The enormous growth of the American Protective League in so short a time is sufficient evidence in itself that a vast, pressing need existed for the service it rendered. Indeed, the great local activity of the League became a national activity in record time. Reports piled in from all over the country; the detail of correspondence became enormous; the filing of records an endless task. All at once the National Directors of the American Protective League found they had taken over a business—one of the largest businesses with which any one of them had ever been identified. It would not be too much to say that they worked day and night for a long period. Their task was a very heavy one, but they brought to it a knowledge of large business affairs and a quality of perseverance which saw them through.
The original headquarters of the League were at 1537 Eye Street, Northwest, an old Washington residence—a quaint and none too convenient business home. All the directors lived in the upper part of this building, and such was the crowded and impractical form of Washington life at the time that they were glad to sleep and sometimes cook their meals in the same building where they did their work. Such a thing as rest or leisure were unknown for two years' time. No one who has not been in part acquainted with Washington in war times knows the handicap under which all such work needed to be done. Transportation, living accommodations, clerical help—everything, in that period of the war, became a problem or an obstacle of a very considerable sort. It was faith and enthusiasm which carried these men through, as was the case with their associates all over America.
So, gradually, from this central office, the web of the American Protective League was extended until it reached into every state and territory of the Union, and until each line of communication was one of interchange of intelligence from and to the central headquarters. It is only by reference to the portion of this history marked as "The Four Winds"—showing briefs of reports from all over the Union—that any just knowledge can be gained of the tremendous volume of work done by the central headquarters. Nor does the assemblage offered give more than a mere indication of that volume, because thousands of reports have, for reasons of space, received no notice whatever, unfair as that must
