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Show I; GREGORY TELLS HOW GERMANY'S AGENTS HAVE BEEN CAUGHT AND MOST DANGEROUS HUNS INTERNET! IJ ' WASHINGTON, Doc. 5. Tho storyj h of how enemy, .agents have been : caught, disloyalty suppressed, draft j slackers apprenended, dangerous Ger-k Ger-k mans interned, explosions 'and other 5 sabotage prevented, and enemy secrets I ferrettcd out for use against their U nrnifes nbroad, was given to the public pub-lic today In Attorney General T. W. i Gregory's annual report. Through a l great corps of department of justice officers, secret agents, and citizen J volunteers, this big job of policing I has been accomplished, said tho at-J at-J torney general, with a minimum dis-I dis-I uirbanco to the normal life of com-f com-f munitics, and with constant effort to I avoid encroaching on freedom of 1 speech, action and political criticism. ! Referring to enforcement of tho cs- pionagc act, Mr. Gregory said: I "This department throughout the I war has proceeded upon tho general principle that tho constitutional right of free speech, free assembly, and petition pe-tition exist In war time as in peace time, and that the right of discussion of governmental policy and the right of political agitation are the most I At the same time, the attorney gen- oral 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 tho distinct achievements of the American people," he said, "has been the maintenance of order, tho comparative failure of enemy activities activi-ties and, speaking broadly, the general self-control and self-restraint exhibited exhibit-ed throughout the country in critical situations." The attorney general disclosed that only 6,000 enemy aliens have been arrested on presidential warrants and pxamined with a view to internment and that "a considerable number" of these have been placed in internment camps administered by the army. The balance were pavolled. Most enemies Interned were German men, and there were comparatively few German I women or Auslro-Hungarians. About 480,000 Germans have been registered in the nation-wide census 260,000 j men and 220,000 women. Up to last July 1 department of - justice investigators had rounded up 23.-139 y,oung men who sought to escape es-cape the draft, and had caused their induction into the senMce. More than 220,000 cases of men who for some reason or other had failed to file questionnaires ques-tionnaires or to appear for physical examination were investigated. Looking forward to peace conditions, condi-tions, the attorney general makes a number of recommendations for reform re-form of judicial processes. Although he referred to the difficulty of pushing push-ing anti-trust prosecutions during the war since the government itself has been in the business of suppressing competition, ho made no suggestions for new anti-trust legislation which congress is expected to undertake soon. War activities claimed tho principal portions of the report, and after referring re-ferring to the growth of tho department's depart-ment's secret service to six times Its size in 1916, and the efficiont organization organi-zation of the American Protectivo League of 250.000 citizen volunteers, Mr. Gregory said: "It is safe to say that never in its history has this country been so thoroughly thor-oughly policed as at the present time. "When it becomes, possible, through the lapse of time, to disclose fully the activities of these various secret services, ser-vices, their work will stand out as one of tho substantial achievements of the war." Hints of an American espionage system were given in the statement that the secret services "have given protection not oniy to tne civilian population pop-ulation but to the armed forces, and some of their activities have also resulted re-sulted in direct damage to J.he enemy forces abroad." Great stress was laid on the sufficiency suffi-ciency of normal civil processes "and the needlessness of attempting to invoke in-voke tho use of military tribunals in this country," "It has been the view of this department," de-partment," the attorney general said, "that every act of arbitrary and unnecessary un-necessary interference with tho life, habits, and occupation of the citizen, would lessen efficiency, disturb order, and weaken public confidenco in the American standards of justice." He added that he had emphasized this view on other government departments, depart-ments, resulting "on a number of occasions oc-casions in preventing encroachments upon the jurisdiction of the civil tribunals trib-unals of the country." This was considered significant in view of the United States' ability to maintain the normal functioning of ordinary government machinery to a much greater extent than other belligerents. bel-ligerents. The government's internment policy also has been more lenient than those of England and France, the attorney general states, and tho efficacy of the methods and principles arc evidenced by the good order generally maintained. maintain-ed. "Systematic disloyal propaganda became be-came a failure during the first year of the war," ho said. "Shortly after our entry into tho war this propaganda, supported chiofly by those influences and organizations which had opposed the declaration of war, manifested itself it-self in distinct opposition to the adoption, adop-tion, and operation of the solectlve service act, but this type of propaganda propagan-da was almost immediately suppressed and destroyed. It was followed by manifestations of propaganda of an economic and social character, clearly supported in tho main, bv sympathizers sympathiz-ers with tho enemy nowers. This general type of propaganda reached its height in the autumn of 1917, but gained no great headway and was declining de-clining by January 1, 1918. Various other types of propaganda have appeared ap-peared sporadically but nono of them have gained any substantial footing, and it may be fairly said that prior to July 1, 191 S, the effort of German sympathizers in the field of disloyal propaganda had almost completely failed." The Department has been hampered in suppressing propaganda, said the attorney general, by "self-appointed committees or associations of citizens who, ignorant of or dissatisfied with tho scope of the federal laws or jurisdiction jur-isdiction havo sought to supplement them by extra-legal measures of Intimidation In-timidation and punishment." Another hamporlng influence was tho dissemination dissem-ination of hundreds of unfounded reports re-ports relating to use of poison gas by enemy agents, ground glass Jn food, and danjage to Red Cross supplies. Referring to difficulties with members mem-bers of the 1. W. W., "psuedo-social-ists," and similar bodies, tho attorney general said: "It has been the policy of this department de-partment that no person should be prosecuted or interned solely by reason rea-son of his membership in any such organization, or-ganization, that guilt is always personal, per-sonal, and that under no circumstances circumstan-ces should any organization or body of men bo prosecuted as such." Less than one per cent of the enemy ene-my aliens arrested on suspicion and later paroled have again fallen under suspicion. Of the 75,000 enemy aliens applying for permission to complete their naturalization, which' was stopped stop-ped on the declaration of war, reports on more than 10,000 have been furnished fur-nished the naturalization authorities of the department of labor. Discussing the enforcement of antitrust anti-trust laws. Attorney General Gregory said: "When natural laws of trade break down, as they have done during the war in many branches of trade, direct government action with respect to prices and methods of distribution may become essential in order to prevent private control of markets, fof when natural laws of trade can no longer bo depended upon to regulate markets, the only choice is between artificial control con-trol lrnnospfl hv nrivnto lntfrvt;f s urtrl artificial control imposed by public agencies. In those circumstances, therefore, such direct governmental action, so far from running counter to the purpose of the Sherman act, is directly di-rectly in line with it." The attorney general said tho hearing hear-ing of pending anti -trust cases in the supreme court had been postponed on motion of the government because "the dissolution of these combinations would require financial operations on a large scale, which it would not bo in the public interest to undertnko in tho present condition of the money market, brought about bv the war." pose legislation to make a fedoral warrant war-rant run to any part of the United 1 States, so that indicted Individuals cannot escape trial so easily; retirement retire-ment of federal judges at the ago of 70 if they have served ten years or more; legislation to make it an offense of-fense to send through the mail letters threatening life or property; tightening tighten-ing up of bankruptcy laws; and legislation legis-lation making it impossible to suo a corporation in any district In which it transacts business. oo |
