In April, 1918, a letter addressed to a man in Santa Barbara, California, who had a name quite similar to the first man above mentioned, fell into the hands of A. P. L., because the wrong recipient had opened it. It was found to be a letter from the secretary of the I. W. W. organization at Los Angeles, setting a definite date for a meeting at Los Angeles where Mr. H—— was to be present and address the assembled multitude. The Chief of A. P. L. at Santa Barbara notified D. J. in Los Angeles. At the same time, Santa Barbara was requested to locate the new reverend, Mr. F. H——, whose whereabouts now were unknown.
There now came into the case a Miss E——, a prominent young woman who had been a canteen worker and Red Cross nurse in France. Her family were friends of the H—— family, but Miss E—— was a friend of the United States Army above all things. She learned that the second reverend was at Modesto, California, and that Mr. H—— would leave Santa Barbara on Sunday, April 7, for Los Angeles; that he would stop at the Alexandria Hotel, and would address the meeting on April 8.
This information was turned over to D. J. at Los Angeles.
It was decided to arrest all the foregoing alphabetical gentlemen. About twenty members were assigned to the work and these arrests were duly made at 9:00 P. M. on the night of April 8. Certain residences of the above parties were searched and an immense amount of literature and pamphlets on pacifism and radical Socialism were discovered. Most of the books were seized.
The first mentioned Mr. H—— was hard to catch, the deputy marshal being obliged to chase him through the streets of Los Angeles for several blocks. H—— had to spend his night in the county jail. The next morning he telephoned to his mother that he had “spent the night with some friends of his, the Marshalls.” At least, he had a sense of humor, because the only “Marshals” he knew were the deputy United States marshals at that time, and he had indeed been their guest temporarily.
All the defendants, excepting two incidentally connected with the case, were convicted of violation of the Espionage Act. The wealthy pacifist millionaire was fined $27,000. The vitriolic clergyman first mentioned, and his ally, the clergyman of the second part, were fined $5,000 apiece. Two lesser fines of $500 and $100 were imposed also. The second reverend doctor was arrested on information furnished by Santa Barbara A. P. L. to the Los Angeles office. Other persons of ultra-pacifist tendencies in Santa Barbara have been kept constantly under surveillance. So it would seem that in peaceful Santa Barbara all is not always peace—unless it is the right sort of peace.
Santa Barbara made twenty-three arrests and secured fifteen convictions. Fines were collected by the Government through A. P. L. investigations amounting to $37,100. Santa Barbara had the usual percentage of flivver cases, especially as to mysterious signal lights. One of these proved to be nothing more dangerous than a night watchman on a railroad track, signalling with his lantern. The operatives uncovered one rather tragic case. A Franciscan monk wrote to the draft board that his own brother claimed exemption falsely, that he was living with another man’s wife, and had been guilty of forgery. The couple were found making their confession. They confessed further before the draft board that they both were married but had separated from their respective mates. They fell in love and began living together within two weeks after they had met, and they had lived together as man and wife for some time. The woman was released; the man was inducted into the service and sent to camp.
A Santa Barbara operative evinced a certain sleuthing ability in a case which reached its climax when someone blew up an old barn at the rear of the place belonging to the complaining couple. There was a box containing a setting hen, malignantly maternal over thirteen eggs. This box was within six feet of the place where the explosion occurred—but there was not a mark on the box, although the barn door had been blown to bits. It seemed that something was wrong. Matters simmered down to a spite case of a middle aged couple against some neighbors, who finally had determined to get their kind of justice by blowing up their own barn—but they did not wish to blow up their valuable hen, so they removed her before touching off the charge.
Santa Barbara County—not the town—reported 94 cases of disloyalty and sedition, 24 male alien activities and 20 female alien enemies, besides the 34 I. W. W. cases. The man does not live who can predict the end of all the vast social problems which will have to be worked out eventually on this beautiful Pacific slope.
The A. P. L. in San Diego