The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective LeagueHough, Emerson
History
The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective League
Hough, Emerson
American Protective League; Propaganda, German; World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- United States
The New York office has conducted some part of the investigation of
almost every alien enemy that has been interned in that part of the
country. Just how much value the work of the League has had in these
various internment cases, it is difficult to tell. Department of
Justice has sometimes been rather haughty and lofty in regard to its
humbler auxiliary. When New York A. P. L. has inquired of D. J. as
to the outcome of a certain case, sometimes the answer would be that
“proper action will be taken in due time,” the inference being that D.
J. did not want to be bothered by questions. A like vagueness quite
often enshrouded cases turned over to Military Intelligence. A. P. L.
might investigate fifty men for commissions and never know even whether
any of them got a commission.
The offices of the United States Attorneys in both the Southern and
Eastern districts of New York were greatly overworked, and had a very
inadequate staff of assistants. It was necessary, in many instances,
for A. P. L. to take cases that should have gone to a Federal Court,
before some local magistrate on a disorderly conduct charge.
In brief, the story of A. P. L. in New York City is very satisfying
indeed. How fortunate for Military Intelligence, the Draft Boards,
the Department of Justice and other war branches that they had an
A. P. L. to help them out, and to do that for nothing! Had this not
been the case, it is not too much to say that these branches of our
war activities would also have broken down as so lamentably did other
portions of our war work—ordnance, equipment, airplane work, etc., all
of which suffered from not having a quarter million of men at hand to
do the work for nothing and do it right. The truth about this war never
has been known and never will be printed. A lot of it lies in the files
of the A. P. L.
In the course of the last ten months, according to the Military
Intelligence Bureau, New York Division probably had more investigations
entrusted to it than would in peace times be made throughout the entire
country. Since the A. P. L. men were of the highest type, with all the
advantage of education and wide experience, their ready adaptability
can be taken for granted. But even with the high average of ability of
the League officers and operatives, the notably fine record of the New
York Division would not have been possible had there not been a most
thorough and up-to-date business system. And such was actually the case.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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