Orders went out, in the summer of 1918, from the Department of Justice to throw the net for slackers. That meant the immediate mobilization for police duty not only of many soldiers and sailors, many policemen and all the force of the Bureau of Investigation, but also of the entire personnel of the American Protective League. With the exception of the I. W. W. cases, the aid the Chicago division of the League gave in the great raids of July 11, 12, 13 and 14, in 1918, was its most important single contribution to the welfare of the country. The New York slacker raids (of a certain publicity), those carried on also in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and many other cities, were all so similar in method, that the story of the Chicago raids will describe them all.
The big slacker drive in Chicago meant the mobilization of the entire League membership, and over 10,000 men were enlisted from this organization alone as operatives in the slacker search. These men interrogated over 150,000 suspects, and seized over 20,000; and they inducted into the army, as willing or unwilling patriots, around 1,400 young men of that one city who otherwise would not have served. At one time they had herded on the great Municipal Pier over 1,100 men, all of whom had to pass the night there. Countless motor cars and wagons carried loads under guard. A big tourist motor-bus was requisitioned also, and all the street cars were packed. Hundreds of men were crowded over night in the rooms of the Bureau of Investigation in the Federal Building. The courts and jails were jammed. Vacant store-rooms were filled with prisoners. Mothers, wives, sweethearts, sisters, brothers and babies made the Federal Building an actual bedlam when they rallied to the attempted rescue. But the grist ground on through, and the guilty were found and dealt with. Most of the young men were glad enough to exchange a bed on a stone floor for one in an Army tent. No doubt, most of them made good soldiers afterwards. They were rather passively than actively disloyal—and all of them were young.
No announcement was made of the plans of the Government. The word was passed silently that at a certain hour the hunt would be on. Once begun, it was prosecuted with energy and system. All the current ball games were visited, and the crowds were told to file out at a gate, where each suspect was asked to show his registration card. Motion picture shows were treated in the same way, the perfect districting and subdividing of the League’s force making all this synchronous and smooth. Cabarets and all-night places of all sorts were combed out. All the city parks were patrolled at night, and many a young man was taken from his young woman companion in that way. Members of the League even donned bathing costumes, and swimming out among the bathers at the beaches, plied their questions there! They took in over one hundred slackers out of the wet in that way.
At a thronged boulevard crossing in the loop district, every motor car was stopped. A. P. L. operatives met every incoming railway train and were at the gate of every train leaving the city. Countless homes and shops were visited. Sunday picnics in the suburbs were inspected, every theater and public building, every “L” road station and steamboat landing was investigated and guarded by men who made but one remark: “Show me!” On one night of the four, 7,000 men in a short time were gathered, held and taken to the police stations. Factories, stores, saloons, the open streets, all yielded up their toll—many innocent, many loyal, many negligent, many culpable and many disloyal evaders who were trying to dodge the draft.
In a vast wave, the vigilantes of Chicago, whose existence was suspected by almost none of these, swept out into the open. The guilty and the lukewarm alike, the innocent and ignorant conscript and the veiled enemy alike, got the largest and swiftest lesson in Americanism this country ever had had up to that hour. It showed a certain element that under the careless American character there are vast capacities for self-government and a stern respect for law and government. Many a pro-German has known in his soul since last July that about the most uncompromising autocrat he ever met was a simple man bearing not a scepter but a little badge.
In general, the raids met with no resistance, and though there was confusion there was no disorder. The people took it well, as might have been expected. Loyal Americans would not object, disloyal ones dared not. The general working out of the widely-scattered raids was admirable. As to the rapidity and thoroughness of the League’s work, it never has done better anywhere, because by this time it had grown into a well-drilled and perfectly-organized body of constabulary. As covering the public attitude of this city towards the raids—similar raids were met with worse receptions in other cities—a great daily, the Chicago Tribune, printed the following editorial comment:
The object of the roundup of draft registrants was, of course, to find those who are evading the law and bring them into the service. But the results of the drive go considerably beyond that. It has proved the splendid spirit of the community.
Americans do not like to be interfered with by officials. They are not accustomed to it, and they resent it in normal times, even when it is quite justifiable. But though it has been by no means convenient to be stopped on the way to work, interrogated, sent back home for credentials, or taken in custody pending investigation, there has been in this roundup a general good-natured acceptance of the process, and in the vast majority of cases, a cordial co-operation with the authorities.
A part of the credit for this undoubtedly belongs to the tact and good sense shown by the draft authorities and the volunteers of the American Protective League, who deserve congratulation upon the skill with which they have accomplished a by no means easy task with a minimum of friction and a maximum of thoroughness. But if the authorities showed good spirit, the public met them half way, and the total experience proves the excellent morale now existing. Whatever is necessary to get on with the war is accepted without complaint. Virtually everybody wants to help. Furthermore, the number of slackers found in proportion to the number of men questioned is gratifyingly small.
The young manhood is sound. As it is called on for service small or great, it will respond promptly and spiritedly.