Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-12-06
GREGORY GIVES
RECORD OF WORK
Of Department
Attorney General Shows e.
fective Activity in Policing
Nation Against Enemy
Activities.

washington, Dec. 81 ne StorS
OF how enemy agents have beer
caught, disloyalty suppressed, DRAFT
slackers apprehended. dangerou:
Germans informed, explosions and
other sabotage prevented, and en-
envy secrets ferretted out for use
against their armies abroad, was
given to the public today in Attor'
ney General T. w. Gregory's an
nual report. Through a great corps
of Department of Justice civil Off
GERS, secret agents, and citizen vol
unteers, this big job of policing has
been accomplished, said the attor-
ney general, with a minimum dis
turbance to the normal life of COM
munities, and with constant effort
to avoid encroaching on freedom OF
speech, action and political criti-
cism.
The attorney general disclosed
that only 5000 enemy aliens have
been arrested on presidential war
rants and examined with view to
internment and that "a considerable
number" of these have been placed
in internment camps administered
by the army. The balance were pa
rolled Most enemies informed were
German men, and there were COM
paratively few German women or
Austro- Hungarians. About 100000
Germans have been registered IN
the nationwide census - 2o0,OoO
men and 100000 women.
Up to last July l.. Department of
Justice investigators had rounded
up 23,43q young men who sought
to escape the draft, and had caused
their induction into the service.
More than 10000 cases of men who
for some reason or other had failed
to file missionaries or to appear
for physical examination were In
vestigated.
Hints of U. S. Spies.
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 have
also resulted in direct damage to
the ener'v forces abroad"
The department has been ham
pered in suppressing propaganda.
said the attorney general, by sell
appointed committees or associa-
tions of citizens who, ignorant of or
dissatisfied with the scope of the
federal laws, or jurisdiction, have
sought to supplement th~m by ex-
.ra-legal measures of intimidation
and punishment" Another hamper
Jag influence was the dissemination
Of hundreds of unfounded reports
relating to use of poison gas by
enemy agents, ground glass in food,
and damage to Red Cross supplies.
Try l. w. w. Individually.
Referring to difficulties with
members of the I. w. w.. pseudo
socialists" and similar bodies, the
attorney general said:
1T has been the policy of this
department that no person should
be prosecuted or interned solely by
reason of his membership in any
such organization, that guilt is al
ways personal, and that under no
circumstances should any organiza-
ton or body of men be prosecuted
as such"
Less than one per cent of the
enemy aliens arrested on suspicion
and later paroled have again fallen
under suspicion. OF the $4,000 en-
envy aliens applying for permission
to complete their naturalization,
which was stopped on the declara-
ton of war, reports on more than
10000 have been furnished the nat
un- .ization authorities of the De-
partment of Labor.