Heatless Mondays required three hundred investigations and gasless Sundays one thousand, five hundred and seventeen. In 250 instances the A. P. L. rendered automobile service to various Government departments. These figures show that something was doing in Cincinnati. As to the exact nature of the activities, it is much better to give the sober and just estimate of the local chief, as gratifying as it is admirable:
From its inception the Cincinnati Division of the American
Protective League was vibrant with possibilities. Cincinnati
was known from coast to coast as a city settled by Germans.
It was presumed, of course, to be very largely pro-German
as a result of this reputation. "Over-the-Rhine" meant Cincinnati
to many who lived outside of its confines. The reputation
of the city was at stake. Those who knew Cincinnati,
however, felt that this reputation which came to us from
abroad was unjustified, and that although there was no gain-*saying
that German blood flowed in the veins of a very large
number of its people, it was still ninety-nine per cent loyal;
and the record of the war has demonstrated the truth of this
statement.
Under the direction and supervision of Calvin S. Weakley, Special Agent in charge of the Department of Justice, work was carried on with quietness and despatch. He approached every matter with an open mind, and it is to his excellent judgment and his avoidance of brass-band methods that the record of the Cincinnati office of the Bureau of Investigation and its auxiliary, the Cincinnati Division of the American Protective League, has been clean of criticism. In the burglar-proof steel cabinets, however, repose documents and reports which would create a sensation in the community, and perhaps the day of reckoning is not far. While the fact that many of these acts occurred before the United States became an active participant in the world war may mean legal immunity, yet the record is made, and in many cases public opinion has been the sternest prosecutor of those individuals (many of whom enjoy the rights of American citizenship), whose sympathies as well as activities will always brand them as having been unfit for the privileges which they still continue to enjoy. It has brought to many of those individuals social isolation—a punishment incomparable with anything that can be meted out by judge or jury—and they cannot help but feel the ignominy of their unpatriotic actions. Loyalty to the country and a fine patriotism for the cause was the keynote which seemed to animate the membership.
