Page:The web (1919).djvu/129

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

to register as such, and this opportunity was given S—— at the Immigration Station. S——, however, maintained that he was an American citizen; he could not produce papers but his explanation was as follows: That he had filed his declaration to become an American citizen and that, by reason of his activities against the law, he had been arrested and sentenced to serve six years in the penitentiary at Walla Walla; that while he was serving out his sentence, the date for him to appear for examination and acquire his second papers had expired, and that on account of his inability to appear, this automatically made him an American citizen. Therefore, he refused to register as an alien enemy. At the conclusion of the hearing, S—— was ordered interned and sent to Utah.

S—— had, for the previous six weeks, been hovering around the depot tanks of the Standard Oil Company. From the association of W—— and S—— and the facts that were disclosed in the investigation, there is no question in the minds of the officers of the organization but that they were about to cause an explosion at this plant as well as at one of the shipyards.


Yet another good report from the Seattle Chief covers the case of M. J. B——, alias W. J. H——, who apparently was unable to keep all his life as secret as he might wish. We cannot improve upon the report of the Chief as it was written:


B—— appeared in Seattle early in December, 1917, and took rooms at the P—— Hotel. From his acts it was immediately noted by our operatives at the hotel that B—— was receiving packages under the assumed name of W. J. H——, which name he explained to the clerk was used as a code. He received no visitors except two persons of foreign birth, and it developed that upon going to the hotel he was without ready money to sustain his expenses. Within a short time, however, B—— was found to have not only sufficient funds to maintain his daily expenses, but quite a surplus, which he was using lavishly. He claimed to be a working man, but his hands, dress and facial appearance were certainly those of a man who was accustomed to appearing in society, and taking life rather easy.

Following certain suspicious activities on the part of B——, an investigation thereof disclosed the fact that he was having considerable correspondence with Germans in the