The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1918-04-11
THE GERMAN
SPY MENACE

SPY MENACE
Among us are miserable spies
whom Germany would o dispose
Of" said Senator Harding of Ohio to
the Maryland defense council the
other day. Il honor Germany for it,
he continued. "In justice to these
100, 000, 900 people there is but one
place for the man with the torch and
the bomb, and hat is against a stone
wall"
Congressman Kahn of California,
who fought brilliantly on the side of
the President when the draft law was
receiving the luke-warm support of
Mr.. Wilson's own party, declares that
spies ought to be strung up instanter.
The American Defense Society and
the National Security League, work
ing Independently of each other. have
made a demand that the lax methods
of handling the enemy alien situation
cease, and the latter has made an
appeal to Washington for more dras-
tic action under the espionage act.
Under the laws of war, approved by
every other nation, a spy during the
course of hosilities is liable for exc
cution. According to article 20 of the
Hague convention, a spy is "one who,
acting clendestinely, or on false pre-
lenses, obtains, or seeks to obtain,
information in the zone of operations
of a belligerent, with the intention of
communicating it to the hostile
party"
For the past year the public has
been startled with fiaring headlines:
German Agents Found in Munition
Works" German Bomb Found on
VESSEL "Teuton Spies in Curtiss
Aeroplane Plant "Blueprints of Our
Coast Defenses Found in Hands of a
German Spy" and SO on, until the
people are beginning to wonder.
Ground glass has been found in food
for our boys in the training camps.
The chemistry department, where the
food was sent for analysis, was found
to be composed of three Germans. an
Austrian and another enemy alien.
Out of a batch of 5000 gas masks for
use by our boys in the trenches over
there, 1900 were found to have small
holes punched in them, so that had
the Americans used them the first gas
attack by the Germans would have
resulted in 1900 out of 5000 dead
American soldiers. 1t is serious.
Just recently Senator Lee Overman
of North Carolina declared that he
would raise his former statement that
there were 100000 German spies in
this country, made at the time the
espionage bill was pending, to 400, 600.
A 800 per cent increase in time of
war, with thousands of. Democratic
Jack Hawkshaws on the job Mr..
Overman charged that German tam
pering with the Curtiss planes has
caused a hold-up in the whole aero
plane program.
In New Orleans a few days ago a
man named Hershkovitz was nabbed
with plans and drawings of a United
States naval station, which he adj
mitted were to be transmitted to Ger
many, via Mexico. He was interned
for two years in Atlanta, where many
of his co-conspirators are dwelling in
fatted ease. A German employee in
one of the Government departments
in Washington was found in posses
sion of stolen blueprints of great
value to the enemy. Another Ger
man subject has just been caught,
having in his possession a secret code,
diagrams of our Notifications, and
evidence of a plot for a Jail delivery
of all enemy aliens confined in Fort
Douglas. These two spies will doubt
less be given a vacation in Atlanta at
Government expense. A gentleman
who was fired from the National Mu-
scum for his pro-German %utterances
was promptly employed by George
Creel In his official publicity bureau.
These are instances which could be
multiplied over and over again.
The reason for this state of affairs
is simple enough. Whether because
of fear of the political effect on a GER
tain element of our population which
the summary execution of these
weasles would create, the fact re-
mains that the administration is too
i%rresolute in it's treatment of this
peril, hence the German spy system
brazenly deies the administration I'M
der its own roofs. II have the honor
to inform you that l have caught one
of your command within the Ameri-
can lines" wrote Israel Putnam to the
British commander. "He was ar
rested as a spy, he will be treated as
a spy, and, if convicted, he will be
hanged as a spy. P.S. He was hanged
at 4 o'clock today" We need a Put
nam on the job, but If we can't have
one the attention of the American De-
Tense League is called TO the good
work done in California in the early
days by the Vigilance Committee,
Perhaps a national vigilance commit
tee could put down the menace which
the administration refuses to crush.
Buy that Liberty Bond now!