Page:The web (1919).djvu/330

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from some mysterious region and vanished thence again, leaving behind only good memories.

On January 29, in 1918, the New Orleans division of A. P. L. had only thirty-eight members. At that time Mr. Charles Weinberger became manager, there being associated with him as assistant chief Mr. Arthur G. Newmyer. There were at first but limited office quarters, but in a very short time new headquarters were established and the plant installed covering approximately ten thousand square feet of space. This was on April 1, 1918. On February 1, 1919, the total membership was 2,097.

League operations were distributed under a Bureau of Investigation and a Bureau of Information, each in charge of an assistant chief. The investigation work was divided by Special D. J. Agent Beckham as follows: Headquarters bureau, handling enemy alien activities, disloyalty, sedition, propaganda, etc., had two units, a staff of eighty-three headquarters lieutenants, and also a ward organization. In each of the seventeen wards of New Orleans there was a lieutenant who had enough operatives under him to cover his neighborhood thoroughly.

The second bureau, that of Information, took up on its part the trades classification rather than that which we may call the geographical classification into city districts. There was a captain in each of the seventy-eight commercial lines of the city, and each captain had lieutenants and operatives in his particular line of business. In this way there was what might be called a double covering of the city, both as to information and investigation. For instance, in each hotel there would be a captain, lieutenant and operatives. The Bureau of Information had entire charge of the financial end of the League, and it supplied men to the Investigation Division for the purpose of raids, or for whatever matter required special assistance.

In the War Department work, the selective service bureau was in charge of a captain with proper assistants, who handled all violations under Section 6 of the Act. A member of this bureau was detailed with each exemption board, and this division handled all the draft investigations. It made a great many searches of this sort, prevented a great many evasions, and corrected many incor-