Page:The web (1919).djvu/201

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meeting came dangerously close to being disloyal. We shall be so mild as this in comment, since being a member of the Socialist party is not per se a disloyal act, and not all Socialists are of the radical wing.

Much pleased with the sound of their own voices, these gentlemen now concluded to hold a public street parade, with red banners and the usual Bolshevist appurtenances. They went to Acting Chief of Police Alcock, and asked for a permit to parade in the streets. They said they wanted to carry the red flag, and they asked police protection. Note the reply the Chief of Police made to them:


My friends, I won't give you police protection at all, nor try to do so. Do you know what you are up against? There are 12,000 A. P. L. men in this village who are opposed to this sort of thing, and my men don't want to get in wrong with any 12,000 A. P. L. men. We work with those people and not against them. They work with us and not against us. Believe me, the best thing you folks can do is to cut out the parade.


The representatives of the proposed parade could not get back to their headquarters fast enough. They cut out the parade.

As late as November 21, Chicago was still running enemy alien specials for Fort Oglethorpe. This consignment included a cook, also a Highland Park riding master who had been over-curious in regard to matters adjacent to Fort Sheridan. Twenty others were to be picked up later down the line—all after the Armistice had been signed.

On November 23, Fred I——, said to resemble the Crown Prince very much in his personal appearance, was fined five thousand dollars, whether for seditious utterances or for his resemblance to the Crown Prince does not appear, and is immaterial. Either would be enough.

On November 26, nine men were given free transportation from Chicago to Fort Leavenworth. One of these was a Dunkard preacher who got ten years for saying, "I'd kill a man rather than buy a Liberty bond." He will have time to think that proposition over.

These straws will show well which way the wind blew in Chicago for the last year or so. Much to the disap-