THE WEB The Authorized History of The American Protective League The Web BY Emerson Hough Author of The Mississippi Bubble," "54-40 or Fight," "The Magnificent Adventure," etc. A Revelation of Patriotism The Web is published by authority of the National Directors of the American Protective League, a vast, silent, volunteer army organized xoith the approval and operated under the direction of the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation. The Reilly & Lee Co. Chicago b \^. ^^^ Copyright, 1919 By The Reilly & Lee Co. Made in U. 8. A. AUG -7 1^19 The Wei) C?Ci,A529498 To TEE UNKNOWN AMERICANS unnamed, unhonored unrewarded who made this history possible P y/ THE CALL OF THE PEESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES " It is a distressing and oppressive duty, Gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts. . . . To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other, ' ' THE ANSWEE OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES "Whereas, The Imperial German Government has com- mitted repeated acts of war against the Government and the People of the United States of America ; therefore be it "Resolved, iy the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled. That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German Government ; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States." STATEMENT OF THE ATTOENEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES February 1, 1919 On the occasion of the dissolution to-day of the American Protective League and the final termination of all of its activ- ities, I take the opportunity to express to its National Directors and all other officers and members my personal thanks for their assistance to me and to my Department dur- ing the period of the war. I am frank to say that the Department of Justice could not have accomplished its task and attained the measure of success which it did attain with- out the assistance of the members of the League. Your reward can only be the expressed thanks of your Government. As the head of the Department of Justice, under which the American Protective League operated, I render you such thanks with sincere pleasure. Upon the occasion of a request from a member of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Eepresentatives for an expres- sion of opinion by me as to the adoption of a joint resolution by the Congress of the United States, extending the thanks of Congress to the members of the League, I have urged in strong terms the adoption of such a resolution, as one justly earned by the organization during an extended period of devoted and effective service. The work of your organization will long be an inspiration to all citizens to render their full measure of service to their country according to her need, without reward, and with abundant zeal. Respectfully, T. W. Gregory Attorney General AUTHOR'S PREFACE '' Signed! " The one word, spoken by a young officer of the U. S. Army, a strip of paper in his hand, confirmed to his associates the greatest news the world has ever known. It was the corrected foreword of peace. The armistice had validly been signed by Germany. In these first days of peace, the streets were full of shout- ing, laughing, weeping men and women gone primitive. The sane and sober population of America, engaged in sending a third of a million men a month to join the two millions on the front in France, turned into a mob. Their frenzy was that of joy. The war was over. On the day following the confirmation of the armistice, some who had sat together in a certain room in Washington were scattered. Six thousand resignations of Army officers were handed in within twenty-four hours. The room in which the news of the war's end was thus received was one in the Military Intelligence Division of the General Staff in Washington. There lie the secrets of the Army. All in that room were officers of the Army, or soon to be such. All were volunteers. I may with propriety say that for a time I had sat with those who had ear to the secret voices of the world, in the tensest atmosphere I ever knew. It was whispers that " M. I. D." heard — the whispers of perfidious men, communicating one with the other, plotting against the peace of America, the dignity of our Govern- ment, the sacredness of our flag, the safety of American lives and property. Here sat the authorized agents of the Army, emploj^ed to hear such whispers, enlisted to catch the most skilled and unscrupulous spies the world has ever known, the agents of a treacherous and dishonorable enemy. All those connected with the Military Intelligence Divi- sion ' daily felt also the touch of this great, silent, smooth- 11 12 AUTHOR'S PREFACE running machinery of the Department of Justice, whose gov- ernmental mission it was to do detective work on the largest scale this country ever knew. "We heard the voice of the "War College through the official liaison therewith ; also those of the General Staff, the War Department, the Post Office Department, the cable censors, the censors of the Expedi- tionary Forces. It all worked as an interlocking, vast, silent machine — a solemnly, almost mournfully silent machine, of which America knows almost nothing, the rest of the world nothing at all. Day by day, in ghostly silhouette, passed sinister figures, thenselves silent; those who plotted against America. All the deeds that can come from base and sordid motives, from low, degenerate and perverted minds ; all the misguided phe- nomena of human avarice and hate and eagerness to destroy and kill — such were the pictures on the walls of " M. I. D. " I have spoken of certain essential liaisons against espion- age and propaganda. More often seen than any other ini- tials in the desk algebra of " M. I. D." were three initials — "A. P. L." This or that information came from A. P. L. This was referred to A. P. L. for more light. Every ques- tionnaire of a man applying for a commission in the Army was referred back to A. P. L., and A. P. L. took up the question of his unswerving and invincible loyalty. A. P. L. found slackers and deserters in thousands. A. P. L. found this or that spy, large or little. A. P. L., obviously, had a busy mind and a long arm. Yet if you should look in the Governmental Blue Book for this powerful branch of our Government, you could not find the initials there at all. Very many Americans never heard the name of this wholly unofficial organization which passed on so many governmental questions, was of so much aid in so many ways to the Government. A. P. L. is not and never was a part of any state or national arm, service, de- partment, or bureau. But openly and proudly it has always been definitely authorized to carry on all its letter-heads, ** Organized with the Approval and Operating under the Direction of the United States Department of Justice, Bu- reau of Investigation." These are its credentials. A, P. L., the mysterious power behind our Government, was no baseless fabric of a vision, as hundreds of Germans AUTHOR'S PREFACE 13 and pro-Germans can testify through their prison bars; but it passes now and soon will " leave not a wrack behind." As these pages advance, the word issues for its official de- mobilization. It was honorably encamped on a secret and silent battlefield, but now, once more to use a poet's word, it has " folded its tents like the Arab, and silently stolen away. "It was, and is not. You never have known what it was. You never will see its like again. "A. P. L." means the American Protective League. It means a silent, unknown army of more than a quarter mil- lion of the most loyal and intelligent citizens of America, who indeed did spring to arms over night. It fought battles, saved lives, saved cities, saved treasures, defended the flag, apprehended countless traitors, did its own tremendous share in the winning of the war. It saved America. It did protect. It was a league. It did all this without a cent of pay. It had no actual identification with the Government. Yet it has won scores of times the written and spoken thanks of our most respon- sible Government officials. Its aid in the winning of the war can not be estimated and never will be known. Not even its full romance ever can be written. May these hurrying pages save all these things at least in part, though done in the full consciousness that their tribute can be but a frag- ment of the total due. The American Protective League was the largest company of detectives the world ever saw. The members serYed without earlier specialized training, without pay, without glory. That band of citizens, called together overnight, rose, grew and gathered strength until able to meet, and abso- lutely to defeat, the vast and highly trained army of the German espionage system, which in every country of the globe flooded the land with trained spies who had made a life business of spying. It met that German Army as ours met it at Chateau-Thierry, and in the Argonne, and on the Vesle and on the Aisne. Like to our Army under arms — that Army where any of us would have preferred to serve had it been possible for us to serve under arms — it never gave back an inch of ground. Growing stronger and better equipped each day, it worked always onward and forward until the last fight was won. 14 AUTHOR'S PREFACE A. P. L. has folded its unseen and unknown tents. It will bivouac elsewhere until another day of need may come. Then, be sure, it will be ready. On the day that the American Pro- tective League disbanded, it had no money in the treasury. It had spent millions of dollars, and had brought to judg- ment three million cases of disloyalty. There, obviously, un- written and unknown, scattered in every city and hamlet of America, was a tremendous story, one of the greatest of all war stories, the story of the line behind the guns. When the men of long or of transient connection with M. I. D. had shaken hands and said good-bye, the National Directors of the American Protective League asked me to st0!3 on and write the history of the American Protective League. And so, in large part, as a matter of loyalty and duty, with millions of pages of records at hand, with a quar- ter of a million friends I have never seen, who never have seen one another, who never otherwise would know the iden- tity of one another, I began to do something which most obviously and certainly ought to be done. This book is writ- ten alike that these quarter million unpaid soldiers may know of one another, and that a hundred million Americans may also know of them accurately, and thank them for what they did. Before I had done the last page of the strange history, I knew that I had felt an actual reflex of the actual America. I knew that I had been in touch with one of the most astonish- ing phenomena of modern days, in touch also with the most tremendous, the most thrilling and the most absorbing story of which I ever knew. EMERSON HOUGH Washington District of Columbia United States of America February 14, 1919. CONTENTS Book I: The League and Its Work CHAPTER PAGE I The Awakening 19 II The Web 29 III Early Days op the League 38 IV The League in Washington 44 V The Law and Its New Teeth 55 YI German Propaganda 62 VII The German Spy Cases 82 VIII The Spy Himself 107 IX Handling Bad Aliens 120 X The Great I. W. W. Trial 133 XI The Slacker Raids 141 XII Skulker Chasing 148 XIII Arts op the Operatives 163 Book II: The Tales of the Cities I The Story of Chicago 179 II The Story of New York 199 III The Story op Philadelphia 210 IV The Story of Newark 226 V The Story of Pittsburgh 239 VI The Story op Boston 246 VII The Story of Cleveland 256 VIII The Story of Cincinnati 267 IX The Story of Dayton 276 X The Story op Detroit .\. 285 XI The Story op St. Louis , 293 XII The Story op Kansas City 303 XIII The Story of Minneapolis 310 XIV The Story op New Orleans 324 XV The Story of California 332 Contents Book III: The Four Winds CHAPTER PAGE I The Story of the East 363 II The Story of the North 381 III The Story of the South . . .\ 418 IV The Story of the West 438 Book IV: America I The Reckoning 453 II The Peace Table 473 Appendices 483 BOOK I THE LEAGUE AND ITS WORK THE WEB CHAPTER I THE AWAKENING The "Neutral Cases" — First Realization of the German Spy System in America — Overcrowding of the Depart- ment of Justice — The Birth of a New Idea — Formation of the American Protective League, Civilian Auxiliary — Astonishing Growth of the Greatest Semi- Vigilante Move- ment of the World. We Americans have always been disposed to peace. We have not planned for war. Our Army has never been a menace to ourselves or to any other nation; our Navy, though strong and modern, never has been larger than a country of our extent in territory an-d industry admittedly ought to have. No one has feared us, and there has been none of whom we have had any fear. We have designedly stood aloof from entangling alliances. The two great oceans traditionally have been our friends, for they have set us apart from the world's quarrels. An America, far off, new, rich, abounding, a land where a man might be free to grow to his natural stature, where he might be safe at his own fireside, where he might select his own rulers and rest always secure under his own form of government — that was the theory of this country and of this form of government. That was the reason why this country, natur- ally endowed above any other region of the world, has grown so marvelously fast. There was reason for America's swift stature. She was a land not of war, but of peace. Rich, she threw open her •doors. Frank, free, honest, generous, she made welcome all who came. She suspected none, trusted all, and to 19 20 THE WEB prove this, offered partnership in her wealth to any man of the world, under a system of naturalization laws whose like, in broadness and generosity, does not exist. Peace — and the chance to grow and to be happy. Peace — and a partnership in all she had. Peace — and a seat free at the richest table of the world. That was what America offered ; and in spite of the pinch and the unrest of grow- ing numbers, in spite of problems imported and not native to our long-untroubled land, that was the theory of Ameri- can life up to a date four years earlier than this. In that four years America has changed more than in any forty of her earlier life. But yesterday, young, rich, laughing, free of care, Homerically mirthful and joyous, America to-day is mature, unsmiling, grave, dignified — and wise. What once she never suspected, now she knows. She has been betrayed. But America, traditionally resourceful, now suddenly agonized in the discovery of treachery at her own table, has out of the very anguish of her indignant horror, out of the very need of the hour, suddenly and adequately risen to her emergency. She always has done so. When the arms of the appointed agents of the law ever have wearied, she has upheld them. She has done so now, at the very moment of our country's greatest need. The story of how that was done ; how the very force of the situation demanded and received an instant and suffi- cient answer; how the civilians rallied to their own flag; how they came out of private life unasked, un^ummoned, as though at spoken command of some central power — that is a great and splendid story of which few ever have known anything at all. It is a great and splendid story because it verifies America and her intent before all the high courts of things. These men did obey the summons of a vast central power. But it was no more than the soul of America that spoke. It was no more than her theory of the democracy of mankind which issued that unwritten order to assemble the minute men, each armed and garbed in his own way and each resolved to do what he could in a new and tre- mendous day of Lexington. It was not autocracy which gave the assembly call to THE AWAKENING 21 these silent legions. They mobilized themselves, so rapidly as to offer one of the most curious psychological problems of history. "Why did these men leave their homes almost all at once, each unknown at first to the other, in large part each unknown to the other even now? How did it come about that an army of a quarter of a million men enlisted themselves and then offered their services to a government which needed them but never had asked for them? How did it come that — contrary to all European traditions — this tremendous striking-power began at the bottom in our democratic war-born instinct, and worked upward into the Government itself, as a new institution, wholly unrecognized in the constitution of state or nation? Usually the Government issues the order for mobilization. But here the greatest band of minute men ever known in the world mobilized as though unconsciously, as though to some spiritual trumpet call. Having done so, it offered itself to the Nation's heads, saying, "Here we are. Take us and use us. "We ask no pay. We enlist till tlie end of tJie war." It was the spirit voice of anguished America which mo- bilized the American Protective League. There never was a time when America could lose this war. The answer was always written in the stars. Somewhere, high up in the heavens, blind Justice let fall her sword in a gesture of command ; and that was all. The issue of the war was determined from that moment. It was certain that Ger- many, brutal, bloody, autocratic, destructive, would be de- feated beyond the sea. Yes, and on this side of the sea. On this side, much was to be done, more than we had dreamed. Troubled but unparticipating, we stood aloof and watched the soil of all Europe redden with the blood of men — and of women and children. Even we still stood aloof, hands clenched, gasping in an enraged incredulity, watching the sea also — the free and open highway of the world, redden with the blood of men — and of women and children. But still we took no part, though indeed some of our young men could no longer stay at home and so enlisted under some Allied flag. We held in mind our ancient remoteness from all this. We heard still the counsel against entangling alliances. 22 THE WEB And, quite aside from the idea of material profit, we tried to be fair and impartial in a fight that was not yet onrs, though every American heart bled with France and Bel- gium, ached in pain with that of Britain, locked in death grapple in her greatest war — that which must name her still free or forever enslaved. And from Washington came admonition to be calm. President Wilson's appeal went out again and again to the people, and whether or not it ever once seemed to all of us a possible thing for the United States to keep out of this war, at least we sought to do so and were advised and commanded to do so by the chief of our own forces. Whether or not we all wished to be neutral so many years, we officially and nationally were neutral. There- fore we retained our commercial rights under neutrality. Doing no more than Germany always previously had done, we made and sold arms and munitions in the open markets of the world. But Germany could not come and get her arms and muni- tions had she wished to do so. Great Britain had some- thing to say about that. Wherefore Germany hated us, secretly and openly — ^hated us for doing what she once had done but could no longer do. The enforcement of blockade made Germany hate us. Germany's psychology has always been double-faced — one face for herself and one for the rest of the world. The Austrian double-headed eagle belongs of right also on the German coat of arms. "What I do not wish to have done to me is Wrong; what I wish to do to others is Right!" That is the sum and substance of the German public creed and the German private character — and now we fairly may say we know them both. The German is not a sports- man — he does not know the meaning of that word. He has not in his language any word meaning "fair play." Nothing is fair play to a German which does not work to his advantage. The American neutrality in combination with the British blockade did not work to his advantage. Hence — so he thought — it was all wrong. The Germans began to hate America more and more. We did not know, at that time, that Germany had Ijeen planning many years for "diesen aufunsangehangten THE AWAKENING 23 Krieg" — "this war forced on us!" We did not have any idea that she had Counted upon two million German- Ameri- cans to help her win this war; that she knew every nook and cranny of the United States and had them mapped; that for years she had maintained a tremendous organiza- tion of spies who had learned every vulnerable point of the American defenses, who were better acquainted with our Army than we ourselves were, and who had extended their covert activities to a degree which left them arro- gantly confident of their success at war, and contemptuous of the best that America ever could do against her. Ger- many never doubted that she would win this war. It was charted and plotted out many years in advance, move by move, step by step, clear through to the bloody and brutal end which should leave Germany commander of the world. Now, in the German general plan of conquest, America had had her place assigned to her. So long as she would remain passive and complaisant — so long as she would furnish munitions to Germany and not to England or France or Eussia, all well, all very good. But when, by any shift of the play, America might furnish supplies to Germany's enemies and not to Germany — ^no matter through whose fault — then so much the worse for America ! It never was intended that America shoul-d be anything but expansion ground for Germany, whether or not she remained complaisant. But if she did not — if she began in her own idea of neutrality to transgress Germany's two- headed idea of "neutrality" — that meant immediate and positive action against America, now, to-day, and not after a while and at Germany's greater leisure. "I shall have no foolishness from America!" said Wil- liam HohenzoUern to the accredited representative of this country in his court — ^William HohenzoUern, that same pitiable figure who at the final test of defeat had not the courage of Saul to fall on his sword, not the courage of a real King to die at the head of his army, but who fled from his army like a coward when he saw all was lost — even honor. His threat of a million Germans in America who would rise against us was not ill-based. They were here. They are here now, to-day. The reply to that threat, made by Gerard, is historic. "Majesty, let them rise. We 24 THE WEB have a million lamp-posts waiting for them." And this herein tells the story of how the million traitors at America's too generous table were shown the lamp-posts looming. The German anger at America grew to the fury point, and she began covertly to stir herself on this side the sea. The rustling of the leaves began to be audible, the hiss- ing grew unmistakable. But America, resting on her old traditions, paid no attention. We heard with sympathy for a time the classic two-faced German- American 's v/ail, * ' Germany is my mother, America my wife ! How can I fight my mother ? ' ' The truth is that all too many German- Americans never cared for America at all in any tender or reverent way. Resting under their Kaiser's Delbrueck injunction never to forget the fatherland, they never were anything but German. They used America; they never loved her. They clung- to their old language, their old customs, and cared nothing for ours. They prospered, because they' would live as we would not live. It would be wrong to call them all bad, and folly to call them all good. As a class they were clannish beyond all other races coming here. Many who at first were openly pro- German became more discreet ; but of countless numbers of these, it is well known that at their own^ firesides and in supposed secrecy they privately were German, although in public they were American. Of Liberty bond buyers, many of the loudest boasters were of this ''loyal German- American citizenship." They really had not earned even the hyphen. Open and covert action was taken by Germany on both sides of the Atlantic to bring America into line. Not fear- ing America, nor knowing the real America a!t all, Ger- many did much as she liked. Outrages on the high seas began. All international law was cast aside by Germany as fully as in her invasion of Belgium. She coiuited so surely on success and world-conquest that she was abso- lutely arrogant and indifferent alike to law and to human- ity. The militaristic Germany began to show — brutal, crafty, bestial, lacking in all honor, ignorant of the word "fair play," callous to every appeal of humanity, wholly and unscrupulously selfish. "We began now to see the THE AWAKENING 25 significance of that ''efficiency" of which our industrial captains sometimes had prated over-much. Yes, Germany- was efficient ! The strain between the two countries increased as the blockade tightened, and as the counter-plot of the German submarines developed. Then came the Lusitania. . . . I can not write of that. I have hated Germany since then, and thousands of loyal Americans join in hatred for her. All of good America has been at war with her at heart from that very day, because in America we never have made war on women and children. We are bound by every instinct to hate any nation that does, Turk, German or ignorant savage. The Lusitania was Germany's deliberate action. She arrogantly commanded us in a few newspaper advertise- ments not to sail on the Lusitania — as though she owned us and the sea. After the deed, she struck medals in com- memoration of it. German church bells rang to glorify it. A German holiday was created to celebrate it. German preachers there an>d in America preached sermons lauding it. It was a national act, nationally planned, nationally ratified. From that day we were at war. Let those who like, of whatever station, say ''"We are not at war with the German people." That is not true. The German people, the German rank and file, not their leaders alone, were back of all these deeds and ratified them absolutely on both sides of the Atlantic. From that day, too, the issue might really have been known. I went into the elevator of a building in my city, a copy of a newspaper in my hand with the black headline of the Lusitania across the page. The German operator of the elevator saw it as I turned it toward him silently. "Veil, they vere varned!" he said, and grinned'. That incident shows Germany in America, then and now, covert, sinister, sneering, confident, exultant. You could not find an answer you would dare speak to such a man. There is no deed that you could do. I pulled together, and only said, "It will cost Germany the war." And so it did. But we did not go to war; we tried to keep out of the war. The daily page of red horrors fresh from Europe taught us what war meant at this day of the world. 26 THE WEB "Women naturally did not like the thought of casting their sons into that brutal hell. And then arose the female-men, the pacifists, forgetting their sex, forgetting their country, forgettmg the large and lasting game of humanity's good, which cannot count present cost, but must plan for the long game of the centuries. With the pacifists suddenly and silently rose the hidden army of German espionage and German sympathy in our own country, quick to see that here was their chance ! Millions of German gold now came pouring across to finance this break in America's forces. Her high ministers to our Government began their treachery, forgetful of all ambassadorial honor, perjuring themselves and their coun- try. The war was on, on both sides the Atlantic now. And still America did not know, and still America did not go to war. We dreaded it, held back from it, month after month — some, as it seems to many, wrongly and unhappily even did what they could to capitalize the fact that we were not at war. But the hidden serpent raised its head and began to strike — to strike so openly, in so long a series of overt acts, that now our civil courts and the great national machinery of justice in Washington became literally helpless in their endeavors at resistance. We were not at war, but war was waged against us in so many ways — against our lives and property — that all sense of security was gone. We offered as our defense not, as yet, our Fleet or our Army, but our Department of Justice. Day and night that department at Washing- ton, and its branches in all the great cities, in New York, Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco, labored to clear the constantly increasing dockets, to keep down the constantly increasing heaps of suspect cases. It was evident that America was hearing from the Kaiser's million Germans in America. But where were the lamp posts ? The Department of Justice found itself flooded and sub- merged with work in the Bureau of Investigation, collect- ing evidence against German spies and German law- breakers. It was plain what efforts now were making to undermine America. But the truth was, the grist was too much for the mill. We had never organized a system to THE AWAKENING 27 handle covert and hidden war as G-ermany had done. We had fought in the open when, rarely, we had fought at all. The great mill of Justice clogged up and broke down, not from any inefficiency or inadequacy in average times, but because it never could have been predicted that "Neutral- ity Cases" such as these ever would be known in our history. In this war, giant figures only have ruled. The world was not prepared for them. The outrages went on. Germany, confident of the suc- cess of ruthless submarine warfare, told us when we could vsail, how we must mark our ships — said, sneeringly, ''Yell, you vas varned ! ' ' It had very early become plain to all Americans that we could not always submit to this. More and more now we were browbeaten and insulted. More and more also our hearts were wrung at the sight of splendid Prance, fighting gamely and proudly and silently for her life; at the lists of the gallant British dead; the whole story of the stag- gering lines of Liberty. It was plain that the great prize of free institutions, of human liberty itself, was about to be lost to the world forever. It became plain that the glorious traditions of America must perish, that her answer to humanity must be forever stilled, that she, too, must be included in the ruin of all the good things of the world. It began also to be said more and more openly that America would come next — that we must fight ; if not now, then at some later day, and perhaps without these Allies. So our war spirit began in the total to outweigh and overtop our peace spirit and our pacifist spirit and our hesitant spirit. "We knew we would be at war. Many of us deplored and do still deplore the fact that we waited so long in times so perilous. We lost two precious years ; billions in treasure, and what is immeasurably worse, mil- lions in lives. So much for hesitancy. But now, as bearing upon the purpose of this account of the American Protective League, it is to be kept in mind that for months and years the Department of Justice had been at war with the hidden German army here. And, as the Germans were pushing back the Allies over there, they were pushing us back here, because we were not ready for so unforeseen a situation. 28 THE WEB What saves a country in its need? Its loyal men. What reinforces an army called on for sudden enlargement ? Its volunteers. What saved San Francisco in its days of riot and anarchy in 1850? Its Volunteers for law and order. What brought peace to Alder Gulch in 1863 when criminals ruled ? Its Volunteers for law and order. America always has had Volunteers to fight for law and order against criminals. The law itself says you may ai-rest without warrant a man caught committing a felony. The line be- tween formal written law and natural law is but thin at best. There was, therefore, in the spring of 1917 in America, the greatest menace to our country we ever had known. Organized criminals were in a thousand ways attacking our institutions, jeopardizing the safety, the very continu- ity of our country. No loyal American was safe. We did not know who were the disloyal Americans. We faced an army of masked men. They outnumbered us. We had no machinery of defense adequate to fight them, because we foolishly had thought that all these whom we had wel- comed and fed were honest in their protestations — and tJieir oatJis — when they came to us. So now, we say, an imperious cry of NEED came, wrung from astounded and anguished America. It was as though this actual cry came from the heavens, ''I need you, my children ! Help me, my children ! ' ' That cry was heard. How, it is of small importance to any member of the American Protective League, whose wireless antennae, for the time attuned, caught down that silent wireless from the skies. No one man sent that mes- sage. Almost, we might say, no one man answered it, so many flocked in after the first word of answer. No one man of the two hundred and fifty thousand who first and last answered in one way or another would say or would want to say that he alone made so large an answer to so large a call. None the less, we deal here with actual his- tory. So that now we may begin with details, begin to show how those first strands were woven which in a few weeks or months had grown into one of America's strong- est cables of anchorage against the terror which was abroad upon the sea. CHAPTER II THE WEB Methods of Work — Getting the Evidence — The Organ- ization in Detail — The Multifold Activities of the League. It is to Mr. A. M, Briggs of Chicago that credit should go for the initial idea of the American Protective League. The first flash came many months before the declaration of war, although, for reasons outlined, it long was obvious that we must eventually go to war. The Department of Justice in Chicago was in a terribly congested condition, and long had been, for the neutrality cases were piling up. ''I could get ten times as much done if I had men and money to work with," said Hinton G. Clabaugh, Superin- tendent of the Bureau of Investigation. ''There are thou- sands of men who are enemies of this country and ought to be behind bars, but it takes a spy to catch a spy, and I've got a dozen spies to catch a hundred thousand spies right here in Chicago. They have motor cars against my street cars. They're supplied with all the money they want; my own funds are limited. We're not at war. All this is civil work. We simply haven't ways and means to meet this emergency." "I can get ten or twenty good, quiet men with cars who'll work for nothing," said Mr. Briggs one day. "They'll take either their business time or their leisure time, or both, and join forqes with you. I know we're not at war, but we're all Americans together." In that chance conversation — only we ought not to call it chance at all, but a thing foreordained — began the great- est society the world ever saw, — an army of men equipped with money, brains, loyalty, which grew into one of the main legions of our diefense. That army to-day probably 29 30 THE WEB knows more about you and your affairs than you ever thought anyone could know. If you were not and are not loyal, those facts are known and recorded, whether you live in New York or California or anywhere between. Once started, the voluntary service idea ran like wild- fire. It began as a free taxicab company, working for the most impeccable and most dignified branch, of our Govern- ment — that branch for which our people always have had the most respect. The ten private cars grew to two dozen. As many quiet- faced, silent drivers as were necessary were always ready. Word passed) among reliable business men, and they came quietly and asked what they could do. They were the best men of the city. They worked for principle, not for excitement, not in any vanity, not for any pay. It was the ' ' live-wires ' ' of the business world that were selected. They were all good men, big men, brave and able, else they must have failed, and else this organization never could have grown. It was secret, absolutely so ; clandestine absolutely, this organization of Regulators. But unlike the Vigilantes, the IQu Klux, the Horse-Thief Detectors, it took no punishments into its own hands. It was absolutely non- partisan. It had then and has now no concern with labor questions or political questions. It worked only as collec- tor of evidence. It had no governmental or legal status at all. It tried no cases, suggested no remedies. It simply found tlie facts. It became apparent that the City of Chicago was not all America. These American men had America and not Chi- cago at heart. Before long, five hundred men, in widely separated and sometimes overlapping sections, were at work piling up evidence against Cerman and pro-German suspects. These men began to enlist under them yet others. The thing was going swiftly, unaccountably swiftly. America's volunteers were pouring out. The Minute Men were afoot again, ready to fight. This was in March of 1917. Even yet we were not at war, though in the two years following the Lusitania mur- ders, the world had had more and more proof of Germany's heartless and dishonorable intentions. The snake was now out of the leaves. The issue was joined. We all knew THE WEB 31 that Washington soon would, soon must, declare war. The country was uneasy, discontented, mutinous over the delay. Meantime, all these new foci of this amateur organiza- tion began to show problems of organization and adminis- tration. The several captains unavoidably lapped over one another in their work, and a certain loss in speed and efficiency rose out of this. The idea had proved good, but it was so good it was running away with itself! No set of men could handle it except under a well-matured and adequately-managed organization, worked out in de- tail from top to bottom. We may not place one man in this League above another, for all were equal in their unselfish loyalty, from private to general, from operative to inspector, and from inspector to National Directors ; but it is necessary to set down the basic facts of the inception of the League in order that the vast volume and usefulness of its labors properly may be understood. So it is in order now to describe how this great army of workers became a unit of immense, unite*d and effective striking power, how the swift and divers developments of the original idea became coordinated into a smooth-running machine, nation-wide in its activities. Now at last, long deferred — too long — came April 6, 1917. The black headlines smote silence at every American table. WAR! We were at War! Men did not talk much. Mothers looked at their sons, wives at their husbands. Thousands of souls had their Gethsemane that day. Now we were to place our own breasts against the steel of Germany. The cover was off. War — war to the end, now — ^war on both sides of the sea — war against every form and phase of German activity! America said aloud and firmly now, as, in her anguish, she had but recently whispered, '*I need you, my children ! ' ' And millions of Americans, many of them debarred from arms by age or infirmity, came forward, each in his 'own way, and swore the oath. The oath of the League spread. Not one city or state, but all America must be covered, and it must be done at once. The need of a national administration became at once imperative. In this work on the neutrality cases Mr. Clabaugh and 32 THE WEB his volunteer aids often were in Washington together. The Department of Justice, so far from finding this unasked civilian aid officious, gladly hailed it as a practical aid of immeasurable value. It became apparent that the League was bound to be national in every way at no late day. All this meant money. But America, unasked, opened her secret purse strings. Banks, prominent firms, loyal individuals gave thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars for a work which they knew must be done if America was to be safe for decent men. And so the silent army of which you never knew, grew and marched out daily. Your house, your neighbor's, was known and watched, guarded as loyal, circled as disloyal. The nature of your business and your neighbor's was known — and tabulated. You -do not know to-day how thoroughly America knows you. If you are hyphenated now, if you are disloyal to this flag, so much the worse for you. It early became plain to manufacturers and owners of large industrial plants of all sorts that they were in imme- diate danger of dynamite outrages. Many plants agreed to present to the League monthly a considerable checque to aid the work of safeguarding. Many wealthy individ- uals gave additional amounts. A very considerable sum was raise-d from the sale of badges to the operatives, it being explained to all that they were sold at a profit for the benefit of the League. At all times large amounts came in, raised by State or local chiefs, each of whom knew his own community well. On one day in October, 1917, a call went out to 6700 members of the League to meet on a certain evening at Medinah Temple in Chicago, admission to be by credentials only. That meeting was addressed by Chiefs and others. In a short time $82,000 was raised. Later on, certain bankers of national reputa- tion — ^F. A. Vanderlip of New York, George M. Reynolds of Chicago, Festus Wade of St. Louis, Stoddard Jess of Los Angeles, and others — sent out an appeal to the bankers of America in the i^iterests of the League. This perhaps would of itself have raised a half million more, but it came among Liberty Loan activities, and before it was fully under way, the news of the Armistice broke, which THE WEB 33 automatically ended many things. But the American Pro- " tective League had money. It can have all the money it may need in any future day. It was not until fall of 1917 that, in answer to the imperious demands of the swiftly grown association, now numbering thousands in every State of the Union, and in order to get into closer touch with the Department of Justice, the League moved its headquarters from Chicago to Washington. Mr. Charles Daniel Frey of Chicago, who ha-d worked out with his associates the details of a per- fectly subdivided organization, was made Captain U. S. A. and liaison officer for the League 's work with the Military Intelligence Division of the Army, a division which itself had known great changes and rapid development. The three National Directors were now A. M. Briggs, Chair- man ; Captain Charles Daniel Frey, and Mr. Victor Elting, the latter gentleman, an attorney of Chicago, having before now proved himself of the utmost service in handling certain very tangled skeins. Mr. Elting had been Assist- ant Chief in Chicago, working with Mr. Frey as Chief. Then later came on, from his League duties in Chicago, Mr. S. S. Doty, a man successful in his own business organization and of proved worth in working out details of organization. Many others from Chicago, in many capacities, joined the personnel in Washington, and good men were taken on as needed and found. It would be cheap to attempt mention of these, but it would be wrong not to give some general mention of the men who actually had in hand the formation of the League and the conduct of its widely reaching affairs from that time until its close at the end of the war. They worked in secrecy aAd. they asked no publicity then or now. One thing must be very plain and clear. These men, each and all of them, worked as civilian patriots, and, except in a very few necessary clerical cases, without pay of any sort. There was no mummery about the League, no countersigns or grips or passwords, no rituals, no rules. It never was a ''secret society," as we understand that usually. It was — the American Protective League, deadly simple, deadly silent, deadly in earnest. There has been no glory, no pay, no publicity, no advertising, no reward 34 THE WEB ill the American Protective League, except as each man's conscience gave him his best rewardi, the feeling that he had fulfilled the imperative obligations of his citizenship and had done his bit in the world's greatest war. By the time the League was in Washington, it had a quarter-million members. Its records ran into tons and tons; its clerical work was an enormous thing. The system, swiftly carried out, was unbelievably suc- cessful. An unbelievable artesian fountain of American loyalty had been struck. "What and how much work that body of silent men did, how varied and how imperatively essential was the work they did, how thrillingly interesting it became at times as the netted web caught more and more in its secret sweeping, must be takeii up in later chapters. As to the total volume of the League's work, it never ■ will be known, and no figures will ever cover it more than impartially. It handled in less than two years, for the War Department alone, over three million cases. It spent millions lot dollars. It had a quarter million silent and resolute I men on its rolls. These men were the best of their com- ' munities. They did not work for pay. They worked for duty, and worked harder than a like number in any army of the world. Some of the things they did, some of the astonishing matters they uncovered, some of the strange stories they unearthed, will be taken up in order in the pages following, and in a way more specifically informing than has hitherto been attempted. The League totals are tremendous, but the trouble with totals is that they do not enter into comprehension. A million dollars means little as a phrase, if left barren of some yard-stick for comparative measurement. Thus, when we say that long ago the number of suspect cases investigated by the American Protective League had passed the three-million mark, we hail the figures as grandiose, but have no personal idea of what they mean, no accurate conception of the multitude, the nature and the multi- . plicity in detail of the three million separate and distinct cases. It is when we begin to go into details as to the work and its organization from unit to block, from opera- tive to chief, that we begin to open our eyes. THE WEB 35 The government of this country had had thrown on it all at once a burden a thousand times as great as that of times of peace. We had to raise men and money, muni- tions, food, fuel for ourselves and all the world. We were not prepared. We had to learn all at once the one and hardest thing — one which America never yet had learned — economy. We had to do all the active and positive mate- rial things necessary to put an Army in the field across seas — build ships, fabricate ordnance, arm large bodies of men, train them, feed them, get their fighting morale on edge. Yes, all these things — but this was only part. Our nega- tive defense, our silent forces also had to be developed. We had to learn economy — and suspicion. That last was hard to learn. Just as delay and breakdowns happened in other branches of the suddenly overloaded government, so a breakdown in the resources of the Department of Jus- tice — ^least known but most valuable portion of our nation's governmental system — ^was a thing imminent. That was because of the swift multiplication of the list of entirely new things that had to be looked into with justice, and yet with speed. It is not too much to say that without the inspired idea of the American Protective League, its Web spread out behind the lines, there could not long have been said in the full confidence of to-day, **Grod reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives." Besides being an auxiliary of the Department of Justice, the League was the active ally also of the Department of War, of the Navy, of the State, of the Treasury. It worked for the Shipping Board, the Fuel and Foo