Page:The web (1919).djvu/370

 The League was of great service in rounding up delinquents who failed to return questionnaires. Local Board No. 1 of the Jamestown District on November 20, 1918, had ninety-eight delinquents. By December 10, the A. P. L. had reduced that number to twenty-one, and since then fifteen more have reported, leaving only six delinquents out of a total registration of 2,135.

The community was carefully organized with regard to each of the financial war drives. In the war stamps campaign one E was discovered selling stamps without having been authorized to do so. Investigations showed that he had been secretary of the local branch of the German-American Alliance and was in constant association with alien enemies. An associate of his, who may be called R, said that the German Club was pretty much run by a man named F, an Austrian enemy alien who belonged to some lower order of German nobility but had moved to Austria. He became an "Austrian" when the United States declared war on Germany, but was willing to claim citizenship in any country now that diplomatic relations were severed with Austria, since he could speak several languages. The A. P. L. found means to inspect the living rooms of F, discovering great quantities of German papers and an Austrian flag. The remainder of the story, told in the words of the Chief's report, shows how a mighty small fire sometimes can generate an enormous volume of smoke:

We learned that F had admitted himself to be engaged in getting German subjects out of the United States and into the German army. Operative on the case, R, was confidentially informed by him that six thousand men had left this country the preceding month and were to be carried by the large trans-Atlantic submarines. F himself was going to sail October 4.

The operative invented a German cousin whose wife was in Germany, and told L that this cousin was very eager to get across. The cordial clubman instructed him to write a letter to "Freiherr Hans von Ungelter," former German Consul in New York, and enclose it in another envelope, which should be addressed to (name given), care of General Delivery, New York. The addressee's name, operative was in