WWI American Protective League - This Was New To Me

[mds308]

I never heard of this organization.  Here's some information taken from the Web.  The badge is mine.  

 

 

The American Protective League existed only about two years, from 1917-1919. It was an organization of private citizens who worked with Federal law enforcement agencies during the World War 1 era to identify suspected German sympathizers and to counteract the activities of radicals, anarchists, anti-war activists, and left-wing labor and political organizations. 

 

A. M. Briggs, a wealthy Chicago advertising executive, founded the organization in 1917, because he felt the U.S. Department of Justice was severely understaffed in the field of counterintelligence during the new wartime environment. Mr. Briggs proposed the idea of a new volunteer group to agency officials. Participants would not be paid, and they wouldn't benefit from an expense account. Briggs was given authority to proceed with his plan by the Department of Justice on March 22, 1917, and the American Protective League (APL) was born.

 

National Directors, American Protective League (l-r) Charles Frey,
A.M. Briggs, & Victor Elting

Even though the APL was a private organization, the group received formal approval from Attorney General Thomas Gregory to use the words "Organized with the Approval and Operating under the Direction of the United Stated Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation" on its letterhead. The APL work in conjunction with the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), a precursor of the FBI, to gather information for U.S. District Attorneys. At the time, the BOI only had only 215 agents who had no authority to carry weapons nor the ability to arrest people, so they openly welcomed the APL's assistance.

APL members sometimes wore badges suggesting a quasi-official status: "American Protective League–Secret Service." The Attorney General boasted of the manpower they provided: "I have today several hundred thousand private citizens... assisting the heavily overworked Federal authorities in keeping an eye on disloyal individuals and making reports of disloyal utterances." The government had been receiving complaints of disloyalty and enemy activities, and while the Bureau of Investigation was doing its best to contain the situation, the Protective League served as an auxiliary force to put a stop to corruption within the borders of the United States.
 

The national headquarters of the APL was established in Washington, D.C., with A.M. Briggs installed as the Chairman of the governing National Board of Directors. Charles Daniel Frey, of Chicago, served as the national director of the American Protective League, which at its zenith claimed 250,000 members in 600 cities.

 

In addition to its regular geographically-based network, the APL attempted to organize secret units inside factories that produced clothing and war material in hopes of identifying individuals or groups who advanced "disloyalty" or engaged in pro-German activities. Suspects would be reported within the APL organization, which would then make use of its broader network in the community to investigate the activities of these individuals after working hours, if deemed necessary. Teams of APL members conducted numerous raids and surveillance activities aimed at those who failed to register for the draft and at German immigrants who were suspected of having sympathies for Germany.
 

 APL members spotted violators of food and gasoline regulations, rounded up draft evaders in New York, disrupted Socialist meetings in Cleveland, broke up strikes, and threatened union men with immediate induction into the army. APL agents, many of them female, worked undercover in factories and attended union meetings in hope of uncovering saboteurs and other enemies of the war effort. Male APL members were often excused from the draft because of their work for the Department of Justice, and higher up officials attained ranks and titles equivalent to the military ranks.
 

APL members were often accused of acting as vigilantes who allegedly violated the civil liberties of American citizens, including so-called "anti-slacker raids" designed to round up men who had not registered for the draft. The APL was also accused of illegally detaining up to 10,000 citizens of German ancestry.

  President Woodrow Wilson knew of the APL's activities and had misgivings about their methods. He wrote to Attorney General Gregory expressing his concern: "It would be dangerous to have such an organization operating in the United States, and I wonder if there is any way in which we could stop it?" In the end, he deferred to Gregory's judgment and took no action to curtail the APL.

 

After the Armistice with Germany ended the war, the League was officially disbanded, even though its members insisted they could serve as they had earlier in wartime against America's post-war enemies. The APL survived as a series of local organizations under other names, such as the Patriotic American League (Chicago) and the Loyalty League (Cleveland). APL members continued to provide information and manpower to the Department of Justice, notably during the Palmer raids of January 1920. Also in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan recruited members from the Southern branches of the APL. For years following the war, J. Edgar Hoover's General Intelligence Unit in the Justice Department drew on the APL for information about radicals. It's a matter of opinion whether the American Protective League did more harm than good.