and seven of food-hoarding. No grass grew under the feet of this division.
ILLINOIS
There ought to be at least one good stiff report from some town located near a big Army cantonment. Rockford, Illinois, entry point for Camp Grant, has submitted a report which meets every specification. It must be understood that from 30,000 to 75,000 troops came under the jurisdiction of Rockford Division each couple of months or so throughout the war. Rockford is a great manufacturing point and for some time has been a center of I. W. W. activities, a considerable number of I. W. W. clan being found among the laboring classes there. The League watched these people very closely, secured stenographic reports of their club speeches, etc., and thus got some strong Government evidence.
After war was declared, these agitators became very violent, and carried on an active compaign against the Selective Service Act. On one occasion they conducted an all-day meeting and picnic at Black Hawk Park, which was nothing but an organization meeting so timed as to interfere with the draft registration. We locked up three men, at which the other members of the two local unions thronged the streets to the jail and demanded the release of the men. We put an additional one hundred and thirty-five members of the I. W. W. in jail, and standing room only was available. Special interurban cars were chartered, eighty persons being removed to adjacent counties. The jail was pretty badly wrecked. The leader of these men got two years imprisonment, it being proved also that he was an alien and subject to deportation. The Immigration Bureau has secured a warrant for his deportation, and he will go abroad permanently at the expiration of his sentence. Federal Judge Landis sentenced one hundred and eleven of these men to one year in the Bridewell at Chicago. This case has been referred to in the report of Mr. Colby, D. J. agent at Chicago, as one of the most important in the Western country. A special agent was sent out by the Department of Justice to Rockford, with the result that an office was established there to carry on the joint work more efficiently.
