we just warned parties that their conduct had been reported to be reprehensible, and evidence was produced by them to prove their later love and loyalty to the United States."
IOWA
Des Moines, Iowa, the very prosperous capital of the prosperous state of Iowa, had an A. P. L. man attached to the Intelligence Service of the Army. He spoke German fluently and in order to investigate conditions inside a neighboring camp, he pretended to be a conscientious objector, thus being confined to barracks with other conscientous objectors, some real and some camouflage. A picked War Department Committee, including the Governor of the State, was combing out these objectors and ran across the A. P. L. man. The latter was unable to explain, and had to go through as a conscientious objector and listen to a good lecture to boot!
Des Moines had another case of a fine looking young man who weighed about 175 pounds and who sported a clever little military mustache. He was caught in a slacker drive and on the following morning hesitatingly handed the agent a telegram sent by his father, which read: "I have told you that damned eye-brow on your upper lip would get you into trouble. Tell the Government I say you are only twenty—you look older, but act younger. If you wish to please your father, enlist in the Navy." The son enlisted.
Iowa City, Iowa, is a university town, a good, peaceful and thrifty community and one of the most useful in the West. The foreign element in that district has been rather Bohemian than German, but the population has the usual admixture. There are two precincts populated by Mennonites, whose religion is work and not war. One of these good folk refused to buy Liberty Bonds but sold enough walnut logs from his farm to make several thousand gun stocks. This man was finally persuaded to buy as many dollars in bonds as his logs made gun stocks. Some conscientious objectors from Camp Dodge were sent out to farm among these Mennonite brothers and thus escaped the draft, whereas local loyal farmers' sons had to go to the front. This created bitter feeling. Most of these dodgers were recalled.
Oskaloosa, Iowa, had its own share of local wrangles over
