The army behind the armyPowell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
History
The army behind the army
Powell, E. Alexander (Edward Alexander)
United States. Army; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
trusted confederate might be a secret operative who was watching his
every action. Though it never had more than 400 active agents (this does
not include, of course, the enormous number of volunteer operatives
recruited from the workers themselves), the section extended its
protection to more than 37,000 manufacturing plants, and, during the
period of its war-time operations, made upward of 270,000 recommendations
for arrests, investigations, and prosecutions, or for further plant
protection.
Agents of the Plant Protection Section succeeded in gaining admission
to the innermost councils of the I. W. W. and kindred organizations,
and, by thus obtaining advance notice of any contemplated action, were
successful in averting strikes and labor troubles which would have
caused the loss of millions of dollars, and, through halting the flow
of munitions to the front, the loss of thousands of American lives. The
success of the section in this phase of its work was due, first, as I
have already explained, to its ability to obtain advance information of
impending trouble, and, secondly, to the fact that the agents of the
section were in a position to handle a delicate labor situation in an
absolutely impartial manner, taking no sides and inspiring the confidence
of both employers and employees. Thus it came about that the section was
frequently able to compose differences between capital and labor when
other arbitrators, who did not so completely hold the confidence of both
parties to the dispute, failed.
After the Armistice the activities of the section consisted, in the main,
in protecting the government against fraudulent claims presented by
manufacturers and in guarding the great plants and warehouses which were
abandoned upon the cancellation of war contracts. In one case the section
obtained and prepared evidence for a grand jury which so conclusively
showed fraud on the part of certain manufacturers holding government
contracts, that another concern, which had already presented claims
amounting to $600,000, upon learning that they were being investigated by
agents of the section, hurriedly withdrew them. Another example of the
efficiency which characterized the work of the section is illustrated by
the case of a concern engaged in the manufacture of shells, the evidence
presented by the section resulting in the indictment of the president
and ten other officials of the company for submitting shells to the
government for inspection under fraudulent circumstances.
* * * * *
The difficult, perplexing, and highly delicate work connected with the
various phases of the censorship was intrusted to the Tenth Section of
Military Intelligence, a number of subsections being established for the
censorship of mail matter, telegraphs and telephones, radio, books and
permanent literature, foreign-language newspapers, religious and pacifist
publications, photographs, motion-pictures, and mail to or from prisoners
of war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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