N. C., says: “Our work was largely educational. We had no aliens—all native born American citizens. Thirty of our leading citizens constituted the membership of the League. When we went to work, all the ’aginners’ who were against the war got on the right side. Especially was this true after the amended espionage act went into effect. In my judgment,” says the Chief, “the psychological effect of an organization that could be felt but not seen helped wonderfully in bringing to their right senses the small minority that were not in right at the start.”
Durham, N. C., pulled off one raid on a circus crowd and got ten slackers. “Our community has a foreign element,” says the Chief, “and is above the average in respect to law and order. Our members were prominent in the war activities.”
SOUTH CAROLINA
Anderson, S. C., says: “Our organization has been anxious to answer every call. There are practically no foreigners in this section, so violations of the war measures have been almost negligible. Most of our work has been making reports for overseas service. The men all consider it a great honor to have been members of the League.”
A man whom we may call Benny Vogel deserted from the 105th Infantry at Camp Wadsworth, South Carolina. In some way, he found his way to Schenectady, New York, where he proceeded casually to marry a young lady of that city, under date of April 19, 1918. The wife was watched. The deserter was caught and returned for punishment.
St. Matthews, S. C., reports: “On the whole there was little enemy activity. We unearthed six cases of discharged soldiers drawing government money who were not entitled to it, and eight cases of parties receiving allotments from soldiers for incorrect amounts. We changed such undesirable sentiment as existed in our community, and with tact and judgment rather than by drastic measures. We think our community is among the most loyal of any in America and doubt seriously if there is one per cent disloyalty here. Some who at first were lukewarm changed, and we knew it was due to the policy adopted by our organization. We worked on the Sunday law and the fuel laws, the food regulations, etc., all in a quiet way, but, we think, with good results throughout our county.”
GEORGIA
All sorts of stories show in the League files. One regarding submarine bases along the Georgia and Carolina coast was traced down to the purchase of a piece of land by a former grocery clerk, a naturalized German, who resided in Savannah for many years. He was outspoken in his sympathy with Germany before the United States entered the war. A report made by the Navy Department to the National Directors of the League states:
“On January 6, 1918, this man was tried in the city court of Savannah and found guilty of violating the prohibition laws. He was fined $400 and sentenced to six months on the chain gang. Before he had fully served his sentence he was re-arrested by the United States Marshal on a presidential warrant and subsequently interned.” The brief phrase “presidential warrant” covered many and many a case of naturalized Germans who became too loquacious in this country before and after we entered the war.
Atlanta, Georgia, had a nice scare about the report that a German U-boat captain had landed and was on his way to Atlanta, dressed in an American officer’s uniform. Operatives were out and trailed every military or quasi-military looking man on the streets or anywhere else. Their first haul included a major from the Judge Advocate General’s office and a Judge from the Federal Court. The next alarm came from two operatives who trailed an officer just off the train, who turned out to be a colonel of the Quartermaster’s Corps, U. S. A. The latter was able to make his escape. The Chief adds: “Just how many suspects were held up that night it would be difficult to state. Operative No. 3 turned in a report of his activities the next morning. It seemed he had held up the following personnel: One Lieutenant-Colonel, sixteen Majors, twenty-three Captains, forty-two Lieutenants, one Lieutenant-Commander, three Ensigns, and seven Sergeants—a total of ninety-two suspects.” He closed his report with the following heartfelt remarks: “Well, I didn’t know what kind of uniform the German had. Besides, every man I stopped was a blond. I didn’t stop any other sort.” D. J. reported it was satisfied that no German submarine officer had visited Atlanta.
ALABAMA
Birmingham, Alabama, was one of the most active and interesting divisions of the League. It took on 1,849 cases under the Selective Service Act, 76 investigations of pro-Germans, 123 cases of deserters, and 153 Red Cross loyalty reports, besides a large list of general war activities. Some of the star cases of deserter hunting at Birmingham are reported in another chapter.
Like many another community, Birmingham also had its wireless case, and like most cases of the sort throughout the country, it created much excitement in the division while it lasted. Certain mysterious light flashes, supposed to be signals, were reported along the top of a high hill on the outskirts of the city. Operatives detailed on the case could learn nothing, but still reports kept coming in. Finally, one astute visiting chief followed a high-powered transmission line along the mountain and found that the limb of a tree at a certain spot would touch the wire when swayed by the wind. The repeated rubbing had worn away the insulation, exposing the bare wire. When the limb came in contact with the wire, especially during a rainy night, a spark would be made when the limb and wire separated: The Chief adds: “When the limb was cut off, we received no further reports of mysterious signals.” There have been bluish-white lights which some thought indicated a wireless outfit in operation.
Montgomery, Alabama, reports one of those curious cases which were sometimes met with in the course of the League’s investigations. This was a straight-goods, dyed-in-the-wool, bona-fide conscientious objector. His name was W. A. P——, a farmer who had a son in the draft, but who needed him on the farm. He accompanied the boy to the examination board, after the young man had been arrested by the sheriff. He brought his Bible to the board and tried to prove that he was justified in his objections; that he was responsible for the care of this boy; that the Lord had given him that duty and no one else. The old man was violently opposed to bloodshed and quoted the scriptural words, “Thou shalt not kill,” and “Children, obey your parents.” The Chief had a long talk with him at his farm. He admitted that he told his son not to answer questions, and that he had another son who had attained his eighteenth birthday and had not registered. The Chief told him to be careful or he would get into trouble. He said, “I am not getting into any trouble; it is you people who are provoking the wrath of God.” All the agent could do was to tell him that he must come before the United States Commissioners. P—— was brought in to the Committee, and bound over to the grand jury. Before the trial, he stood up and remarked, “Let us have a word of prayer,” and prayed fervently for several minutes. He carried his Bible with him at all times. P—— seemed to be generous. “He came to Montgomery and brought a couple of gallons of nice syrup for the Deputy and Commissioners,” says the Chief. One would think that the A. P. L. would be glad to have peace at any price in such surroundings, even without syrup.
Selma, Alabama, is another one of the loyal Southern communities. “We kept down seditious utterances,” says the Chief. “Without doubt we have had a most wholesome effect on our citizenry by letting every one know that this was not a time for anything that was not one hundred per cent American. I do not believe there was a greater force for good in the State of Alabama than the American Protective League.”
FLORIDA
Cocoa, Florida, is not far from one of the Government shipyards, and so had had some contact with persons inclined to be pro-German. By way of explaining the additional activities sometimes taken on by the League, the Chief says: “This office worked with the Special Agents at Jacksonville, and with officers of the Seventh Naval District. We have also given information to the Collector of Internal Revenue concerning those who should pay income tax. Our division consisted of twenty-four members—all high-class men who could be relied upon in any emergency that might arise. We were taking steps to enlarge the organization when the German balloon burst.”
Eustis, Florida, was more especially concerned with war cases. Forty-one cases of draft delinquency were handled; two slacker raids were conducted, and there was a little “work or fight” activity. Eustis is in a county which had the reputation of harboring a good many slackers and deserters, who sought peace and quiet in some of the out-of-the-way places. Through the activities of the local A. P. L. division, this situation was cleared up distinctly. The Chief says: “We believe we have been instrumental in protecting many people from their own follies, and have brought to justice men who were engaged in obstructing the Government’s war activities in one part of the country or another. It has been a pleasurable though arduous service that some of us have rendered in this work.”
Kissimmee, Florida, reports: “All quiet along the Kissimmee. Our community was singularly free of annoyance of any character. Two or three persons were indiscreet in their language, but we found that a small reminder was sufficient to stop the talk.”
KENTUCKY
Louisville, Kentucky, is a busy and famous old town with a reputation for being engaged in the manufacture of trouble-making products, but there seems to have been very little trouble. Only eighty-nine cases of disloyalty and sedition are reported, and 308 under the selective service regulations.
Mr. George T. Ragsdale, the first Chief of Louisville Division, instructed his men to keep under cover, so that the personnel of the division was very little known. More than 700 reports were made in all, and nine men were sent to the penitentiary. Local business men furnished most of the working capital. Upon Mr. Ragsdale’s resignation, Mr. J. V. Norman was appointed Chief, taking over about 400 members. The city was divided into nine districts and the County in three, with the usual subdivisions of captains and lieutenants as operatives. The membership was up to about 700 at the time of the signing of the Armistice.
Most of the investigations handled by the Louisville Division were on requests coming from local draft boards, although the several branches of the government’s legal organization frequently asked for aid. Several thousand men were questioned in the slacker raid of August 3. Thirty-five men were taken to jail and fourteen inducted; among these, several deserters. Sometimes at a race track a quiet investigation would be put on without any open raid.
Among the list of delinquents turned in was a man named Lyle D. B——. An intercepted letter resulted in an examination of the man’s mother, who refused to tell where he was. Portland, Oregon, was suspected as his present residence. The case came to an end when it was found that the delinquent had been committed to the Federal penitentiary at McNeil Island, Washington. His questionnaire was forwarded by the local board to the penitentiary and returned properly filled in. The man had a fairly good alibi. The usual cases of religious fanatics, loud talkers and bearers of false witness were uncovered in the League’s work. Many of the best citizens of Louisville were engaged in these somewhat undignified and often thankless tasks of ferreting out such matters.
Lexington, Kentucky, as might easily be expected, reports in American fashion: “The sentiment of our entire population is hard against the Germans and their allies. Our people are almost unanimous in their opposition to showing Germany any consideration, even with furnishing them food after their defeat. The one sentiment is that Germany could feed herself while in war; now let her feed herself since she is out of war.”
The work of the Lexington Division was mostly concerned with the local and district boards. It handled 405 cases of this sort. There were only thirty cases of disloyalty and sedition investigated, and forty cases of word-of-mouth propaganda.
Marion, Kentucky, says: “We are glad to report that our county has been so patriotic that little of any importance is required to be done. We had to caution a few of our citizens as to the bad results of opposition to the United States in the war. We have no foreign element. Our citizens come from Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, and are of old families. We rarely see anyone of foreign descent in this section except traveling men who make trips through the county.”
Somerset, Kentucky, had a bad man—a deserter who escaped from Fort Oglethorpe once or twice, the last time taking along his rifle and pistol. He barricaded himself in an old house at Helenwood, Tennessee. The A. P. L. took him all right, in spite of his threats. He is in Fort Leavenworth for twenty years. From far off Livingston, Montana, came a request to Somerset Division to arrest one Willie McK——, a professional evader. He was found attending church. The Chief says: “We walked in and gave him a tap on the shoulder, and told him to come out. Just as we started for the door, the choir began to sing, ‘God be with you till we meet again.’ It is going to be some time.” Somerset concludes: “We did not stop when the Armistice was signed, but kept watching everything and giving the Government the best that was in us!” Isn’t that fine?
TENNESSEE
The A. P. L. work in the beautiful and historic old city of Nashville was somewhat circumscribed because of the activities of other agencies already in existence. The division did its share in the routine work of war activities, apprehending evaders, conducting numerous investigations, and vigilantly keeping tab on the comings and goings in the Old Hickory Powder Plant.
Chattanooga, Tennessee, did its bit and did it well. Ten prisoners who escaped from the local War Prison were apprehended by division operatives, and brought back for reinternment. One member of the division discovered an extensive system of graft in connection with the Government construction work on the Nitrate Plant at Sheffield, Ala. Report of this was furnished to a Special Agent, who was detailed by the Government to conduct an investigation. The Chief comments: “Just what can be proven in this case remains to be seen.”
Some of the most amusing Chattanooga investigations were those of the religious sect known as the “Holy Rollers.” Several of these preachers had preached sermons in which they condemned the Red Cross and the Government generally. These men were apprehended, and members of their congregations testified at local headquarters. Some of these preachers were moved by the “spirit” in their testimony, but after they remained in jail a short time, they saw the Scriptures in a different light, and very few of them offended a second time.
Another Chattanooga case had in it the possibilities of great mischief. A large amount of mail to an illiterate mountaineer caused an A. P. L. operative and a Special Agent of the Department of Justice to go to the top of Sand Mountain, and in a dirty log cabin they found a wagon load of I. W. W. literature and correspondence in which were letters from Emma Goldman and other leading lights of socialistic faith. The man himself was working in a foundry turning out Government orders; he was organizing a strike at the time he was taken into custody.
Clarksville, Tennessee, is in the loyal Southern country, and is very free from alien population. There were only twenty-five investigations for disloyalty and sedition, and propaganda was almost negligible. As this is the tobacco producing section, there was considerable property investigated under the Trading with the Enemy Act, and some helpful reports were made to the Alien Property Custodian. The League members were active in all the war work.
Hopkinsville, Tennessee, had a great deal of trouble over illegal transportation of whiskey, a great deal of which went to workers in government powder plants in an adjoining city. “We arrested so many that no record was kept,” says the Chief. Things became quieter later on.
Huntingdon, Tennessee, is another disgustingly quiet and satisfied community. “People nearly all natives,” says the report, “and mighty few expressions of disloyalty. We have watched for violations, but nothing has developed worthy of report.”
TEXAS
San Antonio, Texas, is in a strongly pro-German neighborhood and has a large citizenry of German descent. It is refreshing nevertheless to see that in this good old Texas town, once distinctly Spanish, the language of the United States prevails to-day and only one flag floats over the Alamo. There were thirty-four investigations for sedition, and twenty-four cases of propaganda. The usual number of overseas examinations were held. On the whole, San Antonio seems to have been quiet and peaceful and distinctly loyal in every way, in spite of her location so close to New Braunfels.
The San Antonio Chief concludes his too brief report with a little story:
The telephone at my elbow rang insistently. The man at the other end of the wire was incoherent, and I could not understand what he wanted.
“Hold on a minute!” I finally interrupted. “Who is this speaking?”
He would not tell me; he merely said that he was a friend of mine. I did not like to give information over the ’phone when I was not sure as to whom I was talking. I again insisted that he give me his name; once more he refused to do so, reiterating that he was a good friend of mine. I could not recognize the voice. But what he said was startling.
Recently I had been appointed Chief of the American Protective League for this District, and how my informant had learned, or guessed, that I was engaged in it, I could not tell. I did not like to undertake a wild goose chase; at the same time, if I should refuse to follow up the clue he gave me, the lives of many might be endangered.
Anything could happen in San Antonio. It is one of the oldest cities in the United States, and ever since the day the Spaniard founded it, has been a hotbed of intrigue. Just at this time there were fully twenty thousand troops stationed in the various Camps about the City, and in order to impress the Mexicans with the idea that we were not altogether helpless, it had been suggested that a patriotic military parade be given. This was to take place the following day, and I had spent many hours helping to arrange the details. And now, my mysterious “friend” had told me over the ’phone that he knew certain parties were plotting to throw a bomb into the parade; that if I would go to the certain house named by him, I would find a meeting of the plotters in progress!
There was no time to be wasted. I got in touch with one of my lieutenants, M——, and asked him to meet me in half an hour, and to come armed. Before leaving the office I sent for a couple of suits of overalls, one of which I donned, and when I met M——, I gave him the other.
I told him all that I knew, and he realized that it was serious. We parked our car about two blocks from the house designated by my informant, and approached it afoot. The neighborhood was questionable. The house to which I had been directed stood a few feet back from the street in a neglected tangle of shrubbery. There was a fence about the property, but no gate. It was a small frame shack with two rooms in front and a third forming an ell. We walked around it cautiously several times, and finally discovered a light in the ell. The blinds were all tightly closed, and it was but a faint glimmer through a crack that we saw. We crawled carefully to the gallery and each looked through the crack.
We could barely distinguish the forms of five men huddled over an oil stove in the middle of the room. Three were in overalls and had the appearance of laborers; one wore a shabby old suit of civilian clothes, and the fifth appeared to be in uniform. Their heads were close together and they seemed to be talking in low tones, but neither M—— nor I could distinguish a word that was said.
There was a door a few feet from where we were, and I noticed another one on the opposite side of the room. I told M—— to go around to the other door and I would remain where I was. If either of us was able to distinguish any suspicious words, or if we found any reason to suspect that the five men were actually plotting, a low whistle was to be the signal to the other, and simultaneously we were to break in the door and rush them.
While the whole thing had the appearance of a conspiracy, and I was inclined to take the bull by the horns and give M—— the agreed signal, I was also suspicious that someone might be playing a practical joke on me. While I hesitated, M—— suddenly sneezed!
I have lived in the Southwest the greater part of my life and have been in some pretty tight places, and always have prided myself on my ability to take care of myself in an emergency; but the next thing I knew after M——’s sneeze, he was bending over me trying to staunch the blood that was flowing from a wound over my right eye, at the same time reading the riot act to me in choice language.
“What happened?” I asked, feebly.
“Why, the whole darned shooting-match jumped your way, walked over you and beat it!” he explained in exasperation. “What I’ve been trying to find out is why in hell you didn’t shoot?”
I could not answer in words, but mutely I showed him that in my haste I carefully had put on the overalls over my clothes with my gun in the usual place in my hip pocket. It would have taken me five minutes to get it out.
“It’s a good thing you had it so well hid,” he remarked. “They might have taken it away from you!”
We searched the deserted house. Except for the stove it was devoid of furniture, and we found nothing in the way of a clue.
We arranged for a strict patrol of the route of the parade. Each man was given a “beat.” If any man saw anything suspicious, and particularly a suspicious package, he was to investigate and report at once.
The parade was crossing the Houston Street bridge, where I happened to be, when I saw a negro man elbowing his way to the front of the crowd along the curb. In his right hand, held high over the heads of those about him, was a package wrapped in newspaper! He seemed in the act of hurling it into the street when I sprang forward and grabbed the upraised arm, dragging the negro back to the railing of the bridge.
“What have you got in that package?” I demanded.
“My Gawd, boss, you’se the fou’th man to ast me about ma lunch in the last five minutes. If it’s worrying you white folks so much, guess I’d better git shet of it!”
Before I could prevent him, he threw it into the river, and turned to view the parade with a muttered opinion on my interference with his personal liberties. All we succeeded in accomplishing was scaring a poor negro out of his lunch, but whether or not we thwarted others in a worse plot, we never knew.
But that was much our story in San Antonio. We did the best we knew. Had we not been there, and were it not known that we were there, matters might have been worse. The makings of trouble were around us all the time.
Laredo, Texas, on the Mexican border, was organized for business. The Chief says: “We have very few alien enemies resident here. Before we organized, there was some talk of a disloyal nature, but this situation changed at once when it got out that we had seventy-five or eighty members whose identity was unknown to the public but who would be pretty sure to be out for business. For the six or eight months before the Armistice we heard scarcely a word unfavorable to the United States or her Allies. We think we did something in the way of prevention if not of cure.”
Yoakum, Texas, has ten cases of disloyalty and a like number of word-of-mouth propaganda. A good local chief of a fighting family says: “We were ready at all times to meet any emergency regardless of distance or difficulty.”
Beaumont, Texas, is in the oil country, and such centers quite often attract alien population. The Beaumont report covers sixty-three cases of alien enemy activities, eighteen cases of disloyalty, and ninety cases under the selective service regulations.
ARKANSAS
Cotter, Arkansas, reports that it is a community with very few foreigners, the population being American for generations back. The Chief says: “We had two deserters who lived for two weeks in an inaccessible camp in the mountains. They finally got hungry, came in and surrendered. We also had one draft-dodging case of a peculiar sort. This young man, according to his marriage license, should have registered in June, 1917. He did not. We traced him to Oklahoma, and from there to Springfield, Missouri. He was taken into custody by the Chief of Police at that point on our order. We sent a certified copy of his marriage license, but he had enough of his relatives on hand to swear to his true age, to secure his release.”
Helena, Arkansas, also comes into court with very clean hands. Its report shows a membership of 127, which proved to be none too large, as all hands found work to do. Investigations were handled all over Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.
Fort Smith, Arkansas, found its slacker raids more interesting than anything else. It conducted two of them, a slacker or two being apprehended each time. One stranger, who was sufficiently indiscreet as to fail to register, was unceremoniously hauled out of bed and turned over to the local war board. No alien enemy activities came to the attention of this division.
OKLAHOMA
The State of Oklahoma does not submit a wealth of material for this history of the A. P. L., and indeed the evidence seems to indicate that there was comparatively little material to submit. Chickasha, Oklahoma, sends in a little report, covering three alien enemy investigations; four cases of disloyalty and sedition; one case of sabotage; five cases of word-of-mouth propaganda; two deserter cases, and seven character and loyalty investigations.
There are numerous reports at hand, which are made in the form of figures only, but it is impossible to print these in detail.