Talks between these three gentlemen were going on in fine shape at the time the Armistice was signed. As a matter of fact, Otto B is still flagging trains at the old railroad crossing, and the League is recommending his prosecution and the revocation of his citizenship, because it certainly had proof of his unfitness to live in the United States. It hardly seems necessary to add that "Schultz" was an A. P. L. operative also. His "credentials" were made in the United States and not in Germany, having been copied from those captured on a real agent of the Kaiser.
There was another near-case, one which almost became a real one, in Northern New Jersey Division, which, at the first, looked like scores that had preceded it and scores that followed it. It had to do with one K, reported rabid against America, although employed in doing essential Government work. This might have been a spite case, or a case of remarks made before we went into the war, or still more possibly something said before the amended Espionage Act was passed. However, member C-891 went out on the case to see what he could find about K.
The latter had a factory of his own, and when found, seemed to be disposed to talk. The operative speaks a perfect German, and has a German look. The two got on handsomely. The operative was surprised to find that K talked so freely and to a stranger. Another member of the League, C-1378, also of German parentage, went with C-891 a few days later to visit K again. That gentleman was more bitter than ever against America. He said, among other things, that if he heard that President Wilson had been shot, he would be so glad that he would celebrate it by getting too drunk to see. And there was very much more talk of that nature.
A few days later, K had cause to regret his disposition to talk. He was brought before a United States Commissioner on a warrant, and spent a good night in jail before he could find bail. The next day, he being a man of means, he engaged a lawyer. The Armistice ended these activities, as it did so many others. The hearing was held on the morning of November 7—the first news of the Armistice, later confirmed. Since that time, A. P. L. of
