The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-12-19
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATTOM BUREAU
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. d. c.
HOUSING ENEMY ALIENS.
They Have a Good Place to Live and
CongcTiaI Work.

Washington, D. c., Dec. 16.-The |
United States government is now
holding nearly two thousand prisoners
of war. Most of them are officers ana |
seamen from informed enemy ships |
some are unwelcome German subjects /
who failed to leave with Won bern I
storff, and still others are more or /
less suspicious individuals arrested by |
the department of justice. But, what |
ever they are. they have to be fed, !
clothed and housed by the govern
ment.
This does not sound like much of
problem in these days when almost
every country in the world is accom-
modating prisoners of war, but you ,
can take it from the department OF
labor that it was In some way the
job of caring for enemy aliens was
handed to the bureau of immigration |
of this department, without, however,
any appropriation or suggestions as to
! how it was to be done. The govern
ment itself had not prepared for such
an emergency. Its own prisons were
full. There was, in fact, no appro-
! pirate place for the enemy aliens
TO go.
Nevertheless, certain officials of the
bureau of immigration remained at
their desks all night on April A. wait
ing for the verdict of congress. AT
3:14 a. m. they received the news that
war Germany had been declared.
Exa city one minute later, message
was telegraphed to every United States
port. Less than an hour later imm1-
grafton officials had boarded every en-
envy ship, removing the crew and plac-
ing them in the nearest available
prison quarters.
Having done this much, the bureau
wondered what it was going to do
next Congress was too preoccupied
| with war problems to feel any great
concern or. sympathy over the well
| fare of German prisoners. The prison
| quarters chosen by the immigration
/ officials were in most cases the INF
! migration stations. SiXty-four men
were imprisoned in the New Orleans
| immigration station-a modern well
| equipped building, but hardly a per
manent prison accommodation; II Of
! fieers and 149 seamen were detained
| in the Philadelphia station at Glouces-
| ter City, n. j.; Sc officers and 191
seamen were held in the immigration
station of Boston, $50 informed aliens
at San Francisco and 200 officers and
men at Ellis island.
None of these accommodations was
suitable. In New Orleans the men
| had to be removed on account of eli
matte conditions. The station at
Gloucester was entirely inadequate to
the situation. In Boston the United
States public health offidials very
antine alton at GaIlups island for
the accommodation of the prisoners,
and they have since been removed
| there. Additional buildings have been
constructed by the aliens themselves,
under the direction of the immigra-
ton officials, supplies have been
bought and the place has been turned
into an excellent prison cantonment,
with a section of the Y. NJ. c. A. in
army huts furnishing entertainment
for the aliens.
At Ellis Island no remedy present.
ed itself in the absence of a federal
appropriation, so there the aliens
stayed in spite of much congestion
and inconvenience. In the meantime,
however, the bureau of immigration
was working on plans for a perna-
nent and suitable location for them.
At first the government reservation
at Pisgah forest seemed to answer the
problem, its location and climate be-
ing good, its need for roads conspicu-
Gus. And it was planned to let the
aliens build the roads. But the for
est contained no buildings capable of
housing the aliens Immediately, so the
| bureau had to look elsewhere.
A location at Kanuga Lake, near
| Hendersonville, n. c., also seemed to
offer ideal conditions, but this also
| had to be relinquished on account of
At last, however. the Mountain Park
hotel, at North Carolinas famous Hot
Springs, 80 miles west of Asheville
was chosen the hotel and 100 acres of
land being rented. (The necessa ry
appropriation from congress came just
in time)
1t may also be stated parenthetic-
ally, that if it had been the bureaus
idea to choose a location for its pic
tureSque beauty instead of for utili-
| IA ri If hlX
more successful. The property is To-
Gated on broad stream thirteen hum
dred feet up in the mountains in what
is North Cardinals widest strip of
country. In summer there won't be
any need for guards if they teach the
aliens trout-fishing.
The Mountain Park hotel, although
slightly damaged by a flood the year
ing 500 persons. A few of the aliens
were brought down from Ellis Island
to make the necessary repairs; a few
outbuildings were constructed. and
the first internment station the United
States has known in years was ready
| ever, wholly satisfactory to the bureau.
Many aliens were still crowding the
immigrant stations, so that it was
necessary either to rent other quar-
ters or to build new ones adjacent to
the hotel. The bureau decided that
the latter would be more practica BILE
AS the government needed all the
labor it could get to promulgate the
war the plan was to have the aliens
construct their own quarters and add
to their own maintenance as much as
. possible by cultivating part of the
100 acres. A special staff. including
Alfred Hampton, director of intern
ment; F. w. Berkshire, supervising
inspector. and special immigrant in
spector, Roger O'Donnell, was put in
charge of this construction work, and
the erection of the first barracks be-
gan
Meantime, the aliens had appointed
a committee from among their own