Page:The web (1919).djvu/425

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

was no city in the country more loyal to our Government and our Allies.

Let it not be thought, however, that the enemy was inactive in Baltimore. Trouble, active and potential, was present at all times. That it did not flare up into open destruction was no fault of the trouble-makers. Like all ports of entry, Baltimore has a considerable foreign element. Thousands of foreigners were employed in its shipbuilding plants, on its docks, and in the Bessemer steel works located near the city. Of pro-Germans and alien enemies there was a plenty. Many of them, indeed, remembering the landing of the Deutschland at Baltimore before the war, would have welcomed and aided a wholesale submarine raid by the enemy—were this possible.

However, this did not come to pass, nor did many other things come to pass that were justifiably feared. The pro-German, the alien enemy, the agitator, the Bolshevist were held safe at all times. Baltimore's many industries were guarded well. Happily, that industry which has given her world-wide fame—the oyster industry—required no protection, and it is a pleasure to record that the nation's supply of sea-food was uninterrupted during the war.

A prolific source of trouble for the Baltimore Division lay in the city's proximity to the national capital. The over-*crowded condition of Washington during the war forced a huge overflow of population into Baltimore, and thus doubled the amount of work that otherwise would probably have been required. This work was tackled with energy and efficiency by the Baltimore Division, which was one of the very largest for a city of its size in the country. When the Armistice came, there were 2,500 operatives engaged in the multifold activities of the League. The following report does not begin to tell the full story of their achievement:

Alien enemy cases 110
Sedition and disloyalty 685
Character and loyalty 309
Draft evasion 546
Deserters 225
Liquor and vice 100
Food Administration 3
Miscellaneous 110