The Centennial History of Illinois. Vol. V. By E. L.
Bogart and J. M. Mathews. (Springfield : Illinois Central Commis- aion.)—The elaborate history of Illinois, written to commemorate the first centenary of the formation of the State, is completed in this volume in the period from 1893 to 1918. It deals very thoroughly with economic questions as well as with politics, and concludes with a chapter by Professor A. C. Cole on Illinois during the war which will interest British readers. The intense enthusiasm which America displayed for the war was mani- fested in Illinnia, despite the fact that there were over three hundred thousand residents of German birth and nearly two hundred thousand Austro-Hungarians. Unofficial societies looked very sharply after the enemy aliens and the pacificists, but cases of overt treason seem to have been rare. According to Professor Cole, there were at no time more than two hundred "conscientious objectors" under detention. The Socialists were not tolerated either by the authorities or by the public. Many of their leaders were convicted and sent to gaol. One German Socialist at Collinsville was lynched. The Republican Mayor of Chicago, Mr. Thompson, was strongly opposed to the war, but his City Council, by sixty votes to eight, repudiated him and his anti-national policy. When he put himself forward in 1918 as candidate for the Senatorship, he failed to obtain nomination at the primaries, although his party easily won the elections. If the Kaiser counted on the Chicago Germans to help Germany, he was woefully deceived.
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