Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1918-01-02
MANY THOUSANDS OF AUSTRO-
HUNGARIANS WORK IN OUR
MINES AND MILLS.
THEY'RE NOW ENEMY ALIENS
Probably Many of Them Will Be En-
abled to Keep Their Positions So
That Great Industries Shall Not Be
Crippled.
BY EDWARD 9. CLARK.

tlonaDly are being made to act at nome
as well 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
eminent. 1t is fraught with some anxi-
cites. 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!
1t is said that thus far the Austrian
Hnngarians 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 inj-re 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
fields Of the day Jaborer.
1t probably can be said, without fear
that word to the contrary will come,
that the government already has laid
its plans to take care of an Austr0-
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 now are
Some Can Be Kept at Work.
II is said that by a proper readjust-
ment of Austro-Hungarian labor and
It's specific activities some Of the alien
enemies can be kept at work, can re-
main self-supporting and yet be de-
priyed of any opportunity to 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. 1t is said that the mining OPP
erations 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 at 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 ia
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
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. 1t 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 formality of 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 a declaration be
made.
A Judge of United States court was
asked by the writer if it would frac-
ture the Constitution if the United
States were to enter into hoStilitieS
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 that
when congress declared that war ex-
listed between the United States and
Germany it became the duty of the
forces of this government to make war
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, hOstilities
agains- those forces would be proper,
would not injure the Constitution in
word or in iettAr 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 adj
ditional alien enemies within its bor-
ders. The task will be big one, but
the authorities say that it will be met.
Changes the War Plan.
As things are now viewed it seems
to Washington military observers that
the United States troops before long