100 YEARS AGO IN THE SARATOGIAN
Thursday, April 25, 1918. Saratoga Springs mayor Harry E. Pettee is praised by the U.S. Attorney General for his city’s efforts to register its “enemy alien” men, and receives new orders to turn his attention to the women.
The Saratogian reports today that Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory has officially thanked Pettee and the Saratoga Springs police department for “their promptness in the matter of registering the male German aliens in this city.” Gregory then requests “the same promptness in the registration of women German aliens which is to be commenced at once.”
Unnaturalized German women living in the U.S. had been exempt from the federal government’s efforts to register enemy aliens from the declaration of war against Germany last year until one week ago. On April 18 President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation calling for the registration of female enemy aliens.
For the local editors the move is both an overdue wartime necessity and a sort of backhanded blow for gender equality.
“Heretofore women living in this country have enjoyed special privileges in the way of espionage and hostile propaganda,” an editorial for tomorrow’s paper claims, “In their case our well known American chivalry has been carried to such lengths as to become a scandal.
“It seemed to be assumed that a woman was incapable of treason or sedition. At any rate, there were no laws clearly describing and forbidding such offenses except in the case of men – and those were none too explicit.
“The defect has now been remedied. Congress has enacted legislation placing female enemies on the same plane as males, with regard to war crimes, and the President has accordingly issued a proclamation warning them that their immunity is at an end.
“Women, as every intelligent person knows, are clever and resourceful at the spy game when they are so disposed. Much of the pro-German activity that has made so much trouble in this country has no doubt been done by women. The federal authorities have long had their eyes on conspicuous female offenders, though powerless to deal with them. The government’s task will now be easier.”
What’s Happening
Dancer turned actress Irene Castle, billed as “the best known, best dressed woman in America,” returns to the screen in “The Hillcrest Mystery” at the Broadway Theatre tonight. The “timely and exciting Pathe play” is “a stirring drama of love and treachery.”
At the Palace, “Everybody’s Favorite” actor, Charles Ray, stars in “His Mother’s Boy,” supported by a newsreel and a Harold Lloyd comedy short. At the Lyric, Franklyn Farnum stars in “The Rough Lover,” while serial queen Pearl White appears in “The House of Hate.”