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
It is probable that the Philadelphia division has worked out the raid
matter as exactly as any other division of the country. The Chief had
a carefully-drawn diagram or map made, showing the system by which the
men were stationed. It is a good instance of the Web of the Law. The
chart shows fifteen squads of men traveling north and south, east and
west, in a systematic covering of a bootleg territory 10 by 15 squares.
Therefore, one squad travels north on one street and south on another
street, while the squad working on opposite sides to them travels east
and then west in the same manner. This makes it absolutely impossible
for an offender to operate without an agent seeing him. It was often
noticed that a bootlegger approaching a uniformed man would be almost
instantly surrounded by one or two or even three squads who closed in
to make the arrest. Philadelphia had the hunting of the bootlegger down
to a fine point.
Mr. Todd Daniel, Superintendent of the Department of Justice for
Philadelphia, has always been an ardent admirer of the A. P. L. In
return, the League has supplied him on request with fifty to one
hundred motor cars each month, and investigated as many as 1,000 cases
which his staff would have been unable to handle. No wonder he admires
them.
Surveillance such as this kept property damages in and around this
great industrial center at a minimum. The Eddystone Munition Plant
explosion occurred previous to the organization of the League. The
Woodbury Bag Loading Plant, Woodbury, N. J., was so well covered that
although a great many attempts to cause explosions and set fires were
made with bombs and inflammable materials, they all failed of their
purpose. No one can tell how much property loss was averted through the
work of the Philadelphia division. It would be invidious to quote any,
and hopeless to quote all, of the many letters of approval received
from persons high in Government, political and commercial circles,
complimenting the division upon its efficiency.
Needless to say, Philadelphia had her own share of _causes celébrès_.
One of the most unique and interesting of these was that of the
Philadelphia _Tageblatt_, a German daily newspaper prosecuted under
the charge of seditious and disloyal utterances. In the fall of 1917,
a raid was conducted by D. J. and A. P. L. upon the headquarters of
this paper, at which time many files, books, papers, and so forth, were
seized, with the result that warrants were issued for the editor and
all his staff. When they were called for trial, members of the division
were again used for the purpose of investigating the jury panel, as
well as for the procurement of evidence essential to the case. In one
item, this work took the form of securing through banking members,
proofs of certain signatures without which the Government’s case would
have been crippled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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