The St. Louis division was organized on April 3, 1917. The initial organization was composed of sixteen companies, organized each under a captain and lieutenants, divided into professional, commercial and industrial groups, so as to embrace all fields of activity. Only dependable and loyal men were taken into these companies, which ranged in size numerically from fifty to one hundred and twenty-five each. The business and financial interests of St. Louis responded generously to the plan and made possible the marked success that always attended the division. Captains, lieutenants and operatives from the outset were required only to use their eyes and ears and to send in their reports, through their appropriate superiors, to Mr. G. H. Walker, the Chief of the division, who in turn submitted such reports to the Special Agent in Charge, Department of Justice, at St. Louis. It became evident in the summer months of 1917, from the increasing number and variety of reports sent in, that the facilities of the Bureau of Investigation were wholly inadequate, and that the investigating forces of the Bureau would require enlargement unless the St. Louis Division of the American Protective League itself undertook active investigation of its reports, thus relieving the Bureau to that extent. It was the same old story of the breaking down of a most important branch of the Government, and the prompt, patriotic rallying of our American citizens in support. The decision was made, involving the opening of a suite of offices and the enrollment of a number of competent volunteers who could give their time to this work. Concurrently with making this decision, which meant so much more work, the St. Louis division undertook the formation of a geographic organization distinct from the company organizations, members of which were not only required to report all matters of interest through immediate superiors, but were also called upon from time to time for auxiliary investigation work in their respective neighborhoods. The district organization embraced twenty geographical divisions within St. Louis proper, there being from twenty-five to fifty operatives in each division, all of them responsible to a deputy inspector, who in turn was responsible to an inspector presiding over four districts. Four districts constituted a zone. St. Louis County, on the west, was similarly organized, as were East St. Louis and adjoining towns and villages in Illinois. In the summer of 1918, East St. Louis and considerable adjacent territory were separated from the St. Louis division and created into a distinct division, continuing, however, in close coöperation with the St. Louis division.