and important steel industries of all kinds. The population is mostly of foreign origin, anything from a descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers to a Tartar from Siberia. Poles, Austrians, Serbs, Swedes, Germans and Italians predominate, and many of the A. P. L. operatives were recruited from this source, thereby giving access to all tongues. This division captain says:
The magnitude of the shipping and the enormous steel industries,
together with a population of from ten to twenty
thousand aliens, has rightly given this district the reputation
of being one of the most difficult in Chicago. Thousands of
these people speak no English, and are living here under foreign
customs. Two local draft boards are in this district, 19
and 20, and naturally many cases of draft evasion were found.
After the first general registration, we were called upon to investigate
about 1,200 cases under this head, a large percentage
of them being cases of men who were really willing to comply
with the regulations, but who had been badly advised by their
more erudite countrymen. As we always have a large "floating
population," we naturally experienced much trouble in
tracing this class.
That small things often lead to large affairs, we discovered many times. One night a Pole came home, went over to the side of the room, took a large crucifix from the wall, broke it across his knee, and told his wife who stared at him big-eyed with horror, that that thing was no good any more and that he had no place for it. The woman, who like most of her nationality, was intensely religious, was quick to see that her man was not drunk, and was shrewd enough to determine to find the cause of his action. On quizzing him, she found he had joined a new Polish Church which taught many new things, so she asked if she could not go to that church. He took her there, and she learned of the notorious Pastor Russell and his teachings, heard the doctrines of non-resistance preached, and learned of a service to be held to persuade young men never to fight or shed blood under any circumstances. She reported what she learned, and made such a positive and specific affidavit, that we resolved to see how much truth it contained. So, when we discovered that services were being held in their church, and that the congregation contained a great many young men of draft age, evidently Poles, we took a chance and called the wagon.
We arrested the entire congregation during the services, confiscated copies of "The Finished Mystery," a proscribed
