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
Champaign, Illinois, is the home of the University of Illinois, and
for some reason university towns seem to act as chutes for all sorts
of independent thought. There are two strong German settlements in
Champaign County, and a very strong German settlement in the city,
where many residents have shown very pro-German tendencies. These
German settlements have their own German schools, taught by their
German Lutheran ministers under the pretense of teaching religion.
Sentiment became so intense that the local A. P. L. Chief was requested
by the Government to close these schools if possible. Some of them have
reopened since the armistice. In such localities the Germans have been
very independent and often quite outspoken, so that it was necessary
in many cases for the A. P. L. to use influence to prevent violence to
them. There were only one or two cases where the citizens got out of
control, although many citizens of German descent refused to buy bonds
and made disparaging remarks regarding the war.
The A. P. L. Chief says: “We were confronted with the problem of
ousting five alien enemies at the University of Illinois, two of
them regarded as dangerous. We also had to handle a cook at the
aviation barracks, an alien enemy who was deliberately wasting food.
We convicted the wife of a German minister in the Federal Court for
making disloyal remarks. We had some difficulty with Russellites,
Mennonites, and radical Socialists, but all have been kept in hand. Our
organization consists of seventy-five members, but about twenty-five of
us have done most of the active work.” A good and worthy twenty-five.
The reference to Russellites and Mennonites covers two regions of
great A. P. L. activity. Pastor Russell, as he was known, passed
away from this scene some time ago, but he left behind him seeds of
discord. He was perhaps not so much disloyal as he was eccentric and
fanatical in his mental habit. His book, “The Finished Mystery,” was
so open a plea against war that it was proscribed by the United States
Government. A. P. L. operatives ran down a great deal of so-called
pro-German talk which originated in the Russellites. An instance of
this comes from Coloma, Michigan, which reports: “Radical socialists
became active during August, 1917. Acting under instructions from the
Department of Justice, we put all of these meetings out of business in
the territory of our jurisdiction. No more socialist meetings of any
kind here. We got information which resulted in my calling upon certain
Russellites. Collected five books of ‘The Finished Mystery,’ and some
copies of the ‘Kingdom News.’ Russellites were watched, and they
promised to discontinue activities until after the war. They have done
so.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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