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 CHAPTER I

THE STORY OF CHICAGO

The Birthplace of the American Protective League—Center of Enemy Alien Activities—Focus of German Propaganda and Home of Pro-German Cults and Creeds—Story of the League's Work and Workers.

The unvarnished story of the growth and accomplishments of this League is the greatest proof in the world of the ability for self-government of intelligent, educated and thinking men. The American Protective League was made up of sober citizens who had something to protect. It was no one man, no one set of men, no one city, which makes it great. The real credit belongs to the unclassified and unsegregated Little Fellow.

We had in this war the usual amount of self-seeking. Our first pages abounded in pictures and praises of our great men, born of God to do wonders in ships, supplies, aeroplanes and armies. Some of them worked for a dollar a year. Some of them earned that much, many a great deal less. The scandals of this war are as great as the scandals of any war, when you come to know the truth about them. But there is no scandal attached to the plain, average citizen in this war. It was he, the real democrat and the real American, who won this war for us.

There is no charge of vain-glory, no charge of inefficiency and self-seeking attached to the story of Chateau Thierry and Belleau Wood and the Argonne, where died thousands of Little Fellows become great in making good. Neither is there any scandal attaching to the unknown men, the unnamed Little Fellows who "made good" back home behind the lines—the men who usually get lost after any war when the glory is being passed around by the politicians and paid historians.