In the conduct of these nightly patrols a special headquarters was established in a down-town public building. The captain in charge directed operations from this place. Not only was he able to keep the railroad stations, hotels, cafés, saloons and other public places under continuous surveillance for slackers, but he also had forces constantly available to meet any emergencies which arose during the evenings. Squads frequently were dispatched from this headquarters to various points of the city to give attention to special cases.
One of the first draft evasion cases investigated by the Minneapolis Division is a great short story ready-made. It concerned a young man prominent in labor circles. He had been an avowed opponent of all the national war measures, and was particularly bitter in his condemnation of the Selective Service Act. It was reported on good authority that although he was within the draft age he had declined to register and intended to resort to any device necessary to evade service.
The first inquiry was made at the Board of Health, where it was ascertained that no record of his birth was on file. Attention was next called to the poll books, and it was found that the age he had given when registering as a voter placed him safely within the provisions of the draft act. His school enrollment record was investigated and it was found that the ages given in the various grades made him amenable to the draft. He had three insurance policies, and the original applications which he had signed showed him to have been less than thirty-one years old on June 5, 1917. The last step was to search for the marriage record of his father and mother. They were found to have been married in a small town near Minneapolis in November, 1885.
When the young man was summoned to headquarters he admitted the authenticity of all these records, but insisted that he knew he was past thirty-one on June 5, 1917. He refused to state on what information he based this assertion, and was held for prosecution. One final attempt was made to clear his status, and with considerable effort his mother, who had divorced his father more than twenty-five years before, was located. At the end of an
