Full download text book at textbookfull.

com

Graphic Design The New Basics Second

Edition Revised and Expanded Ellen
Lupton
DOWLOAD HERE

https://textbookfull.com/product/graphic-design-
the-new-basics-second-edition-revised-and-
expanded-ellen-lupton-2/

DOWLOAD NOW

Download more textbook from textbookfull.com

More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Graphic Design The New Basics Second Edition Revised

and Expanded Ellen Lupton

https://textbookfull.com/product/graphic-design-the-new-basics-
second-edition-revised-and-expanded-ellen-lupton-2/

Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers,

Writers, Editors, and Students (3rd Edition, Revised
and Expanded) Ellen Lupton

https://textbookfull.com/product/thinking-with-type-a-critical-
guide-for-designers-writers-editors-and-students-3rd-edition-
revised-and-expanded-ellen-lupton/

Basics fashion design Knitwear Second Revised Edition

Juliana Sissons

https://textbookfull.com/product/basics-fashion-design-knitwear-
second-revised-edition-juliana-sissons/

Graphic Design School the Principles and Practices of

Graphic Design Calvert

https://textbookfull.com/product/graphic-design-school-the-
principles-and-practices-of-graphic-design-calvert/
Encyclopedia of policy studies Second Edition, Revised
And Expanded Edition Nagel

https://textbookfull.com/product/encyclopedia-of-policy-studies-
second-edition-revised-and-expanded-edition-nagel/

Soil-Water Interactions: Mechanisms Applications,

Second Edition, Revised Expanded Iwata

https://textbookfull.com/product/soil-water-interactions-
mechanisms-applications-second-edition-revised-expanded-iwata/

New York School of Interior Design Home Ellen S. Fisher

https://textbookfull.com/product/new-york-school-of-interior-
design-home-ellen-s-fisher/

Baroque Counterpoint Revised and Expanded Edition

Neidhofer

https://textbookfull.com/product/baroque-counterpoint-revised-
and-expanded-edition-neidhofer/

An Introduction to the Design and Behavior of Bolted

Joints, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded John H.
Bickford

https://textbookfull.com/product/an-introduction-to-the-design-
and-behavior-of-bolted-joints-third-edition-revised-and-expanded-
john-h-bickford/
Published by
Princeton Architectural Press
37 East Seventh Street
New York, New York 10003

Visit our website at www.papress.com.

© 2008, 2015 Princeton Architectural Press

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission
from the publisher, except in the context of reviews.

Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or
omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lupton, Ellen, author.
Graphic design : the new basics / Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips. — Second
Edition, Revised and Expanded.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61689-325-5 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-61689-332-3 (paperback : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-61689-455-9 (epub, mobi)
1. Graphic arts. I. Phillips, Jennifer C., 1960– author. II. Title.
NC997.L87 2015
741.6—dc23
2014046286
For Maryland Institute College of Art

Book Design
Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips

Contributing Faculty
Ken Barber
Kristian Bjørnard
Kimberly Bost
Jeremy Botts
Corinne Botz
Bernard Canniffe
Nancy Froehlich
Brockett Horne
Tal Leming
Ellen Lupton
Al Maskeroni
Sandra Maxa
Ryan McCabe
Abbott Miller
Kiel Mutschelknaus
Jennifer Cole Phillips
James Ravel
Zvezdana Stojmirovic
Nolen Strals
Mike Weikert
Bruce Willen
Yeohyun Ahn

Visiting Artists
Marian Bantjes
Nicholas Blechman
Alicia Cheng
Peter Cho
Malcolm Grear
David Plunkert
C. E. B. Reas
Paul Sahre
Jan van Toorn
Rick Valicenti

For Princeton Architectural Press

Editors
Clare Jacobson and Nicola Brower

Special thanks to
Janet Behning, Erin Cain, Megan Carey, Carina Cha, Andrea Chlad, Tom Cho, Barbara
Darko, Benjamin English, Russell Fernandez, Jan Cigliano Hartman, Jan Haux, Mia
Johnson, Diane Levinson, Jennifer Lippert, Katharine Myers, Jaime Nelson, Rob Shaeffer,
Sara Stemen, Marielle Suba, Kaymar Thomas, Paul Wagner, Joseph Weston, and Janet
Wong of Princeton Architectural Press
—Kevin C. Lippert, publisher
Contents
6 Foreword

8 Back to the Bauhaus

Ellen Lupton

10 Beyond the Basics

Jennifer Cole Phillips

12 Formstorming

32 Point, Line, Plane

48 Rhythm and Balance

60 Scale

68 Texture

80 Color

98 Gestalt Principles

116 Framing

128 Hierarchy

140 Layers

154 Transparency

166 Modularity

186 Grid
200 Pattern

214 Diagram

232 Time and Motion

248 Rules and Randomness

260 Bibliography

262 Index
Foreword
Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips

This book is a guide to visual form-making, showing designers how

to build richness and complexity around simple relationships. We
created the first edition of this book in 2008 because we didn’t see
anything quite like it for today’s students and young designers: a
concise, contemporary guide to two-dimensional design. Since its
release, Graphic Design: The New Basics has reached an
enthusiastic audience around the world. Everywhere we go, we
meet educators and young designers who have used the book and
learned something from it.
What’s new in this volume? You will find updated and expanded
content throughout the book, reflecting new ideas emerging in our
classrooms at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). The most
important addition to this volume, however, is an entirely new
opening chapter devoted to “formstorming,” a term originated by
Jennifer Cole Phillips. Formstorming is a set of structured
techniques for generating visual solutions to graphic design
challenges. We open the book with this chapter in order to plunge
our readers directly into the act of visual invention.
As educators with decades of combined experience in graduate
and undergraduate teaching, we have witnessed the design world
change and change again in response to new technologies. When
we were students ourselves in the 1980s, classic books such as
Armin Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual (published in 1965) had
begun to lose their relevance within the restless and shifting design
scene. Postmodernism was on the rise, and abstract design
exercises seemed out of step with the interest at that time in
appropriation and historicism.
During the 1990s, design educators became caught in the pressure
to teach (and learn) software, and many of us struggled to balance
technical skills with visual and critical thinking. Form sometimes got
technical skills with visual and critical thinking. Form sometimes got
lost along the way, as design methodologies moved away from
universal visual concepts toward a more anthropological
understanding of design as a constantly changing flow of cultural
sensibilities.
This book addresses the gap between software and visual
thinking. By focusing on form, we have re-embraced the pioneering
work of modernist design educators, from Josef Albers and László
Moholy-Nagy at the Bauhaus to Armin Hofmann and some of our
own great teachers, including Malcolm Grear.
We initiated this project when we noticed that our students were
not at ease building concepts abstractly. They were adept at working
and reworking pop-culture vocabularies, but they were less
comfortable manipulating scale, rhythm, color, hierarchy, grids, and
diagrammatic relationships.
This is a book for students and emerging designers, and it is
illustrated primarily with student work, produced within graduate
and undergraduate design studios. Our school, MICA, has been our
laboratory. Numerous faculty and scores of students participated in
our brave experiment. The work shown on these pages is varied and
diverse, reflecting an organic range of skill levels and sensibilities.
Unless otherwise noted, all the student examples were generated in
the context of MICA’s courses; a few projects originate from schools
we visited or where our own graduate alumni are teaching.
Our student contributors come from China, India, Japan, Korea,
Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Zimbabwe, a wide range of US states, and
many other places. The book was manufactured in China and
published with Princeton Architectural Press in New York City. It was
thus created in a global context. The work presented within its pages
is energized by the diverse backgrounds of its producers, whose
creativity is shaped by their cultural identities as well as by their
unique life experiences. A common thread that draws all these
people together in one place is design.
The majority of student work featured here comes from the course
we teach together at MICA, the Graphic Design MFA Studio. Our
MFA program’s first publishing venture was the book D.I.Y.: Design
It Yourself (2006), directed at general readers who want to use
design in their own lives. We have published a series of other titles
since then, including Indie Publishing (2009), Graphic Design
Thinking (2010), and Type on Screen (2014). These books are
researched and produced under the aegis of MICA’s Center for
Design Thinking, an umbrella for organizing the college’s diverse
efforts in the area of design education research.
Complementing the student work included in this book are
examples from contemporary professional practice that
demonstrate visually rich design approaches. Many of the designers
featured, including Marian Bantjes, Alicia Cheng, Peter Cho,
Malcolm Grear, David Plunkert, C. E. B. Reas, Paul Sahre, Rick
Valicenti, and Jan van Toorn, have worked with our students as
visiting artists at MICA. Some conducted special workshops, whose
results are included in this volume.
Graphic Design: The New Basics lays out the elements of a visual
language whose forms are employed by individuals, institutions,
and communities that are increasingly connected in a global society.
We hope the book will inspire more thought and creativity in the
years ahead.
Acknowledgments
The first edition of this book constituted my degree project in the Doctorate in
Communication Design program at the University of Baltimore. I thank my advisors, Stuart
Moulthrop, Sean Carton, and Amy Pointer. I also thank my colleagues at MICA, including
Samuel Hoi, president; Ray Allen, provost; Gwynne Keathley, vice provost for research and
graduate studies; Brockett Horne, chair, Graphic Design BFA; and my longtime friend and
collaborator, Jennifer Cole Phillips. Special thanks go to the dozens of students who
contributed work.
Editors Clare Jacobson, Nicola Brower, and the team at Princeton Architectural Press
made the book real.
My family is an inspiration, especially my parents Bill, Lauren, Mary Jane, and Ken; my
children Jay and Ruby; my sisters Julia and Michelle; and my husband Abbott.

Ellen Lupton
My contribution to this book is dedicated to Malcolm Grear, mentor and friend, who taught
me to approach design from the inside out, and instilled an appetite for invention and
formal rigor.
The culture at MICA is a joy in which to work, thanks in large part to the vision and
support of our past president, Fred Lazarus; our new president, Samuel Hoi; provost Ray
Allen; vice provost for research and graduate studies Gwynne Keathley; and our talented
faculty colleagues. Deep respect and thanks to our students for their commitment and
contributions. Heartfelt gratitude goes to my friend and close collaborator, Ellen Lupton, for
raising the bar with grace and generosity.
I am thankful for the support of my family and close friends, especially my parents Ann
and Jack; and my sisters Lanie and Jodie.

Jennifer Cole Phillips

Back to the Bauhaus
Ellen Lupton

The idea of searching out a shared framework in which to invent and

organize visual content dates back to the origins of modern graphic
design. In the 1920s, institutions such as the Bauhaus in Germany
explored design as a universal, perceptually based “language of
vision,” a concept that continues to shape design education today
around the world.
This book reflects on that vital tradition in light of profound shifts
in technology and global social life. Whereas the Bauhaus promoted
rational solutions through planning and standardization, designers
and artists today are drawn to idiosyncrasy, customization, and
sublime accidents as well as to standards and norms. The modernist
preference for reduced, simplified forms now coexists with a desire
to build systems that yield unexpected results. Today, the impure,
the contaminated, and the hybrid hold as much allure as forms that
are sleek and perfected. Visual thinkers often seek to spin out
intricate results from simple rules or concepts rather than reduce an
image or idea to its simplest parts.

The Bauhaus Legacy In the 1920s, faculty at the Bauhaus and other
schools analyzed form in terms of basic geometric elements. They
believed this language would be understandable to everyone,
grounded in the universal instrument of the eye.
Bauhaus faculty pursued this idea from different points of view.
Wassily Kandinsky called for the creation of a “dictionary of
elements” and a universal visual “grammar” in his Bauhaus
textbook Point and Line to Plane. His colleague László Moholy-Nagy
sought to uncover a rational vocabulary ratified by a shared society
and a common humanity. Courses taught by Josef Albers
emphasized systematic thinking over personal intuition, objectivity
over emotion.
Albers and Moholy-Nagy forged the use of new media and new
materials. They saw that art and design were being transformed by
technology—photography, film, and mass production. And yet their
ideas remained profoundly humanistic, always asserting the role of
the individual over the absolute authority of any system or method.
Design, they argued, is never reducible to its function or to a
technical description.
Since the 1940s, numerous educators have refined and expanded
on the Bauhaus approach, from Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes at
the New Bauhaus in Chicago; to Johannes Itten, Max Bill, and Gui
Bonsiepe at the Ulm School in Germany; to Emil Ruder and Armin
Hofmann in Switzerland; to the “new typographies” of Wolfgang
Weingart, Dan Friedman, and Katherine McCoy in Switzerland and
the United States. Each of these revolutionary educators articulated
structural approaches to design from distinct and original
perspectives.
Some of them also engaged in the postmodern rejection of
universal communication. According to postmodernism, which
emerged in the 1960s, it is futile to look for inherent meaning in an
image or object because people will bring their own cultural biases
and personal experiences to the process of interpretation. As
postmodernism itself became a dominant ideology in the 1980s and
’90s, in both the academy and in the marketplace, the design
process got mired in the act of referencing cultural styles or tailoring
messages to narrowly defined communities.

The New Basics Designers at the Bauhaus believed not only in a

universal way of describing visual form, but also in its universal
significance. Reacting against that belief, postmodernism
discredited formal experiment as a primary component of thinking
and making in the visual arts. Formal study was considered to be
tainted by its link to universalistic ideologies. This book recognizes a
difference between description and interpretation, between a
potentially universal language of making and the universality of
meaning.
Today, software designers have realized the Bauhaus goal of
describing (but not interpreting) the language of vision in a universal
way. Software organizes visual material into menus of properties,
parameters, filters, and so on, creating tools that are universal in
their social ubiquity, cross-disciplinarity, and descriptive power.
Photoshop, for example, is a systematic study of the features of an
image (its contrast, size, color model, and so on). InDesign and
QuarkXpress are structural explorations of typography: they are
software machines for controlling leading, alignment, spacing, and
column structures as well as image placement and page layout.
In the aftermath of the Bauhaus, textbooks of basic design have
returned again and again to elements such as point, line, plane,
texture, and color, organized by principles of scale, contrast,
movement, rhythm, and balance. This book revisits those concepts
as well as looking at some of the new universals emerging today.
What are these emerging universals? What is new in basic design?
Consider, for example, transparency — a concept explored in this
book. Transparency is a condition in which two or more surfaces or
substances are visible through each other. We constantly experience
transparency in the physical environment: from water, glass, and
smoke to venetian blinds, slatted fences, and perforated screens.
Graphic designers across the modern period have worked with
transparency, but never more so than today, when transparency can
be instantly manipulated with commonly used tools.
Transparency and Layers The Google Earth interface allows users to manipulate the
transparency of overlays placed over satellite photographs of Earth. Here, Hurricane Katrina
hovers over the Gulf Coast of the US. Storm: University of Wisconsin, Madison Cooperative
Institute for Meteorogical Satellite Studies, 2005. Composite: Jack Gondela.

What does transparency mean? Transparency can be used to

construct thematic relationships. For example, compressing two
pictures into a single space can suggest a conflict or synthesis of
ideas (East/West, male/female, old/new). Designers also employ
transparency as a compositional (rather than thematic) device, using
it to soften edges, establish emphasis, separate competing
elements, and so on.
Transparency is crucial to the vocabulary of film and motion-
based media. In place of a straight cut, an animator or editor
diminishes the opacity of an image over time (fade to black) or
mixes two semitransparent images (cross dissolve). Such transitions
affect a film’s rhythm and style. They also modulate, in subtle ways,
the message or content of the work. Although viewers rarely stop to
interpret these transitions, a video editor or animator understands
them as part of the basic language of moving images.
them as part of the basic language of moving images.
Layering is another universal concept with rising importance.
Physical printing processes use layers (ink on paper), and so do
software interfaces (from layered Photoshop files to sound or
motion timelines).
Transparency and layering have always been at play in the
graphic arts. In today’s context, what makes them new again is their
omnipresent accessibility through software. Powerful digital tools
are commonly available to professional artists and designers but
also to children, amateurs, and tinkerers of every stripe. Their
language has become universal.
Software tools provide models of visual media, but they don’t tell
us what to make or what to say. It is the designer’s task to produce
works that are relevant to living situations (audience, context,
program, brief, site) and to deliver meaningful messages and rich,
embodied experiences. Each producer animates design’s core
structures from his or her own place in the world.
Beyond the Basics
Jennifer Cole Phillips

Even the most robust visual language is useless without the ability
to engage it in a living context. While this book centers around
formal structure and experiment, some opening thoughts on
process and problem solving are appropriate here, as we hope
readers will reach not only for more accomplished form, but for
form that resonates with fresh meaning.
Before the Macintosh, solving graphic design problems meant
outsourcing at nearly every stage of the way: manuscripts were sent
to a typesetter; photographs— selected from contact sheets—were
printed at a lab and corrected by a retoucher; and finished artwork
was the job of a paste-up artist, who sliced and cemented type and
images onto boards. This protocol slowed down the work process
and required designers to plan each step methodically.
By contrast, easily accessed software, cloud storage, ubiquitous
wi-fi, and powerful laptops now allow designers and users to control
and create complex work flows from almost anywhere.
Yet, as these digital technologies afford greater freedom and
convenience, they also require ongoing education and upkeep. This
recurring learning curve, added to already overloaded schedules,
often cuts short the creative window for concept development and
formal experimentation.
In the college context, students arrive ever more digitally adept.
Acculturated by social media, smart phones, iPads, and apps, design
students command the technical savvy that used to take years to
build. This network know-how, though, does not necessarily
translate into creative thinking.
Too often, the temptation to turn directly to the computer
precludes deeper levels of research and ideation—the distillation
zone that unfolds beyond the average appetite for testing the waters
and exploring alternatives. People, places, thoughts, and things
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
boat would be taken as a harmless trader and allowed to go out. He
guessed wrong. The Agassiz made a dash for the open sea. But by
this time wireless had brought up two other American warships.
They closed in on the incipient raider and signaled her to heave to.
Not being obeyed, they planted a shell in front of the raider’s bow,
which brought her up.
Before the naval men could get aboard the Agassiz, her crew worked
as hard as they could to throw overboard everything of an
incriminating nature. They also tried to wreck the engine and
destroy the bearings in the magneto. The blue-jackets found some
rifles and revolvers, some German flags and a secret cipher. From
the papers it was learned that B—— was in hiding at Venados
Island. This was on Mexican soil, so he could not be seized.
It was learned that the German Consul at Matzatlan had forced all
the crew to take the oath of allegiance to the Kaiser. He had
instructed B—— to capture speedier boats, and after raiding Pacific
shipping to work the Southern Pacific, thence to go by the west
coast of Africa and north on a dash for some German port, so that
he might send to Wilhelmstrasse—Germany’s Scotland Yard—the
package of papers entrusted to him by the Mexican German
ambassador.
Had this raider gotten into the open seas and taken captive a faster
and better equipped ship, it might have done a very considerable
damage to shipping, just as did the several German raiders which for
a time harrassed the Allied commerce. That her career was stopped
at the outset was due to the keenness of a legless newsboy, anxious
to do his bit for the country whose uniform he once had worn. There
is enough, let us repeat, in this very story to give hope to every
crippled soldier coming back from France—for this, taken in all its
bearings, was about as important a piece of work as this busy
division had, and is one of the biggest of all the A. P. L. cases.
The A. P. L. did not disband at the signing of the Armistice, and it is
well that it did not. San Diego, like many another city, has had more
than its share of bootlegging and vice investigations to carry on,
owing to the fact that the growing feeling of license, which had
developed since the Armistice, had spread among our troops. Among
those quartered near San Diego, there were, of course, some not
above reproach, and the bootlegger was known here as elsewhere.
This pleasant and peaceful town in the sun-kissed South also had its
share of the German-born. It would take a Luther Burbank, perhaps,
to change them, and even Luther “would need time.”
There was one man of great wealth naturalized in California in 1898,
who held a prominent position in San Diego business life. He was
known to have been in close touch with all the famous Germans,
and had a pretty good insight into affairs American and Mexican.
When we went into the war, this suspect became distinctly pro-
German and was one of the most active propagandists along the
border, apparently entirely forgetful of the fact that he owed
allegiance to the United States. Being well acquainted with the
German population in Mexico, he and others are alleged to have
aided in the establishment of a wireless plant in Mexico, and to have
financed people who ought not to have been financed, in view of
their past records. It was charged against him by fellow-citizens that
he worked to some extent with German money; that he was
connected, at least indirectly, with the Hindu plot case, and that he
knew more than he should about the illicit shipment of arms in the
Annie Larson steamship case. In fact, he was charged rather openly
with having been interested in the German efforts to give aid to the
ship Maverick in the Pacific Ocean. The wireless plant in Mexico was
located and wrecked, which spoiled the attempts of an enemy clique
to establish wireless communication between Mexico and German
ships in Honolulu.
This same man was linked with the scheme of buying arms in New
York and shipping them via San Diego into Mexico. British Military
Intelligence also charged this man with being head and front of the
most complete pro-German organization in that part of the world. He
was charged with delivering coal from San Diego to a German
steamship. The British Government and that of the United States
joined hands in following out this pro-German citizen of America. He
was traced to Europe and found to have gone to Berlin instead of to
Paris. He was alleged to be guilty of fraudulent transactions at an
Army post, and a man connected with him in his operations has
been convicted. He succeeded in getting his son and son-in-law
exempted from the draft, and attempted to get his son a commission
in the Quartermaster Department. For months United States agents
from various departments have been after this man, recording every
move he made. Finally a joint meeting of the several agents of the
United States, gathered in San Diego, decided that the time was ripe
to get out a search warrant and go through his place of business, his
safety deposit box, and his residence. Just then there came a
change in the personnel of D. J.—and after this adjustment the
Armistice ended it all! The investigation, therefore, is not closed at
this writing, and the Department of Justice is still on the trail of this
disloyal “American.” He is one of a great many of his type claiming
citizenship in this country.
It would seem that after a native of Germany had passed forty-two
years in the United States, he would learn to feel a certain pride and
appreciation of the benefits he had enjoyed here. That was not
always the case—certainly it was not true in the instance of the
gentleman who is filed away as Case No. 392. This worthy had
abused the Allies in language too foul to print, and seemed to think
that no one in this country would resent anything he said. When
called down by a loyal citizen, he dared anybody to make him stop
talking. He said that England started the war and had an agreement
with Belgium whereby England could go through Belgium in order to
strike at Germany. He said England sunk a great many boats and
then blamed it on the German submarines. He said that England
sent one hundred and fifty newspaper men here to write up stories
against the Germans; that he hoped the submarines would blow up
every damned American boat on the ocean, and sink all the
transports and ships carrying munitions; that the men the Yankees
had in France in March, 1918, did not amount to anything; that the
United States couldn’t make him fight; that this —— ——
Government was rotten to the core. He made other remarks of like
violent nature, and his remarks against the President of the United
States were coupled with such language that swift hanging would
really have been about the only just punishment for him. He was
arrested and undertook to deny the remarks reported against him.
The jury found him guilty. He was sent to prison for three years. He
ought by all means to be deported when he gets out of jail, and so
ought any German in this country who has been found at any time
to be guilty of any such talk. We do not need that sort of “citizens”
in America, and we are not going to have them here.
There was another case, No. 300, in peaceful San Diego, in which
the suspect seemed anxious to spread broadcast every manner of
pro-German propaganda. He had been a naturalized citizen of this
country for twenty years, and through his position in one of the city
banks, he had been closely associated with many of San Diego’s
leading business men. Yet, still deep in his heart was that love for
the Fatherland which made him willing to fight this free country
where he claimed citizenship and where he had all the benefits of
our too weakly-lenient Government. It finally dawned on the minds
of some of the customers of the bank that this man was not right.
A. P. L. was called on to investigate him and worked on the case for
months. The man was finally taken into custody, and the issue was
joined between the United States Government on the one hand and
this suspect and his influential friends on the other. A long trial was
had and the jury disagreed. A second trial came off and A. P. L. had
fifty witnesses ready to testify. The result was a conviction and a
sentence of four years at McNeill’s Island. Truly, anyone reading the
San Diego cases must agree that that division did not lack in energy
and diligence.
The A. P. L. in Pasadena
Life is so idyllic in Pasadena—roses—oranges—that sort of thing that
you would not suspect that anything evil could happen there, or that
anyone ever could suspect anyone else in those select surroundings.
But Pasadena had her A. P. L., and they were not in the least above
suspecting the right people once in a while, as a brief tale or so may
prove. In short, Pasadena had more than 100 cases of alien enemy
activities, 321 cases of disloyalty and sedition, of which thirty-six
were concerned with persons not citizens of the United States.
These totals show distinctly the amount of investigation required of
transients, for the War Department cases, having to do with the
Selective Service Act, came to only 155 investigations.
The B—— family of Pasadena were known as prominent pacifists.
They held some very pleasant pacifist meetings in their houses until
the Home Guards and the A. P. L. got after them. After that their
meetings were neither so pacifistic nor so pleasant. There was a
professor of languages at Throop College, who was always a
German sympathizer and who always was very outspoken for
Germany. He was reported a number of times to the Pasadena
A. P. L. Throop was made over into a military training school, and
that was about all for Professor B——. He did not last.
Mrs. Jack C——, a society woman of the Maryland Hotel, was gay
and liberal with officers and soldiers—would even give them a drink
without the formality of their removing their uniforms. Reported to
the authorities. No action could be taken under the law at that time.
Miss Helen F—— was a very ardent pacifist and a very ardent
Socialist as well, and a great friend of some of the Socialists who
write books and have a national reputation. She was investigated by
the Department of Justice at Pasadena, and when she went east to
New York last summer, the Navy Intelligence had her under its
watchful eye all the time. Perhaps she does not know that.
Dr. H—— of Pasadena was arrested by Federal authorities, it having
been alleged that he “doctored” the eyes of boys who were subject
to the draft.
“Friends of Irish Freedom”—a branch of the Sinn Fein organization—
contributed to the defense of leaders of the latter organization who
were on trial in New York. Their meetings were attended by two
A. P. L. operatives who reported to Department of Justice. Meetings
discontinued.
M. J——, a prominent Russian, staying at a prominent hotel with a
prominent count and countess, was kept under very prominent
surveillance for some time and reported daily to the Department of
Justice.
Ben and Robert L—— were not so prominent, but were content with
evading the draft, so it was charged. They and their mother fled the
country and went to San Salvador in South America. Pasadena
Division, A. P. L., greatly assisted D. J. in Los Angeles in locating
these parties. The case was of international interest.
Then there was the case of Madam P——, reported to be the wife of
a Russian count who is now a citizen of Germany and an officer in
the German army. Subject arrived in America by way of Scandinavia,
by way of Germany. She pronounced herself as frankly pro-German
in a talk with the A. P. L. operative, who speaks very good German
and who claimed to be in sympathy with Germany. In public, Madam
is more guarded. She confided to the operative that she is getting
mail from her daughter in Munich through the president of the
Norwegian-American Steamship Line, who arranged with the captain
for the forwarding and receiving of letters. The Department of
Justice got all of this as well, as did the Postmaster General in
Washington.
In Pasadena you might run against a count or countess or baroness
almost any way you looked. There was the Baroness P——, wife of a
Philadelphia man, who spends her winters in a Pasadena hotel. Very
pro-German before we went to war, but more quiet since then. She
is watched whenever she is in Pasadena. It’s getting so a lady can
do hardly anything at all without those vulgar, dreadful people
knowing all about it!
The A. P. L. in Whittier
This division had thirty-three sedition cases, in spite of the glorious
climate of California. For instance, information came that one Jack H
—— and his wife were pro-Germans. They were running a fake
jewelry business in Los Angeles. An A. P. L. investigation discovered
that the gentleman had two names; that he left the Pacific Coast in
1910 with another gentleman and that they conducted a fur
business in New York, where they failed handsomely and went into
elegant bankruptcy. Suspect was alleged to have been convicted of
perjury and sentenced to two or three years in the Federal prison at
Atlanta, Georgia. It was developed further that he was given a stay
of execution under bond of $10,000. The bond was forfeited and
subject came to Los Angeles, where he resided with his purported
wife and did business under the name of Jack H——. Upon said
information, duly secured, the gentleman with the alias was
arrested, returned to New York, and re-sentenced to three years in
the penitentiary. His wife is still trying to find out where A. P. L.
learned all about these things. Tut, tut! Cannot an honest jeweler be
allowed to get away from his past in the wilds of the Far West?
Whittier is reported to be a quiet Quaker community. It has a
population of approximately 25,000, being, in effect, a suburb of Los
Angeles. The local division had forty-three men. Whittier always has
boasted that it is a place where crooks do not congregate. There are
Whittier oil fields, which are the second best on the Pacific slope, but
there were no I. W. W.’s in this territory, and no pro-Germans of any
very outspoken sort, no depredations, but for the most part calm, as
becomes a Quaker capital.
The A. P. L. in Orleans
Perhaps you do not know where Orleans, California, is located? And
perhaps you did not know that a branch of the A. P. L. was located
in Orleans? That, however, is the case. There were just three
members of the Orleans A. P. L., and, since there were but three,
why not break the more or less inexorable rule about names and just
give them in this case? J. A. Hunter was Chief at Orleans; C. W.
Baker was Secretary; and P. L. Young was the third member.
The Chief reports:
In this small and isolated community, this seemed to be all
the organization necessary. These men were selected as
 the best representatives of the community, and all
subscribed to the A. P. L. oath. The local headquarters are
at Orleans, with no further executive and office force
necessary. Expenses were nominal and were defrayed by
individual members. Orleans is an isolated point, 102
miles from a railroad, communication with the outside
being by auto stages. It was easy to watch all travel
through the district, and the few aliens, only two, who
were resident were easy to keep track of. There is no
telegraphic or telephone communication with the outside,
so all reports had to be made by mail. We looked after the
work necessary in our district, rendering such assistance
as we were able and were asked to do. We had no trouble
at any time with the local authorities.
[Signed] J. A. HUNTER, Chief.
We may be content to close the story of California, ragged and
incomplete as it has been, with this report from a little mountain
community of California. It is what the author is disposed to call
incontestably the best report that has been found in all the great
Golden State, if not, indeed, in all the United States.
Only three men, away out in the hills—but all of them Americans and
all of them ready to work for America—that is why this League was
great; because it had men such as these ready to do its work, as
best they could, in whatever form it came to hand for the doing. One
fancies that in all the stories of the many different towns reported in
these pages, there will not be one better received by the great
brotherhood of the A. P. L. than this one from Orleans, 102 miles
from the nearest rails, with no telegraph and no telephone. The
author of this book hopes to see Orleans some time. He believes it
may be American.
 BOOK III
THE FOUR WINDS
How Manufactures, Munitions and Agriculture were
Protected—Briefs of Cases from All Over the Country—
Chips from the Little Fellow’s Axe—Odds and Ends from
the Files—The Far-Flung Work of the A. P. L.
I The Story of the East
New York—Pennsylvania—New Jersey—Connecticut—
Massachusetts—Delaware—Rhode Island—New Hampshire—
Maine—Vermont.
II The Story of the North
Ohio—Indiana—Michigan—Illinois—Wisconsin—Minnesota—
Missouri—Iowa—South Dakota—North Dakota—Kansas—
Nebraska.
III The Story of the South
Maryland—Virginia—West Virginia—North Carolina—South
Carolina—Georgia—Alabama—Mississippi—Florida—Kentucky—
Tennessee—Louisiana—Texas—Arkansas—Oklahoma.
IV The Story of the West
Colorado—Montana—New Mexico—Utah—Arizona—Wyoming—
Idaho—Nevada—California—Oregon—Washington—Alaska.
 CHAPTER I
THE STORY OF THE EAST

In deplorably skeletonized fashion, we have offered a brief story of

the League’s growth, its purposes and its methods, and the stories
of some of its great centers. But how about the country-wide
achievements of the League, its field story? How can it be told? It is
matter of regret that in no possible way can that ever be put within
the compass of book publication. The records of these millions of
cases, as has been said, runs into tons.
If you should visit the division offices, for instance, of New York,
Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, or any other large A. P. L.
center, you would see in each city a room full of filing cabinets, with
indexed drawers, carrying in permanent form the story of the
League’s work in that given locality. Mass all these from the
hundreds of cities engaged in the work, and you would have a pile
of filing cabinets as high as a tall building. Go to the National
Headquarters and you would find more rooms full of cabinets,
covering the national work—an enormous total, painstaking, exact,
correct. Go over to the Military Intelligence and you see more of the
League’s work there. Go to the Department of Justice and look at
the vast accumulations there at hand from the reports of this
auxiliary.
Now, in imagination, pile all this uncomprehended assemblage of
records into the middle of some park or square and have a glance at
it in mass. In that mountain-pile of written and printed material,
thousands of brains have recorded their soberest and most just
conclusions, and have told why they concluded thus or thus.
Thousands of stenographers have worked long days and nights on
these tons of millions of pages. Be sure, in this mass of a nation’s
story in counter-espionage, there is to be found, ticketed and
tabulated, filed and cross-indexed under name and number, as part
of the archives of the United States, the life and actions, the birth,
derivation, antecedents, convictions, assertions and beliefs of
practically every man and woman of German name in America. But
close to the foot of this mass of the archives, lay down upon the
ground a book, a volume of ordinary size; let us say, this book now
in your hand. How small it seems! It is small. It is no more than a
fraction, a mite. It is not enough. Some man’s loyal, unpaid, patient
labor went into every one of these records.
There came, curiously, cumulatively, the feeling that this was not
merely a mass of quasi-public documents, but an assemblage of the
most valuable human documents ever collected in America. This was
massed proof, not of work, but of patriotism. Then we did have, we
do have, a country; there is a real America? Yes, and let no man
doubt it ever again. It is a great and splendid country. These
hundreds of thousands of pages which have been read—and every
report sent in has been read—make the greatest reflex of America it
ever has been the privilege of any man to know. Talk no more of a
merely material America—it is not true. The real America at least is a
noble, a splendid, a patriotic country, eager to do its share,
determined to take its place.
The bewildering amount of material from all over the United States
made condensation and classification alike difficult. It was therefore
decided to separate the country into four loosely divided sections,
the North, the East, the West, the South, and to throw into each
division just so many condensed reports, taken at random from the
whole as might be possible within the existing space limitations.
In the East and Northeast were located many or most of the great
munition works and embarkation points as well as many centers of
war work, manufacturing and shipping. This meant one form of work
for the A. P. L. In the great middle section of the country—the semi-
industrial, semi-agricultural central and north-central states—the
activities of the League were slightly more varied. This cluster of
inland states we have grouped as North. The South is known almost
traditionally; and the West may arbitrarily be made to cover the far
lands to the Pacific Coast itself, the state of California, with its great
cities, alone being given subclassification in another section of this
volume. Into these several hoppers the grist was thrown.
Would you like a real history of the war, a story which does convey a
comprehensible picture? The simplest way is the best way. Read the
Atlantic Monthly for January, 1919. Does it give a great pen picture
by some artist in words? No. But it gives verbatim translations of bits
of conversation heard by a nurse in a hospital full of wounded
Russian soldiers; detached, disconnected comments, points of view,
records of personal experiences. That is great reporting—the
greatest reporting in the world. Had our more famous
correspondents kept away from the routine of the alleged “front”
and gone into the hospitals for a half million personal statements of
wounded men of every nation, they would not have failed to show
us the war. They would have written a great story of the war—a real
history of the war. Now the astonishing thing about the record of the
A. P. L. is that its reports came in precisely that way. The story of the
League becomes a history of the country served by the League.
NEW YORK
Once in a while an operative landed a big case on a small clue. A
New York operative was sent out to look up one R. R. A——, an
employe of a shirtwaist factory, who was alleged to have said that he
knew how to beat the draft. The same suspect was heard to say that
he knew of four men, the knowledge of whom would be worth
$10,000 to the United States. When interviewed by an A. P. L.
operative, he denied most of the allegations made against him, but
he did give the name of an Austrian army officer named L—— who
had plans of submarines and battleships of the United States. This
latter gentleman was followed, his baggage searched, and the plans
confiscated.
Chautauqua County, New York, includes the cities of Jamestown and
Dunkirk, each of which had an A. P. L. branch, the former being the
first to organize, June 26, 1918. The Chautauqua County division
proper was organized as late as October 28, 1919, an assistant chief
being appointed for Jamestown and for Dunkirk. The entire county
covers an area of about 1,000 square miles and has a population of
more than 100,000.
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 informed, changed week by week. Further,
it was learned that the system followed by L——’s New
York friends was to give men physical examinations, and if
found fit, to furnish free transportation through the
channels mentioned above. The sole requirements were
loyalty to Germany and a sound physique. Operative
stated that he showed surprise when L—— gave him this
information, and said: “Then the report that a German
captain was seen in New York was true?” F—— replied:
“Certainly, they stay there a week at a time, taking in the
theatres and waiting for their cargoes to be delivered at
various ports, where they pick them up on their way to
Germany.”
R—— furnished the name of the New York man for the
current week, and a good operative went to New York to
confer with the Special Agent of D. J. there and with the
New York Division A. P. L. General Delivery was covered,
but nothing showed. A second week was tried with the
same result. Operative was then asked to arrange an
interview with F—— for his supposed cousin, but F——,
according to operative, refused to talk or to see this
cousin.
R—— came back to us declaring that F—— knew he was
being watched and suspected him, and might kill him.
Tension was high at local headquarters. Then we started
in to investigate R—— who had been our informant right
along. We learned that his record was none too good, for
he had offered to procure releases for drafted men for
 amounts ranging from $15 to $30 a head. We then traced
R—— back to Buffalo and got this report: “Great talker
and fine salesman, but always away over his head.” In
other words there was no case and never had been one.
By this time we had almost forgotten E——, the thrift
stamp man. We were younger in detective work then than
we were later.
A report comes from Jamestown, New York, regarding one whom we
will call Henry D——, described as follows: “Known to many in this
town as strongly pro-German; a radical socialist; believed to be an
anarchist; has been very active going from one town to another. He
left Jamestown for Rockford, Illinois; he went thence to Chicago,
thence to Grand Rapids. From the latter city he came back to
Jamestown. He has now gone to New York. We understand he is
contemplating a trip to the old country. Has been very secretive
about his movements. Seems to spend a great deal of money in
travel, although he is only a workman; has boasted that he had
strikes called in every shop to which he was sent.” This man was put
under surveillance by the New York office of the American Protective
League under charge of being a dangerous alien enemy, and was
properly dealt with.
There were no instances of violence in Chautauqua County arising
out of the war situation. The community was at all times right side
up. Those who have sought to belittle or impede any war activity
were effectively stilled.
Schenectady, New York, organized its division on March 1, 1918,
with one chief, two captains, four lieutenants, and eighteen
operatives. The division conducted sixty-seven investigations for
character and loyalty; forty-two under the Espionage Act; twenty-six
cases of propaganda, and fifteen of draft evasion. The division was
commended by the War Department for showing a high standard of
efficiency; also by the Federal Reserve Bank at Albany. Schenectady
has a large foreign population, among whom may be found quite a
good proportion of radical Socialists. These people were expected to
make trouble when we went to war, especially as two of the largest
local industrial concerns, the General Electric Company and the
American Locomotive Company, were engaged on munitions and
other war work. There was no overt act, however, but on the
contrary, the people of the city proved intensely patriotic, over-
subscribing every loan.
Rochester, New York, reports routine work for its division, but had a
good many operatives ready for any emergency that might arise.
The record-cases do not represent the amount of work actually
done, but yield the following figures: Character and loyalty reports,
190; selective service, 4; training camp activities, 2; liquor and vice,
none; war risk insurance, 1; sedition and disloyalty investigations,
25. Rochester would seem to have been much more pacific—not
pacifistic—than at first would be expected.
Albany, New York, offers an instance of a phenomenon more or less
frequently recurrent during the war—namely, the apprehensiveness
of the feminine mind as regards mysterious flashlights in the stilly
night. The informant stated that for some time she and her
neighbors had been watching flashes which came from a certain
house at night and kept up for a long time. She was very much
excited. Two operatives visited the vicinity shortly after dark. A light
did appear which might have been that of a lantern. It would dim
and come on again. The informant stated that sometimes the light
would grow as bright as an automobile light, and sometimes it would
seem to be red. The next morning the operatives found a farmer
plowing near the suspicious house. He admitted that he owned the
house. He said he and his wife were American born, of British
grandparents. The operatives asked him about the mysterious lights.
Smilingly he asked them to go through the house. It then was
clearly evident that the light they had seen came from a lamp in the
middle of a room. The mysterious intermittent flashes were only due
to persons passing between the lamp and the window. The farmer
also said he often worked nights bundling up beets, carrots,
radishes, etc., which he had pulled during the afternoon and
expected to take to early market the next morning. He usually did
this work just outside the house on a bench. On inquiry as to what
he used, he showed a large carriage lantern with a reflector, in the
back of which was a piece of red glass. So the women had been
right after all. He would move this lantern from one end of the
bench to the other as he worked, and this made the changes in the
color of the light. The intermittent flashes were due to his passing
back and forth in front of it.
A big chemical poison scare was nipped in the bud by the
investigation of a German woman who was found putting up
capsules of a white powder in her house. Of course, nothing less
than poison for our soldiers and sailors could be predicted.
Investigation proved that though the woman was of German
descent, she was entirely loyal to this country. She made a little
extra money at home filling capsules for a drug house in the city.
These capsules contained bicarbonate of soda, tartaric acid, etc.,
and the woman took a few of them in the presence of the operatives
to show that they were harmless. Thus, another case proved to be a
“dud.”
An alien enemy was wanted at Albany, reported by D. J. to be
traveling on a motor-cycle. It was known that he had a girl not far
away and called on her or wrote to her occasionally. The mails in this
case, as in many others, were used for decoy purposes. A registered
special delivery letter, marked for personal delivery only, was mailed
to him at the girl’s address, with the idea that she would give
forwarding directions to the messenger who delivered the letter. The
result was better than expected. When the messenger arrived at the
house, he saw a man just about to leave on a motor-cycle, and
thinking that this might be the man, he hailed him and presented
the letter. The suspect signed for the letter and was at once arrested
and turned over to the Department of Justice.
Syracuse, New York, had a man at the head of its division who,
before he came an A. P. L. chief, had made four hundred
investigations, and since that time has directed one hundred and
fifty more. A very close liaison was maintained with the Department
of Justice and the local police department.
Just as valuable as though it recorded some great crime is the report
from Hudson Falls, New York: “Our community is made up of loyal,
patriotic citizens, who responded to each and every call to duty. We
have been active in local, state and national matters throughout the
war.”
PENNSYLVANIA
It is hard to tell what is going to become of all the military fakes and
pseudo-heroes now that the war is over. Take, for instance, the case
of one Captain Robert H——, ostensibly in the United States Navy,
who fancied Philadelphia as his residence. This worthy captain was
also known by other names. Sometimes he wore a uniform of an
ordinary seaman with overseas service wound stripes, although he
never saw service abroad. He wrote to his wife that he had been
wounded and told her to hang out a service flag with a silver star,
which she dutifully did. The star had not hurt Captain H——, so why
not put it in the window? This gentleman spoke of a great many
flag-raisings and elaborated on the seventy-two days he had spent in
the trenches. He told all about German atrocities, and quite often
took up collections for sick and wounded soldiers and sailors in the
name of this or that hospital. There never yet has been found a
hospital to which he has turned over a dollar. Naturally a good
organizer, this young officer invented a good Navy of his own, the
“Naval Home Defense,” and at one time had enlisted one hundred
and fifty-six members, including one lady and her two young sons.
The project came to grief because of a generous order for some
uniforms, costing something like $1,000, which was placed with a
local clothing firm and had to be paid for. It is too bad, because the
organization also had a ladies’ auxiliary, his wife being president
thereof. This is only one of a very great number of cases of
imposters parading as officers of this or that country.
Bradford, Pennsylvania, is in the heart of the big oil country, and it
had its own troubles by reason of its necessarily motley population.
A very interesting report on local conditions, submitted by the Chief
of McKean County Division, says:
At the outset we were confronted with a situation fast
becoming serious, as so many industrial claims had been
allowed by the district board. Only one or two young men
of social prominence had been inducted into the service,
and charges were frequently made that the Government
did not intend taking men of wealth or prominence and
that it was the laboring men who would have to do the
fighting. The Socialist element was quick to take
advantage of this situation, and men who left here for the
service went away feeling that they had been
discriminated against.
We took up this situation with the Department of Justice,
who sent us a Special Agent. A contingent of boys leaving
for the front did some printing reflecting very seriously on
the methods of the draft board and scoring the local
slackers. They had planned to put a banner on their train
with such inscriptions as, “My father owns an oil well, but
I didn’t claim exemption”; “We have a garden in our back
yard, but I am not a farmer”; etc. We headed off this
plan, but the worst thing about it was that many of the
names upon the slacker list referred to were of men who
had legitimate reasons for exemption. At the same time,
there were some men named who clearly ought to have
been inducted into the service. To silence criticism, we
had a district draft board man come to Bradford, and with
him we went over a lot of cases which had caused
trouble. As a result, many of these cases were reclassified,
and many men inducted into the service. This caused an
entire change of opinion here, and since then we have
had no trouble of that nature.
We had one exemption claimer, a young Jewish merchant,
who told a very pathetic story about dependents—among
 others, a blind father and an invalid brother. This young
Hebrew was of the belief that he could do so much more
for his country if left at home to take care of these
unhappy relatives of his. Investigation did not seem to
bear out his point of view. He was not, however, turned
over to the authorities for action in regard to his
statements, as he was wanted for the army more than for
the courts; and yet, when he was turned over to the
medical men for examination, it was found that he had
something which he did not know he had—serious heart
trouble which actually exempted him! There are some
people you can’t beat any way of the game.
A Bradford pro-German, born in Germany but naturalized before the
war, has always been socialistic. Put under observation, he was
heard to say in the presence of many, at a meeting in honor of a
man who was going to join the colors: “Here is your —— ——
capitalistic system taking the best men we have and leaving men like
——” His remarks were resented and caused a row. Investigated and
reported to Department of Justice at Pittsburgh, this pro-German
was arrested and placed under indictment.
At one of the plants the loyal workingmen had fixed it all up to paint
a man a nice yellow color because he did not subscribe to any
Liberty loans. A. P. L. operatives arrived just in time to prevent the
frescoing above mentioned. The suspect himself was taken aside
and argued with by the A. P. L., with the result that he presently
disclaimed his disloyal remarks, said he was sorry, and wanted to
buy some bonds with the other boys.
The Chief goes on to say that Bradford operated under cover as
much as possible. A good many townsfolk, he says, could not
identify A. P. L. at all, although there were very few who did not
know that there had been some sort of checking up of pretty much
the entire population in matters of interest to the Government. This
impression aided in suppressing a great deal of radical and seditious
talk, and served as a warning to others not to begin that sort of
thing.
Reading, Pennsylvania, reports 170 cases of alien enemy activities,
226 cases of disloyal and seditious talk, 38 cases of investigation of
radical organizations, such as the I. W. W. Among other interesting
stories contained in the Reading report is one which has to do with a
professional labor agitator, a wrong telephone number and an alert
A. P. L. operative. A workman called up a man whom he supposed to
be his friend, and stated that there was going to be a strike pretty
soon at a certain factory. The recipient of the message happened to
be an A. P. L. operator, who at once took up the trail and located his
man in the shop where he was employed. Witnesses soon were
found who proved that this was the man who had started the strike
agitation. He had been there only two weeks. He had been in three
other plants where they were doing Government work and had
made trouble in each plant. He knew the percentage of Government
work in each factory where he had been employed. He was sent to
Philadelphia for full handling. It seemed that he was trying to get in
touch with an official of a Socialist organization and pulled the wrong
telephone number by mistake! You could never tell in war times
when you were talking to an A. P. L. man.
Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, had sixty-six members enrolled.
Considerable character and loyalty investigation work was done, and
a great deal of seditious talk was stopped which otherwise might
have caused trouble. The Chief adds: “The mere fact that such an
organization as ours existed and that we were working in secret had
a wonderful moral effect on the entire community. I regret
exceedingly that this organization has to be dissolved, and am of the
opinion that it will play an important part in the readjustment which
is now taking place.”
Meadville, Pennsylvania, had the usual routine work on deserters,
delinquents, etc., and fourteen operatives were kept busy
throughout the community. The Chief modestly says: “We did
everything we could for our country.”
Bristol, Pennsylvania, did not turn anything in to the Federal courts,
but weeded out a number of undesirable alien enemies from the
shipbuilding plants in that locality. The League gave very material
assistance to the State Constabulary and Borough Police Officers in
making investigations.
NEW JERSEY
The Trenton, New Jersey, district was one of busy environments, and
it offers a number of three-star cases. Let us consider one Graboski,
who had a friend, Grabinski, who tipped off the A. P. L. that Graboski
was not a carpenter, but a chemist with a doctor’s degree from a
foreign university. This amiable masquerader was believed to have
been instrumental in blowing up the plant of the General Electric
Company at Schenectady, New York. In view of his information,
Grabinski was dealt with leniently, but Graboski was followed to his
boarding-place and was there found in bed listening to the
conversation of the occupants down stairs. He was taken before the
United States District Attorney as a preliminary to his internment in a
southern detention camp.
Much more proper than contrary is the conduct of a German bearing
the homely name of Schmidt, living near Trenton, New Jersey.
Investigation was made on report of a neighbor. By the time the
operative called, Schmidt had a service flag in his window. Many
different subjects were discussed, including music. Old man Schmidt
had no more investigations after he declared himself:
Yah, ve Chermans ist fond of musik. I like musik, und
mine vife, she like it to. I haf der old violin vot I brot mit
me from Chermany. I blay him a liddle alvays—old
Cherman tunes—vot ist all I know. Maybe you hear me
sometimes—last year, vot? No? Vell, I blay him not any
more now. You see, der boy—mine son—you don’t know
him—he never live mit us here—he vork in Chicago—he ist
in American Army already. Und I luf to blay, but all vot I
know ist shust Cherman tunes—dat’s all—so I don’t blay
any more. I hav der old viddle avay put.
Trenton, New Jersey, staged a draft raid with two hundred A. P. L.
men and a detachment from Philadelphia under the leadership of the
Assistant Chief of that city. At the Trenton Fair there was a crowd of
75,000 people. The raiders set out in fifty automobiles and broke up
into small parties. At four o’clock in the afternoon the dragnet went
to work, and no one was allowed to leave the grounds without
credentials. Even the fences were watched. All operatives, whether
from the Department of Justice or the A. P. L., worked with courtesy,
and there was no more difficulty in getting out of the grounds than
there would be in getting into a theatre if provided with a ticket.
Many of the men apprehended were farmers from out of the way
places and had their wives and children with them. Those being
evidently not of the slacker variety were released with the
understanding that they report to their local boards. No one was
delayed unnecessarily. After this, all the side shows and amusements
were combed out, and several men were picked up in this way.
About 300 were apprehended and taken to the armory, where their
cases were passed on. Four deserters from our Army were taken,
and the British Military Police apprehended a man, thought to be a
pickpocket, who was masquerading in a Canadian uniform. This raid
was conducted after the much criticised New York slacker drive, and
the contrast was commented upon by the local press.
CONNECTICUT.
New Haven, Connecticut, might very well have been a seat of
trouble, but appears to have pursued the usually even tenor of her
way, sending her young men out in hundreds to fight the country’s
battles, and making very little fuss about it. The division took part in
five minor slacker raids, in which the men gave satisfactory account
of themselves, working closely in touch with the Department of
Justice and the Military Intelligence, especially in the matter of
protection of the large munition factories against sabotage. New
Haven is one of the great American centers for the making of
firearms, and that there has been no serious trouble there is a
matter of congratulation. There were 226 investigations made for
the War Department, each investigation necessitating interviews
with at least three persons. The organization at New Haven was
quiet, even tempered, and strictly efficient, a fine example in a state
which was very strong in its A. P. L. organizations.
New London, Connecticut, besides routine activities, had one case
which involved the trailing of a count, a princess, a Russian banker, a
Greek candy manufacturer, and a prize-fighter, besides a person
described as a “male,” but who proved to be a young lady in a well-
known local family. With these ingredients as preliminary, it might
almost be sufficient to tell any reader to write his own ticket—and
indeed the case is not yet closed. It will probably turn out to be one
of American Bolshevism. The Chief says there is enough in this for a
good movie scenario. As much might be said for another pro-
German case in which the beautiful and accomplished suspect was
followed by D. J. men, who installed a dictograph in her hotel
apartments. This case also had to do with a draft of $14,000 traced
from Montreal to a New York bank, through which British Secret
Service men discovered a paymaster of German spies in this country.
This woman met several Army and Navy officers in the course of her
travels along three-fourths of the Atlantic Coast. It is most
disappointing to have the Chief add: “We are unable to disclose for
publication any further facts at this date.”
New London had a number of special investigations, some of them
interesting, others ludicrous. One of the latter was Case No. 245,
Subject “Mysterious Flashes.” A woman residing on the shore
reported mysterious flashlights, intermittent, but long continued. She
was sure of nothing less than a German invasion. An operative was
put on the case and worked five hours one night. He found a
mysterious man walking up and down the beach. He had an electric
torch which he flashed here and there, muttering to himself the
while, and now and then putting something in his pocket.
Summoning all his nerve, the operative cried: “Halt! Who goes
there?” Inquiry proved that the man was in sailor garb. When
questioned as to the nature of his mysterious actions, he replied: “I
am catching nightcrawlers for fishing. I want to get some eels for my
breakfast.”
Mystic Village, Connecticut, furnished another scare of the same
variety. Near the village is a hill, known as Lantern Hill since Colonial
days, because it is a convenient signal post. Stories got out about
mysterious lights on Lantern Hill. On one clear night the
investigators saw what seemed to be unmistakable signalling. The
light was brilliant and changed in color from green to red. State and
Naval authorities resolved to look into the matter, and it was
arranged that on a given night patrols of naval reservists from the
submarine base and detachments of the Home Guard should
surround the hill, while forces of the Guard were to patrol the shores
of the sound to catch sight of any answering signals from the sea.
The patrols were duly set, and, sure enough, the light began to
show as brilliant and mysterious as could be asked. It seemed to
swing at an altitude of about two hundred feet above the woods. It
occurred to one of the naval officers on watch that with the aid of
his powerful night glass and a convenient perpendicular presented
by the side of the barn, he might triangulate the position of the light.
He had not been at this very long when he broke out into laughter
and announced that what they had taken to be a mysterious light
was only a star rendered abnormally brilliant by the refractive effect
of the damp night air. Its later disappearances were accounted for by
the later rise in altitude, when of course the light would cease to be
distinguishable from others of like altitude. Taking it all in all, this
about finished the cases of the many mystic lights which were
reported from time to time.
Litchfield, Connecticut, up near the stern and rockbound coast,
offers a good example of sober-going loyalty. There were only fifty-
one cases of seditious talk and twenty of propaganda, whereas the
selective service regulation involved 734 cases.
Ansonia, Connecticut, was honored by the presence of a Russian
Soviet Society called the “Society Lunch,” which had regular
meetings and was organizing other societies in nearby towns.
Sometimes this society would get a speaker from the outside, such
as the editor of the Russian Voice, published in New York. The city of
Ansonia did not like these things, inasmuch as they tended to
promote anarchy and foster revolution. The division had one of its
operatives among the membership, he having joined the society for
the purpose of reporting on its activities. What the society did
became henceforth a matter of interest not only to its membership,
but also to the local body of A. P. L. vigilantes.
The Chief of Norwalk, Connecticut, worked in close touch with the
police of his city and was on the lookout for the various alien
enemies reported from headquarters. He says: “No alien enemy
actually apprehended in my district. The only way we can account
for it is that they were afraid to come here.”
Essex, Connecticut, says something which will meet general
agreement: “We firmly believe that the A. P. L. has done an
inestimable work in the protection of our country. Every man in this
division is glad of the opportunity afforded to be enrolled as an
A. P. L. member.”
MASSACHUSETTS
Springfield, Mass., had only nineteen members in its division. That
we may know the nature of the League membership as a whole, let
us look at the qualifications of these nineteen men. They included a
lawyer, a physician, a broker, a private secretary, a social service
worker, an advertising manager, a college president, a bank
president, a furniture buyer, a merchant, a superintendent of the
Bradstreet Company, a traveling salesman, a life insurance agent, a
masseur, a surgeon, a musician, a shipping foreman, a bank teller
and a high school teacher. The work of the Springfield division had
to do largely with character and loyalty investigations, which ran all
the way from nobody at all to a bishop in the Episcopal Church.
Some male and female applicants for Y. M. C. A., K. of C. and Red
Cross were found unfit “either because of immoralities or bad
habits.” Once in a while a case of disloyalty and sedition came up
which would cause a smile. An applicant for a commission whose
father was a Belgian and whose mother was a German was
investigated and was found to be a loyal American. When
questioned, he said he was for the United States of America, but
that “father would never forgive mother for the invasion of Belgium.”
A more spectacular Springfield case hung on a letter sent by the War
Department to the A. P. L. reading as follows:
Will you please have your agents investigate a man living
at 71 Catherine Street, Springfield, Massachusetts, known
as August X——, and report the result of their
investigation to me?
The final result of this investigation was that the subject was
interned, having been proved to have been a former soldier in von
Kluck’s army of invasion in 1914, who had been taken prisoner by
the French, had escaped from France to the United States and
drifted to Springfield, where he got employment in a machine shop.
“I have always wondered,” says the Chief, “from whom the War
Department received the first information regarding August X——,
and wonder if again we have a case of cherchez la femme.”
DELAWARE
This state is not one of the largest in the Union, and its report is not
one of the largest in the world, but it foreshadows a very satisfactory
state of affairs, both past and future.
Mr. Robert Pennington was State Inspector for Delaware. He worked
by means of three county associates and a full set of captains, one
for each representative district of the State. A great deal of routine
work was handled, much of which had to do with applications for
commissions, overseas service, etc., as well as a certain number of
sedition and disloyalty cases. Some Red Cross rumors were run
down, and at least one important investigation was made of a man
who was putting out machinery better adapted for mixing explosives
than for grinding alleged dental powder. These machines were to be
shipped to Switzerland to a point near the German border. Some
draft evaders, deserters and slackers were rounded up duly. Many
investigations were made by the various chiefs and reported direct
to Washington. The State Inspector had almost daily requests from
the Department of Justice in Washington in the matter of draft
deserters.
RHODE ISLAND
Providence, R. I., had a good active organization of 275 members,
all loyal and hard-working Americans. They did yeoman service in
assisting the local branch of the Department of Justice, whose
offices were so crowded with work at times that the help of the
League was sorely needed.
The A. P. L. in Wakefield, R. I., was small but busy, like all the rest of
that great little State. Much of the League’s activity in this district
had to do with covering the rough and broken seashore, a region
largely occupied by well-to-do Germans. Some of these alien
inhabitants were found to be out-and-out disloyalists, over sixty such
cases being investigated.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
The lack of any extended reports from this state would indicate an
absence of many of the tortuous problems that assailed her larger
New England neighbors. Manchester, N. H., reports that the local
division coöperated with almost every governmental activity in the
State, including the Department of Justice, draft boards, Red Cross,
Four Minute Men, and other branches too numerous to mention. We
may write almost identically the same comment for Maine and
Vermont.
 CHAPTER II
THE STORY OF THE NORTH

Nature has not put upon the face of the globe any region more fit or
more inviting for human occupancy than the temperate zone of
North America. The soil is fertile, producing with fair tillage all the
forms of food needful for the full development of the human species.
The climate is precisely that which calls for sufficient human exertion
in the unescapable battle of life, but not enough to debar men from
a rich surplus of things beyond the mere living, which in the tropics
is all a man asks, or in the Arctics is all a man may hope. Lastly, its
natural transportation is easy and abundant. The rugged, virile,
enterprising and successful population of that region is Nature’s
offering to the problems of the world’s future, and it is safe prophecy
that in this region of America always will be produced many of the
world’s greatest thinkers and greatest doers; because here, surely, is
a splendid human environment.
But man, like other species, is a product of two forces, environment
and heredity. What was the heredity of the temperate zone? Of the
best, the strongest, the most enterprising. The Colonies, New
England and the upper South, sent their strongest sons west in the
early days. Later, the restless populations of Europe, of Irish,
Teutonic and Scandinavian stock, began to swarm into that favored
region, a good part of which, then known as our West, lay
unoccupied. The Civil War prevented what we might call the
Americanization of the Northwest, which attracted heavy immigration
of North-European stocks. But all the men moving out along the
forty-second parallel as a meridian line of latitude were of strong,
well selected human stock. That was the original ancestry of what
we might call our “North.”
We rudely may group this region as that lying along the Mississippi,
the Missouri and their upper tributaries. Here lies one of the great
future countries, one of the anchoring grounds of humanity. Beyond
doubt it will eventually offer support to a vast population. The great
population-centers, the great civilizations of the world, always have
been along the great river valleys.
In the North, then, we see a rich region, rich in soil, in forests, in
minerals. Consider what ore Minnesota and Michigan, by means of
natural transportation, have sent to Ohio and Pennsylvania for
manufacturing! Consider what millions of feet of rich pine Michigan,
Wisconsin, Minnesota have given the world! And consider, if you can,
the wealth which has come out of the soil of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas and all the rest of what we call the
North! The earth has known nothing like it. Here was won the great
war of the world, in which Peace overthrew Militarism, let us hope,
for all time. Here grew the sinew which America put into this war,
and it is in great part because of her rich river valleys that America
to-day is the hope of all the world in the day of peace.
Naturally, if we should consider all these things, consider the
persistence of racial types, consider the natural contest of all these
strong men for the wealth of a rich new region, we could in advance
predict that here in the North, there would be presented bitter
phases of that combat which the enemy fought on this side of the
Atlantic.
OHIO
Typical among the thriving industrial cities of the Middle West is
Akron, Ohio, a city of 150,000 inhabitants, well known for its
prominence in the rubber industry and other lines of manufactory of
great use to the Government. The A. P. L. division in such a city
might naturally be expected to have something to do. The Akron
division began in the brain of a somewhat solitary agent of the
Department of Justice, W. A. Garrigan, who was sent to Akron to
serve his country all alone, equipped with one perfectly good aegis
of the law, but not much else. There were men all about who were
more or less actively engaged in helping Germany—men who were
spreading Socialistic propaganda hindering the draft; men failing to