for registration proved insufficient because of the shortness of the hours, and in many places great confusion resulted. Acting under proper instructions, members of the League in large numbers served as volunteer registrants under the direction of the officials.
On February 6, 1918, the Provost Marshal General and the Attorney General of the United States united in a request to the American Protective League to coöperate with all local and district exemption boards throughout the United States in locating and causing to present themselves to the proper authorities delinquents under the Selective Service Regulations, including those classed as deserters. Thereupon each local division assigned certain members to the Local and District Boards within its jurisdiction. These activities are of many varieties and include the investigation of Board Members, conspiracies and bribery, conspiracies to obstruct the draft, draft evasion in all forms, fraudulent attempts at deferred classification, false claims for exemption, failures to report for examination, failures to report for mobilization, failures to file questionnaires, failures to register, failures to secure final classification, failures to notify local boards of changes in address, failures to ascertain present status from the Local Board, failures to entrain, and all other alleged infractions of the regulations. These investigations made by the one hundred local divisions total 323,349. Upon a percentage basis, the cases handled throughout the country would total 2,263,443, and including the slacker raids, an enormous figure which cannot well be estimated.
Many investigations under the Local Boards were made with extreme difficulty because of the confusion in the spelling of names, inaccurate records and constantly shifting addresses due to the roaming character of the individual. We believe that the Provost Marshal General's office will confirm the statement that the number of delinquents and deserters of this character is very great, possibly exceeding two hundred thousands, a group recruited mostly from laborers, harvesters and the other ranks of homeless unskilled labor. Members of the League have given a great amount of time and energy to these cases.
During the two or three months following the day of first registration, a general effort was made by local divisions of the League in the principal cities to run down those individuals within the draft age who had failed to register on June 5, 1917. In Chicago, a city-wide drive was made during which all stations of the railroads entering Chicago were covered by League operators, and the downtown or loop dis-
