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
On February 6, 1918, the Provost Marshal General and the Attorney
General of the United States united in a request to the American
Protective League to coöperate with all local and district
exemption boards throughout the United States in locating
and causing to present themselves to the proper authorities
delinquents under the Selective Service Regulations, including
those classed as deserters. Thereupon each local division assigned
certain members to the Local and District Boards within its
jurisdiction. These activities are of many varieties and include
the investigation of Board Members, conspiracies and bribery,
conspiracies to obstruct the draft, draft evasion in all forms,
fraudulent attempts at deferred classification, false claims for
exemption, failures to report for examination, failures to report
for mobilization, failures to file questionnaires, failures to
register, failures to secure final classification, failures to
notify local boards of changes in address, failures to ascertain
present status from the Local Board, failures to entrain, and all
other alleged infractions of the regulations. These investigations
made by the one hundred local divisions total 323,349. Upon a
percentage basis, the cases handled throughout the country would
total 2,263,443, and including the slacker raids, an enormous
figure which cannot well be estimated.
Many investigations under the Local Boards were made with extreme
difficulty because of the confusion in the spelling of names,
inaccurate records and constantly shifting addresses due to the
roaming character of the individual. We believe that the Provost
Marshal General’s office will confirm the statement that the
number of delinquents and deserters of this character is very
great, possibly exceeding two hundred thousands, a group recruited
mostly from laborers, harvesters and the other ranks of homeless
unskilled labor. Members of the League have given a great amount
of time and energy to these cases.
During the two or three months following the day of first
registration, a general effort was made by local divisions of
the League in the principal cities to run down those individuals
within the draft age who had failed to register on June 5,
1917. In Chicago, a city-wide drive was made during which all
stations of the railroads entering Chicago were covered by
League operators, and the downtown or loop district was likewise
patroled. This was the first organized effort on a large scale to
enforce the regulations. Subsequently similar action was taken in
other cities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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