said things quite out of place, but you can believe we were never Germanized here. Our worst enemies were those who would rather part with their sons than with their coin—though they did neither willingly. We examined some applicants for overseas service."
Alton, Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis, had some investigations for Military Intelligence, and some overseas investigations. The division had occasion to assist the Special Agent of the Department of Justice in St. Louis a number of times when quick action was needed.
WISCONSIN
Justly or not, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, had the reputation of being about the most German community in the most nearly German state of the Union. No sweeping conclusions need be advanced as to either side of this proposition herein, for evidently, all said and done, Milwaukee is Milwaukee, and is well known throughout the country. There was a time, even previous to our entering the war against Germany, when salesmen traveling out of Milwaukee were unable to sell their goods to the retail trade throughout the Middle West. They were obliged to go back to their houses and to say that the city which they represented was in bad repute. Just or not, these were the facts, and in time the better-class business men of Milwaukee, most of whom have not lacked in loyalty, began to see that some remedy must be found for this prejudice existing against their city.
During the Civil War the Germans of Wisconsin, descendents of the heavy German immigration of 1848 and the years immediately following, had a splendid representation in the Northern army. The sons of these men are among the most prominent business men in Wisconsin and of Milwaukee to-day, and it were worse than wrong loosely to accuse them all of disloyalty to this country. Upon the other hand, Milwaukee, being a heavy German settlement, did not lack in wrong-headed persons who retained their allegiance to a flag other than our own. These did the usual amount of talking—perhaps more than the usual amount. For them the Milwaukee Division of the American Protective League had the same remedy that has been found efficient in other
