accomplishing was scaring a poor negro out of his lunch, but whether or not we thwarted others in a worse plot, we never knew.
But that was much our story in San Antonio. We did the best we knew. Had we not been there, and were it not known that we were there, matters might have been worse. The makings of trouble were around us all the time.
Laredo, Texas, on the Mexican border, was organized for
business. The Chief says: "We have very few alien
enemies resident here. Before we organized, there was
some talk of a disloyal nature, but this situation changed
at once when it got out that we had seventy-five or eighty
members whose identity was unknown to the public but who
would be pretty sure to be out for business. For the six or
eight months before the Armistice we heard scarcely a word
unfavorable to the United States or her Allies. We think we
did something in the way of prevention if not of cure."
Yoakum, Texas, has ten cases of disloyalty and a like number of word-of-mouth propaganda. A good local chief of a fighting family says: "We were ready at all times to meet any emergency regardless of distance or difficulty."
Beaumont, Texas, is in the oil country, and such centers quite often attract alien population. The Beaumont report covers sixty-three cases of alien enemy activities, eighteen cases of disloyalty, and ninety cases under the selective service regulations.
ARKANSAS
Cotter, Arkansas, reports that it is a community with very few foreigners, the population being American for generations back. The Chief says: "We had two deserters who lived for two weeks in an inaccessible camp in the mountains. They finally got hungry, came in and surrendered. We also had one draft-dodging case of a peculiar sort. This young man, according to his marriage license, should have registered in June, 1917. He did not. We traced him to Oklahoma, and from there to Springfield, Missouri. He was taken into custody by the Chief of Police at that point on our order. We sent a certified copy of his marriage
