JAP FARMERS CREATING ALARM

Are Holding Mysterious Meetings at Night on Their White River Valley Farms, and Whites are Perplexed.

LIGHTS BURNED FROM TOPS OF THEIR HOUSES

Former State Land Commissioner Robert Bridges Says They are Overrunning the Valley and Getting Control.

Japanese residents of the White River Valley have been showing so much mysterious activity lately that their white neighbors have become alarmed. Nearly every night the little brown men are holding meetings throughout the valley. What the object of the meetings may be is not known, but the White River farmers no longer attempt to conceal the opinion that it is for some purpose which the Japs do not care to divulge, possibly to organize for united action in the event of war between Japan and the United States.

The White River farmers have learned to distinguish a farm conducted by Japs from the American ranches at night, because of the fact that the Japs, for the last two months, have kept peculiarly shaped lights burning from the tops of their cabins. These lights serve to give notice to other Japanese that a meeting is to be held, and all night long, it is said, the little brown men can be seem tramping back and forth between their homes and the meeting houses. They seem to spring up like magic when the lights are burning.

A report of the peculiar actions of the Japanese gardeners was brought to Seattle yesterday by Robert Bridges, former state land commissioner, who owns a farm at Orillia. He discussed the situation with Councilman James Conway.

"Bridges told me frankly," said Conway this morning, "that the situation does not look good to him. He is not willing to assert that the Japs are holding the mysterious meetings for improper purposes, but he said it certainly looks peculiar.

"He tells me that the Japanese are now overrunning the valley. There are several hundred of them there. The meetings which they hold are attended by as many as fifty and sixty men. Bridges says it looks to him as if they are trying to obtain absolute control of the valley, possibly with the object of cornering the city's vegetable supply.

"They are getting control of every farm they can. Bridges refused to sell his ranch, and then they offered to rent it, and they are willing to pay high rentals, too."