Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-03-04
Americans in the Trenches
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

Washington, d. c., Feb. 27-Few
people realize how many native and
naturalized American citizens are
fighting in the European armies. Re
liable estimates place their number at
about ten thousand. These ten thou
sand men are giving rise to all sorts
of legal and diplomatic complications,
The question of their status in the
United States, if they get through the
war alive and return home, is bother
ing good many of them. Ill.,.
Our law sets forth that any Ameri-
can citizen who takes an oath of al
legiance to foreign state has ex-
patriated himself Some of the Euro
pean armies require an oath of allee-
lance from the recruit, while others do
not. Any American who has taken
such an oath is no longer an American
citizen, The question of his restora-
ton to citizenship should he desire it,
will proba bly, have to be settled IN
American courts. a t."
AS to the duties of American citizen
ship, the state department says in its
dignifed way that it does not under
take to prescribe the duty OF an lndl-
vidual with regard to his citizenship,
but it is nevertheless of the opinion
that American neutrality requires
American citizens to keep out OF the
actual fighting. That is just the way
a. number of the fighting Americans
in Europe feel about it.
They belong to the class OF natural
lied citizens who were travelling in
their native countries when the war
broke out The home government
promptly snapped them up. presented
them with nice new uniforms. rlnes
and trenching tools, and shipped them
off to the front. Most OF the com
plants along this line are coming from
Italy. Italian law holds that natural
ization of an Italian subject IN 1or-
eign country without consent OF the
Italian government does not make him
less liable to military service. The
United States has no treaty with Italy
defining the status of former ltallal
subjects who have become American
citizens. Thus former Italian sub
ject who visits Italy is liable to arrest
and enforced military service II he Is
between sixteen and thirty-two years
old. A good many of the Americans
on the Austro-Italian front belong to
this class.
" The French government is not very
willing to give up it's claim on men OF
military age. To get release from
liability to serve, a special permit has
to be secured from the minister OF Jus
tice by the ex-Frenchman VINO mas
naturalized himself in another lana.
Resides the trouble involved, such
permit costs about $125.
Very few Frenchmen who became
American citizens took the trouble TO
arrange the formalities involved IN re-
moving their names from the list OF
men available for active service.
Hence a good many Of them are now
I'm to their knees in mud, shooting at
Germans along the line that runs from
Switzerland to the sea.
The British army has been gettlns
it's share of Americans, chiefly IN the
Canadian contingent. Numerous
Youths from the border states have
enlisted, many Of them under the age
Of legal majority. The American gov
eminent has succeeded in arranging
for conditions of release for such re-
cruits. Although they enlisted Vol.
UNFAIRLY, some of them found that war
is a bigger contract than they mad
bargained for, and the parents OF 9TH
ers came forward with various and
vehement objections. The British
has agreed that when con-
vincing proof is brought forward to
show that an American citizen was
minor at the time of his enlistment:
in the British army, he will be dis
charged without pay wherever he may
happen to be when his discharge goes
into effect
In consequence. he may find himself
stranded without money to live on or
to pay his passage home. Persons dis.
charged from the British service are
not allowed to wear the British uni
form thereafter, so the erstwhile sold
widely assorted safety service of any
arm of the government. Besides such