H, and one C. H. B, became active associates with the foregoing. Pacifist meetings in Los Angeles were raided, and all these parties managed to get themselves arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace.
In April, 1918, a letter addressed to a man in Santa Barbara, California, who had a name quite similar to the first man above mentioned, fell into the hands of A. P. L., because the wrong recipient had opened it. It was found to be a letter from the secretary of the I. W. W. organization at Los Angeles, setting a definite date for a meeting at Los Angeles where Mr. H was to be present and address the assembled multitude. The Chief of A. P. L. at Santa Barbara notified D. J. in Los Angeles. At the same time, Santa Barbara was requested to locate the new reverend, Mr. F. H, whose whereabouts now were unknown.
There now came into the case a Miss E, a prominent young woman who had been a canteen worker and Red Cross nurse in France. Her family were friends of the H family, but Miss E was a friend of the United States Army above all things. She learned that the second reverend was at Modesto, California, and that Mr. H would leave Santa Barbara on Sunday, April 7, for Los Angeles; that he would stop at the Alexandria Hotel, and would address the meeting on April 8.
This information was turned over to D. J. at Los Angeles.
It was decided to arrest all the foregoing alphabetical gentlemen. About twenty members were assigned to the work and these arrests were duly made at 9:00 P. M. on the night of April 8. Certain residences of the above parties were searched and an immense amount of literature and pamphlets on pacifism and radical Socialism were discovered. Most of the books were seized.
The first mentioned Mr. H was hard to catch, the deputy marshal being obliged to chase him through the streets of Los Angeles for several blocks. H had to spend his night in the county jail. The next morning he telephoned to his mother that he had "spent the night with some friends of his, the Marshalls." At least, he had a sense of humor, because the only "Marshals" he knew were the deputy United States marshals at that time, and he had indeed been their guest temporarily.
