In 1918, the CPI organized a massive traveling war exposition in Chicago that drew two million visitors to see Zeppelin wreckage and staged trench warfare reenactments. This era saw the rise of the American Protective League (APL), a group of 250,000 citizens authorized by the Justice Department to conduct "slacker raids" and illegal searches. These efforts were designed to enforce patriotism and suppress any objections to the war effort through intimidation and arrests.
