Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-31
|| n II
MEN ARE HELD
IN STACKER RAIDS
Most of 200 Taken From
Saloons and Poolrooms
Freed
OBJECTOR CENSURED
Seven Arrested in Near Riot
When Negroes Attack
U. S. Agents
OBJECTOR CENSURED

Forty-two men were held In $500 bail
each this afternoon by United States
commissioner Long as the result OF
Tree lance" Stacker raids conducted
throughout the city last night and early
this morning
Dance halls, saloons. parks, restau-
rants, polorooms--everv place where
( men Of draft age might he found-were
visited by the Federal agents in the raid.
Two hundred were caught In the net
nut most of these were released today
upon producing their registration cards
A near-riot between blacks and whites
occurred near the Twelfth and Pine
streets police station when n crowd of
negroes attacked the agents VINO de-
manded proof OF their registration.
White men in the vicinity went to the
aid of the agents and riot threatened
when other operatives of the Depart
ment of Justice drove up in an auto
mobile. Seven negroes were arrested
A dancing academy. at Broad street
and Montgomery avenue was visited and
while a dance was In progress the agents
slipped through the crowd. iuterrupting
the dancers and forcing the men to show
their cards. Two men We're arrested.
Hunt Among Fire Spectators
An added thrill was furnished the
thousands of spectators who witnessed
the fire that destroyed the Overbrook
Carpet Mills, Fifty-sixth street and Lam
caster avenue, when Government opera
tives conducted a Stacker hunt in the
crowd. Twenty-seven of the forty-two
men held were apprehended here.
The raids began shortly after 10
o'clock last night when agents of the
Department of Justice. assisted by sew
eral hundred members of tha Anerican
Protective League of this city and Tren-
ton swooped down on Strawberry Man
sion
They invaded the dark, cozy nooks,
fnterrupting many "seances de amour"
with the heartless cry:
Where's your registration card?'
Some bench occupants had" and
others "handE.t" there being tone OF
misfortune in the latter cases. for dam
sells sought their way home. alone,
One young man, snugly seated on
q bench with a girl friend, said he
was in Glass 8. but did not have his
card. He refused to state what physi-
cal defects he had to be placed in
such a class and was whisked away.
Enroute to the station house he as
founded his captors by removing his
5 right eye--a false one-which was suf-
ficient explanation for the operatives.
The youth went on to explain that he
was not obstinate, but merely desired
to keep the secret from the lady on
the bench.
Hundreds OF soldiers and sailors with
friends, enjoyed the raid, they being
immune from any draft evasion deten-
ton.
Leaps From window
The one spectacular touch in the park
roundup occurred when the operatives
surrounded the Underground One lad
leaped out. of rear window dropping
many feet below to the car tracks with
an agent in close pursuit. The fugitive
was arrested.
Later the slacker's chasers canvassed
the entire residential district near
Strawberry Mansion, stopping men on
the street in saloons. stores, and, in fact,
all congregating places. The persons de-
tanned were brought to the Twenty sixth
and York streets station.
The raids were directed by R. D.
Clark, head Of the ,conscription squad OF
the Department of Justice here. On the
way to the park orders everybody for
himself" were sent out to the operatives
and they drifted hither and thither-
anywhere for slackers.