Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 82, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 April 1918 — 3,500 GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE UNITED STATES [ARTICLE]

3,500 GERMAN PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE UNITED STATES

Officers and Men From the Vessels Interned at the Beginning of the War and Men Arrested as Alien Enemies Since the United States Entered the War Are Being Treated in Most Humane Manner.

By FREDERICK C. HOWE, United States Commissioner of Immigration at New York. It has been nearly sixty years since the United States has held any prisoners on American soli. And the prisoners of the Civil war were our own people split asunder by the strife over slavery. Already there are approxi- ' mately 3,500 German prisoners in the United States. They are not captives in battle. They have never seen the trenches, but a portion of theta were active participants in the war as officers and seamen on the German sea raider Prinz Eltei Friedrich, whlcli ventured into Hampton Roads for coal and supplies in July. 1914. But the great majority of our prisoners of war are officers and sailors, the stewards and employees of the German merchant vessels which were seized by bur government immediately on the declaration of war and men who are held as suspects who have heen arrested in various parts of the country. There were 29 merchant ships which had been in the harbor of New York i lnce September, 1914. They had on I oard about 1,100 Germans who were ,aken from the ships and interned at Ellis island. There were other German ships at Boston, Porto Rico, Panama, while over 50 Germans were across the Pacific to New York from the harbor of Kiaouchou, captured by the Japanese. Since the outbreak of the war, too, German and Austrian subjects, from bankers to stevedores, have been arrested as alien enemies and placed in temporary detention at various places throughout the United States awaiting final action by the government. We were new in war metilods—unprepared for prisoners of war. And whatever the treatment of Germany to American prisoners, the United States determined that German prisoners held here should be treated on the assumption of the president that this was a war not against the German people but against the rulers of Prussia. Moreover, the great majority of these prisoners were here on a peaceful errand; they had come in their ships, of which the greatest of all was the Vaterland, now the Leviathan, and were marooned in American waters. They remained by their ships for nearly three years. But they were trained men. Many or all of them were reservists. Identified with the fatherland. Ths great majority of these prisoners were held for six months at the Ellis Island immigration station In New York and on an Island In Boston harbcr under the jurisdiction of the Unltel States immigration authorities. ‘The officers and sailors of the Prinz Eitel Friedrich were first taken to Philadelphia and then to Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. Under the provisions of The Hague tribunal, agreed to by all the powers, prisoners of war t have certain rights. They may not be compelled to work at anything that will contribute to the military activities of the government. They are to have means of communication with their friends. If they do any Industrial work they are to be paid on the same schedule of wages as that paid to officers and soldiers of the same grade tn the army. Secretary of Labor Wilson, when confronted with the maintenance and care of 2,000 German subjects placed under his care, many of whom’ had wives in this country, decided that the United States should set a standard of prison administration in harmony with the disinterested and nonpunitlve war alms of America and so humane that our humanity would serve as a means of protection to American soldiers who might become prisoners of war in German camps. Camps Built by Germans. Hot Springs, In the mountains of North Carolina, was selected as an Internment camp for the interned seamen. It lies far from the sea and nestles in the midst of mountain ranges In western North Carolina. Other war prisoners are Interned nt Fort McPherson and Fort Oglethorpe. Ga.. where cantonments have heen erected similar to those occupied by troops. These camps were built by the Germans under direction of American officers and are surrounded by stockades. Relays of officers and seamen were transported from New York and Boston to Hot Springs during the summer nnd early fall months of 1917. and from out the crews of the ships all kinds of mechanicians and artisans were selected. And the German prisoners were set to work building their own camp. When the work was completed there was nothing for the men to do. There was no provision for activities except such sports as the men themselves might devise. A large number were employed in the kitchen; they kept the place In order; some fan the pumping engines; others looked after the water supply. plumbing and electricity. Practically aIL the work Inside the camp is performed by the Germans.

And the Germans have been permitted,to find amusements for themselves. They have developed a life of their own. They developed it and perfected it until what a few months ago was merely an Internment camp has now become a center of every kind of activity. On the river banks a German village was laid put. It Is suggestive of. Old Heidelberg, the crooked streets of Nurnberg, or some little village in the Black mountains. One almost forgets that one is in the mountains of North Carolina as he walks along the narrow; crooked streets of this German village, flanked on either side by artistic playhouses built by the men themselves. The houses are not for living tn. although ingenious stoves have been built to keep them warm from stones picked up along the riverside. And the houses themselves are made from scraps of * lumber, from broken branches of trees, from little pieces of wood. They are shingled with tin cans and are papered within and tinted at very little expense. At the head of the roadway is a miniature Gothic church. Its lines are good; it has pews within it, a pulpit, and all the accessories of a church. But it is merely a play church. Flowers of all kinds are planted, and in a short time the German village was a flower garden. And. when this work was completed the men who had constructed these buildings organized classes for study. One of these houses is an artist’s studio; two or three are cabinetmaking shops. Some old men are weaving. They are plying all the trades that they learned ih their Idle hours on shipboard. Wonderful mosaic work made out of cigar boxes is turned out, as are little ships complete in every detail. Y. M. C. A. Takes Hold. - The Young Men’s Christian association followed the Germans to Hot Springs, as # has followed our soldiers to their cantonments, and It came with plans for service, with money enough to buy lumber, but no money for labor, and the representative of the Young Men’s Christian association called a number of the German seamen together in their camp and asked them If be willing to build a Young Men’s Christian association building if supplied*with material and tools. Immediately the men organized a construction squad. They gave their labor gratuitously. They erected a big building, probably 200 by 150 feet, artistically designed, as a clubroom and schoolhouse, and Immediately all the classes were filled. Four hundred men were Immediately enrolled. The Ger.inans produced their own teachers. Classes were established in elementary and advanced English. Other classes were formed in French and in Spanish. Shorthand, geography, chemistry, marine engineering, and navigation are taught. All day and all evening these classes are at work studying various subjects. Similar classes were organized in the officers’ detention camp. The Young Men’s Christian association has also stationed secretaries and Inaugurated work at Fort Oglethorpe and Fort McPherson, Ga., and at Fort Douglas, Utah. They have co-oper-ated heartily with the government and have rendered most valuable service along the lines of work usually carried on by the association —religious, educational, athletic, music, and gardening. Life Is Irksome In any camp. The men get what the doctors call the “barbed-wire sickness.” It affects men’s minds to be kept in an Inclosure with nothing to do. That is the most serious complaint. There have been but few attempts escape, and the guarding of the prisoners is relatively easy.