Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-03-06 | Page 6 | Prison the Place

PRISON THE PLACE. It is to be regretted that the admittedly admit-tedly dangerous civilian enemy aliens interned at Fort Douglas cannot be taken to the penitentiary for safe-keeping. Quite recently Governor Bamberger Bamber-ger tendered the use of the Utah -state prison to the government, but, owing to the fact that this country is living up to the very letter of its treaties and agreements, the offer of the governor has been declined. These Germans are held on presidential warrants bcause they are a positive menace to the United States during the war with the kaiser. They have been interned because be-cause they showed their sympathy with Germany by their talk. Had they committed com-mitted overt acts they could have been tried, convicted and sent to prison for a term of years. But as they are almost as much of a menace in the internment camps as they would be if allowed their liberty, their status should be more clearly defined de-fined and they should be confined in places where they cannot dig tunnels, make bombs or receive help from the outside. Such safeguarding is impossible impossi-ble at the internment camps, although it may bo said that the officers and men at these camps have been and are doing their full duty. Enemy aliens have succeeded in doing a considerable amount of damage in this country. They began their dastardly work long before the entrance of the United States into the war and a point has been reached where the American people are beginning begin-ning to demand drastic action in all such cases. This sentiment has. become so strong that only the other day the federal food administrator of Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania declared, ""We will not be a free people Until 10,000 German propagandists propagan-dists in this state have been hanged to telegraph poles and shot full of holes." Many others, including former President Pres-ident Taft, have advocated the placing plac-ing of such people against the wall, with a firing squad in front of them. This sentiment will continue to grow as long as the war lasts and may culminate cul-minate in the people taking the law into their own hands unless all such propagandists are rounded up and placed in some secure place. If a presidential pres-idential warrant does not give us the right to absolute security for our hearths and homes and it is held that enemy aliens held under such warrants must be confined in internment camps, from which escape is possible, then congress should so legislate as to give us the protection demanded. Xew laws should be placed upon the statute books for the purpose of arraigning these enemy en-emy aliens in court and sending them to the penitentiaries, where they will be safe, for if it is necessary to our well-being that such men be under guard during the period of the war, it is also necessary that their escape should be rendered impossible. But after looking at the question up one side and down the other, we incline to the belief that the president has just as much right to hold enemies in prison as he has to keep them under guard in internment camps, his power in the latter case being unquestioned. un-questioned. Still, if there is any doubt in the premises, let congress legislate and settle the whole matter. Governor Bamberger's offer will undoubtedly remain re-main open if it is finally decided to put the enemy aliens where they properly belong.