city. But the A. P. L. was there, active as elsewhere, and perhaps more useful than in any other city in the country, because it had to do there with larger risks than offered in any other city.
In the period of its work in New York up to the time of the Armistice, the A. P. L. division was thought to have covered some 300,000 cases in all, which is far and away the record for America. Such figures as these mean, of course, that to single out any one case or a few cases would be only to repeat cases the like of which already have been described for other points; and besides, it would not in any sense give an idea of the extent of the data handed over to the United States departments on A. P. L. initiative or on government request. It seems wiser to let the great national or international cases, which have become publicly prominent through Government activity, stand for the minor story of New York.
These causes celébrès have in great part been made public in the newspapers,—and in a great many instances made yet more public by the testimony of the witnesses of the Federal Attorneys before the Overman Senate Committee in Washington. It certainly could be said of the great city that she produced more sensations in espionage than all the rest of the country combined. A. P. L. was not concerned in all these matters, although in some of them it played its part.
The first chief of the New York Division was a lawyer, John H. Hendrick, who had charge of the small beginnings in April, 1917, but who in the following month, was succeeded by Richmond Levering, special agent of the Department of Justice. Mr. Bielaski, Chief of the U. S. Bureau of Investigation, approved this appointment, Mr. Levering later becoming Major in the U. S. Army. In early June, Mr. E. S. Underhill, an Agent of the Department of Justice, was detailed to take charge. The work now began to grow somewhat. In October, 1917, League affairs were placed in the hands of an operating committee. On January 3, 1918, the committee was abolished, and Mr. E. H. Rushmore was appointed Acting Chief. In May, 1918, Mr. Rushmore became Chief of the Division.
New York Division, like others, at first was organized
