- ment of the meetings the members marched in a body through
the principal streets of Rockford to the jail, about a mile and a quarter away, and a demand was made to release the prisoners. Upon the Sheriff's refusal to do so, the mob incited a riot, as a result of which, arrests were made of the leaders and persons known to be in sympathy with the I. W. W. and placed in jail. About one hundred and thirty-five arrests were made. At the time standing room only was available in the jail. Sheriff Guy Ginders of Rockford arranged with the Sheriffs of Boone and Stevenson Counties to accept some of the prisoners. With this end in view special interurban cars were chartered. Thirty-five were taken to Boone County, forty-five to Stevenson County, and about thirty remained in the Rockford city jail. Before the transfers were made all the glass in the windows of the jail was broken and most of the plumbing wrecked. The leader, James Cully, was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury, tried in the federal court, found guilty, and sentenced to Leavenworth Penitentiary. A majority of the balance were indicted by the federal grand jury for failure to register, and about 107 were sentenced to a maximum of one year in the Bridewell at Chicago.
This case, together with the I. W. W. case at Chicago, makes a total of 212 defendants convicted in two cases—a record, I believe, in the Federal Courts of this country. The American Protective League aided the Department in both of these important cases.
As I understand it, "The Web" will be a history of the League as an organization rather than a work referring to any individuals connected with it, but, nevertheless, I desire to say that in addition to Mr. A. M. Briggs, both Captain Charles Daniel Frey and Mr. Victor Elting, who later became National Directors at Washington, but who were Chief and Assistant Chief respectively of the Chicago Division in its early days, deserve the highest possible praise for the work done by them and the sacrifices they made in putting the League on its feet. Mr. Robert A. Gunn, formerly Assistant Chief, later Chief of the Chicago Division, is also entitled to highest possible praise for his untiring devotion to the service. Mr. John H. Winterbotham, Chairman of the Board of Governors at Chicago, who was one of the first members of the League, and who aided it in its financial development and other work, besides traveling through a number of cities in the middle west, appointing local chiefs of the League, etc., has done as much as any other man to perpetuate and make the League a success. The League will never be able to repay Mr. John F. Gilchrist, its Chief for many months during a very trying period, for his able leadership and devotion to the work. He was
