New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-03
Registration Of Whole Pop
ulation Urged for Guide
in Spy Hunt
Present Regulations
Declared Inadequate
British Methods Cited as
Likely Solution of Plot
Activities in America

Satisfied after year of delay and
experiment that all measures hereto
fore devised by the government to cope
with the enemy alien problem are in
adequate and that further delay only
enhances the menace of the foe in the
rear, officials of the American Defence
Society and other patriotic organiza-
tons arc preparing to urge upon Con-
gress the necessity of quickly passing
a general defence act that will afford
means of prompt and efficient action.
A single enactment is advocated to
combine all agencies and measures to
deal with spies, propagandists, incen-
diaries, livestock prisoners, practton-
ers of sabotage and seditious native
elements, and to commit the admins
tration of the act to a separate head
or bureau, with ample staff and funds
to carry it out.
Data so far gathered has revealed,
SO far as New York is concerned, only
one definite, presump tively accurate
figure. That is that in the draft regis
tration last June there were registered
3O,S07 enemy aliens between Che ages
of twenty-one and thirty-one-al almost
an army corps.
General Registr lion Urged
All the rest is estimate. The first
requisite OF an adequate workable sys-
TEN OF handling the enemy alien men
ace. it is therefore urged, is a general
registration of the entire population,
and the issue of cards to natives and
foreigners alike, so the enemy aliens
may be identified and located. This
would end a condition said to have
enabled thousands of active Teuton
agents to evade efforts to reach them
and give the proper authority founda-
tion upon which to work
Secretary X. L. Craig. Of the de-
fence society, said yesterday that en-
perts now are in Washington as
sembling data and material upon which
a presentation may be made to con-
vince Senators and Representatives
immediate action is essential
Apart from the item of propaganda,
which is generally admitted to have
been checked in only comparatively
slight degree, the material already
gathered shows that, while the Census
Bureau estimates there are nearly s.
100000 enemy aliens in the country
964,000 Of them being men, fewer than
1000 have been informed. This figure
does not include the German sailors
who damaged their interned ships to
the extent of several million dollars
just before the vessels were taken over
by the United States.
Asks Death for Spies
The figures also show that in the
first seven months after the United
States entered the war food to the
amount of $25,OO0,0 900 was destroyed in
fires attributed to enemy agencies;
that ships. including two transports
IN the Brooklyn navy yard, were dam
aged to the extent Of probably $40
100000 more, and that several hun
dred lives were lost in explosions ond
industrial mishaps brought about by
agents of the Kaiser. All this was in
addition to the stock poisoning. crop
burning and sabotage activities of the
|. w. W. and other agencies, which
caused Food Administrator Hoover to
issue general warning to the coun-
try last October.
Another provision sought deals with
penalties-death for spies, women as
well as mon; similar punishment for
participants in plots for Wholesale de-
struction of food or material; long
sentences for evasion Of rcgistration
and trespass upon restricted areas or