we said, 'this has been your country. If we hadn't
gone to war, you would have expected to be here.'
"'But we want to go home now.'
"'If you go home will you fight for your country?'
"'We don't know.'
"And they absolutely refused to take out citizenship papers. How do we
know them? As Naturalization Officer I marked on every one of those
papers. 'This man, though he has been here for four years or ten years
refused naturalization in the hope that he might avoid overseas
service.' Now, then, I move that we include in that motion that the
files be gone through and every man who refused citizenship, who was a
native of any other country, but adopted this country and refused to
take out the citizenship papers we offered him, after he had been
brought into the army by the draft, also be deported."
Before the applause began Colonel Luke Lea had the floor. He is tall
and imposing and a powerful speaker.
"I want to see this made a complete and thorough job, and to that end
I desire to offer a further amendment," he said. "We further demand
the immediate deportation of every alien enemy who, during the war,
was interned, whether such alien enemy be now interned or has been
paroled. I merely want to say this: That any alien enemy who is too
dangerous to be at large and bear the burdens of war, is too dangerous
to be at large and participate in the blessings of peace."
This brought down the house. It was what everybody thought and wanted.
It was what everybody had hoped for since the very first day during
the war that the Department of Justice had made its first internments.
There have been all sorts of stories telling about these interned
aliens getting rooms with baths, tennis courts, swimming pools, and
playgrounds, and everyone had consistently hoped that they would all
be sent back to Germany or Austria at the earliest possible moment
after the war. The same hope was expressed in regard to certain
Scandinavians and Hollanders here who were active in behalf of
Germany. One thing is certain and that is that none of the delegates
present were opposed to this enemy alien deportation, or if they were
they didn't or couldn't make themselves heard above the thunderous
approbation.
Chaplain Inzer at this juncture jumped to his feet and heightened the
applause by shouting, "There are four million men back of this
organization. If I were a Bolshevik, I'd pack my grip and beat it."
The culmination of this particular
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