Page:The web (1919).djvu/426

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Baltimore Division organized and was on the job during the very first month of the war. Its first Chief was Mr. Edmund Leigh, who solved the many knotty problems of organization and finance which arose in the early stages of the League's growth. Mr. Leigh was succeeded by Mr. William J. Neale in August, 1918, who acted as head of the division until November, 1918, when Mr. Tilghman G. Pitts became Chief.


VIRGINIA

Norfolk, Virginia, was fortunate in having as its chief a gentleman very prominent in all the war charities, and also of such generosity of nature that he paid all the expenses of the League out of his own pocket.

Conditions might have been much worse at this seaport locality, for only eight cases of alien enemy activity are listed, and five cases of disloyalty and sedition. This division, however, was able to do a great deal of work for the War Department, and among other matters found one illicit still and made four I. W. W. investigations. Another phase of the work was supplying the M. I. D. officer at the Army Supply Base—Quartermaster's Terminal—near Norfolk, with many photographs of alien enemies and slackers. The Division had operatives in Army and Navy headquarters, among workmen, etc., and had such men included in its personnel as bookkeepers, timekeepers and others whose work was much appreciated by Military Intelligence. The chief had twenty-one assistants, all good men.

White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, had one typical pro-German case. Adolph S——, a baker of this town, held certain opinions which would not strictly classify as American. When asked to purchase War Savings Stamps, he expressed himself as follows: "To hell with your War Savings Stamps. If Uncle Sam didn't have money enough to finance the war, why did he go into it? When the American soldiers get to France, you'll find they won't do anything but run like hell."

He said a great deal more in similar vein, which "was hardly suitable," says the Chief's report, "for polite ears." In the U. S. District Court, at Charleston, S—— confessed