refuse to classify or to run parallel with other organizations. It was an idea born out of a vast necessity, and its growth seemed to be a thing apart from ordinary business methods. Indeed, it sprang into such rapid stature that in large part its officers followed it rather than led it. It was almost sporadic in a thousand towns, so quickly did the achievement of organization follow the realization of the need. Thereafter came the days of national organization, of system, patience, perseverance, and efficiency, which made it a well-knit power in all parts of the country.
It was Mr. Clabaugh's privilege to have lent aid and encouragement in the days when the League was not yet a reality, the early days when all was nebulous, when no one knew anyone else, and when cases were pouring into D. J. that had to be handled in the best way possible and at the first moment possible.
The A. P. L. has always served the regular organization of the law, has always worked with or under the supervision of the D. J. bureau chief nearest at hand, and, indeed, never pretended to do more than that. But this coöperation and interlocking of forces was an easier thing for D. J. superintendents elsewhere, later in the game, after A. P. L. had become an accepted success all over the country.
It was at the very beginning that the greatest difficulties had to be met, and it was during these early troubled days of the League that its history became inseparably linked with that of the Chicago bureau of the Department of Justice. Set down in a seething center of alien activity—for so we may justly call Chicago in the early days of this war—with only a handful of men to rely on, with no laws, no precedents, no support, no help, no past like to the present, and no future that could be predicated on anything that had gone before, Mr. Clabaugh's bureau was the first to get swamped with the neutrality cases—and the first to be offered counsel, friendship, support, help, money, men and methods, all in quality and amount fitted to win the day for him at once. The Clabaugh story, therefore, is the most important one told by any bureau chief, and it is historically indispensable.
