Would you like a real history of the war, a story which does convey a comprehensible picture? The simplest way is the best way. Read the Atlantic Monthly for January, 1919. Does it give a great pen picture by some artist in words? No. But it gives verbatim translations of bits of conversation heard by a nurse in a hospital full of wounded Russian soldiers; detached, disconnected comments, points of view, records of personal experiences. That is great reporting—the greatest reporting in the world. Had our more famous correspondents kept away from the routine of the alleged "front" and gone into the hospitals for a half million personal statements of wounded men of every nation, they would not have failed to show us the war. They would have written a great story of the war—a real history of the war. Now the astonishing thing about the record of the A. P. L. is that its reports came in precisely that way. The story of the League becomes a history of the country served by the League.
NEW YORK
Once in a while an operative landed a big case on a small clue. A New York operative was sent out to look up one R. R. A, an employe of a shirtwaist factory, who was alleged to have said that he knew how to beat the draft. The same suspect was heard to say that he knew of four men, the knowledge of whom would be worth $10,000 to the United States. When interviewed by an A. P. L. operative, he denied most of the allegations made against him, but he did give the name of an Austrian army officer named L who had plans of submarines and battleships of the United States. This latter gentleman was followed, his baggage searched, and the plans confiscated.
Chautauqua County, New York, includes the cities of Jamestown and Dunkirk, each of which had an A. P. L. branch, the former being the first to organize, June 26, 1918. The Chautauqua County division proper was organized as late as October 28, 1919, an assistant chief being appointed for Jamestown and for Dunkirk. The entire county covers an area of about 1,000 square miles and has a population of more than 100,000.
