The Chicago Bureau, assisted by the American Protective League, has conducted some of the most important investigations in the country. It is my judgment that the convictions under war laws in the Chicago district will equal that of any three cities in the country. While comparisons are odious, I am referring to the record as a matter of pride rather than egotism.
Topping the list with the famous I. W. W. trial, as late as May, 1917, it was believed that the I. W. W. situation was one which should be handled by the state authorities, but their activities and the history of the organization were such that the Government undertook to follow it up officially shortly after that time.
I was placed in charge of the investigation at Chicago. A branch bureau was established in the McCormick Building, and assisted by a number of Special Agents, we worked there continuously, not coming near the Federal Building for eight or ten weeks, until on September 5, 1917, the Government, through search warrant process under the Espionage Act, raided I. W. W. headquarters in approximately one hundred different places throughout the country simultaneously. The prosecution was in charge of Special Assistants to the Attorney General, Frank K. Nebeker, Frank C. Dailey and Claude R. Porter, as well as Oliver E. Pagan, Indictment Expert and Special Assistant to the Attorney General, and U. S. District Attorney Charles F. Clyne.
Indictments were subsequently returned. A trial, lasting a number of months, was had, which resulted in convicting about one hundred, or practically all of the active leaders of the I. W. W. movement, ninety-seven of whom were sentenced by Federal Judge Landis and are now serving sentences in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Cases are pending, as this is being written, against other leaders of the I. W. W. in Sacramento, Kansas City, Omaha and elsewhere.
In connection with the preparation of the evidence at Chicago, I take this occasion to commend most highly the efficient, untiring assistance of Special Agent George N. Murdock, of the Indianapolis office, who was assigned to Chicago and relieved me of the investigating detail work in December, 1917, and he continued to assist those in charge of the case throughout the trial. Mr. Murdock is still Special Agent of the Department of Justice, in active charge of the investigating work at Sacramento, Kansas City, Omaha and elsewhere.
The Bureau of Investigation and the American Protective League are very greatly indebted to the late Herman F. Schuettler, then General Superintendent of Police of Chicago, for his competency and very great assistance personally, also his entire Police Department, in helping make the American Protective League a success in Chicago. The same is true of John H. Alcock, former Acting General Superintendent of Police, Morgan Collins, First Deputy Superintendent of Police, and other officials of the Police Department.
I shall therefore not burden this memorandum except to call attention to the famous Rockford draft cases, which resulted in the conviction of about one hundred persons. (Rockford is the entry-point for Camp Grant Cantonment.)
After war had been declared and during the discussion in Congress of the Draft Act, the I. W. W. members and their sympathizers carried on an active campaign against the Act, and when the Act was passed, simply advised their members not to register. They were particularly active in the Chicago Division, as well as around Rockford. To insure carrying out their plans at Rockford, an all-day meeting and picnic was announced for June 5 at Blackhawk Park for the purpose of keeping their members and sympathizers together until after the close of the registration booths in order to prevent their registration.
On June 6, 1917, Wait Talcott, Chief of the American Protective League at Rockford, presented the facts to me and he was directed to request the local authorities in Rockford to take steps to apprehend all those who had not registered. Late in the afternoon three were apprehended and locked up in the county jail. This act enraged the leaders of the I. W. W. Meetings were held, demanding the release of the persons in custody. Upon adjournment of the meetings the members marched in a body through the principal streets of Rockford to the jail, about a mile and a quarter away, and a demand was made to release the prisoners. Upon the Sheriff’s refusal to do so, the mob incited a riot, as a result of which, arrests were made of the leaders and persons known to be in sympathy with the I. W. W. and placed in jail. About one hundred and thirty-five arrests were made. At the time standing room only was available in the jail. Sheriff Guy Ginders of Rockford arranged with the Sheriffs of Boone and Stevenson Counties to accept some of the prisoners. With this end in view special interurban cars were chartered. Thirty-five were taken to Boone County, forty-five to Stevenson County, and about thirty remained in the Rockford city jail. Before the transfers were made all the glass in the windows of the jail was broken and most of the plumbing wrecked. The leader, James Cully, was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury, tried in the federal court, found guilty, and sentenced to Leavenworth Penitentiary. A majority of the balance were indicted by the federal grand jury for failure to register, and about 107 were sentenced to a maximum of one year in the Bridewell at Chicago.
This case, together with the I. W. W. case at Chicago, makes a total of 212 defendants convicted in two cases—a record, I believe, in the Federal Courts of this country. The American Protective League aided the Department in both of these important cases.