Federal Agents on Upper West Side Streets: The Slacker Raids of 1918

By Pam Tice

On September 3, 1918, the federal government began a search in New York City for “slackers”: Army deserters, young men who had not registered or completed the military draft process, or men who failed to report for duty when called up.

World War I was still raging in Europe, though an Allied offensive was underway that would lead to war’s end a couple of months later.  

Against the backdrop of the war, the so-called Slacker Raids began in earnest early that September morning.

Agents from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation (later known as the FBI), local police reservists (civilians recruited to replace the many police serving in the Army), and 7,000 civilian volunteers from the American Protective League were among those who swarmed all the city’s railroad and ferry stations, busy with morning commuters. Then they moved on to workplaces, factory neighborhoods, certain office buildings, and, later, theaters, restaurants, saloons, barber shops, and parks. 

Crowds of New Yorkers began to gather at places where agents were questioning and holding men in the streets. The New York Herald reported that all the barbers cutting hair at West 68th Street and Broadway were rounded up. Another target area was Broadway and West 96th Street, where the Riviera and Riverside Theaters drew their attention, along with the neighborhood’s restaurants and saloons. One young man had tied up his yacht in the North (today’s Hudson) River and walked to Broadway to get a drink; he was taken in. The New York Tribune reported that George Miller, a transit system flagman from West 100th Street, hid in his flagman’s shanty for five days but eventually was arrested for not completing his draft registration. 

As they spread across the city, those conducting the raid stopped any man they thought looked to be aged 18-30. Those stopped were asked for the white card that proved their draft status; if they did not have it, they were transported to the local police station.

Men rounded up in the first hours of the raid were allowed to call home and ask someone to bring their draft card to the station so they could be released. But as the day wore on and the number of detainees increased, this step was impossible.

From local police stations, detainees were transported to the 69th Regiment Armory, at Lexington Avenue and East 25th Street, the headquarters for the “slacker” operation. At the armory, they were met by armed soldiers who sorted them into groups based on their local draft boards. A “sorter” called their draft boards to check their registration, gave them a card if they didn’t have one, and dismissed them. 

Most of the young men were released from the armory within a few hours, but some were held overnight. Cots and sandwiches were brought in. If someone was found to be unregistered or a deserter, they were taken to the Tombs, the city’s prison. 

Crowds gathered outside the armory. Women brought the white draft cards belonging to detained family members, or family Bibles or other documents to prove their age. Armed soldiers controlled the crowds; other soldiers with fixed bayonets rode on the vehicles transporting the detainees.

The raids continued into September 4 and then ended. By the next day, outrage at the Slacker Raids was starting to boil. Cries that the raids violated fundamental rights grew, and the U.S. Attorney General started an investigation, while another probe was threatened by the U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, those who had carried out the raids sought to justify them, citing the number of men brought in as an important accomplishment rather than a violation of rights; some bragged about how many men they had “bagged” in one restaurant. Though precise numbers are difficult to sort out since reports covered all of New York and New Jersey, The New York Herald reported on September 7 that fewer than 200 were identified as Manhattan slackers.

The American Protective League, which provided thousands of the civilians participating in the raids, was organized in Chicago in 1917 to find spies and saboteurs – as well as slackers. On the UWS, an APL member facilitated the arrest of a cabaret singer at the Campus Restaurant on Columbus Avenue who had not reported for Army duty. The group’s volunteers also found a New York Yankees player on West 104th Street who had not checked in with his draft board in Pennsylvania. 

The APL was disbanded shortly after the war ended in November 1918. President Woodrow Wilson never apologized for the raids; he was said to have thought the action put the fear of God into the young men before the next draft call up in mid-September.

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