considered an extremist, but honest in intention. He became associated with a certain Cincinnatian, American born of German descent, an attorney of some reputation. These two men contemplated organizing in Cincinnati a branch of The People's Council.
From the beginning, the League was represented at both the private and secret meetings of the Council, which, for a time, were held in the attorney's office, where four or five gathered; but as new recruits were enrolled by the Council and larger quarters were required, they were transferred to an office in Odd Fellow's Temple occupied by a former minister, a Socialist radical, a man whose career marked him as an advocate of extreme measures, and who carried with him a considerable following which he had organized several years before. Pacifism was the big keynote of its original platform. Without interference, however, the speakers became bold. The intellectuals who enlisted under its banner included a leading Sinn Feiner, a professor of a well-known college of Cincinnati, who was chairman, a pastor of the Lutheran Church, and, of course, the attorney and organizer.
It was the day of the original Espionage Act, and it was difficult under this unamended Act to find violations; but some of the speeches rang with treasonable utterances. After months of this sort of thing, the Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, decided it was time to act. A meeting had been called for Friday night, at the office of the former pastor, at which many things were expected to happen, and on that night it was decided to make a search, not only of the meeting place, but of the homes of the leaders. The District Attorney asked every man present—League operatives, agents of the Department of Justice, deputy United States Marshals, and local police detectives who had been assigned to the work, to set their watches with his. At 8:30 o'clock prompt, the search, under due warrant of law, was made in all parts of the city, and the papers and documents which were brought to the office of the United States Attorney made it impossible forever after for The People's Council to carry on its nefarious activities.
From that day Cincinnati was rid of openly organized anti-government activities. Some of the papers found, proved of great value to the Government. A special solicitor from the office of the Attorney General at Washington was assigned to Cincinnati to go over these papers, and the information which he gathered was of great use in many other cities. As a result of this search, the professor who had taken such an important part in the work of The People's Council was
