The Carlisle independent., 1917-12-27
MANY THOUSANDS OF AUsTRo. HUNGARlANS WORK IN OUR
 MINES AND MILLS.
THEY'RE NOW ENEMY ALIENS
Probably Many of Them Win Be En- abled to Keep Their Positions So That Great industries Shall Not Be Crippled.
By EDWARD B. CLARK.

Au9tAI1 III SIEHl preparations NUU utS- tionably are being made To act al home as we'll as abroad There is one thing perhaps more than any other. so far as war operations are concerned with do- nestle problems, that has entered into the thought of the officials of the gov ernment. Il is fraught with some anxi- cities. What is to be done with the enormous number of alien Austrians and Hungarians who are at work in the labor fields of the United States?
 It is said that thus far the Austrian Hungarlans who labor in the great coal fields of the country have shown no disposition to hamper the government of the United States in any way, and have been far from engaging in any attempts to cripple industry or in any way to injure the war trades of the American people. There have been some few exceptions, but in most cases where Austrians and Hungarians have plotted against the well being of the United States the work has been done apart from what may be called the tields of the day laborer.
 It probably can be said, without fear that word to the contrary will come, that the government already has laid it's plans to take care of an Austro- Hungarian situation in this country. There are thousands upon thousands of these men, now enemy aliens, engaged in work in places where it would be extremely difficult for them to do any real injury in an anti-industrial way to this country provided, of course, they can be kept where they how are.
 Some Can Be Kept at Work.
 It is said that by a proper readjust- ment of Austro-Hungarian labor and its specific activities some Of the alien enemies can be kept at work. can re- main self-supportfng and yet be de- priyed of any opportunity 10 do ma terial damage to the industries of the country.
 Virtually every foreign nationality is represented in the coal fields and in the steel industries of the United States. It is said that the mining op- eradons can more easily be safeguard ed than the steel-making industries, even while enemy aliens remain at work in the fields. By the shifting of gangs, enemy aliens ut the mines, it is said, can be given work where they are under constant observation and will have little opportunity to put the mines out of commission or to inter- fere seriously with transportation fa cilities. In the steel mills the prob lem might be different, but it is under stood that the government, through it's confidential agents and through rep resentatives of the steel industry, al- ready has made arrangements to meet any possible menace.
 It is urged in some quarters that Austro-Hungarians now in this country shall be either interned or removed from the fields of their present labors. This will involve an enormous labor at an enormous cost, and, moreover, in places it perhaps would so cripple industry that the war operations would be set back for weeks. It might also be extremely difficult to get men to take the places of those removed.
 Declaration the Better Way
 There was a belief in some quarters in Washington that the United States could go ahead internationally legal ly" with war against Austria without the formalty of a declaration of hos tilitieS by the congress of the United States. President Wilson, however, seemingly did not take this view of it, or at any rate thought it better, per haps because of the domestic situation, to ask that such declaration be made.
 A judge of United States court was asked by the writer if II would frac- ture the Constitution if the United States were to enter into hoSuIiUies against the Austrians, the Bulgarians and the Turks without any declaration by the congress. He said that common sense was the basis of law and chat when congress declared that war eX- isted between the United States and Germany it became the duty of the lOiCtS Ol lilAS SUh Uh6ItlltAAl u lAtttAAt Af tAi on Germany in the way Surest to de- feat her, and that if this involved war on the forces which. in connection with those of the kaiser, were trying to de feat the United States, hostilides against those forces would be proper, would not injure the Constitution in word or in letter and could be engaged in without declaration by congress.
 Now, however, it is certain that war will be on with the Austro-Hungarian empire and that the United States is to be confronted with the task of look ing after hundreds of thousands of ad- ditional alien enemies within it's bor- ders. The task will be a big one, but the authorities say that it will be met.
 Changes the War Plan.
 As things are now viewed it seems 10 Washington military observers that the United States troops before long may be found fighting in fields engage ment in which 1t would have taken long flight of the imagination to cum