Female Alien Enemies

After the February 1918 registration of all male "alien enemies", the federal government extended that requirement to females, fixing the ten days beginning June 17 as the window for completing the process. In its final May issue, the Gazette reminded its women readers of the upcoming deadline.

The requirements are the same as they were for the men. Besides filling out the questionnaire, finger prints must be made, and each registrant must furnish the postmaster three* late pictures of herself. This order embraces the wives of all German aliens; all unmarried women over 14 years of age who were born in Germany, provided their father was or is unnaturalized; all women, whether they were born in Germany or America, if they are married to a German alien.

That was this difference between the men and the women: "the wife takes automatically the civil status of her husband," and the unmarried woman, I gather, took the civil status of her father.

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The Gazette's June 14 issue reported on the case of Henry Wolf, a 61-year-old naturalized German immigrant and a justice of the peace in Laporte County, who had just received a two-year sentence in federal court. Wolf, who was alleged to have said that he was "doing more good for the Kaiser than any other man in his neighborhood," was convicted of "irregularities in making out questionnaires for men subject to conscription."

This case is notable for the remarks by the sentencing judge. The Gazette identified him only as "Judge Anderson"; I believe he was the jurist of whom one historian has said that "few federal judges displayed judicial insensitivity and intransigence more boldly than Indiana's U.S. District Court Judge Albert B. Anderson." If so, then the judge was in typical form in Henry Wolf's case, as reported by the Gazette:

"I sometimes wonder if any of your people (meaning Germans) are square with the United States," Judge Anderson declared before sentencing Wolf. "You are like a good many others. When you read a paper, you either smile or frown, according to who is looking at you. Some of you people take out citizenship with a string attached to it."

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*The News said four photographs were required.


Sources:
♦ "Alien Women Must Register." Hobart Gazette 31 May 1918.
♦ "All German Alien Women Must Register June 17 to 26." Hobart News 6 June 1918.
♦ Tuohy, Martin. "Interurban Railroaders and Changing Work Conditions on the South Shore Line, 1908-1938." Indiana Historical Society. Web. http://www2.indianahistory.org/ihs_press/web_publications/railroad/tuohy.html (accessed 8 Mar. 2011).
♦ "Wanatah Justice Gets Prison Sentence." Hobart Gazette 14 June 1918.