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Show CAPTURE MANY III AGENTS Attorney General's Annual Report Tells of Disloyal- i j ty Suppressed. j Dangerous Germans Interned In-terned and Much Sabotage Sabot-age Prevented. WASHINGTON, Dec. 5. The story of how enemy agents have been caught, disloyalty dis-loyalty suppressed, draft slackers appro- : bended, dangerous Germans interned, ex- plosions and other sabotage prevented, and enemy secrets ferreted out for use against their armies abroad, was given to the public today in Attorney General T. Gregory's annual report. Through a sreat corps of department of justice civil officers, secret agents and citizen volunteers, this big job of policing has been accomplished, said the attorney general, gen-eral, with a minimum disturbance to the normal life of communities, and with constant con-stant effort to avoid encroaching on freedom free-dom of speech, action and political criticism. criti-cism. Referring to enforcement of the espionage es-pionage act,- Mr. Gregory said: "This 'department throughout the war has proceeded upon the general principle lhat the constitutional ritflit of free speech,, free assembly and petition exist tn war time as in peace time, and that the right of discussion of governmental policy and the right of political agitation are the most fundamental rights in a democracy." de-mocracy." Dealt With Propaganda. At the same time, the attorney general explained, the department had tried to deal severely with propaganda having for a deliberate purpose the disintegration of the country's war strength. . "One of the distinct achievements or the American people," he said, "has been the maintenance of order, the comparative compara-tive failure of enemy activities, and, speaking broadly, the general -self-control and self-restraint exhibited throughout the country in political situations." The attorney general disclosed that only 6000 enemy aliens have been arrested on presidential warrants and examined with a view to internment, and that "a considerable con-siderable number" of these have been placed in Internment camps administered hy the army. The balance were paroled. Most enemies interned were German men, and there were comparatively few German women or Austro-Hungarians. About iSD.OOO Germans have been registered in the nation-wide census 260,000 men and 220,000 women. Up to July 1 last, department of Justice investigators had rounded up 23,439 young men who sought to escape the draft, and had caused their induction into the service. ser-vice. More than 220,000 cases of men who for some reason or other had failed to tile questionnaires or to appear for physical physi-cal examination were investigated. To Reform Process. I-.ookIng forward to peace conditions, the attorney general makes a number of recommendations rec-ommendations for reform of judicial processes. Although he referred to the difficulty of pushing antitrust prosecutions prosecu-tions during the war since the government Itself has been in the business of sup- I pressing competition, he- made no suggestions sug-gestions for new antitrust legislation which congress is expected to undertake soon. War activities claimed the principal portions por-tions of the report, and after referring to the growth of the department's secret service to six times its size in liti. and the efficient organization of the American Protective league of 250,000 citizen volunteers, volun-teers, Mr. Gregory said: "It is safe to say that never In Its history his-tory has this country been so thoroughly policed as at the present time. "When it becomes possible, through the lapse of time, to disclose fully the activities activi-ties of these various secret services, their work- will stand out as one of the substantial achievements of the war." 1 Hints of System. Hints of an American espionage system were given in the statement that the secret services "have given protection not only to the civilian population, but to the armed forces, and some of their activities activi-ties have also resulted in direct damage to the enemy forces abroad." I Great stress was laid on the sufficiency 6f normal civil process "and the needless- j uess ofi attempting to invoke the used military tribunals In this country." ! "It has been the view of this depart- ! nierit." the attorney general said, "that j every act of arbitrary and unnecessary interference with the life, habits and occupation of the citizen would lessen . efficiency, disturb order and weaken public pub-lic confidence In the American standards of justice." He added that he had emphasized this view on other government departments, resulting "on a number of occasions In preventing encroachments upon the jurisdiction juris-diction of the civil tribunals of. the country." coun-try." This was considered a significant view of the United Slates' ability to maintain the normal functioning of ordinary government gov-ernment machinery to a much greater extent than other belligerents. Internment Policy. The government's Internment policy also has been more lenient than those of England En-gland and France, the attorney general stated, and Ihe efficacy of the methods and principles Is evidenced by the good order generally maintained. "Systematic disloyal propaganda became be-came a failure during the tirst year of the war," he said. "Shortly after our entry into the war this propaganda, supported sup-ported chiefly by those Influences and : organizHi Ions which had opposed the declaration of war. manifested itself in : distinct opposition to the adoption and operation of the selective service act, but this type of propaganda.' was almost immediately im-mediately suppressed and destroyed. It was followed by manifestations of propaganda propa-ganda of an economic and social character, charac-ter, clearly supported, in the main, by sympathizers with the enemy powers. This general type of propaganda reached its height in the autumn of 1917, but gained no great headway and wag declining de-clining by January 1, 1P1S. Various other types of propaganda have appeared sporadically, spo-radically, but none of them has gained nnv substantial footing, and it may be fairly said that prior to July 1, ID18, the effort of German sympathizers in the field of disloyal propaganda had almost completely com-pletely failed." The department has been hampered in suppressing propaganda, said the attorney attor-ney general, by "self-appointed committees commit-tees or associations of citizens, who, . Ignorant Ig-norant of or dissatisfied with the scope of the frdcrnl laws, or jurisdiction, have nought to supplement them by extra-legal measures of Intimidation and punishment." punish-ment." Another hampering influence was the dissemination of hundreds of unfounded unfound-ed reports relating to use of poison gas by enemv agents, ground ulass in food and damage -to Red Cross supplies. Difficulties With I. W. W. Referring t difficulties with members of the I. W. W., "pseudo-Socialists". and similar bodies, the attorney general said: "It lias been the policy of , this department depart-ment that r.o pfrson should be prosecuted or interned solely by reason of his membership mem-bership in any such organization, that j guilt is always personal, and that under I no circumstances should any organization or body of men be prosecuted as such." Less man I p"r cent of the enemy ' aliens arrested on suspicion and later parol, pa-rol, -d have au-ain fallen iiii-ht suspicion. ! I i f the T.iiri.i p-KMiiv aliens applying for I permission -to compete their naturaiiza- tion. whi'-h was stopped on the dcrla-n- flon of war, reports on more man "'"l ; have been furnished the naturalization i authorities of the department of labor. i I'lscusslng the enforcement of antitrust laws. Attorney General Gregory said: j "When natural laws of trade break down, as they have done during the war .in many branches oi trade, direct government gov-ernment action with r-spe-t to prices and j methods of distribution may become essential es-sential in order to prevent prhate control con-trol of markets, for when natural law of trade can no longer be depended upon to regulate marketa. the only choice is between artificial control imposed by pri-ate pri-ate interests and artiticial control imposed im-posed by pu be agencies. In t liese eir-cumstanees, eir-cumstanees, therefore, such direct governmental govern-mental action, so far from running counter to the purpose of the Sherman act, directly in line with it." The attorney general said the hearing of pending antitrust raes In the supreme su-preme court had been postponed mi motion mo-tion of the government because "the dissolution dis-solution of these combinations would require re-quire financial operations on a large scale, which it would not be in the "public Interest Inter-est to undertake in the present condition of the money market, brought about by the war." Mr. Gregory's recommendations propose legislation to make a federal warrant run to any part of the United States, so that indicted individuals cannot "escape trial so easily; retirement of fc.ieral judges at the age of 7u, If they have served ten years or more; legislation to make it an offense to send through the mail letters threatening lifo or propertv: tightening up of bankruptcy Jaws, and legislation making1 It possible- to sue a corporation in any district in which it transacts business. |