in due time," the inference being that D. J. did not want to be bothered by questions. A like vagueness quite often enshrouded cases turned over to Military Intelligence. A. P. L. might investigate fifty men for commissions and never know even whether any of them got a commission.
The offices of the United States Attorneys in both the Southern and Eastern districts of New York were greatly overworked, and had a very inadequate staff of assistants. It was necessary, in many instances, for A. P. L. to take cases that should have gone to a Federal Court, before some local magistrate on a disorderly conduct charge.
In brief, the story of A. P. L. in New York City is very satisfying indeed. How fortunate for Military Intelligence, the Draft Boards, the Department of Justice and other war branches that they had an A. P. L. to help them out, and to do that for nothing! Had this not been the case, it is not too much to say that these branches of our war activities would also have broken down as so lamentably did other portions of our war work—ordnance, equipment, airplane work, etc., all of which suffered from not having a quarter million of men at hand to do the work for nothing and do it right. The truth about this war never has been known and never will be printed. A lot of it lies in the files of the A. P. L.
In the course of the last ten months, according to the Military Intelligence Bureau, New York Division probably had more investigations entrusted to it than would in peace times be made throughout the entire country. Since the A. P. L. men were of the highest type, with all the advantage of education and wide experience, their ready adaptability can be taken for granted. But even with the high average of ability of the League officers and operatives, the notably fine record of the New York Division would not have been possible had there not been a most thorough and up-to-date business system. And such was actually the case.
A full series of blanks, the use of special cover sheets, of different colors, and the employment of case covers corresponding to the cover sheets, so simplified the filing system and the record of the case itself as to save a great deal of time and eliminate a great many mistakes. For
