McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1917-04-27


men who were known to have beer
engaged in plots here, and who were
not American citizens, were gathered
in wherever found, by the Department
Of Justice, and are now meditatine
over their fate in the internment
camp at Ellis Island near the city
along with hundreds of sailors anG
officers from the big German ships
that have been lying here since the
war started. There is room for many
more, and the government will not
Hesitate to use that room for any OF
those who plo5 against the peace and
dignity of this great and good nation
We are perhaps too easy with these
serpents in human form, but we are
not quite so easy as they thought.
The German officers on the interned
steamships here who made the fire
bombs to sink ships at sea were found
guilty in fifteen minutes by the jury,
and are now in the Tombs under SEN
tence to Atlanta penitentiary. The
writer does not like to blow his own
horn in this or any other matter, but
who else can blow it for him, and tell
what part he played in it? Nearly all
Of the great newspapers mentioned
it, and the New York Sun said.
The interesting point raised by the
trial had been the effort Of four Of
the defendants to deny statements
made by them in German at the time
Of their arrest, thus attacking Lind
say :. Perkins, interpreter for the
Department Of Justice, who put the
questions to them in German and
translated their answers to stenog-
rapher. The jurors had opportunity
70 hear Mr.. Perkins interpret for the
Germans at the trial, and after they
were discharged Yesterday they said
emphatically that the defendants had
convicted themselves out of their own
mouths. They believed that Mr.. Per-
kins had served the prisoners faith
fully in his translations."
Immediately upon declaration of
war, the Collector Of the Port of New
York, Dudley Field Malone, seized all
The German vessels in this port, and
all German vessels in other ports of
this country were treated likewise.
There were over ninety of them all,
@orLh more than one hundred million
dollars. They will be useful to send
out on voyages to let the German
submarines practice onl The machin-
cry Cf some Of these vessels is report
ed to have been damaged, but they
can all be repaired in few months
and used to good advantage to send
food (and perhaps soldiers) across the
waters to our European allies. Yes,
We are fighting on their side now;
they fought bravely the battles that
really protected us IS well, and now
we will repay some of their good SER
vices. | have seen these immense
vessels, big as floating towns, tied up
at the docks at Hobokeu, just oppo-
site lower Broadway, at l30th street
on the Hudson river. The Vaterland
is of $1,000 tens displacement, and
could carry five times the population
Of Selmer, together with the people of
Lawton, Finger, Chewalla and Stan
tonville, to say nothing of old Pardy.
The captain, German named Ruser,
refused to damage the machinery Of
his magnificent ship when so ordered
by his government. All honor to that
one disobedient Teuton. But on the
other vessels. sounds could be heard
several blocks away, of hammers
pounding. on the costly engines and
other works, before the war, and no
one could interfere.
All, it does the patriotic American
heart good to look down Broadway
and Wall street, and thousand other
streets Of New York these days! If
you stare in at 242nd street you can
ride for nearly Is miles down Broad
way, and that great thoroughfare,
and every side street, is a-blossom
with the Star-Spangled Banner, so
spring-like in its beauty; the hand
soonest of all the flags on earth, and
standing for the majesty and might
of the richest, most enlightened, most
intelligent and most powerful nation
upon which the sun ever shone. Even
old Trinity church, at Broadway and
Wall. Gjes the red, white and blue on
its ancient steeple, for the first time
since the civil war, and Wall street is