to strike down your children and take away your wife, what would you do,—sit down and allow it?"
"I could not raise a hand against them because God tells me not to strike my enemies, so the Germans could do as they saw fit."
"Religious crank—what's the use?" asks the operative.
An old man and his wife, both German, were reported to the A. P. L. one day last summer as being pro-German and Lieutenant No. 177 was assigned to the case. He called on the old couple and found them very German indeed—so much so, in fact, that their niece was produced to act as interpreter. The old man, when he realized the object of the visit, became greatly agitated, and trembling like an aspen leaf, he hurriedly produced his naturalization papers and protested that three times had he foresworn the Kaiser. At last, as final proof of loyalty to his adopted land, the old man displayed some sheets of manuscript—gospel songs, which he himself had written in his mother tongue! At this point his wife, who had been as distressed as her husband over the interview, could restrain herself no longer.
"Ach no!" she spluttered. "No! Ve are not Chermans. Ve are not Chermans! Ve are Christians! Ve are Christians!"
Operative No. 113 reports the details of a case which has in it endless possibilities of mischief:
There was held in Dayton, Ohio, during the summer of
1918, the national meeting of Automotive Engineers, and at the
A. P. L. luncheon that day it was reported that a German from
a nearby city, who was an associate member of the Automotive
Engineers, was registered in Dayton and would attend the
meetings of the convention. From the history we had of
this gentleman from the files of the A. P. L., he was undoubtedly
a dangerous citizen and one who should not have the
opportunity of inspecting and carefully examining the Liberty
Motors and many other new ideas which were being shown
at the convention. I offered to investigate the situation, took
the information which was in our hands, got in touch with
the head of the Aircraft Production Board here and was
immediately sent to the convention, where I conferred with
the Secretary, explaining to him in detail the facts. We
found that our man was not registered at the convention,
and we made arrangements with the registrar that as soon
