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
There were found by American Protective League operatives aliens
who wanted to become citizens but who did not know what to do.
Others had tried to pass examinations in court, but failed. All
these were sent to citizenship schools and now are on the road to
becoming desirable citizens. The work of the Bureau has been such
that many aliens now have a different opinion of what it means
to live in a country where all men who behave themselves have an
equal chance. In one day, after citizenship schools were opened in
Cincinnati, the Enemy Alien Bureau issued over two hundred permits
to aliens who desired to gain knowledge which would permit them to
apply for the necessary papers.
This close supervision also forestalled attempts by agents of the
Kaiser to induce aliens to commit acts against this Government,
if they were so inclined. No meetings could be held without an
American Protective League member hearing of it, as they visited
the alien at his home and place of employment at irregular
intervals, and never less than once a month.
After the war, there will be many, now classed as enemy aliens,
who will thank Cincinnati Division for having helped them at a
critical time when they were floundering about under regulations
which they did not understand, and feared to ask anyone how to
become loyal citizens of this country. Of the many curious cases
Cincinnati handled, we may report at least one, which shows how
well the A. P. L. sometimes took care of a man who didn’t deserve
it.
An emergency telephone call came to the office of the American
Protective League from an official of one of the largest trust
companies in the city, to send an operative to the bank as quickly
as possible. The two men who answered the call found they had what
appeared to be a German agent in prospect.
During the afternoon a telegram came to the bank from the Empire
Trust Company, New York, authorizing it to place $25,000 to the
credit of Frank K——. K——, on his arrival at the bank, seemed
to be a man about fifty-five years of age, typically German,
with all the Hindenburg ear-marks. An over-anxiety to display
his naturalization papers in proving his identity led the bank
officials to put him off until they had been able to communicate
with the League. He had given his room number at the Gibson Hotel,
and with this information in hand and a code message to the New
York Division to investigate at that end, the scene shifted to the
hotel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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