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diff --git a/58652-0.txt b/58652-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..209dcdb --- /dev/null +++ b/58652-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8304 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58652 *** + + + + + + + + + +THE GERMAN SECRET SERVICE IN AMERICA 1914-1918 + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Count Johann von Bernstorff, the responsible director of Germany's +secret policies in America] + + + + +THE GERMAN SECRET +SERVICE IN AMERICA +1914-1918 + +BY + +JOHN PRICE JONES + +AUTHOR OF "AMERICA ENTANGLED" + +AND + +PAUL MERRICK HOLLISTER + +[Illustration: Logo] + +BOSTON + +SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + +Copyright, 1918, + +BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY + +(INCORPORATED) + + + + +"It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. The extraordinary +insults and aggressions of the Imperial German Government left us no +self-respecting choice but to take up arms in defense of our rights +as a free people and of our honor as a sovereign government. The +military masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. They +filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and conspirators +and sought to corrupt the opinion of our people in their own behalf. +When they found they could not do that, their agents diligently +spread sedition amongst us and sought to draw our own citizens from +their allegiance--and some of these agents were men connected with +the official embassy of the German Government itself here in our own +capital. They sought by violence to destroy our industries and arrest +our commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to take up arms against us +and to draw Japan into a hostile alliance with her--and that, not by +indirection but by direct suggestion from the Foreign Office in Berlin. +They impudently denied us the use of the high seas and repeatedly +executed their threat that they would send to their death any of our +people who ventured to approach the coasts of Europe. And many of our +own people were corrupted. Men began to look upon their neighbors with +suspicion and to wonder in their hot resentment and surprise whether +there was any community in which hostile intrigue did not lurk. What +great nation in such circumstances would not have taken up arms? Much +as we have desired peace, it was denied us, and not of our own choice. +This flag under which we serve would have been dishonored had we +withheld our hand." + +--WOODROW WILSON, Flag Day Address +June 14, 1917 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +A nation at war wants nothing less than complete information of her +enemy. It is hard for the mind to conceive exactly what "complete +information" means, for it includes every fact which may contain the +lightest indication of the enemy strength, her use of that strength, +and her intention. The nation which sets out to obtain complete +information of her enemy must pry into every neglected corner, fish +every innocent pool, and collect a mass of matter concerning the +industrial, social and military organization of the enemy which when +correlated, appraises her strength--and her weakness. Nothing less than +full information will satisfy the mathematical maker of war. + +Germany was always precociously fond of international statistics. She +wanted--the present tense is equally applicable--full information of +America and her allies so as to attack their vulnerable points. She +got a ghastly amount of it, and she attacked. This book sets forth how +secret agents of the Teutonic governments acting under orders have +attacked our national life, both before and after our declaration of +war; how men and women in Germany's employ on American soil, planned +and executed bribery, sedition, arson, the destruction of property and +even murder, not to mention lesser violations of American law; how they +sought to subvert to the advantage of the Central Powers the aims of +the Government of the United States; how, in short, they made enemies +of the United States immediately the European war had broken out. + +The facts were obtained by the writer first as a reporter on the +_New York Sun_ who for more than a year busied himself with no other +concern, and afterwards in an independent investigation. Some of +them he has cited in a previous work. This book brings the story of +Germany's secret agencies in America up to the early months of 1918. +Because the writer during the past six months has devoted his entire +time to the Liberty Loan, it became necessary for him to leave the +rearrangement of the work entirely in the hands of the co-author, and +he desires to acknowledge his complete indebtedness to the co-author +for undertaking and carrying out an assignment for which the full +measure of reward will be derived from a sharper American consciousness +of the true nature of our enemy at home and abroad. + +So we dedicate this chronicle to our country. + +JOHN PRICE JONES. + +New York, June 1, 1918. + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER PAGE +I THE ORGANIZATION 1 + +The economic, diplomatic and military aspects of +secret warfare in America--Germany's peace-time +organization--von Bernstorff, the diplomat--Albert, the +economist--von Papen and Boy-Ed, the men of war. + +II THE CONSPIRATORS' TASK 19 + +The terrain--Lower New York--The consulates--The +economic problem of supplying Germany and +checking supplies to the Allies--The diplomatic problem +of keeping America's friendship--The military +problem in Canada, Mexico, India, etc.--Germany's +denial. + +III THE RAIDERS AT SEA 28 + +The outbreak of war--Mobilization of reservists--The +Hamburg-American contract--The _Berwind_--The +_Marina Quezada_--The _Sacramento_--Naval battles. + +IV THE WIRELESS SYSTEM 43 + +The German Embassy a clearing house--Sayville--German's +knowledge of U. S. wireless--Subsidized +electrical companies--Aid to the raiders--The _Emden_--The +_Geier_--Charles E. Apgar--The German code. + +V MILITARY VIOLENCE 60 + +The plan to raid Canadian ports--The first Welland +Canal plot--Von Papen, von der Goltz and Tauscher--The +project abandoned--Goltz's arrest--The +Tauscher trial--Hidden arms--Louden's plan of invasion. + +VI PAUL KOENIG 73 + +Justice and Metzler--Koenig's personality--von Papen's +checks--The "little black book"--Telephone codes-- +Shadowing--Koenig's agents--His betrayal. + +VII FALSE PASSPORTS 82 + +Hans von Wedell's bureau--The traffic in false +passports--Carl Ruroede--Methods of forgery--Adams' +coup--von Wedell's letter to von Bernstorff--Stegler-- +Lody--Berlin counterfeits American passports--von Breechow. + +VIII INCENDIARISM 100 + +Increased munitions production--The opening explosions-- +Orders from Berlin--Von Papen and Seattle--July, +1915--The Van Koolbergen affair--The +Autumn of 1915--The Pinole explosion. + +IX MORE BOMB PLOTS 117 + +Kaltschmidt and the Windsor explosions--The Port +Huron tunnel--Werner Horn--Explosions embarrass +the Embassy--Black Tom--The second Welland affair--Harry +Newton--The damage done in three years--Waiter +spies. + +X FRANZ VON RINTELEN 138 + +The leak in the National City Bank--The _Minnehaha_--Von +Rintelen's training--His return to America--His +aims--His funds--Smuggling oil--The Krag-Joergensen +rifles--Von Rintelen's flight and capture. + +XI SHIP BOMBS 154 + +Mobilizing destroying agents--The plotters in Hoboken--Von +Kleist's arrest and confession--The _Kirk +Oswald_ trial--Further explosions--The _Arabic_--Robert +Fay--His arrest--The ship plots decrease. + +XII LABOR 171 + +David Lamar--Labor's National Peace Council--The +embargo conference--The attempted longshoremen's +strike--Dr. Dumba's recall. + +XIII THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA 190 + +The mistress of the seas--Plotting in New York--The +_Lusitania's_ escape in February, 1915--The advertised +warning--The plot--May 7, 1915--Diplomatic +correspondence--Gustave Stahl--The results. + +XIV COMMERCIAL VENTURES 203 + +German law in America--Waetzoldt's reports--The +British blockade--A report from Washington--Stopping +the chlorine supply--Speculation in wool--Dyestuffs +and the _Deutschland_--Purchasing phenol--The +Bridgeport Projectile Company--The lost portfolio--The +recall of the attachés--A summary of Dr. Albert's +efforts. + +XV THE PUBLIC MIND 225 + +Dr. Bertling--The _Staats-Zeitung_--George Sylvester +Viereck and _The Fatherland_--Efforts to buy a press +association--Bernhardi's articles--Marcus Braun and +_Fair Play_--Plans for a German news syndicate--Sander, +Wunnenberg, Bacon and motion pictures--The +German-American Alliance--Its purposes--Political +activities--Colquitt of Texas--The "Wisconsin Plan"-- +Lobbying--Misappropriation of German Red Cross +funds--Friends of Peace--The American Truth Society. + +XVI HINDU-GERMAN CONSPIRACIES 252 + +The Society for Advancement in India--"Gaekwar +Scholarships"--Har Dyal and _Gadhr_--India in 1914-- +Papen's report--German and Hindu agents sent to the +Orient--Gupta in Japan--The raid on von Igel's office-- +Chakravarty replaces Gupta--The _Annie Larsen_ +and _Maverick_ filibuster--Von Igel's memoranda--Har +Dyal in Berlin--A request for anarchist agents--Ram +Chandra--Plots against the East and West Indies-- +Correspondence between Bernstorff and Berlin, +1916--Designs on China, Japan and Africa--Chakravarty +arrested--The conspirators indicted. + +XVII MEXICO, IRELAND, AND BOLO 288 + +Huerta arrives in New York--The restoration plot--German +intrigue in Central America--The Zimmermann +note--Sinn Fein--Sir Roger Casement and the +Easter Rebellion--Bolo Pacha in America and France--A +warning. + +XVIII AMERICA GOES TO WAR 320 + +Bernstorff's request for bribe-money--The President +on German spies--Interned ships seized--Enemy +aliens--Interning German agents--The water-front and +finger-print regulations--Pro-German acts since April, +1917--A warning and a prophecy. + +APPENDIX 335 + +A German Propagandist. + + + + +List of Illustrations + + +Count Johann von Bernstorff _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + +The German Embassy in Washington 2 + +Captain Franz von Papen 12 + +Captain Karl Boy-Ed 16 + +William J. Flynn 22 + +Thomas J. Tunney 26 + +Dr. Karl Buenz 32 + +Passport given to Horst von der Goltz 64 + +Paul Koenig 74 + +Hans von Wedell and his wife 84 + +Franz von Rintelen 138 + +Robert Fay 166 + +Dr. Constantin Dumba 184 + +The _Lusitania_ 190 + +Advertisement of the German Embassy 194 + +Checks signed by Adolf Pavenstedt 230 + +George Sylvester Viereck 234 + +Letter from Count von Bernstorff 236 + +Check from Count von Bernstorff 238 + +Letter-paper of "The Friends of Peace" 250 + +Dr. Chakravarty 284 + +Jeremiah A. O'Leary 302 + +Paul Bolo Pacha 310 + + + + +THE GERMAN SECRET SERVICE IN AMERICA + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ORGANIZATION + + The economic, diplomatic and military aspects of secret warfare in + America--Germany's peace-time organization--von Bernstorff, the + diplomat--Albert, the economist--von Papen and Boy-Ed, the men of + war. + + +When, in the summer of 1914, the loaded dice fell for war, Germany +began a campaign overseas as thoughtfully forecasted as that first +headlong flood which rolled to the Marne. World-domination was the +Prussian objective. It is quite natural that the United States, whose +influence affected a large part of the world, should have received +swift attention from Berlin. America and Americans could serve +Germany's purpose in numerous ways, and the possible assets of the +United States had been searchingly assayed in Berlin long before the +arrival of "Der Tag." + +The day dawned--and Germany found herself hemmed in by enemies. Her +navy did not control the oceans upon which she had depended for a large +percentage of her required food and raw materials, and upon which she +must continue to depend if her output were to keep pace with her war +needs. If surprise-attack should fail to bring the contest to a sudden +and favorable conclusion, Germany was prepared to accept the more +probable alternative of a contest of economic endurance. Therefore, she +reasoned, supplies must continue to come from America. + +Of importance scarcely secondary to the economic phase of her warfare +in the United States was the diplomatic problem. Here was a nation of +infinite resources, a people of infinite resource. This nation must +be enlisted on the side of the Central Powers; failing that, must be +kept friendly; under no circumstances was she to be allowed to enlist +with the Allies. One fundamental trait of Americans Germany held too +lightly--their blood-kinship to Britons--and it is a grimly amusing +commentary upon the confidence of the German in bonds Teutonic that he +believed that the antidote to this racial "weakness" of ours lay in the +large numbers of Germans who had settled here and become Americans of +sorts. But the German was alarmingly if not absolutely correct in his +estimate, for upon the conduct and zeal of Germans in America actually +depended much of the success of Germany's diplomatic tactics in America. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +The German Embassy in Washington, headquarters and clearing-house of +German intrigue in the world outside Mittel-Europa, 1914-1917] + +The war, then, so far as the United States figured in Germany's +plan, was economic and diplomatic. But it was also military. German +representatives in the United States were bound by oath to coöperate +to their utmost in all military enterprises within their reach. With a +certain few notable exceptions, no such enterprises came within their +reach, and if the reader anticipates from that fact a disappointing +lack of violence in the narrative to follow, let him remember that +"all's fair in war," and that every German activity in the United +States, whether it was economic, diplomatic or military, was carried on +with a certain Prussian thoroughness which was chiefly characterized by +brutal violence. + +We have come to believe that thoroughness is the first and last word in +German organization. Any really thorough organization must be promptly +convertible to new activities without loss of motion. If these new +activities are unexpected, the change is more or less of an experiment, +and its possibilities are not ominous. But truly dangerous is the +organization which transfers suddenly to coping with the expected. +Germany had expected war for forty years. + +Her peace-time organization in America consisted of four executives: +an ambassador, a fiscal agent, a military attaché, and a naval attaché. +Its chief was the ambassador, comparable in his duties and privileges +to the president of a corporation, the representative with full +authority to negotiate with other organizations, and responsible to his +board of directors--the foreign office in Berlin. Its treasurer was +the fiscal agent. And its department heads were the military and naval +attachés, each responsible in some degree to his superiors in matters +of policy and finances, and answerable also to Berlin. + +The functions of the chief were two-fold. Convincing evidence +produced by the State Department has placed at his door the ultimate +responsibility for executing Germany's commands not in the United +States alone, but throughout all of the world excepting Middle Europe. +Under his eyes passed Berlin's instructions to her envoys in both +Americas, and through his hands passed their reports. He directed +and delegated the administration of all German policy in the western +world and the far east, and of course directed all strictly diplomatic +enterprises afoot in the United States. + +Germany could hardly have chosen an abler envoy than this latest of all +the Bernstorffs, Johann, a statesman whose ancestors for generations +had been Saxon diplomats. A glance at the man's countenance convinced +one of his powers of concentration: the many lines of his face seemed +to focus on a point between his eyebrows. And yet his expression +was hardly grim. The modeling of his head was unusually strong, his +features sensitive, with no trace of weakness. If there had been +weakness about his mouth, it was concealed by the conventional ferocity +of a Hohenzollern moustache, and yet those untruthful lips could +part in an ingratiating smile which flashed ingenuous friendliness. +His frame was tall and slender, his mannerisms suggested carefully +bridled nervous activity. The entire appearance of the man may best be +described by a much-abused term--he was "distinguished." + +Count von Bernstorff, once his nation had declared war upon France and +England, went to war with the United States. As ambassador, diplomatic +courtesy gave him a scope of observation limited only by the dignity of +his position. A seat in a special gallery in the Senate and House of +Representatives was always ready for his occupancy; he could virtually +command the attention of the White House; and senators, congressmen +and office-holders from German-American districts respected him. +Messengers kept him in constant touch with the line-up of Congress +on important issues, and two hours later that line-up was known in +the Foreign Office in Berlin. As head and front of the German spy +system in America, he held cautiously aloof from all but the most +instrumental acquaintances: men and women of prominent political and +social influence who he knew were inclined, for good and sufficient +reasons, to help him. One woman, whose bills he paid at a Fifth Avenue +gown house, was the wife of a prominent broker and another woman of +confessedly German affiliations who served him lived within a stone's +throw of the Metropolitan Museum and its nearby phalanx of gilded +dwellings (her husband's office was in a building at 11 Broadway, +of which more anon); a third woman intimate lived in a comfortable +apartment near Fifth Avenue--an apartment selected for her, though +she was unaware of it, by secret agents of the United States. During +the early days of the war the promise of social sponsorship which any +embassy in Washington could extend proved bait for a number of ingénues +of various ages, with ambition and mischief in their minds, and the +gracious Ambassador played them smoothly and dexterously. Mostly they +were not German women, for the German women of America were not so +likely to be useful socially, nor as a type so astute as to qualify +them for von Bernstorff's delicate work. To those whom he chose to +see he was courteous, and superficially frank almost to the point of +naïveté. The pressure of negotiation between Washington and Berlin +became more and more exacting as the war progressed, yet he found time +to command a campaign whose success would have resulted in disaster +to the United States. That he was not blamed for the failure of that +campaign when he returned to Germany in April, 1917, is evidenced +by his prompt appointment to the court of Turkey, a difficult and +important post, and in the case of Michaelis, a stepping-stone to the +highest post in the Foreign Office. + +Upon the shoulders of Dr. Heinrich Albert, privy counsellor and +fiscal agent of the German Empire, fell the practical execution of +German propaganda throughout America. He was the American agent of +a government which has done more than any other to coöperate with +business towards the extension of influence abroad, on the principle +that "the flag follows the constitution." As such he had had his +finger on the pulse of American trade, had catalogued exhaustively +the economic resources of the country, and held in his debt, as his +nation's treasurer in America, scores of bankers, manufacturers and +traders to whom Germany had extended subsidy. As such also he was the +paymaster of the Imperial secret diplomatic and consular agents. + +You could find him almost any day until the break with Germany in a +small office in the Hamburg-American Building (a beehive of secret +agents) at No. 45 Broadway, New York. He was tall and slender, and +wore the sombre frock coat of the European business man with real +grace. His eyes were blue and clear, his face clean-shaven and faintly +sabre-scarred, and his hair blond. He impressed one as an unusual young +man in a highly responsible position. His greeting to visitors, of whom +he had few, was punctilious, his bow low, and his manner altogether +polite. He encouraged conversation rather than offered it. He had none +of the "hard snap" of the energetic, outspoken, brusque American man of +business. Dr. Albert was a smooth-running, well-turned cog in the great +machine of Prussian militarism. + +Upon him rested the task of spending between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 +a week for German propaganda. He spent thirty million at least--and +only Germany knows how much more--in secret agency work, also known +by the uglier names of bribery, sedition and conspiracy. He admitted +that he wasted a half million or more. He had a joint account with +Bernstorff in the Chase National Bank, New York, which amounted at +times to several millions. His resources gave weight to his utterances +in the quiet office overlooking Broadway, or in the German Club in +Central Park South, or in the consulates or hotels of Chicago and New +Orleans and San Francisco, to which he made occasional trips to confer +with German business men. + +His colleagues held him in high esteem. His methods were quiet and +successful, and his participation in the offences against America's +peace might have passed unproven had he not been engaged in a +too-absorbing conversation one day in August, 1915, upon a Sixth Avenue +elevated train. He started up to leave the train at Fiftieth Street, +and carelessly left his portfolio behind him--to the tender care of +a United States Secret Service man. It contained documents revealing +his complicity in enterprises the magnitude of which beggars the +imagination. The publication of certain of those documents awoke the +slumbering populace to a feeling of chagrin and anger almost equal to +his own at the loss of his dossier. And yet he stayed on in America, +and returned with the ambassadorial party to Germany only after the +severance of diplomatic relations in 1917, credited with expert +generalship on the economic sector of the American front. + +Germany's military attaché to the United States was Captain Franz +von Papen. His mission was the study of the United States army. In +August, 1914, it may be assumed that he had absorbed most of the useful +information of the United States army, which at that moment was no +superhuman problem. In July of that year he was in Mexico, observing, +among other matters, the effect of dynamite explosions on railways. +He was quite familiar with Mexico. According to Admiral von Hintze he +had organized a military unit in the lukewarm German colony in Mexico +City, and he used one or more of the warring factions in the southern +republic to test the efficacy of various means of warfare. + +The rumble of a European war sent him scurrying northward. From Mexico +on July 29 he wired Captain Boy-Ed--of whom more presently--in New York +to + + + " ... arrange business for me too with Pavenstedt," + + +which referred to the fact that Boy-Ed had just engaged office space in +the offices of G. Amsinck & Company, New York, which was at that time +a German house of which Adolph Pavenstedt was the president, but which +has since been taken over by American interests. And he added: + + + "Then inform Lersner. The Russian attaché ordered back to + Washington by telegraph. On outbreak of war have intermediaries + locate by detective where Russian and French intelligence office." + + +The latter part of the message is open to two interpretations: that +Boy-Ed was to have detectives locate the Russian and French secret +service officers; or that Boy-Ed was to place German spies in those +offices. + +Captain von Papen reported to his ministry of war anent the railway +explosions: + + + "I consider it out of the question that explosives prepared in + this way would have to be reckoned with in a European war...." + + +a significant opinion, which he changed later. + +What of the man himself? He was all that "German officer" suggested at +that time to any one who had traveled in Germany. His military training +had been exhaustive. Though he had not seen "active service," his life, +from the early youth when he had been selected from his gymnasium +fellows for secret service in Abteilung III of the great bureau, had +been unusually active. He had traveled as a civilian over various +countries, drawing maps, harking to the sentiment of the people, and +checking from time to time the operations of resident German agents +abroad. His disguises were thorough, as this incident will illustrate: +In Hamburg, at the army riding school where von Papen was trained, +young officers are taught the French style. Yet one fine morning in +Central Park he stopped to chat with an acquaintance who had bought a +mare. Von Papen admired the mount, promptly named its breed, and told +in what counties in Ireland the best specimens of that breed could +be found--information called up from a riding tour he had made over +the length and breadth of Ireland. It is commonly said that horsemen +trained in the French style cling to its mannerisms, but a cavalier +revealing those mannerisms in Ireland, where the style is exclusively +English, would have attracted undue attention. So he had disguised even +his horsemanship! + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International News Service_ + +Captain Franz von Papen] + +A man who moves constantly about among more or less unsuspecting +peoples seeking their military weakness becomes intolerant. Tolerance +is scarcely a German military trait, and in that respect Captain +von Papen was consistently loyal to his own superior organization. +"I always say to those idiotic Yankees they had better hold their +tongues," he wrote to his wife in a letter which fell later into the +hands of those same "bloedsinnige" Yankees. He was inordinately proud +of his facility in operating unobserved, arrogant of his ability, and +blunt in his criticism of his associates. He telegraphed Boy-Ed on one +occasion to be more cautious. The gracious colleague replied, in a +letter: + + + "Dear Papen: A secret agent who returned from Washington this + evening made the following statement: 'The Washington people + are very much excited about von Papen and are having a constant + watch kept on him. They are in possession of a whole heap of + incriminating evidence against him. They have no evidence against + Count B. and Captain B-E (!).'" + + +And Boy-Ed, a trifle optimistically, perhaps, added: + + + "In this connection I would suggest with due diffidence that + perhaps the first part of your telegram is worded rather too + emphatically." + + +Von Papen was a man of war, a Prussian, the Feldmarschal of the Kaiser +in America. In appearance he bespoke his vigor: he was well set up, +rawboned, with a long nose, prominent ears, keen eyes and a strong +lower jaw. He was energetic in speech and swift in formulating daring +plans. In those first frantic weeks after the declaration of war he +reached out in all directions to snap taut the strings that held +his organization together--German reservists who had been peaceful +farmers, shopkeepers or waiters, all over the United States, were +mobilized for service, and paraded through Battery Park in New York +shouting "Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles!" to the strains +of the Austrian hymn, while they waited for Papen's orders from a +building near by, and picked quarrels with a counter procession of +Frenchmen screaming the immortal "Marseillaise." Up in his office sat +the attaché, summoning, assigning, despatching his men on missions +that were designed to terrorize America as the spiked helmets were +terrorizing Belgium at that moment. + +And he, too, failed. Although von Papen marshaled his consuls, his +reservists, his thugs, his women, and his skilled agents, for a +programme of violence the like of which America had never experienced, +the military phase of the war was not destined for decision here, and +there is again something ironical in the fact that the arrogance of +Captain von Papen's outrages hastened the coming of war to America and +the decline of Captain von Papen's style of warfare in America. + +The Kaiser's naval attaché at Washington was Karl Boy-Ed, the child +of a German mother and a Turkish father, who had elected a naval +career and shown a degree of aptitude for his work which qualified +him presently for the post of chief lieutenant to von Tirpitz. He was +one of the six young officers who were admitted to the chief councils +of the German navy, as training for high executive posts. In the +capacity of news chief of the Imperial navy, Boy-Ed carried on two +highly successful press campaigns to influence the public on the eve of +requests for heavy naval appropriations, the second, in 1910, calling +for 400,000,000 marks. He spread broadcast through cleverly contrived +pamphlets and through articles placed in the subsidized press, a +national resentment against British naval dominion. His duties took him +all over the world as naval observer, and he may be credited more than +casually with weaving the plan-fabric of marine supremacy with which +Germany proposed in due time to envelop the world. + +So he impressed diplomatic Washington in 1911 as a polished +cosmopolite. Polished he was, measured by the standards of diplomatic +Washington, for rare was the young American of Boy-Ed's age who had +his cultivation, his wide experience, and his brilliant charm. He was +sought after by admiring mothers long before he was sought after by the +Secret Service; he moved among the clubs of Washington and New York +making intimates of men whose friendship and confidence would serve +the Fatherland, cloaking his real designs by frivolity and frequent +attendances at social functions. His peace-time duties had been to +study the American navy; to familiarize himself with its ship power and +personnel, with its plans for expansion, its theories of strategy, its +means of supply, and finally, with the coast defenses of the country. +He had learned his lesson, and furnished Berlin with clear reports. +On those reports, together with those of his colleagues in other +countries, hinged Germany's readiness to enter war, for it would have +been folly to attempt a war of domination with America an unknown, +uncatalogued naval power. (It will be well to recall that the submarine +is an American invention, and that Germany's greatest submarine +development took place in the years 1911-1914.) + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International News Service_ + +Captain Karl Boy-Ed (on the right)] + +And then, suddenly, he dropped the cloak. The Turk in him stood at +attention while the German in him gave him sharp orders--commands to +be carried out with Oriental adroitness and Prussian finish. Then +those who had said lightly that "Boy-Ed knows more about our navy than +Annapolis itself" began to realize that they had spoken an alarming +truth. His war duties were manifold. Like von Papen, he had his corps +of reservists, his secret agents, his silent forces everywhere ready +for active coöperation in carrying out the naval enterprises Germany +should see fit to undertake in Western waters. + +America learned gradually of the machinations of the four executives, +Bernstorff, Albert, Papen and Boy-Ed. America had not long to wait +for evidences of their activity, but it was a long time before the +processes of investigation revealed their source. It was inevitable +that they could not work undiscovered for long, and they seem to have +realized that they must do the utmost damage at top speed. Their own +trails were covered for a time by the obscure identities of their +subordinates. The law jumps to no conclusions. Their own persons were +protected by diplomatic courtesy. It required more than two years +of tedious search for orthodox legal evidence to arraign these men +publicly in their guilt, and when that evidence had finally been +obtained, and Germany's protest of innocence had been deflated, it was +not these men who suffered, but their country, and the price she paid +was war with America. + +A hundred or more of their subordinates have been convicted of various +criminal offenses and sent to prison. Still more were promptly interned +in prison camps at the outbreak of war in 1917. The secret army +included all types, from bankers to longshoremen. Many of them were +conspicuous figures in American public life, and of these no small +part were allowed to remain at large under certain restrictions--and +under surveillance. Germany's army in the United States was powerful +in numbers; the fact that so many agents were working destruction +probably hastened their discovery; the loyalty of many so-called +German-Americans was always questionable. The public mind, confused +as it had never been before by the news of war, was groping about for +sound fundamentals, and was being tantalized with false principles by +the politicians. Meanwhile Count von Bernstorff was watching Congress +and the President, Dr. Albert was busy in great schemes, Captain von +Papen was commanding an active army of spies, and Captain Boy-Ed was +engaged in a bitter fight with the British navy. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CONSPIRATORS' TASK + + The terrain--Lower New York--The consulates--The economic problem + of supplying Germany and checking supplies to the Allies--The + diplomatic problem of keeping America's friendship--The military + problem in Canada, Mexico, India, etc.--Germany's denial. + + +The playwright selects from the affairs of a group of people a few +characters and incidents, and works them together into a three-hour +plot. He may include no matter which is not relevant to the development +of his story, and although in the hands of the artist the play seems +to pierce clearly into the characters of the persons involved, in +reality he is constructing a framework, whose angles are only the more +prominent salients of character and episode. The stage limits him, +whether his story takes place in the kitchen or on the battlefield. + +The drama of German spy operations in America is of baffling +proportions. Its curtain rose long before the war; its early episodes +were grave enough to have caused, any one of them, a nine-days' wonder +in the press, its climax was rather a huge accumulation of intolerable +disasters than a single outstanding incident, and its dénouement +continued long after America's declaration of war. In the previous +chapter we have accepted our limitations and introduced only the four +chief characters of the play. It is necessary, in describing the +motives for their enterprises, to appreciate the problems which their +scene of operations presented. + +The world was their workshop. Plots hatched in Berlin and developed in +Washington and New York bore fruit from Sweden to India, from Canada to +Chili. The economic importance of the United States in the war needs +no further proof than its vast area, its miles of seacoast, its volume +of export and import, and its producing power. As a diplomatic problem +it offered, among other things, a public opinion of a hundred million +people of parti-colored temperament, played upon by a force of some +40,000 publications. As a military factor, the United States possessed +a strong fleet, owned the only Atlantic-Pacific waterway, was bounded +on the south by Mexico and the coveted Gulf, and on the north by one of +Germany's enemies. There was hardly a developed section of the nation +which did not require prompt and radical German attention, or one +which did not receive it in proportion to its industrial development. +Washington, as the governmental capital, and New York as the real +capital became at once the headquarters of German operations in the +western world. + +Count von Bernstorff directed all enterprises from the Imperial Embassy +in Washington, and from the Ritz-Carlton in New York. An ambassador +was once asked by an ingenuous woman at a New York dinner whether he +often ran counter of European spies. "Oh, yes," he replied. "I used to +stop at the ----, but my baggage was searched by German agents so often +that I moved to the ----. But there it was just as bad." "Didn't you +complain to the management?"--the lady wanted particulars. "No," the +diplomat answered naturally, "for you see every time Bernstorff stops +at the ---- I have his baggage searched, too!" + +The strands of intrigue focussed from every corner of America upon +the lower tip of Manhattan. In a tall building at 11 Broadway, which +towers over Bowling Green and confronts the New York Custom House, +Captain Boy-Ed had his office. A long stone's throw to the northward +stood the Hamburg-American building; there Dr. Albert carried on much +of his business. Captain von Papen had offices on the twenty-fifth +floor of No. 60 Wall Street. If we regard 11 Broadway as the tip of +a triangle, with Wall Street and Broadway forming its right angle and +60 Wall Street as its other extremity, we find that its imaginary +hypotenuse travels through the building of J. P. Morgan & Company, +chief bankers for the Allies; through the New York Stock Exchange, +where the so-called "Christmas leak" turned a pretty penny for +certain German sympathizers in 1916; through the home of the Standard +Oil Companies, as well as through several great structures of less +strategic importance. There is more than mere coincidence in this +geometrical freak--Germany held her stethoscope as close as possible to +the heart of American business. Fortunately, however, the offices of +Chief William J. Flynn--until January, 1918, head of the United States +Secret Service--were in the Custom House near by. + +After business hours these men met their subordinates at various +rendezvous in the city; the hotels were convenient, the Manhattan was +frequently appointed, and the Deutscher Verein at 112 Central Park +South was the liveliest ganglion of all the nerve centers of a system +of communication which tapped every section of the great community. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +William J. Flynn, chief of the United States Secret Service until 1918, +who led the hunt of the German spy] + +In the lesser cities the German consulate served as the nucleus +for the organization. That in San Francisco is conspicuous for its +activity, for it prosecuted its own warfare on the entire Pacific +coast. Wherever it was necessary German sympathizers furnished +accommodations for offices and storage room. Headquarters of every +character dotted the country from salons to saloons, from skyscrapers +to cellars, each an active control in the manipulation of Germany's +almost innumerable enterprises. + +Those enterprises may be best outlined perhaps, by recalling the three +phases of warfare which Germany had to pursue. America had shipped +foodstuffs and raw materials in enormous quantities for many years to +Germany. Dr. Albert must see to it that she continue to do so. The +Imperial funds were at his disposal. He had already the requisite +contact with American business. But let him also exert his utmost +influence upon America to stop supplying the Allies. If he could do it +alone, so much the better; if not, he was at liberty to call upon the +military and naval attachés. But in any case "food and arms for Germany +and none for the Allies" was the economic war-cry. + +American supplies must be purchased for Germany and shipped through +the European neutral nations, running the blockade. If capital +proved obstinate and the Allies covered the market, it would be well +to remember that labor produced supplies; labor must therefore be +prevented from producing or shipping to the Allies. If labor refused to +be interfered with, the cargoes should be destroyed. + +His enormous task would depend, of course, very much upon the turn of +affairs diplomatic. The State Department must be kept amicable. The +Glad Hand was to be extended to official America, while the Mailed Fist +thrashed about in official America's constituencies. Thus also with +Congress, through influential lobbying or the pressure of constituents. +Count von Bernstorff knew that the shout raised in a far-off state by a +few well-rehearsed pacifists, reinforced by a few newspaper comments, +would carry loud and clear to Washington. Upon his shoulders rested +the entire existence of the German plan, and he spent a highly active +and trying thirty months in Washington in an attempt to avoid the +inevitable diplomatic rupture. + +The military problem quickly resolved itself into two enterprises: +carrying war to the enemy, and giving aid and comfort to its own +forces--in this case the German navy. As the war progressed, and the +opportunity for strictly military operations became less likely, the +two Captains occupied their time in injecting a quite military flavor +into the enterprises Bernstorff and Albert had on foot. As a strategic +measure Mexico must divert America's attention from Europe and remove +to the border her available forces. Meanwhile, German reservists +must be supplied to their home regiments. Failing that they must be +mobilized for service against Germany's nearest enemy here--Canada. +German raiders at sea must be supplied. German communication with her +military forces abroad must be maintained uninterrupted. + +Long after the departure of the principals for their native land the +enterprises persisted. It may be well here to extend to the secret +agents of the United States the tribute which is their due. To Chief +Flynn, of the United States Secret Service of the Treasury Department, +to A. Bruce Bielaski, head of the special agents of the Department of +Justice, to W. M. Offley, former Superintendent of the New York Bureau +of Special Agents, to Roger B. Wood, Assistant United States District +Attorney, to his successor, John C. Knox, (now a Federal judge), to +Raymond B. Sarfaty, Mr. Wood's assistant who developed the Rintelen +case, to former Police Commissioner Arthur Woods of New York, his +deputy, Guy Scull, his police captain, Thomas J. Tunney, and to the +men who worked obscurely and tirelessly with them to avert disasters +whose fiendish intention shook the faith if not the courage of a +nation. Those men found Germany out in time. + +[Illustration: Inspector Thomas J. Tunney of the New York Police +Department, head of the "Bomb Squad" and foremost in apprehending many +important German agents] + +Germany was fluent in her denials. When the President in his message +to Congress in December, 1915, bitterly attacked Germans and +German-Americans for their activities in America, accusing the latter +of treason, the German government authorized a statement to the Berlin +correspondent of the New York _Sun_ on December 19, 1915, to the effect +that it + + + "naturally has never knowingly accepted the support of any person, + group of persons, society or organization seeking to promote the + cause of Germany in the United States by illegal acts, by counsels + of violence, by contravention of law, or by any means whatever + that could offend the American people in the pride of their own + authority. If it should be alleged that improper acts have been + committed by representatives of the German Government they could + be easily dealt with. To any complaints upon proof as may be + submitted by the American Government suitable response will be + duly made.... Apparently the enemies of Germany have succeeded + in creating the impression that the German Government is in some + way, morally or otherwise, responsible for what Mr. Wilson has + characterized as anti-American activities, comprehending attacks + upon property in violation of the rules which the American + Government has seen fit to impose upon the course of neutral + trade. This the German Government absolutely denies. It cannot + specifically repudiate acts committed by individuals over whom it + has no control, and of whose movements it is neither officially + nor unofficially informed." + + +To this statement there is one outstanding answer. It is an excerpt +from the German book of instructions for officers: + + + "Bribery of the enemy's subjects with the object of obtaining + military advantages, acceptances of offers of treachery, + reception of deserters, utilization of the discontented elements + in the population, support of the pretenders and the like are + permissible; indeed international law is in no way opposed to + the exploitation of the crimes of third parties (assassination, + incendiarism, robbery and the like) to the prejudice of the enemy. + Considerations of chivalry, generosity and honor may denounce in + such cases a hasty and unsparing exploitation of such advantages + as indecent and dishonorable, but law, which is less touchy, + allows it. The ugly and inherently immoral aspect of such methods + cannot affect the recognition of their lawfulness. The necessary + aim of war gives the belligerent the right and imposes upon + him, according to circumstances, the duty not to let slip the + important, it may be decisive, advantages to be gained by such + means." + + ("The War Book of the German General Staff," translated by J. H. + Morgan, M.A., pp. 113-114.) + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RAIDERS AT SEA + + The outbreak of war--Mobilization of reservists--The + Hamburg-American contract--The _Berwind_--The _Marina + Quezada_--The _Sacramento_--Naval battles. + + +A fanatic student in the streets of Sarajevo, Bosnia, threw a bomb at +a visiting dignitary, and the world went to war. That occurred on the +sunny forenoon of June 28, 1914. The assassin was chased by the police, +the newspaper men, and the photographers, who reached him almost +simultaneously, and presently the world knew that the Archduke Francis +Ferdinand, of Austria, was the victim, and that a plain frightened +fellow, struggling in the shadow of a doorway, was his assailant. + +Austria's resentment of the crime mounted during July and boiled +over in the ultimatum of July 23. Five days later, with Germany's +permission, Austria declared war on Servia. By this time continental +tempers had been aroused, and the Central Empires knew that "Der Tag" +had come. Austria, Russia, Germany, England, France and Belgium entered +the lists within a fortnight. + +By mid-July Germany had warned her agents in other lands of the +imminence of war and a quiet mobilization had begun of the more +important reservists in America. Captain von Papen, after dispatching +his telegram from Mexico via El Paso to Captain Boy-Ed, hurried to +Washington, arriving there on August 3. He began to weld together +into a vast band the scientists, experts, secret agents and German +army-reservists, who were under German military oaths, and were +prepared to gather information or to execute a military enterprise "zu +Befehl!" How rapidly he assembled his staff is shown in testimony given +on the witness stand by "Horst von der Goltz," alias Bridgeman Taylor, +alias Major Wachendorf, a German spy who had been a major in a Mexican +army until July. + +A German consul in El Paso had sounded out Goltz's willingness to +return to German service. "A few days later, the 3rd of August, 1914, +license was given by my commanding officer to separate myself from +the service of my brigade for the term of six months. I left directly +for El Paso, Texas, where I was told by Mr. Kueck, German Consul at +Chihuahua, Mexico, who stayed there, to put myself at the disposition +of Captain von Papen." This was two days before the final declaration +of war. + +All German and Austro-Hungarian consulates received orders to +coördinate their own staffs for war service. Germany herself supplied +the American front with men by wireless commands to all parts of the +world. Captain Hans Tauscher, who enjoyed the double distinction of +being agent in America for the Krupps and husband of a noted operatic +singer, Mme. Johanna Gadski, chanced to be in Berlin when war broke +out, reported for duty and was at once detailed to return to the United +States and report to von Papen, as Wilhelmstrasse saw the usefulness of +an ordnance expert in intimate touch with our Ordnance Department and +our explosives plants. Two German officers detailed to topographical +duty, who had spent years mapping Japan, and were engaged in the same +work in British Columbia, jumped the border to the United States, +taking with them their families, their information and their fine +surveying and photographic instruments, and in the blocking out of the +country which the wise men in the East were performing, were assigned +to the White Mountains. Railroads and ships to the Atlantic seaboard +bore every day new groups of reserve officers from the Orient and +South America to New York for sailing orders. + +They found von Papen already there. He established a consultation +headquarters at once with Boy-Ed in a room which they rented in the +offices of G. Amsinck & Co., at 6 Hanover Street. From that time +forward, New York was to be his base of operations, and it was at that +moment especially convenient to von Bernstorff's summer establishment +at Newport. + +The naval situation at once became active. In the western and southern +Atlantic a scattered fleet of German cruisers was still at large. The +British set out eagerly to the chase. Security lay in southern waters, +and the German craft dodged back and forth through the Straits of +Magellan. From time to time the quarry was forced by the remoteness of +supply to show himself, and a battle followed; in the intervals, the +Germans lay _perdu_, dashing into port for supplies and out again to +concealment, or wandering over seldom traveled ocean tracks to meet +coal and provision ships sent out from America. + +Captain Boy-Ed received from Berlin constant advices of the movements +of his vessels. On July 31, Dr. Karl Buenz, the American head of the +Hamburg-American Line, had a cable from Berlin which he read and then +forwarded to the Embassy in Washington for safekeeping. Until 1912 +Buenz had had no steamship experience, having been successively a judge +in Germany, a consul in Chicago and New York, and minister to Mexico. +When at the age of 70 he was appointed Hamburg-American agent, one of +the first matters which came to his attention was the consummation of +a contract between the Admiralty Division of the German government and +the steamship line, which provided for the provisioning, during war, +of German ships at sea, using America as a base. This contract was +jealously guarded by the Embassy. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Dr. Karl Buenz, managing director of the Hamburg-American Line] + +The cablegram of July 31 called on Dr. Buenz to carry out this +contract. There was consultation at once with Boy-Ed for the location +of the vessels to be supplied, merchant ships were chartered or +purchased, then loaded, and despatched. The first to leave New York +harbor was the _Berwind_. There was hesitancy among the conspirators as +to who should apply for her clearance papers--documents of which Dr. +Buenz protested he knew nothing. They finally told G. B. Kulenkampff, +a banker and exporter, that the _Berwind_ was loaded with coal, and +directed him to get the clearance papers. He swore to a false manifest +of her cargo and got them. The _Berwind_ carried coal to be sure--but +she also carried food for German warships, and she was not bound for +Buenos Aires, as her clearance papers stated. Thus the United States, +by innocently issuing false papers, made herself, on the third day of +the war, a party to German naval operations. + +The steamship _Lorenzo_ dropped down the harbor, ostensibly for Buenos +Aires, on the following day, August 6, cleared by a false manifest, and +bearing coal and food for German sailors. On these ships, and on the +_Thor_ (from Newport News for Fray Bentos, Uruguay), on the _Heine_ +(from Philadelphia on August 6 for La Guayra), on the _J. S. Mowinckel_ +and the _Nepos_ (out of Philadelphia for Monrovia) and others Boy-Ed +and Buenz had placed supercargoes bearing secret instructions. These +men had authority to give navigating orders to the captains once they +were outside the three-mile limit--orders to keep a rendezvous with +German battleships by wireless somewhere in the Atlantic wastes. + +The _Berwind_ approached the island of Trinidad and Herr Poeppinghaus, +who was her supercargo, directed the captain to lie to. Five German +ships, the _Kap Trafalgar_, _Pontus_, _Elinor Woerman_, _Santa Lucia_ +and _Eber_, approached and the transfer of supplies started. It was +interrupted by the British converted cruiser _Carmania_. She engaged +in a brisk two-hour duel with the _Kap Trafalgar_ which ended only when +the latter sank into the tropical ocean. The _Berwind_ meanwhile put +the horizon between herself and the _Carmania_. + +Few of the chartered ships carried out their intentions, although their +adventures were various. Hear the story of the _Unita_: Her skipper was +Eno Olsen, a Canadian citizen born in Norway. Urhitzler, the German spy +placed aboard, made the mistake of assuming that Olsen was friendly to +Germany. He gave him his "orders," and the skipper balked. "'Nothing +doing,' I told the supercargo," Captain Olsen testified later, with a +Norwegian twist to his pronunciation. "She's booked to Cadiz, and to +Cadiz she goes! So the supercargo offered me $500 to change my course. +'Nothing doing--nothing doing for a million dollars,' I told him. The +third day out he offered me $10,000. Nothing doing. So," announced +Captain Olsen with finality, "I sailed the _Unita_ to Cadiz and after +we got there I sold the cargo and looked up the British consul." + +One picturesque incident of the provisioning enterprise was the +piratical cruise of the good ship _Gladstone_, rechristened, with a +German benediction, _Marina Quezada_. Under the name of _Gladstone_, +the ship had flown the Norwegian flag on a route between Canada and +Australia, but shortly after the outbreak of war she put into Newport +News. Simultaneously a sea captain, Hans Suhren, a sturdy German +formerly of the Pacific coast, appeared in New York, called upon +Captain Boy-Ed, who took kindly interest in him, and then departed for +Newport News. Here he assumed charge of the _Marina Quezada_. + +"I paid $280,000 in cash for her," he told First Officer Bentzen. After +hiring a crew, he hurried back to New York, where he received messages +in care of "Nordmann, Room 801, 11 Broadway, N. Y. C."--Captain +Boy-Ed's office. Captain Boy-Ed had already told him to erect a +wireless plant on his ship--the equipment having been shipped to the +_Marina Quezada_--and to hire a wireless operator. He then handed +Suhren a German naval code book, a chart with routes drawn, and sailing +instructions for the South Seas, there to await German cruisers. Food +supplies, ordered for the steamer _Unita_ (which at that time had been +unable to sail) were wasting on the piers at Newport News and Captain +Boy-Ed ordered them put in the _Marina Quezada_. Two cases of revolvers +also were sent to the boat. + +Again Suhren went back to the ship and kept his wireless operators +busy and speeded up the loading of the cargo, which was under the +supervision of an employee of the North German Lloyd. Needing more +money before sailing in December, 1914, he drew a draft for $1,000 on +the Hamburg-American Line, wiring Adolf Hachmeister, the purchasing +agent, to communicate with "Room 801, 11 Broadway." + +Then trouble arose over the ship's registry. Though Suhren insisted +that he owned her, a corporation in New York whose stockholders +were Costa Ricans were laying claim to ownership, for they had +christened her and had secured provisional registration from the +Costa Rican minister in Washington. Permanent registry, however, +required application at Port Limon, Costa Rica. So hauling down the +Norwegian ensign that had fluttered over the ship as the _Gladstone_, +Captain Suhren ran up the Costa Rican emblem. He had obtained false +clearance papers stating his destination as Valparaiso. They were +based upon a false manifest, and he sailed for Port Limon. The Costa +Rican authorities declined to give Suhren permanent papers, and he +found himself master of a ship without a flag, and in such status not +permitted under international law to leave port. He waited for a heavy +storm and darkness, then quietly slipping his anchor, he sped out into +the high seas, a pirate. Off Pernambuco he ran up the Norwegian flag, +put into port and got into such difficulties with the authorities that +his ship and he were interned. His supplies never reached the raiders +and Boy-Ed learned of another fiasco. + +The _Lorenzo_, _Thor_ and _Heine_ were seized at sea. The _Bangor_ +was captured in the Straits of Magellan. Out of twelve shiploads of +supplies, only some $20,000 worth were ever transshipped to German war +vessels. This involved a considerable loss, as the following statement +of expenditures for those vessels made by the Hamburg-American Line +will show: + + + _Steamer_ _Total payment_ + + _Thor_ $113,879.72 + _Berwind_ 73,221.85 + _Lorenzo_ 430,182.59 + _Heine_ 288,142.06 + _Nepos_ 119,037.60 + _Mowinckel_ 113,367.18 + _Unita_ 67,766.44 + _Somerstad_ 45,826.75 + _Fram_ 55,053.23 + _Craecia_ 29,143.59 + _Macedonia_ 39,139.98 + _Navarra_ 44,133.50 + ------------- + Total $1,419,394.49 + + +Where did the money come from? The Hamburg-American Line, under +the ante-bellum contract, placed at Captain Boy-Ed's disposal three +payments of $500,000 each from the Deutsches Bank, Berlin; the +Deutsches Bank forwarded through Wessells, Kulenkampff & Co., credit +for $750,000 more. "I followed the instructions of Captain Boy-Ed," +Kulenkampff testified. "He instructed me at different times to pay +over certain amounts either to banks or firms. I transferred $350,000 +to the Wells-Fargo Nevada National Bank in San Francisco, $150,000 to +the North German Lloyd, then $63,000 to the North German Lloyd. The +balance of $160,000 I placed to the credit of the Deutsches Bank with +Gontard & Co., successors to my former firm. That was reduced to about +$57,000 by payments drawn at Captain Boy-Ed's request to the order of +the Hamburg-American Line." + +The North German Lloyd was serving as the Captain's Pacific operative, +which accounts for the transfer of the funds to the West. (The same +line, through its Baltimore agent, Paul Hilken, was also coöperating +at this time, but not to an extent which brought the busy Hilken into +prominence as did his later connection with the merchant submarine, +_Deutschland_.) Following the course of the funds, federal agents +eventually uncovered the operations of Germans on the Pacific coast, +and secured the arrest and convictions of no less personages than the +consular staff in San Francisco. + +The steamship _Sacramento_ left San Francisco with a water-line cargo +of supplies. A firm of customs brokers in San Francisco was given a +fund of $46,000 by the German consulate to purchase supplies for her; +a fictitious steamship company was organized to satisfy the customs +officials; on September 23 an additional $100,000 was paid by the +Germans for her cargo; a false valuation was placed on her cargo, and +she was cleared on October 3. Two days later Benno Klocke and Gustav +Traub, members of the crew, broke the wireless seals and got into +communication with the _Dresden_. Klocke usurped the position of master +of the vessel, and steered her to a rendezvous on November 8 with the +_Scharnhorst_, off Masafueros Island, in the South Pacific; six days +later she provisioned and coaled the German steamship _Baden_. She +reached Valparaiso empty. Captain Anderson said he could not help the +fact that her supplies were swung outboard and into the _Scharnhorst_ +and _Dresden_. + +Captain Fred Jebsen, who was a lieutenant in the German Naval Reserve, +took out a cargo of coal, properly bonded in his ship, the _Mazatlan_, +for Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. Off the mouth of Magdalena Bay the +_Mazatlan_ met the _Leipzig_, a German cruiser, and the cargo of coal +was transferred to the battleship. One of Jebsen's men, who had signed +on as a cook, was an expert wireless operator, and he went to the +_Leipzig_ with three cases of "preserved fruits"--wireless apparatus +forwarded by German agents in California. Jebsen, after an attempt to +smuggle arms into India, which will be discussed later, made his way +to Germany in disguise, and was reported to have been drowned in a +submarine. The _Nurnberg_ and _Leipzig_ lay off San Francisco for days +in August, the former finally entering the Golden Gate for the amount +of coal allowed her under international law. The _Olson_ and _Mahoney_, +a steam schooner, was laden with supplies for the German vessels and +prepared to sail, but after a considerable controversy with the customs +officials, was unloaded. + +Perhaps the most bizarre attempt to spirit supplies to the Imperial +navy was that in which the little barkentine _Retriever_ figured as +heroine. Wide publicity was given the announcement that she was to be +sailed out to sea and used as the locale of a motion picture drama. The +Government found out, however, that her hull was well down with coal, +which did not seem vital to the scenario, and she was not permitted to +leave port. + +The major portion of Germany's naval strength lay corked in the +Kiel Canal, where, except for a few indecisive sorties, Germany's +visible fleet was destined to remain for more than three years. At the +outbreak of war, the _Emden_, _Dresden_, _Scharnhorst_, _Gneisenau_ +and _Nurnberg_ were at large in the southern oceans. On November 1 the +German cruisers met the British _Monmouth_, _Good Hope_, _Glasgow_ and +_Otranto_ off Coronel, the Chilean coast. The _Monmouth_ and _Good +Hope_ were struck a mortal blow and sunk. The _Glasgow_ and _Otranto_ +barely escaped. In a battle off the Falkland Islands on December 7, as +the German army was being thrown back from Ypres, the _Scharnhorst_, +_Leipzig_, _Gneisenau_ and _Nurnberg_ were sunk by a reinforced British +fleet. (Walter Peters, one of the crew of the _Leipzig_, floated +about for six hours after the engagement, was picked up, made his way +to Mexico, and for more than three years was employed by a German +vice-consul in Mexico in espionage in the United States. Peters was +arrested as a dangerous enemy alien in Crockett, California, in April, +1918.) The _Dresden_ and _Karlsruhe_ escaped, and the former hid for +two months in the fjords of the Straits of Magellan. On February 26, +1915, an American tourist vessel, the _Kroonland_, passed east through +the Straits and into Punta Arenas harbor, while out of the harbor +sneaked the little _Glasgow_, westward bound. The _Dresden_, after +the American had passed, had run for the open Pacific; the _Glasgow_, +hot on her trail, engaged her off the Chilean coast five days later +and sank her, leaving only the _Emden_ and _Karlsruhe_ at large. The +_Karlsruhe_ disappeared. + +The last lone member of the pack was hunted over the seas for months, +and finally was beached, but long before her activities became public +the necessity for supplying the German ships expired, from the +simple elimination of German ships to supply. Captain Boy-Ed's first +enterprise had been frustrated by the British navy and he turned to +other and more sinister occupations. Buenz, Koetter and Hachmeister +were sentenced to eighteen months in Atlanta, and Poeppinghaus to a +year and a day--terms which they did not begin to serve until 1918.[1] + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Dr Buenz' case is an enlightening example of the use made by German +agents in America of the law's delays. He was sentenced in December, +1915, for an offence committed in September, 1914. He at once appealed +his case to the higher courts, going freely about meanwhile on bail +furnished by the Hamburg American Line. In March, 1918, the Supreme +Court of the United States, to which his case had finally been pressed, +denied his appeal. His attorneys at once placed before President +Wilson, through Attorney-General Gregory, a request for a respite, or +commutation of his sentence, which the President, on April 23, 1918, +denied. Buenz pleaded the frailty of his 79 years--which had not +prevented him from keeping his social engagements while his appeal was +pending. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE WIRELESS SYSTEM + + The German Embassy a clearing house--Sayville--Germany's knowledge + of U. S. wireless--Subsidized electrical companies--Aid to the + raiders--The _Emden_--The _Geier_--Charles E. Apgar--The German + code. + + +The coördination of a nation's fighting forces depends upon that +nation's system of communication. In no previous war in the world's +history has a general staff known more of the enemy's plans. We look +back almost patronizingly across a century to the semaphore which +transmitted Napoleon's orders from Paris to the Rhine in three hours; +we can scarcely realize that if the report of a scout had ever got +through to General Hooker, warning him that a suspicious wagon train +had been actually sighted a few miles away, Stonewall Jackson's +flanking march at Chancellorsville would have been checked in its first +stages. In this greatest of all wars a British battery silences a +German gun within two minutes after the allied airman has "spotted" the +Boche. The air is "Any Man's Land." What lies beyond the hill is no +longer the great hazard, for the wireless is flashing. + +If the Allied general staffs had been provided with X-ray +field-glasses, and had trained those glasses on a certain brownstone +house in Massachusetts Avenue, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth +Streets, in Washington, they would have been interested in the +perfection of the German system of communication. They would have +observed the secretarial force of the Imperial Embassy opening and +sorting letters from confederates throughout the country, many so +phrased as to be quite harmless, others apparently meaningless. The +Embassy served as a clearing-house for all German and Allied air +messages. + +Long before the war broke out the German government had seen the +military necessity for a complete wireless system. Subsidies were +secretly granted to the largest of the German electrical manufacturers +to establish stations all over the globe. Companies were formed +in America, ostensibly financed with American funds, but on plans +submitted to German capitalists and through them to the German Foreign +Office for approval. Thus was the Sayville station erected. As +early as 1909 a German captain, Otto von Fossberg, had been sent to +America to select a site on Long Island for the station. "The German +government is backing the scheme," he told a friend, although the +venture was publicly supposed to be under the auspices of the "Atlantic +Communication Company," in which certain prominent German-Americans +held stock and office. In 1911 an expert, Fritz von der Woude, paid +Sayville a visit long enough to install the apparatus; he came under +strict injunctions not to let his mission become generally known. + +Boy-Ed watched the progress of the Sayville station with close interest +and considerable authority, and his familiarity with wireless threw +him into frequent and cordial relationship with the United States +naval wireless men and the Department of Commerce. On one occasion +the Department requested a confidential report from a radio inspector +of the progress made by foreign interests in wireless; the report +prepared went to Germany before it came to the hands of the United +States government. Again: the German government was informed in 1914 +by Boy-Ed in Washington that the United States intended to erect a +wireless station at a certain point in the Philippines; full details, +as the Navy Department had developed them, were forwarded, and the +German government immediately directed a large electrical manufacturer +in Berlin to bid for the work. The site the United States had selected +was not altogether satisfactory to Germany, for some reason, so the +German government added this delicious touch: a confidential map of the +Philippines was turned over to the electrical house, with orders to +submit a plan for the construction of the American station on a site +which had been chosen by the German General War Staff! + +The _Providence Journal_ claims to have discovered an interesting +German document--probably genuine--which reveals the scope of the +Teutonic wireless project. It was a chart, bearing a rectangle labeled +in German with the title of the German Foreign Office. From this +"trunk" radiated three "branches," each bearing a name, and each +terminating in the words. "Telefunken Co." The first branch was labeled +"Gesellschaft für Drahtlose Telegraphie, Berlin"; the second, "Siemens +& Halske, Siemens-Schuckert-Werke, Berlin"; the third, "Allgemeine +Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft, Berlin." + +From each branch grew still further subdivisions, labeled with the +names of electrical firms or agents all over the world, and all subject +to the direction of the German government. These names follow: + +From No. 1: Atlantic Communication Co. (Sayville), New York; +Australasian Wireless Co., Ltd., Sydney (Australia); Telefunken +East Asiatic Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd., Shanghai; Maintz & Co. +(of Amsterdam, Holland), Batavia (Java); Germann & Co. (of Hamburg), +Manila; B. Grimm & Co., Bangkok; Paetzold & Eppinger, Havana; +Spiegelthal, La Guayra; Kruger & Co., Guayaquil; Brahm & Co., Lima; E. +Quicke, Montevideo; R. Schulbach, Thiemer & Co. (of Hamburg), Central +America; Sesto Sesti, Rome; A. D. Zacharion & Cie., Athens; J. K. +Dimitrijievic, Belgrade. + +From No. 2: Siemens Bros. & Co., Ltd., London; Siemens & Halske, +Vienna; Siemens & Halske, Petrograd; Siemens & Halske (K. G. Frank), +New York; Siemens-Schuckert-Werke, Sofia; Siemens-Schuckert-Werke, +Constantinople; Siemens-Schuckert-Werke (Dansk Aktsielskab), +Copenhagen; Siemens-Schuckert-Werke (Denki Kabushiki Kaishe), Tokio; +Siemens-Schuckert-Werke (Companhia Brazileira de Electricidade), Rio +de Janeiro; Siemens-Schuckert, Ltd., Buenos Ayres; Siemens-Schuckert, +Ltd., Valparaiso. + +From No. 3: A. E. G. Union Electrique, Brussels; Allgemeine +Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft, Basel; A. E. G. Elecktriska Aktiebolaget, +Stockholm; A. E. G. Electricitats Aktieselskabet, Christiania; A. E. G. +Thomson-Houston Iberica, Madrid; A. E. G. Compania Mexicana, Mexico; +A. E. G. Electrical Company of South Africa, Johannesburg. + +The German manufacturers evinced a keen interest in the project of +a wireless plant in Nicaragua, laying special stress on the point +that "permanent stations in this neighborhood" would be valuable "if +the Panama Canal is fortified." From Sayville station the German +plan projected powerful wireless plants in Mexico, at Para, Brazil; +at Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana; at Cartagena, Colombia, and at Lima, +Peru. A point in which Captain H. Retzmann, the German naval attaché +in 1911, was at one time interested was whether signals could be +sent to the German fleet in the English Channel from America without +England's interference. German naval wireless experts supervised the +construction, and although the stations were nominally civilian-manned, +and purely commercial, in reality the operators were often men of +unusual scientific intellect, whose talents were sadly underpaid if +they received no more than operators' salaries. + +Gradually and quietly, Germany year by year spread her system of +wireless communication over Central and South America, preparing +her machinery for war. Over her staff of operators and mechanics +she appointed an expert in the full confidence of the Embassy at +Washington, and in close contact with Captain Boy-Ed. To the system of +German-owned commercial plants in the United States he added amateur +stations of more or less restricted radius, as auxiliary apparatus. + +When the war broke out, and scores of German merchantmen were confined +to American ports by the omnipresence of the British fleet at sea, the +wireless of the interned ships was added to the system. Thus in every +port lay a source of information for the Embassy. The United States +presently ordered the closing of all private wireless stations, and +those amateurs who had been listening out of sheer curiosity to the +air conversation cheerfully took down their antennae. Not so, however, +a prominent woman in whose residence on Fifth Avenue lay concealed +a powerful receiving apparatus. Nor did the interned ships obey the +order: apparatus apparently removed was often rigged in the shelter +of a funnel, and operated by current supplied from an apparently +innocent source. And the secret service discovered stations also in +the residences of wealthy Hoboken Germans, and in a German-American +"mansion" in Hartford, Connecticut. + +The operators of these stations made their reports regularly through +various channels to the Embassy. There the messages were sorted, +and it is safe to say that Count von Bernstorff was cognizant of the +position of every ship on the oceans. He was in possession of both the +French and British secret admiralty codes. In the light of that fact, +the manoeuvres of the British and German fleets in the South Atlantic +and Pacific became simply a game of chess, Germany following every move +of the British fleet under Admiral Cradock, knowing the identity of his +ships, their gun-power, and their speed. When she located the _Good +Hope_, _Monmouth_, _Glasgow_ and _Otranto_ off Coronel, Berlin, through +von Bernstorff, gave Admiral von Spee the word to strike, with the +results which we have observed: the sinking of the _Monmouth_ and _Good +Hope_, and the crippling of the _Glasgow_ and _Otranto_. + +Throughout August, September and October, 1914, the system operated +perfectly. Bernstorff and Boy-Ed were confronted with the problem of +keeping the German fleet alive as long as possible, and inflicting as +much damage as possible on enemy shipping. Allied merchantmen left +port almost with impunity, and were gathered in by German raiders who +had been informed from Washington of the location of their prey. But +the defeat off Chile apparently was conclusive proof to England that +Germany knew her naval code, and the events of November and December +indicate that England changed her code. + +It was while engaged in escort duty to the first transport fleet of the +Australian Expeditionary Force that the Australian cruiser _Sydney_ +received wireless signals from Cocos Island shrieking that the _Emden_ +was near by. The _Emden_, having been deprived for some time of news +of enemy ships, had gone there to destroy the wireless station, having +in the past three months sunk some $12,500,000 of British shipping. +Even while the island's distress signals were crashing out, the _Emden_ +had her own wireless busy in an effort to drown the call for help, or +"jam" the air. On the following morning, November 9, the _Sydney_ came +up with the enemy. A sharp action followed. The _Sydney's_ gunfire was +accurate enough to cause the death of 7 officers and 108 men; her own +losses were 4 killed and 12 wounded; the _Emden_ fled, ran aground on +North Keeling Island, one of the Cocos group, and ultimately became a +total wreck. + +In the same month the cruiser _Geier_ fled the approach of the British +and found refuge in Honolulu harbor. Her commander, Captain Karl +Grasshof, made the mistake of keeping a diary. That document, which +later fell into the hands of the Navy Intelligence Service, revealed a +complete disrespect for the hospitality which the American government +afforded the refugees. The _Geier's_ band used to strike up for an +afternoon concert, and under cover of the music, the wireless apparatus +sent out messages to raiders at sea or messages in English so phrased +as to start rumors of trouble between Japan and the United States. +The _Geier_ was the source of a rumor to the effect that Japanese +troops had landed in Mexico; the _Geier_ gave what circulation she +could to a report that Germans in the United States were planning an +invasion of Canada and was ably assisted in this effort by George +Rodiek, German consul at Honolulu; the _Geier_ caught all trans-Pacific +wireless messages, and intercepted numerous United States government +despatches. Captain Grasshof also spread a report quoting an American +submarine commander as saying he would "like to do something to those +Japs outside" (referring to the Japanese Pacific patrol) provided he +(the American commander) and the German could reach an agreement. This +report Grasshof attributed to von Papen, and later retracted, admitting +that it was a lie. Grasshof's courier to the consulate in San Francisco +was A. V. Kircheisen, a quartermaster on the liner _China_, a German +secret service agent bearing the number K-17. Kircheisen frequently +used the _China's_ wireless to send German messages. + +On December 8 occurred the engagement off the Falklands, which resulted +in the defeat of the German fleet. The _Karlsruhe_ within a short +time gave up her aimless wanderings and disappeared. In February the +_Glasgow_ avenged herself on the _Dresden_, and the _Prinz Eitel +Friedrich_ and the _Kronprinz Wilhelm_ fled into the security of +Hampton Roads for the duration of war. + +The United States' suspicions had been aroused by the activity of +the German wireless plants, but the arm of the law did not remove at +once the German operators at certain commercial stations. They were +the men who despatched communications to Berlin and to the raiders. +Interspersed in commercial messages they sprinkled code phrases, words, +numbers, a meaningless and innocent jargon. The daily press bulletin +issued to all ships at sea was an especially adaptable vehicle for this +practice, as any traveler who has been forced to glean his news from +one of these bulletins will readily appreciate. There were Americans +shrewd enough, however, to become exceedingly suspicious of this +superficially careless sending, and their suspicions were confirmed +through the invention of another shrewd American, Charles E. Apgar. +He combined the principles of the phonograph and the wireless in such +a way as to record on a wax disc the dots and dashes of the message, +precisely as it came through the receiver. The records could be studied +and analyzed at leisure. And the United States government has studied +them. + +At three o'clock every morning, the great wireless station at Nauen, +near Berlin, uttered a hash of language into the ether. It was +apparently not directed to any one in particular, nor did it contain +any known coherence. Unless the operator in America wore a DeForest +audian detector, which picks up waves from a great distance, he +could not have heard it, and certainly during the early part of the +war he paid no attention to it. The United States decided, however, +that it might be well to eavesdrop, and so for over two years every +utterance from Nauen was transcribed and filed away, or run off on the +phonograph, in the hope that repetition might reveal the code. Until +the code was discovered elsewhere, the phonographic records told no +tales, but then the State Department found that it had a priceless +library of Prussian impudence. + +The diplomatic code was a dictionary, its pages designated by serial +letters, its words by serial numbers. Thus the message + + + "12-B-15-C-7" + + +signified the twelfth and fifteenth words on the second page, and the +seventh word on the third page. This particular dictionary was one of a +rare edition. + +To complement the diplomatic code the Deutches Bank, the German Foreign +Office, and their commercial representatives, Hugo Schmidt and Dr. +Albert, had agreed upon an arbitrary code which proved one of the most +difficult which the American authorities have ever had to decipher. +Solution would have been impossible without some of the straight +English or German confirmations which followed by mail, but as most +of these documents were lost or destroyed, the deciphering had to be +done by astute construction of testimony taken from Schmidt as late +as the fall of 1917. He had made the work doubly difficult by burning +the cipher key and most of his important papers in the furnace of the +German Club. + +Simple phrases, such as might readily pass any censor without arousing +suspicion, passed frequently through Sayville station. The message +"Expect father to-morrow" meant "The political situation between +America and Germany grows worse. It is imperative that you take +care of your New York affairs." "Depot" meant "Securities"; "Depot +Pritchard" meant "Securities to be held in Germany"; "Depot Cooper" +meant "Securities to be forwarded to some neutral country in Europe." +Schmidt himself had the following aliases: "John Maley," "Roy Woolen," +"Sidney Pickford," "George Brewster," "175 Congress Street, Brooklyn," +"James Frasier," or "Andrew Brodie." Dr. Albert was mentioned as "John +Herbinsen," "Howard Ackley," "Leonard Hadden," or "Donald Yerkes." +James W. Gerard, the American ambassador at Berlin, was "Wilbur +McDonald"; America was "Fremessi" or "Alfred Lipton." To throw any +suspicion off the scent, the phrase "Hughes recovered" was translatable +simply as "agreed," whereas "Percy died" meant "disagreed." Amounts of +money were to be multiplied by one thousand. + +This cipher code, so far as it had any system at all, showed a skilful +choice of arbitrary proper names, than which there is nothing less +suggestive or significant when the name is backed up by no known or +discoverable personality. These names met two requirements: they +carefully avoided any names of personages, and they sounded English or +American. Following is a table of the commoner symbols used: + + + CODE TRANSLATION + +Alcott Hugo Reisinger +Andeo Payments are +John Hazel: Chapman; +Thos. Hadley G. Amsinck & Co. +Pythagoras Errflint Argentine Finance + Minister +Lawrence McKay Austrian Ambassador at + Washington. +John Hastings; Fred +Holden; Wm. Lounsbury +Flagside; Chas. Hall Bankers Trust Co. +Henry Galloway Belgium +Frenchlike; Blake Berlin +Flammigere Bethlehem Steel Co. +Percy Bloomfield Reichsbank +Gobber Milbank or +John Childs Capt. Boy-Ed +George Mallery British Ambassador at Washington +Charles Thurston: +Caffney Richard British Government +Ernest Whiskard Central Bank of Norway +Frederick Chappell, The Submarine _Deutschland_ +Walter Harris; Edmund + Hutton Chase National Bank +Mills Edgar Dr. Dernberg +Albert Hardwood Empire Trust Co. +Herbert Hastings, +Langman Howard, +Luckett Ernest Equitable Trust Co. +Eversleigh New York +Sidney Farmer and others Speyer & Co. +Francis Hawkins Farmers Loan & Trust Co. +Francis Manuel; +Edward Gary German Government +Fleshquake Kuhn, Loeb & Co. +Clarence Hadden First National Bank +Floezanbel George J. Gould +Floezuise J. P. Morgan +Wm. Gerome J. P. Morgan & Co. +Fluitkoker Wm. Barclay Parsons +Fleuxerimus High Official of Bethlehem + Steel Co. +Fogarizers Chas. M. Schwab +John Hayward Norwegian Government +Franklin Giltrap Hamburg-American + Line +Theodore Hooper Capt. von Papen +15 Code names represented + the Guaranty Trust Co. +Paul Overton; Robt. + Hopkins Hanover Nat. Bank +George Hedding Standard Mercantile + Agency +Hugh Sturges Paul Hilken (_Deutschland_) +Clarence Marsh Japanese Ambassador at + Washington +Howard Howe Irving Nat. Bank +Herbert Miller President of U. S. +Andrew Mills Secretary of Commerce and + Labor +Theodore Mitchell Secretary of Agriculture +Robert Moffatt Secretary of State +Frank Monroe Secretary of Treasury +Walter Montgomery Secretary of Navy +Dolling London +Robert London North German Lloyd +Steven Morgan United States Congress +Frank Mountcastle The name of the Deutsches + Bank is not to be mentioned +Steven Lawson Royal Bank of Canada +Gafento Toluol (High explosive) + + +The chief significance of the discovery of the two codes is their +conclusive proof that while von Bernstorff was protesting to the +American government that he could not get messages through to Berlin, +nor replies from the foreign office, he was actually in daily, if not +hourly, communication with his superiors. Messages were sent out by +his confidential operators under the very eyes of the American naval +censors. After the break of diplomatic relations with Berlin, in +February, 1917, the authorities set to work decoding the messages, +and the State Department from time to time issued for publication +certain of the more brutal proofs of Germany's violation of American +neutrality. The ambassador and his Washington establishment had served +for two years and a half as the "central exchange" of German affairs in +the western world. After his departure communication from German spies +here was handicapped only by the time required to forward information +to Mexico; from that point to Berlin air conversation continued +uninterrupted. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MILITARY VIOLENCE + + The plan to raid Canadian ports--The first Welland Canal plot--Von + Papen, von der Goltz and Tauscher--The project abandoned--Goltz's + arrest--The Tauscher trial--Hidden arms--Louden's plan of invasion. + + +Underneath the even surface of American life seethed a German +volcano, eating at the upper crust, occasionally cracking it, and not +infrequently bursting a great gap. When an eruption occurred, America +stopped work for a moment, stared in surprise, sometimes in horror, at +the external phenomena, discussed them for a few days, then hurried +back to work. More often than not it saw nothing sinister even in the +phenomena. + + +Less than ten hours from German headquarters in New York lay Canada, +one of the richest possessions of Germany's bitter enemy England. +Captain von Papen had not only full details of all points of military +importance in the United States, but had made practical efforts to +utilize them. He knew where his reservists could be found in America. +When the Government, shortly after the outbreak of war, forbade the +recruiting of belligerents within its boundaries, and then refused to +issue American passports for the protection of soldiers on the way to +their commands, Captain von Papen planned to mobilize and employ a +German army on American soil in no less pretentious an enterprise than +a military invasion of the Dominion. + +The first plan was attributed to a loyal German named Schumacher, +whose ambiguous address was "Eden Bower Farm, Oregon." He outlined in +detail to von Papen the feasibility of obtaining a number of powerful +motor-boats, to be manned by German-American crews, and loaded with +German-American rifles and machine guns. From the ports on the shores +of the Great Lakes he considered it practicable to journey under +cover of darkness to positions which would command the waterfronts +of Toronto, Sarnia, Windsor and Kingston, Ontario, find the cities +defenseless, and precipitate upon them a fair storm of bullets. A few +Canadian lives might be lost, which did not matter; an enormous hue and +cry would be raised to keep the Canadian troops at home to guard the +back door. + +Von Papen entertained the plan seriously, and submitted it to Count +von Bernstorff, who for obvious diplomatic reasons did not care to +sponsor open violence when its proponent's references were unreliable, +its actual reward was at best doubtful, and when subtle violence was +equally practicable. Von Papen then produced an alternative project. + +Cutting through the promontory which separates Lake Erie from the +western end of Lake Ontario runs the Welland Canal, through which all +shipping must pass to avoid Niagara Falls. This waterway is one of +Canada's dearest properties, and is no mean artery of supply from the +great grain country of the Northwest. + +Its economic importance, however, was secondary in the German mind to +the psychological effect upon Canada which a dynamite calamity to the +Canal would certainly cause. The first expeditionary force of Canadian +troops was training frantically at Valcartier, Quebec. They must be +kept at home. Whether or not the idea originated with Captain von Papen +is of little consequence (it may be safely assumed that Berlin had long +had plans for such an enterprise); the fact is that it devolved upon +him as military commander to crystallize thought in action. The plot +is ascribed to "two Irishmen, prominent members of Irish associations, +who had both fought during the Irish rebellion," and was to include +destruction of the main railway junctions and the grain elevators in +the vicinity of Toronto. + +The picturesque renegade German spy commonly known as Horst von der +Goltz is responsible for the generally accepted version of incidents +which followed his first interview with von Papen on August 22 at +the German Consulate in New York. He was sent to Baltimore under the +assumed name of Bridgeman H. Taylor, with a letter to the German Consul +there, Karl Luederitz, calling for whatever coöperation Goltz might +need. He was to recruit accomplices from the crew of a German ship then +lying at the North German Lloyd docks in the Patapsco River. With a man +whom he had hired in New York, Charles Tucker, alias "Tuchhaendler," he +visited the ship and selected his men. He then returned to New York, +where Papen placed three more men at his disposal, one of them being +A. A. Fritzen, of Brooklyn, a discharged purser on a Russian liner; +another Frederick Busse, an "importer," with offices in the World +Building, New York; and the third man Constantine Covani, a private +detective, of New York. After a few days the sailors from Baltimore +reported for duty, but were sent back, as Goltz noticed that his +movements were being watched. + +Papen sent Goltz to Captain Tauscher's office at 320 Broadway for +explosives. On September 5, Captain Tauscher ordered 300 pounds of 60 +per cent. dynamite to be delivered by the E. I. du Pont de Nemours +Company to Mr. Bridgeman Taylor. In a motor-boat Goltz applied at a du +Pont barge near Black Tom Island and the Statue of Liberty and took +away his three hundred pounds of dynamite in suitcases. The little +craft made its way up the river to 146th Street. The conspirators then +carried their burden to the German Club in Central Park South and later +in a taxicab to Goltz's home, where it was stored with a supply of +revolvers and electrical apparatus for exploding the charges. + +[Illustration: Passport given to Horst von der Goltz under the _alias_ +of Bridgeman H. Taylor] + +A passport for facile entrance into Canada had been applied for by one +of Luederitz's henchmen in Baltimore in the name of "Bridgeman Taylor," +and had been forwarded in care of Karl W. Buck, who lived at 843 West +End Avenue, New York. With this guerdon of American protection Goltz +set out for Buffalo about September 10--the last day of the Battle of +the Marne--Busse and Fritzen carrying the dynamite and apparatus, and +Covani, as Goltz naïvely related, "attending to me." He found rooms +at 198 Delaware Avenue, in the heart of Buffalo. He learned of the +terrain for the enterprise from a German of mysterious occupation, +who had lived in Buffalo for several years. Within a few days Goltz +and his companions moved on to Niagara Falls--a move made easier by an +exchange of telegraphic communications between Papen and himself. It +is only necessary to quote, from the British Secret Service report to +Parliament, those messages which Goltz received from the attaché, or +"Steffens," as Papen chose to sign himself: + + + New York, N. Y. Sept. 15, 14 + + Mr. Taylor, 198 Delaware Ave. Buffalo + + Sent money today. Consult lawyer John Ryan six hundred thirteen + Mutual Life Building Buffalo not later than seventeenth. + + STEFFENS, 112 Central Park South + 12.45 p. + + + New York, N. Y. Sept. 16-14 + + Mr. Taylor, 198 Delaware Avenue, Bflo. + + Ryan got money and instructions. + + STEFFENS, + 1.14 p. + + +Goltz and Covani "consulted" Mr. Ryan, who had received $200 on +September 16 from Papen through Knauth, Nachod & Kuhne. + +Then Goltz claimed that he made two aeroplane flights over Niagara +Falls, and "reconnoitered the ground." Something went wrong, for after +a week arrived the following telegrams: + + + New York, N. Y. Sept. 24-14. + + John T. Ryan, 613 Mutual Life Bldg. Buffalo. + + Please instruct Taylor cannot do anything more for him. + + STEFFENS. + 12:51 p. + + + New York, N. Y. Sept. 26-14. + + Mr. Taylor, care Western Union, Niagara Falls, N. Y. + + Do what you think best. Did you receive dollars two hundred + + RYAN + 9.45 A. + + +These messages are open to several constructions. They do not +contradict Goltz's claim that he "learned that the first contingent of +Canadian troops had left the camp." They could indicate that his chief +was not fully satisfied with his technique. Perhaps the most intriguing +feature of the telegrams is their presence in a safe-deposit vault in +Holland when Goltz was captured months later. It may be assumed that +if (as he maintained) he was being watched constantly in Buffalo by +the United States Secret Service, one of the first things he would +have done is to destroy any messages received. We leave the reader to +decide--after he has traced Goltz's history a step or two further. + +Whatever the occasion, the Welland enterprise was dismissed; the +dynamite was left with an aviator in Niagara Falls; Fritzen and Busse +were discharged from service, and Covani and Goltz left for New York. +In a letter dated December 7, from Buffalo, poor Busse wrote to Edmund +Pavenstedt, at 45 William Street, New York, pleading that he had been +left without any money in Niagara Falls; that he had written to von +Papen and had been compelled to wait two weeks before he got $20. +His expenses had accumulated during the fortnight, he could not find +work, he even had sold his overcoat, and he begged Pavenstedt to send +him money to come back to New York. "My friend Fritzen," he added, +"was sent back some weeks ago by a gentleman in the German-American +Alliance.... I would appreciate anything you can do for me, especially +since I enlisted in such a task ... Von Papen signs himself Stevens." + +The military attaché was frankly disgusted at the failure of the +undertaking. Goltz claims to have explained everything satisfactorily, +and to have been given presently a new commission--that of returning +to Germany for further instructions from Abteilung III of the General +Staff, the intelligence department of the Empire. + +On October 8 Goltz sailed for Europe, armed with his false passport, +and a letter of introduction to the German Consul-General in Genoa. He +reached Berlin safely, received his orders, returned to England, and +was arrested on November 13. The public was not informed of his arrest, +yet in Busse's letter from Buffalo of December 7, he mentioned Goltz's +capture in London. News traveled fast in German channels. + +Examination of his papers resulted in a protracted imprisonment, which +daily grew more painful, and finally Goltz agreed to turn state's +evidence against his former confrères. It was not until March 31, 1916, +that Captain Tauscher was interrupted at his office by the arrival of +agents of the Department of Justice, who placed him under arrest. He +was held in $25,000 bail on a charge of having furthered a plot to blow +up the Welland Canal. + +Meanwhile Goltz's confession had implicated him in something more than +a casual acquaintance with the plot; stubs in the check-book of Captain +von Papen established payment made by the latter to Tauscher of $31.13, +which happened to be the exact total of two bills from the du Pont +Company to Captain Tauscher for dynamite and hemp fuses delivered on +September 5 and 13 to "Bridgeman Taylor." Prior to the trial in June +and July, 1916, Tauscher offered to plead guilty for a promise of the +maximum fine without imprisonment, but his offer was rejected by the +United States attorneys. A letter was introduced as testimony to his +good character from General Crozier, the then head of the Ordnance +Department at Washington. Goltz made an unimpressive witness, and +Captain Tauscher, protesting his innocence as a mere intermediary in +the affair, was acquitted of the charge. + +Of the smaller fry Fritzen was arrested in Los Angeles in March, 1917. +He stated then to officers that he had made trips to Cuba after the +outbreak of war in 1914, had traveled over southern United States in +two attempts to reach Mexico City, and had finally found employment +on a ranch. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Tucker and Busse +were witnesses at the Tauscher trial and were treated leniently. Covani +turned from his previous occupation as hunter to that of quarry, and +was not apprehended. + +Information gathered by the Federal authorities and produced in court +proved that Captain von Papen and reservist German army officers in +the country planned a second mobilization of German reservists to +attack Canadian points. That the project was seriously considered for +a time is evidenced by a note in the diary found on the commander of +the _Geier_, in Honolulu, in which he said that the German consul +in Honolulu, George Rodiek, had had orders from the San Francisco +consulate to circulate a report to that effect. Hundreds of thousands +of rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition that were to be +available for German reservists were stored in New York, Chicago and +other cities on the border. Many a German-American brewery concealed in +the shadows of its storehouses crates of arms and ammunition. Tauscher +stored in 200 West Houston Street, New York, on June 21, 1915, 2,000 +45-calibre Colt revolvers, 10 Colt automatic guns, 7,000 Springfield +rifles, 3,000,000 revolver cartridges and 2,500,000 rifle cartridges. +When the New York police questioned him about this arsenal, he said he +had purchased them in job lots, for speculation. As a matter of fact +they had been intended for use in India, but had been diverted on the +Pacific coast and returned to New York. + +A bolder version of the plot of invasion came from Max Lynar Louden, +known to the Federal authorities as "Count Louden." He was a man of +nondescript reputation, who had secret communications with the Germans +in the early part of the war. He confessed that he was party to a +scheme for the quick mobilization and equipment of a full army of +German reservists. Louden was consistently annoying to the Secret +Service in that he refused openly to violate the neutrality laws, but +the moment the authorities learned of the fact that he was supposed to +have two or three wives they made an investigation which resulted in +his imprisonment. His story, if not altogether reliable, is interesting. + +Through German-American interests, the plans were made in 1914, he +said, and a fund of $16,000,000 was subscribed to carry out the +details. Secret meetings were held in New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, +Detroit, Milwaukee, and other large cities, and at these meetings it +was agreed that a force of 150,000 reservists was available to seize +and hold the Welland Canal, strategic points and munitions centers. + +"We had it arranged," said Louden, "to send our men from large cities +following announcements of feasts and conventions, and I think we could +have obtained enough to carry out our plans had it not been for my +arrest on the charge of bigamy. The troops were to have been divided +into four divisions, with six sections. The first two divisions were to +have assembled at Silvercreek, Mich. The first was to have seized the +Welland Canal. The second was to have taken Wind Mill Point, Ontario. +The third was to go from Wilson, N. Y., to Port Hope. The fourth was +to proceed from Watertown, N. Y., to Kingston, Ontario. The fifth was +to assemble near Detroit and land near Windsor. The sixth section was +to leave Cornwall and take possession of Ottawa. + +"It had been planned to buy or charter eighty-four excursion and small +boats to use in getting into Canada. All of the equipment was to have +been put aboard the boats, and when quarters for 120,000 men had been +found it would have been easy to continue the expedition. The German +government was cognizant of the plan and maps, etc., were to have been +furnished by the German government. A representative of the British +Ambassador offered $20,000 for our plans." + +But none of the first German-American expeditionary forces left for +their destinations. Their project was innocently foiled by Amelia +Wendt, Rose O'Brien and Nella Florence Allendorf. These ladies were +Louden's wives. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +PAUL KOENIG + + Justice and Metzler--Koenig's personality--von Papen's checks--The + "little black book"--Telephone codes--Shadowing--Koenig's + agents--His betrayal. + + +In a narrative which attempts so far as possible to proceed +chronologically, it becomes necessary at this point to introduce Paul +Koenig. For, on September 15, 1914, he sent an Irishman, named Edmund +Justice, who had been a dock watchman, and one Frederick Metzler to +Quebec for information of the number of Canadian troops in training. On +September 18 Koenig left New York and met Metzler in Portland, Maine. +He received his report, and on September 25 was in Burlington, Vt., +where he conferred with Justice, and learned that the two spies had +inspected the fortifications in Quebec, and had visited the training +camps long enough to estimate the number and condition of the men. +(Their information Koenig reported at once to von Papen, and it is +possible that it dictated Papen's recall of Goltz from Buffalo the next +day.) + +Who was Paul Koenig? His underlings knew him as "P. K.," and called +him the "bull-headed Westphalian" behind his back. He had a dozen +aliases, among them Wegenkamp, Wagener, Kelly, Winter, Perkins, +Stemler, Rectorberg, Boehm, Kennedy, James, Smith, Murphy, and W. T. +Munday. + +He was a product of the "Kaiser's Own"--the Hamburg-American Line. He +had been a detective in the service of the Atlas Line, a subsidiary +of the Hamburg-American, and for some years before the war was +superintendent of the latter company's police. In that capacity he +bossed a dozen men, watching the company's laborers and investigating +any complaints made to the line. His work threw him into constant +contact with sailors, tug-skippers, wharf-rats, longshoremen, and +dive-keepers of the lowest type, and there was little of the criminal +life of the waterfront that he had not seen. + +He had arms like an ape, and the bodily strength of one. His expression +suggested craft, ferocity, and brutality. Altogether his powerful frame +and lurid vocabulary made him a figure to avoid or respect. Waterfront +society did both--and hated him as well. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Paul Koenig, the Hamburg-American employe, who supplied and directed +agents of German violence in America] + +Von Papen saw in Koenig's little police force the nucleus of just such +an organization as he needed. The Line put Koenig at the attaché's +disposal in August, 1914, and straightway von Papen connected certain +channels of information with Koenig's own system. He supplied +reservists for special investigations and crimes, and presently Koenig +became in effect the foreman of a large part of Germany's secret +service in the East. As his activities broadened, he was called +upon to execute commissions for Bernstorff, Albert, Dr. Dumba, the +Austro-Hungarian ambassador, and Dr. Alexander von Nuber, the Austrian +consul in New York, as well as for the attachés themselves. He acted as +their guard on occasion, served as their confidential messenger, and +made himself generally useful in investigation work. + +The guilt-stained check-book of the military attaché contained these +entries: + + + March 29, 1915. Paul Koenig (Secret Service Bill) $509.11 + + April 18, Paul Koenig (Secret Service Bill) $90.94 + + May 11, Paul Koenig (Secret Service) $66.71 + + July 16, Paul Koenig (Compensation for F. J. Busse) $150.00 + + August 4, Paul Koenig (5 bills secret service) $118.92 + + +Those entries represent only the payments made Koenig by check for +special work done for von Papen. Koenig received his wages from the +Line. When he performed work for any one else he rendered a special +bill. This necessitated his itemizing his expenditures, and this +Germanly thorough and thoroughly German system of petty accounting +enabled our secret service later to trace his activities with +considerable success. Koenig and von Papen used to haggle over his +bills--on one occasion the attaché felt he was being overcharged, and +accordingly deducted a half-dollar from the total. + +"P. K." also had an incriminating book--a carefully prepared notebook +of his spies and of persons in New York, Boston and other cities +who were useful in furnishing him information. In another book he +kept a complete record of the purpose and cost of assignments on +which he sent his men. He listed in its pages the names of several +hundred persons--army reservists, German-Americans and Americans, +clerks, scientists and city and Federal employees--showing that his +district was large and that his range for getting information and for +supervising other pro-German propaganda was broad. For his own direct +staff he worked out a system of numbers and initials to be used in +communication. The numbers he changed at regular intervals and a system +of progression was devised by which each agent would know when his +number changed. He provided them with suitable aliases. These men had +alternative codes for writing letters and for telephone communication +to be changed automatically by certain fixed dates. + +Always alert for spies upon himself, Koenig suspected that his +telephone wire was tapped and that his orders were being overheard. +So he instructed his men in various code words. If he told an agent +to meet him "at 5 o'clock at South Ferry" he meant: "Meet me at 7 +o'clock at Forty-second Street and Broadway." His suspicions were +well-grounded, for his wire was tapped, and Koenig led the men who were +spying on him an unhappy dance. + +For example: he would receive a call on the telephone and would direct +his agent, at the other end of the wire, to meet him in fifteen +minutes at Pabst's, Harlem. It is practically impossible to make the +journey from Koenig's office in the Hamburg-American Building to 125th +Street in a quarter of an hour. After a time his watchers learned that +"Pabst's, Harlem" meant Borough Hall, Brooklyn. + +He never went out in the daytime without one or two of his agents +trailing him to see whether he was being shadowed. He used to turn a +corner suddenly and stand still so that an American detective following +came unexpectedly face to face with him and betrayed his identity. +Koenig would laugh heartily and pass on. Thus he came to know many +agents of the Department of Justice and many New York detectives. When +he started out at night he usually had three of his own men follow him +and by a prearranged system of signals inform him if any strangers were +following him. + +The task of keeping watch of Koenig's movements required astute +guessing and tireless work on the part of the New York police. So +elusive did he become that it was necessary for Captain Tunney to +evolve a new system of shadowing him in order to keep him in sight +without betraying that he was under surveillance. One detective, +accordingly, would be stationed several blocks away and would start out +ahead of Koenig. The "front shadow" was signaled by his confederates +in the rear whenever Koenig turned a corner, so that the man in front +might dart down a cross-street and manoeuvre to keep ahead of him. If +Koenig boarded a street car the man ahead would hail the car several +blocks beyond, thus avoiding suspicion. In more than one instance +detectives in the rear, guessing that he was about to take a car, would +board it several blocks before it got abreast of Koenig. His alertness +kept Detectives Barnitz, Coy, Terra, and Corell on edge for months. + +It was impossible to overhear direct conversation between Koenig and +any man to whom he was giving instructions. Some of his workers he +never permitted to meet him at all, but when he kept a rendezvous it +was in the open, in the parks in broad daylight, or in a moving-picture +theatre, or in the Pennsylvania Station, or the Grand Central Terminal. +There he could make sure that nobody was eavesdropping. If he met an +agent in the open for the first time he gave him some such command at +this: + +"Be at Third Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street at 2:30 to-morrow afternoon +beside a public telephone booth there. When the telephone rings answer +it." + +The man would obey. On the minute the telephone would ring and the +man would lift the receiver. A strange voice told him to do certain +things--either a definite assignment, or instructions to be at a +similar place on the following day to receive a message. Or he might be +told to meet another man, who would give him money and further orders. +The voice at the other end of the wire spoke from a public telephone +booth and was thus reasonably sure that the wire was not tapped. + +And Koenig trusted no man. He never sent an agent out on a job without +detailing another man to shadow that man and report back to him in full +the operations of the agent and of any persons whom he might deal with. +He was brutally severe in his insistence that his men do exactly what +he told them without using their own initiative. + +Koenig had spies on every big steamship pier. He had eavesdroppers +in hotels, and on busy telephone switchboards. He employed porters, +window-cleaners, bank clerks, corporation employees and even a member +of the Police Department. + +This last, listed in his book as "Special Agent A. S.," was Otto F. +Mottola, a detective in the warrant squad. The notebook revealed +Mottola as "Antonio Marino," an alias later changed to Antonio +Salvatore. Evidence was produced at Mottola's trial at Police +Headquarters that Koenig paid him for investigating a passenger who +sailed on the _Bergensfjord_; that he often called up Mottola, asked +questions, and received answers which Koenig's stenographer took down +in shorthand. Through him Koenig sought to keep closely informed of +developments at Police Headquarters in the inquiry being made by the +police into the activities of the Germans. Mottola was dismissed from +the force because of false statements made to his superiors when they +questioned him about Koenig. + +Koenig's very caution was the cause of his undoing. The detectives who +shadowed him learned that he "never employed the same man more than +once," which meant simply that he was careful to place no subordinate +in a position where blackmail and exposure might be too easy. To this +fact they added another trifling observation; they noticed that as time +went on he was seen less in the company of one George Fuchs, a relative +with whom he had been intimate early in the war. They cultivated the +young man's acquaintance to the extent that he finally burst out with +a recitation of his grievances against Koenig, and betrayed him to the +authorities. + +"P. K." was defiant always. "They did get Dr. Albert's portfolio," he +said one day, "but they won't get mine. I won't carry one." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FALSE PASSPORTS + + Hans von Wedell's bureau--The traffic in false passports--Carl + Ruroede--Methods of forgery--Adams' coup--Von Wedell's letter + to von Bernstorff--Stegler--Lody--Berlin counterfeits American + passports--Von Breechow. + + +Throughout August, 1914, it was comparatively easy for Germans in +America who wished to respond to the call of the Fatherland to leave +American shores. A number of circumstances tended swiftly to make it +more hazardous. The British were in no mind to permit an influx of +reservists to Germany while they could blockade Germany. The cordon +tightened, and soon every merchant ship was stopped at sea by a British +patrol and searched for German suspects. German spies here took refuge +in the protection afforded by an American passport. False passports +were issued by the State Department in considerable quantities during +the early weeks of war--issued unwittingly, of course, for the +applicant in most cases underwent no more than the customary peace-time +examination. + +We have already seen that von der Goltz easily secured a passport. The +details of his application were these: Karl A. Luederitz, the German +consul at Baltimore, detailed one of his men to supply Goltz with a +lawyer and an application blank (then known as Form 375). The lawyer +was Frederick F. Schneider, of 2 East German Street, Baltimore. On that +application Goltz swore that his name was Bridgeman H. Taylor, his +birthplace San Francisco, his citizenship American, his residence New +York City, and his occupation that of export broker. Charles Tucker +served as witness to these fantastic sentiments. Two days later (August +31) the State Department issued passport number 40308 in the name of +Taylor, and William Jennings Bryan signed the precious document. + +It was not necessary at that time to state the countries which the +applicant intended to visit. Within a few weeks, however, that +information was required on the passport. + +Each additional precaution taken by the Government placed a new +obstacle in the way of unlimited supply of passports. The Goltz +method was easy enough, but it soon became impossible to employ +it. The necessity for sending news through to Berlin by courier +was increasingly urgent and it devolved upon Captain von Papen to +systematize the supply of passports. The military attaché in November +selected Lieutenant Hans von Wedell, who had already made a trip as +courier to Berlin for his friend, Count von Bernstorff. Von Wedell +was married to a German baroness. He had been a newspaper reporter in +New York, and later a lawyer. He opened an office in Bridge Street, +New York, and began to send out emissaries to sailors on interned +German liners, and to their friends in Hoboken, directing them to +apply for passports. He sent others to the haunts of tramps on the +lower East Side, to the Mills Hotel, and other gathering places of +the down-and-outs, offering ten, fifteen or twenty dollars to men who +would apply for and deliver passports. And he bought them! He spent +much time at the Deutscher Verein, and at the Elks' Club in 43rd +Street where he often met his agents to give instructions and receive +passports. His bills were paid by Captain von Papen, as revealed by the +attaché's checks and check stubs; on November 24, 1914, a payment in +his favor of $500; on December 5, $500 more and then $300, the latter +being for "journey money." Von Wedell's bills at the Deutscher Verein +in November, 1914, came to $38.05, according to another counterfoil. +The Captain in the meantime employed Frau von Wedell as courier, +sending her with messages to Germany. On December 22, 1914, he paid the +baroness, according to his check-book, $800. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Hans von Wedell and his wife. He was an important member of the +false-passport bureau and she a messenger from von Papen to Germany] + +The passports secured by von Wedell, and by his successor, Carl +Ruroede, Sr., a clerk in Oelrichs & Co., whom he engaged, were supplied +by the dozens to officers whom the General Staff had ordered back to +Berlin. Not only American passports, but Mexican, Swiss, Swedish, +Norwegian and all South American varieties were seized eagerly by +reservists bound for the front. Germans and Austrians, who had been +captured in Russia, sent to Siberia as prisoners of war, escaped and +making their way by caravan through China, had embarked on vessels +bound for America. Arriving in New York they shipped for neutral +European countries. Among them was an Austrian officer, an expert +aeroplane observer whose feet were frozen and amputated in Siberia, but +who escaped to this country. He was ordered home because of his extreme +value in observation, and after his flight three-fourths of the way +round the world, the British took him off a ship at Falmouth to spend +the remainder of the war in a prison camp. + +Captain von Papen used the bureau frequently for passports for spies +whom he wished to send to England, France, Italy or Russia. Anton +Kuepferle and von Breechow were two such agents. Both were captured in +England with false passports in their possession. Both confessed, and +the former killed himself in Brixton Jail. + +Von Wedell and Ruroede grew reckless and boastful. Two hangers-on at +the Mills Hotel called upon one of the writers of this volume one +day and told him of von Wedell's practices, related how they had +blackmailed him out of $50, gave his private telephone numbers and +set forth his haunts. When this and other information reached the +Department of Justice, Albert G. Adams, a clever agent, insinuated +himself into Ruroede's confidence, and offered to secure passports for +him for $50 each. Posing as a pro-German, he pried into the inner ring +of the passport-buyers, and was informed by Ruroede just how the stock +of passports needed replenishing. + +Though in the early days of the war it had not been necessary for the +applicant to give more than a general description of himself, the cry +of "German spies!" in the Allied countries became so insistent that +the Government added the requirement of a photograph of the bearer. +The Germans, however, found it a simple matter to give a general +description of a man's eyes, color of hair, and age to fit the person +who was actually to use the document; then forwarded the picture of +the applicant to be affixed. The applicant receiving the passport, +would sell it at once. Even though the official seal was stamped on the +photograph the Germans were not dismayed. + +Adams rushed into Ruroede's office one day waving a sheaf of five +passports issued to him by the Government. Adams was ostensibly proud +of his work, Ruroede openly delighted. + +"I knew I could get these passports easily," he boasted to Adams. "Why, +if Lieutenant von Wedell had kept on here he never could have done +this. He always was getting into a muddle." + +"But how can you use these passports with these pictures on them?" +asked the agent. + +"Oh, that's easy," answered Ruroede. "Come in the back room. I'll +show you." And Ruroede, before the observant eyes of the Department +of Justice, patted one of the passports with a damp cloth, then with +adhesive paste fastened a photograph of another man over the original +bearing the imprint of the United States seal. + +"We wet the photograph," said Ruroede, "and then we affix the picture +of the man who is to use it. The new photograph also is dampened, but +when it is fastened to the passport there still remains a sort of +vacuum in spots between the new picture and the old because of ridges +made by the seal. So we turn the passport upside down, place it on a +soft ground--say a silk handkerchief--and then we take a paper-cutter +with a dull point, and just trace the letters on the seal. The result +is that the new photograph dries exactly as if it had been stamped by +Uncle Sam. You can't tell the difference." + +Adams never knew until long afterward that when he met Ruroede by +appointment in Bowling Green, another German atop 11 Broadway was +scrutinizing him through field-glasses, and examining every one who +paused nearby, who might arouse suspicion of Adams' ingenuous part in +the transaction. + +Through Adams' efforts Ruroede and four Germans, one of them an +officer in the German reserves, were arrested on January 2, on the +Scandinavian-American liner _Bergensfjord_ outward bound to Bergen, +Norway. They had passports issued through Adams at Ruroede's request +under the American names of Howard Paul Wright, Herbert S. Wilson, +Peter Hanson and Stanley F. Martin. Their real names were Arthur +Sachse, who worked in Pelham Heights, N.Y., and who was returning to +become a lieutenant in the German Army; Walter Miller, August R. Meyer +and Herman Wegener, who had come to New York from Chile, on their way +to the Fatherland. + +On the day when Ruroede, his assistant, and the four men for whom +he obtained passports were arrested, Joseph A. Baker, assistant +superintendent of the Federal agents in New York, took possession +of the office at 11 Bridge Street. As he was sorting papers and +making a general investigation, a German walked in bearing a card +of introduction from von Papen, introducing himself as Wolfram von +Knorr, a German officer who up to the outbreak of the war had been +naval attaché in Tokio. The officer desired a passport. Baker, after a +conversation in which von Knorr revealed von Papen's connection with +the passport bureau, told him to return the next day. When the German +read the next morning's newspapers he changed his lodging-place and his +name. + +Von Wedell himself was a passenger on the _Bergensfjord_, but when he +was lined up with the other passengers, the Federal agents, who did +not have a description of him, missed him and left the vessel. He was +later (January 11) taken off the ship by the British, however, and +transferred to another vessel for removal to a prison camp. She struck +a German mine and sank, and Von Wedell is supposed to have drowned. + +A few days before he sailed, he wrote a letter to von Bernstorff +which fixes beyond question the responsibility for his false passport +activities. The letter, dated from Nyack, where he was hiding, on +December 26, 1914, follows: + + + "His Excellency The Imperial German Ambassador, Count von + Bernstorff, Washington, D. C. Your Excellency: Allow me most + obediently to put before you the following facts: It seems that an + attempt has been made to produce the impression upon you that I + prematurely abandoned my post, in New York. That is not true. + + "I--My work was done. At my departure I left the service, well + organized and worked out to its minutest details, in the hands of + my successor, Mr. Carl Ruroede, picked out by myself, and, despite + many warnings, still tarried for several days in New York in order + to give him the necessary final directions and in order to hold in + check the blackmailers thrown on my hands by the German officers + until after the passage of my travelers through Gibraltar; in + which I succeeded. Mr. Ruroede will testify to you that without + my suitable preliminary labors, in which I left no conceivable + means untried and in which I took not the slightest consideration + of my personal weal or woe, it would be impossible for him, as + well as for Mr. von Papen, to forward officers and 'aspirants' in + any number whatever, to Europe. This merit I lay claim to and the + occurrences of the last days have unfortunately compelled me, out + of sheer self-respect, to emphasize this to your Excellency. + + "II--The motives which induced me to leave New York and which, to + my astonishment, were not communicated to you, are the following: + + "1. I knew that the State Department had, for three weeks, + withheld a passport application forged by me. Why? + + "2. Ten days before my departure I learnt from a telegram sent + me by Mr. von Papen, which stirred me up very much, and further + through the omission of a cable, that Dr. Stark had fallen into + the hands of the English. That gentleman's forged papers were + liable to come back any day and could, owing chiefly to his lack + of caution, easily be traced back to me. + + "3. Officers and aspirants of the class which I had to forward + over, namely the people, saddled me with a lot of criminals and + blackmailers, whose eventual revelations were liable to bring + about any day the explosion of the bomb. + + "4. Mr. von Papen had repeatedly urgently ordered me to hide + myself. + + "5. Mr. Igel had told me I was taking the matter altogether too + lightly and ought to--for God's sake--disappear. + + "6. My counsel ... had advised me to hastily quit New York, + inasmuch as a local detective agency was ordered to go after the + passport forgeries. + + "7. It had become clear to me that eventual arrest might yet + injure the worthy undertaking and that my disappearance would + probably put a stop to all investigation in this direction. + + "How urgent it was for me to go away is shown by the fact that, + two days after my departure, detectives, who had followed up my + telephone calls, hunted up my wife's harmless and unsuspecting + cousin in Brooklyn, and subjected her to an interrogatory. + + "Mr. von Papen and Mr. Albert have told my wife that I forced + myself forward to do this work. That is not true. When I, in + Berlin, for the first time heard of this commission, I objected to + going and represented to the gentleman that my entire livelihood + which I had created for myself in America by six years of labor + was at stake therein. I have no other means, and although Mr. + Albert told my wife my practice was not worth talking about, it + sufficed, nevertheless, to decently support myself and wife and + to build my future on. I have finally, at the suasion of Count + Wedell, undertaken it, ready to sacrifice my future and that of + my wife. I have, in order to reach my goal, despite infinite + difficulties, destroyed everything that I built up here for myself + and my wife. I have perhaps sometimes been awkward, but always + full of good will, and I now travel back to Germany with the + consciousness of having done my duty as well as I understood it, + and of having accomplished my task. + + "With expressions of the most exquisite consideration, I am, your + Excellency, + + "Very respectfully, + + "(Signed) HANS ADAM VON WEDELL." + + +Ruroede was sentenced to three years in Atlanta prison. The four +reservists, pleading guilty, protested they had taken the passports out +of patriotism and were fined $200 each. + +The arrest of Ruroede exposed the New York bureau, and made it +necessary for the Germans to shift their base of operations, but it +did not put an end to the fraudulent passport conspiracies. Captain +Boy-Ed assumed the burden, and hired men to secure passports for him. +One of these men was Richard Peter Stegler, a Prussian, 33 years old, +who had served in the German Navy and afterward came to this country +to start on his life work. Before the war he had applied for his first +citizenship papers but his name had not been removed from the German +naval reserve list. + +"After the war started," Stegler said, "I received orders to return +home. I was told that everything was in readiness for me. I was +assigned to the naval station at Cuxhaven. My uniform, my cap, my boots +and my locker would be all set aside for me, and I was told just where +to go and what to do. But I could not get back at that time and I kept +on with my work." + +He became instead a member of the German secret service in New York. +"There is not a ship that leaves the harbor, not a cargo that is +loaded or unloaded, but that some member of this secret organization +watches and reports every detail," he said. "All this information is +transmitted in code to the German Government." In January, 1915, if not +earlier, Stegler was sent by the German Consulate to Boy-Ed's office, +where he received instructions to get a passport and make arrangements +to go to England as a spy. Boy-Ed paid him $178, which the attaché +admitted. Stegler immediately got in touch with Gustave Cook and +Richard Madden, of Hoboken, and made use of Madden's birth certificate +and citizenship in obtaining a passport from the American Government. +Stegler paid $100 for the document. Stegler pleaded guilty to the +charge and served 60 days in jail; Madden and Cook were convicted of +conspiracy in connection with the project, and were sentenced to 10 +months' imprisonment. + +"I was told to make the voyage to England on the _Lusitania_," +continued Stegler. "My instructions were as follows: 'Stop at +Liverpool, examine the Mersey River, obtain the names, exact locations +and all possible information concerning warships around Liverpool, +ascertain the amount of munitions of war being unloaded on the +Liverpool docks from the United States, ascertain their ultimate +destination, and obtain a detailed list of all the ships in the harbor.' + +"I was to make constant, though guarded inquiries, of the location of +the dreadnought squadron which the Germans in New York understand was +anchored somewhere near St. George's Channel. I was to appear as an +American citizen soliciting trade. Captain Boy-Ed advised me to get +letters of introduction to business firms. He made arrangements so +that I received such letters and in one letter were enclosed some rare +stamps which were to be a proof to certain persons in England that I +was working for the Germans. + +"After having studied at Liverpool I was to go to London and make an +investigation of the Thames and its shipping. From there I was to +proceed to Holland and work my way to the German border. While my +passport did not include Germany, I was to give the captain of the +nearest regiment a secret number which would indicate to him that I was +a reservist on spy duty. By that means I was to hurry to Eisendal, head +of the secret service in Berlin." + +Stegler did not make the trip because his wife learned of the +enterprise and begged him not to go. He too had run afoul of the +vigilant Adams, and was placed under arrest in February, 1915, +shortly after he decided to stay at home. In his possession were all +the letters and telegrams exchanged between him and Boy-Ed, and one +telegram from "Winkler," Captain Boy-Ed's servant. + +Stegler also said that he had been told by Dr. Karl A. Fuehr, one of +Dr. Albert's assistants, that Boy-Ed previously had sent to England +Karl Hans Lody, the German who in November, 1915, was put to death as +a spy in the Tower of London. Lody had been in the navy, had served on +the Kaiser's yacht and then had come to this country and worked as an +agent for the Hamburg-American Line, going from one city to another. +Shortly after the war started Lody had gone on the mission of espionage +which cost him his life. + +Captain Boy-Ed authorized the commander of the German cruiser _Geier_, +interned in Honolulu, to get his men back to Germany as best he could, +by providing them with false passports. Still another of Boy-Ed's +protégés was a naval reservist, August Meier, who shipped as a hand +on the freighter _Evelyn_ with a cargo of horses for Bermuda. On the +voyage practically all of the horses were poisoned. Meier, however, was +arrested by the Federal authorities on the charge of using the name of +a dead man in order to get an American passport. In supplying passports +and in handling spies, Captain Boy-Ed was more subtle than his +colleague, von Papen. Nevertheless the Government officials succeeded +in getting a clear outline of his activities. The exposure of Boy-Ed's +connection with Stegler made it necessary for the German Government to +change its system once more. + +The Wilhelmstrasse had a bureau of its own. Reservists from America +reported in Berlin for duty in Belgium and France, and their passports +ceased to be useful, to them. The intelligence department commandeered +the documents for agents whom they wished to send back to America. Tiny +flakes of paper were torn from the body of the passport and from the +seal, in order that counterfeiters might match them up. On January 14, +1915, an American named Reginald Rowland obtained a passport from the +State Department for safe-conduct on a business trip to Germany. While +it was being examined at the frontier every detail of the document was +closely noted by the Germans. Some months later Captain Schnitzer, +chief of the German secret service in Antwerp, had occasion to send +a spy to England. He chose von Breechow, a German whom von Papen had +forwarded from New York, and who had his first naturalization papers +from the United States. To Breechow he gave a facsimile of Rowland's +passport identical with the original in every superficial respect +except that the spy's photograph had been substituted for the original, +and the age of the bearer set down as 31--ten years older than Rowland. + +Von Breechow passed the English officials at Rotterdam and at Tilbury. +He soon fell under suspicion, however, and his passport was taken +away. When the British learned that the real Rowland was at home in +New Jersey, and in possession of his own passport, they sent for it, +and compared the two. Breechow's revealed a false watermark, stamped +on in clear grease, which made the paper translucent, but which was +soluble in benzine. The stamp, ordinarily used to countersign both +the photograph and the paper in a certain way, had been applied in a +different position. With those exceptions, and the suspicious Teutonic +twist to a "d" in the word "dark," the counterfeit was regular. + +The Rosenthal case was the first to bring to light the false passport +activities in Berlin. Rosenthal, posing as an agent for gas mantles, +traveled in England successfully as a spy under an emergency passport +issued by the American Embassy in Berlin. Captain Prieger, the chief of +a section in the intelligence department of the General Staff, asked +Rosenthal to make a second trip. The spy demurred, doubting whether his +passport might be accepted a second time. The Captain turned to a safe, +extracted a handful of false American passports, and said: "I can fit +you out with a passport in any name you wish." Rosenthal decided to +employ his own. He was arrested and imprisoned in England. + +As the State Department increased its vigilance the evil began to +expire. It was further stifled by concerted multiplication by the +Allies of the examinations which the stranger had to undergo. But +during its course it made personal communication between Berlin and +lower Broadway almost casual. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +INCENDIARISM + + Increased munitions production--The opening explosions--Orders + from Berlin--Von Papen and Seattle--July, 1915--The Van Koolbergen + affair--The autumn of 1915--The Pinole explosion. + + +A bomb is an easy object to manufacture. Take a section of lead +pipe from six to ten inches long, and solder into it a partition of +thin metal, which divides the tube into two compartments. Place a +high explosive in one compartment and seal it carefully (the entire +operation requires a gentle touch) and in the other end pour a strong +acid; cap it, and seal it. If you have chosen the proper metal for +the partition, and acid of a strength to eat slowly through it to the +explosive, you have produced a bomb of a type which German destroying +agents were fond of using in America from the earliest days of their +operation. + +When the first panic of war had passed, the Allied nations took +account of stock and sent their purchasing agents to America for +war materials. Manufacturers of explosives set to work at once +to fill contracts of unheard-of size. They built new factories +almost overnight, hired men broadcast, and sacrificed every other +consideration to that of swift and voluminous output. Accidents were +inevitable. Probably we shall never know what catastrophes were +actually wrought by German sympathizers, for the very nature of the +processes and the complete ruin which followed an explosion guarded the +secret of guilt. No doubt carelessness was largely to blame for the +earlier explosions, but instead of diminishing as the new hands became +more skillful, and as greater vigilance was employed everywhere, the +number of disasters increased. The word "disaster" is used advisedly. +Powder, guncotton, trinitrotoluol (or TNT, as it is better known), +benzol (one of the chief substances used in the manufacture of TNT) and +dynamite were being produced in great volume for the Allies in American +plants within a comparatively short time--all powerful explosives even +in minute quantity. + +At sea the German navy was losing control daily. It therefore behooved +the German forces in America to stop the production of munitions at its +source. It may be well, for the force which such presentation carries, +to recount very briefly the major accidents which occurred in America +in the first few months after August, 1914. + +On August 30 one powder mill of the du Pont Powder company (strictly +speaking the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Company) at Pompton Lakes, New +Jersey, blew up. In September a guncotton explosion in the Wright +Chemical Works caused the death of three people, and a large property +damage. In October the factory of the Pain Fireworks Display Company +was destroyed, and several people were killed. In the same month the +fireworks factory of Detwiller and Street in Jersey City suffered an +explosion and the loss of four lives. These explosions were the opening +guns. + +Throughout August and September most of these accidents may be +attributed to the inexperience and confusion which followed greatly +increased production in the powder mills. But a circular dated November +18, issued by German Naval Headquarters to all naval agents throughout +the world, ordered mobilized all "agents who are overseas and all +destroying agents in ports where vessels carrying war material are +loaded in England, France, Canada, the United States and Russia." + +Followed these orders: + +"It is indispensable by the intermediary of the third person having +no relation with the official representatives of Germany to recruit +progressively agents to organize explosions on ships sailing to enemy +countries in order to cause delays and confusion in the loading, the +departure and the unloading of these ships. With this end in view we +particularly recommend to your attention the deckhands, among whom +are to be found a great many anarchists and escaped criminals. The +necessary sums for buying and hiring persons charged with executing the +projects will be put at your disposal on your demand." + +Equally incriminating proof that the "destroying agents" were active in +and about the factories lies in a circular intercepted by the French +secret service in Stockholm, in a letter addressed by one Dr. Klasse in +Germany to the Pan-German League in Sweden, in which he said: + +"Inclosed is the circular of November 22, 1914, for information and +execution upon United States territory. We draw your attention to the +possibility of recruiting destroying agents among the anarchist labor +organization." This circular was signed by Dr. Fischer, Councillor +General of the German Army. + +In the first six months of 1915 the du Pont factories at Haskell, +N. J., Carney's Point, N. J., Wayne, Pa., and Wilmington, Del., +experienced explosions and fires; a chemical explosion occurred +in a factory in East 19th Street, New York; the Anderson Chemical +Company, at Wallington, N. J., was rocked on May 3 by an explosion of +guncotton which cost three lives; five more lives were flashed out in +a similar accident in the Equitable powder plant at Alton, Ill. On +New Year's Day, the Buckthorne plant of the John A. Roebling Company, +manufacturers of shell materials, at Trenton, was completely destroyed +by fire, the property loss estimated at $1,500,000. And on June 26, the +Ætna Powder plant at Pittsburgh suffered a chemical explosion which +killed one man and injured ten others. + +Most of these "accidents" had taken place near the Atlantic seaboard. +Yet Germany was active in the far West. On May 30 a barge laden with a +large cargo of dynamite lay in the harbor of Seattle, Washington. The +dynamite was consigned to Russia and was about to be transferred to a +steamer, when it exploded with a shock of earthquake violence felt many +miles inland, and comparable to the explosion in the harbor of Halifax +in December, 1917. Two counterfoils in von Papen's check-book cast some +light on the activities of the consulate in Seattle, the first dated +February 11, 1915, the amount $1,300, the payee "German Consulate, +Seattle," the penned notation. "Angelegenheit" (affair) preceded by a +mysterious "C"; the second dated May 11, 1915, for $500, payable to one +"Schulenberg"[2] through the same consulate. + +The month of July was a holocaust. A tank of phenol exploded in New +York, the benzol plant of the Semet Solvay Company was destroyed at +Solvay, N. Y.; on the 7th serious explosions occurred at the du Pont +plant at Pompton Lakes and at the Philadelphia benzol plant of Harrison +Brothers (the latter causing $500,000 damage); on the 16th five +employees were killed in an explosion and fire at the Ætna plant at +Sinnemahoning, Pa., three days later there was another at the du Pont +plant in Wilmington; on the 25th a munitions train on the Pennsylvania +line was wrecked at Metuchen, N. J.; on the 28th the du Pont works +at Wilmington suffered again; and the month came to a fitting close +with the destruction of a glaze mill in the American Powder Company at +Acton, Mass., on the 29th. (The British army in Mesopotamia had just +entered Kut-el-Amara at this time, and far to the northward Germany was +prosecuting a successful campaign to force a Russian retirement from +Poland.) + +Each incident raised havoc in its immediate vicinity. Each represents a +carefully worked-out plan involving a group of destroying agents. There +is not space here to describe the plots in detail, nor to picture the +horror of their results. But the affidavit of Johannes Hendrikus Van +Koolbergen, dated San Francisco, August 27, 1915, may serve to show +typical methods of operation, as well as to provide a story more than +usually melodramatic. + +Van Koolbergen was a Hollander by birth, and a British subject by +naturalization. In April, 1915, he met in the Heidelberg Café, in +San Francisco, a man named Wilhelm von Brincken, who lived at 303 +Piccadilly Apartments, and who asked Van Koolbergen to call on him +there. The latter, however, was leaving for Canada, and it was not +until some five weeks later that he returned and found that in +his absence von Brincken had twice telephoned him to pursue the +acquaintance. + +Van Koolbergen called. Von Brincken explained that he was a German army +officer, on secret service, and employed directly by Franz Bopp, the +German consul in San Francisco. His visitor's identity and personality +was apparently well known to him, for he offered Van Koolbergen $1,000 +for the use of his passport into Canada, "to visit a friend, to assist +him in some business matters." Van Koolbergen refused to rent his +passport, but volunteered to go himself on any mission. This offer +was discussed at a later meeting at the consulate with Herr Bopp, and +accepted, after, as Koolbergen said, "I became suspicious, and upon +different questions being asked me ... I became very pro-German in the +expression of my sentiments." + +He was shown into an adjoining office, and von Brincken popped in, and +"asked me if I would do something for him in Canada ... and I answered: +'Sure, I will do something, even blow up bridges, if there is any money +in it.' (This struck my mind because of what I had read of what had +been done in Canada of late--something about a bridge being blown up--) +And he said: 'If that is so, you can make good money.'" + +Von Brincken made an appointment with his newly engaged destroying +agent for the following day. On the window-sill of 303 Piccadilly +Apartments sat a flower pot with a tri-colored band around its rim. +If the red was turned outward towards Van Koolbergen as he came along +the street, he was to come right upstairs. If he saw the blue, he was +to loiter discreetly about until the red was turned; if the white area +showed, he was to return another day. + +The red invitation signaled him to come up, and the two bargained for +some time over Van Koolbergen's Canadian mission, without coming to an +understanding. Once safely out of von Brincken's sight, the "destroying +agent" pattered to the British Consulate and betrayed to Carnegie Ross, +the consul, what was afoot. Ross urged him to advise Canada at once, so +Van Koolbergen retold his story in a letter to Wallace Orchard, in the +freight department of the Canadian Pacific Railway at Vancouver, B. C. + +Orchard telegraphed back demanding Van Koolbergen's presence at once, +and furnished money and transportation. Meanwhile the latter had +pretended to accept von Brincken's commission to go to Canada and blow +up a military train, bridge, or tunnel on the Canadian Pacific line +between Revelstoke and Vancouver, for which he was to receive a fee +of $3,000. The German exhibited complete maps of the railroad, told +when a dynamite train might be expected to pass over that section of +the road, and outlined to Van Koolbergen just where and when he could +procure dynamite for the job. So on a Sunday morning in early May Van +Koolbergen arrived in Vancouver, and lost no time in getting in touch +with Orchard and the British Secret Service, with whom he framed the +following plan: + +Van Koolbergen was to send a letter to von Brincken warning him that +something would happen in a day or two. The Vancouver newspapers would +then carry a prepared story to the effect that a tunnel had caved in +in the Selkirk mountains, whereupon Van Koolbergen was to collect for +his services, and to secure incriminating evidence in writing from von +Brincken if possible. + +The plot worked well. The news story appeared, and cast a mysterious +air over the accident. Van Koolbergen at once wrote a postcard to von +Brincken: + + + "On the front page of Vancouver papers of (date) news appears of a + flood in Japan. Our system may be in trouble, so wire here at the + Elysium Hotel." + + +A few days later Van Koolbergen returned to San Francisco and met von +Brincken, who told him that he had replied to the postcard by telegram: + + + "Would like to send some flowers to your wife but do not know her + address," + + +which meant simply that he had wished to communicate with Van +Koolbergen through the latter's wife. (These messages, by the way, were +despatched from Oakland by Charles C. Crowley, who will appear again.) +And von Brincken paid Van Koolbergen $200 in bills, and asked him to +come to the consulate for the balance of his fee. + +Franz Bopp was skeptical. For some reason he mistrusted Van Koolbergen. +He produced a map of British Columbia and asked him to describe what he +had accomplished. Van Koolbergen, confused for a moment, suggested that +he would be unwise to go into detail before three witnesses (Bopp, von +Brincken, and von Schack, the vice-consul). Bopp rose indignantly and +said that his secret was safe with three who had been sworn to serve +the Vaterland. So Van Koolbergen invented and related the story of The +Dynamiting That Never Was, supporting it with copies of the Vancouver +newspapers. Bopp wanted more proof; at Van Koolbergen's suggestion, he +wrote one Van Roggenen, the Dutch vice-consul at Vancouver, asking +him to "inquire of the General Superintendent of the Canadian Pacific +Railway Company why a car of freight which I expected from the East had +not arrived yet, and to kindly wire me at my expense." Van Roggenen +happened to be a friend of Van Koolbergen's, and of course any inquiry +made of the railroad for Van Koolbergen's car of freight would have +been tactfully construed and properly answered. But to make assurance +doubly sure, Van Koolbergen wired Orchard in Vancouver to send him the +following telegram: + + + "Superintendent refuses information. Found out however that + freight has been delayed eleven days on account of accident. + Signed V. R." + + +Armed with this fictitious reply, which Orchard soon sent him, Van +Koolbergen called at the consulate, and was paid $300 more in cash. +In order to get as much money as possible as soon as possible, the +"destroying agent" agreed to cut his price from $3,000 to $1,750, and +was promised the money the next day. The next day came, but no money. +Van Koolbergen sent a sharp note to the Consul, suggesting blackmail, +and the German Empire in San Francisco capitulated; von Brincken met +Van Koolbergen at the Palace Hotel and paid him $1,750, (of which he +extracted $250 as commission!). He made Koolbergen sign a receipt for +$700, as he said a payment of $1,750 would look bad on the books, was +much too high--even seven hundred was high, but could be justified +if any one higher up complained. "And," concluded the thrifty Van +Koolbergen in his affidavit written August 27, "I have some of the +greenbacks given me by von Brincken now in my possession." + +The San Franciscan participants in the episode were finally brought to +justice. Bopp, Baron Eckhardt, von Schack, Lieutenant von Brincken, +Crowley, and Mrs. Margaret Cornell, Crowley's secretary, were indicted, +tried, and convicted. The men received sentences of two years and +fines of $10,000 each; Mrs. Cornell was sentenced to a year and a day. +The three members of the consulate, thanks to their other activities, +involved themselves in a series of charges for which the maximum +punishment was something more than the average man's lifetime in +prison. Certain of their adventures will appear in other phases of +German activity to be discussed. They may be dismissed here, however, +with the statement that the California consulate also planned the +destruction of munitions plants at Ætna, Indiana, and at Ishpeming, +Michigan. + +The State Department released on October 10, 1917, a telegram from +the Foreign Office in Berlin, addressed to Count von Bernstorff, +which established beyond question the chief's familiarity with these +operations, and more especially the continued desire of the Foreign +Office to interrupt transcontinental shipping in Canada. It is dated +January 2, 1916. Its text follows: + + + "Secret. General staff desires energetic action in regard to + proposed destruction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad at several + points, with a view to complete and protracted interruption of + traffic. Captain Boehm, who is known on your side, and is shortly + returning, has been given instructions. Inform the military + attaché and provide the necessary funds. + + "ZIMMERMANN." + + +The factory explosions continued. The Midvale Steel Company suffered +incendiary fires; a Providence warehouse containing a consignment of +cotton for Russia was burned; there were fires in the shell plant +of the Brill Car Company, in the Southwark Machinery Company, and +in the shell department of the Diamond Forge and Steel Company. +For August the ghastly recitation proceeds somewhat as follows: +Bethlehem Steel Company, powder flash, ten killed; League Island Navy +Yard, Philadelphia, fire on battleship _Alabama_; Newport News Navy +Yard, three fires in three weeks. In September an explosion in the +aeroplane factory of the Curtiss plant at Depew, New York, a German +suspected; explosions in the shell factory of the National Cable and +Conduit Company at Hastings, New York; an explosion of benzol and +wax in the plant of Smith and Lenhart, New York, in which two people +were seriously injured; an explosion in a fireworks factory at North +Bergen, N. J., in which two people were killed; an explosion which cost +two lives in the shell factory of the Westinghouse Electric Company +at Pittsburgh. Scarcely a week went by during the autumn without an +explosion and fire which wiped out from one to a dozen lives, and from +one hundred thousand to a million dollars. Munitions plants were blown +to atoms in a moment, and hardly before the charred ground had cooled, +were being rebuilt, for the guns in France were hungry. + +Out of the mass of munitions accidents in the year 1915 stands sharp +and clear the Bethlehem Steel fire of November 10--of which all +Germany had had warning, and on which the German press was forbidden +to comment--when 800 big guns were destroyed. The du Pont and Ætna +organizations suffered again and again; a chemical plant had two fires +which cost three-quarters of a million dollars; two explosions in the +Tennessee Coal and Iron Works at Birmingham, Alabama, did considerable +property damage, and assisted Germany further by frightening labor away +from work. Suspects were arrested here and there, and always their +trails led back to German or Austrian nationality or sympathy. + +Their chiefs were elusive. Captain von Papen sauntered out of the +Ritz-Carlton into Madison Avenue, New York, one afternoon. He idled +down to Forty-second Street, and paused, as if undecided where to +promenade. He turned east, walked a block, and turned again down the +ramp into the Grand Central Station. Quickening his pace--he had only +a minute more--he crossed the great waiting-room, presented a ticket +at the train gate, and a moment later was in the Twentieth Century +Limited, the last passenger aboard. He was seen next day in Chicago. +And for a month thereafter he was completely lost to the authorities, +while, as they found out later, he made a grand tour of the country, +going first to Yellowstone Park, then down the Pacific Coast to Mexico, +where he joined Boy-Ed, and finally returning to New York through +San Francisco. He had ample opportunity to confer with his consular +deputies, and his destroying agents. In August a train loaded with +7,000 pounds of dynamite from the du Pont works at Pinole, California, +was destroyed; in the evidence against von Papen is this letter +concerning the price to be paid for the Pinole job: + + + "Dear S.: Your last letter with clipping today, and note what you + have to say. I have taken it up with them and 'B'" (who was Franz + Bopp) "is awaiting decision of 'P'" (who was von Papen) "in New + York, so cannot advise you yet, and will do so as soon as I get + word from you. You might size up the situation in the meantime." + + +Glancing back over the record of 1915--which was hardly mitigated in +the succeeding years of war--one is inclined to marvel at the hardy +perennial pose of the deported attaché, who said as he left the United +States: + + + "I leave my post without any feeling of bitterness, because I know + that when history is once written, it will establish our clean + record despite all the misrepresentations and calumnies spread + broadcast at present." + + +FOOTNOTE: + +[2] Franz Schulenberg was a deserter from the German army who +advertised in the Spokane newspapers in February, 1915, for land on +which to colonize a number of Spanish families. These families turned +out to be Hindus, whom he proposed to employ in obtaining information +of Canadian shipping, to be relayed by secret wireless to German +raiders in the Pacific. Schulenberg was captured on December 5, 1917, +in an automobile on the road from Santa Cruz to San Francisco, two +days after he had left a woman spy who was associated with von Papen's +office, and who directed Schulenberg's movements in the United States. +He admitted having bought, in 1915, a ton of dynamite, fifty Maxim +silencers, fifty rifles, and a quantity of fuse for shipment to Hindus +near the Canadian border, between Victoria and Vancouver. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MORE BOMB PLOTS + + Kaltschmidt and the Windsor explosions--The Port Huron + tunnel--Werner Horn--Explosions embarrass the Embassy--Black + Tom--The second Welland affair--Harry Newton--The damage done in + three years--Waiter spies. + + +In the check-book of the military attaché was a counterfoil betraying +a payment of $1,000 made on March 27, 1915, to "W. von Igel (for A. +Kaltschmidt, Detroit)." That stub was part of a bomb plot. + +A young German named Charles Francis Respa was employed in 1908 by +Albert Carl Kaltschmidt in a Detroit machine shop. Seven years later +Kaltschmidt had occasion to hire Respa again. To a group which included +Respa, his brother-in-law Carl Schmidt, Gus Stevens and Kaltschmidt's +own brother-in-law, Fritz Neef, he outlined a plan for destroying +factories in Canada. Neef was the Detroit agent for the Eisemann +magneto, and had a machine shop of his own. + +"We are not citizens of this country," Kaltschmidt reiterated to his +accomplices. "It is our duty to stand by the Fatherland. The Americans +would throw us out of work after war started." (The Americans, on the +contrary, gave the ringleaders of the conspiracy plenty of hard labor +after the war started.) To seal the bargain Kaltschmidt paid the men +a retainer, and sent Stevens and Respa to Winnipeg to see whether it +might not be feasible to blow up the railroad bridge there. + +Respa reported back. His next assignment was to go to Port Huron and +determine whether enough dynamite might be attached to the rear of a +passenger train bound through the international tunnel under the St. +Clair River to destroy the tube. Respa came to the conclusion that +it was not practicable, for the authorities were taking precautions +against just such an operation. Respa and Stevens were then despatched +to Duluth, where they met Schmidt and a fourth member of the group, +each carrying a suitcase containing numerous sticks of dynamite, and +the quartette returned with its explosives to Detroit. + +Kaltschmidt then hired him for $18 a week. Respa had left Germany +before his term of military service came due; Kaltschmidt used this +information as a club over his head, for he knew the young man could +not return to the Fatherland. On June 21 Kaltschmidt called Respa +to his office in the Kresge Building, and showed him two elaborate +time-clock devices which could be so set as to fire bombs at any +specified hour, and Respa, at Kaltschmidt's command, carried the clocks +across the Detroit River to Windsor, Ontario, late that afternoon. His +sister, Mrs. Schmidt, went with him, and together they wandered about +until the hour when they knew that William Lefler, the night watchman +of the Peabody Overall Company factory in Walkerville, would go on duty. + +Under cover of darkness, the brother and sister met Lefler, who gave +Respa two suitcases full of dynamite which Kaltschmidt had smuggled +piecemeal into Canada under the front seat of his automobile. Respa +attached the clocks to the charges, set one of the infernal machines +near the factory, and planted the other in the rear of the Windsor +armory, in which Canadian troops were asleep, and near which was a +Catholic girls' school. Then he and Mrs. Schmidt scurried back to +the ferry and took the last boat to Detroit. At three o'clock in the +morning they heard a muffled roar from the Canadian side; the factory +bomb had gone off. The other charge failed to explode: Respa said he +deliberately set the percussion cap at the wrong angle, because he +knew that soldiers were sleeping in the armory, and he had no stomach +for murder. + +One of the gang was presently arrested, and Respa was spirited away +to the retirement of a mechanic's job in a West Hoboken garage. But +he grew restless, and spent his money, and Kaltschmidt refused him +more. He pawned his watch and his ring, bought a ticket to Detroit, +and presented himself before Kaltschmidt with a demand for money, +in default of which Respa proposed to "squeal." He was immediately +returned to the payroll. + +The Canadian provincial detectives had begun to search for the night +watchman, Lefler. They found him, and from him they extracted a full +confession. Respa's arrest was easy, and the United States willingly +returned him, although Kaltschmidt did attempt to establish a false +alibi for his underling. Respa was sentenced to life imprisonment, +Lefler to ten years, for the destruction of the factory. + +The dragnet closed in on Kaltschmidt. William M. Jarosch, a +German-born, who later enlisted in the United States Army, had been +introduced to Kaltschmidt in Chicago in 1915 by a former German +consul there, Gustav Jacobsen. Jacobsen recruited two other men, +and Kaltschmidt took the three to Detroit. Jarosch was directed to +secure employment at the plant of the Detroit Screw Works, but he +was rejected, so Kaltschmidt told him to watch the plant for a good +opportunity to set a bomb there. In the course of his sojourn in +Detroit he went to the Respa home in the placid little village of Romeo +and returned with a generous quantity of dynamite. This he delivered to +Neef, and in a conference at the magneto shop Kaltschmidt explained the +operation of the time-clock, and ordered Jarosch to set the device at +the Detroit Screw factory that night. He and his Chicago confederates +set out for the scene, but there were guards about, and Jarosch had no +desire for arrest, so he took the bomb to his hotel room, disengaged +the trigger, and calmly went to sleep. Next morning Kaltschmidt +reproached him, and Jarosch resigned, to return months later to show +Federal officers where he had buried some 80 pounds of dynamite, +nitroglycerine, and a bomb. + +Kaltschmidt also conspired to destroy the Port Huron tunnel. For this +enterprise he contrived a car which he proposed to load with dynamite +set to explode with a time fuse. Fritz Neef, the Stuttgart graduate and +expert mechanical engineer, was his able assistant and adviser in this +project. The car was of standard railway gauge. It was to be set on +the Grand Trunk tracks at the mouth of the Port Huron end of the tunnel +and released, to roll down into the darkness under the river. At the +low point in the tunnel's curve the charge would explode, bursting the +walls of the tube, and completely interrupting the heavy international +freight traffic at that point. + +The "devil car" never was released. Kaltschmidt was arrested, and +finally, in December, 1917, tried and convicted on three counts. He was +given the maximum sentence, of four years' imprisonment and $20,000 +fine. His sister, Mrs. Neef, who had been an active intermediary, was +sentenced to three years' imprisonment and was fined $15,000; Carl +Schmidt and his wife were each condemned to two years in prison, and +assessed a fine of $10,000 each, and only old Franz Respa, the father +of the dynamiter, was acquitted. + +The activities of this group received tangible approval from the +German Embassy. Even before von Papen drew the check on March 27 for +Kaltschmidt, the attaché's secretary, von Igel, had transferred $2,000 +to the Detroit German from the banking firm of Knauth, Nachod and Kuhne +(January 23). On October 5, long after the Walkerville explosion, +but while the Port Huron venture was still a possibility, the Chase +National Bank of New York transferred to Knauth, Nachod and Kuhne +$25,000 from the joint account maintained there by Count von Bernstorff +and Dr. Albert, and next day the money was placed to Kaltschmidt's +credit. + +The Port Huron tunnel was the object of German attentions from the +active San Francisco consulate. Crowley, who had been von Brincken's +messenger in the Van Koolbergen affair, and one Louis J. Smith, were +hired by Herr Bopp to go east on a destroying mission. They ran out of +money in New York, and called at the New York consulate for assistance. +They were told that the New York consulate had nothing to do with +Pacific coast activities, so they wired von Schack for funds. He +replied, chiding them for not having called on von Papen. + +Late in June Smith left New York and joined Crowley at the Normandy +Hotel in Detroit. "Then we went to Port Huron," he said, "where we +planned to dynamite a railroad tunnel and a horse train. We didn't do +it, though. + +"Then we went to Toronto, and Crowley told me to plant a bomb under a +horse train in the West Toronto yards. But I saw a policeman, and I got +out quick. Then we took some nitroglycerine, cotton, sawdust, and a tin +pan and some other things to Grosse Isle, Ontario, and went out back +of a cemetery and made some bombs. + +"Well, we got back to San Francisco late in July, and Crowley and +I cooked up an expense account of $1,254.80, and took it up to the +consulate. Von Schack locked the door behind us, and then he said: 'I +don't want any statement. Tell me how much you want?' We told him, and +he said he would get it the following day. Then all of a sudden he +asked: 'How do I know you fellows did any jobs in Canada?' + +"'Wire the mayor of Toronto and ask him!' Crowley answered." + +On one occasion at least the Germans respected American property, for +the protection America might afford. Werner Horn, a former lieutenant +in the Landwehr, was in Guatemala when the war broke out. He made an +attempt to return to his command, but got no farther than New York, +where he placed himself at the disposal of Captain von Papen. On +January 18 the military attaché paid him $700. On February 2 Horn +exploded a charge of dynamite on the Canadian end of the international +bridge at Vanceboro, Maine, spanning the St. Croix River to New +Brunswick. The explosion caused a slight damage to the Canadian half +of the bridge. A few hours later Horn was arrested in Vanceboro, and +admitted the crime. + +When the Canadian authorities applied for his extradition, the warrant +which Judge Hale issued was not executed, the United States Marshal +for Maine having received word from Washington that a well-preserved +treaty between Great Britain and the United States would cover just +such a case, and Horn was indicted on a charge of having transported +explosives from New York City to Vanceboro. His attorneys naïvely +attempted to secure his liberty by casting a protective mantle of +international law about his shoulders: Werner Horn, they said, was a +First Lieutenant of the West-Prussian Pioneer Battalion Number 17, and +as such was sworn by His Royal Majesty of Prussia to + + + " ... discharge the obligations of his office in a becoming + manner, ... execute diligently and loyally whatever is made his + duty to do and carry out, and whatever is commanded him, by day + and by night, on land and on sea, and ... conduct himself bravely + and irreproachably in all wars and military events that may + occur...." + + +Yet he was tried, and that without much delay, and convicted, and +sentenced to imprisonment. + +Although the destruction of railways was an attractive means of +stopping the progress of munitions to the seaboard, and although +it was a recognized practice during 1915, it made the Embassy at +Washington uneasy. Bernstorff protested to the Foreign Office in Berlin +that if a German agent should be caught in the act of dynamiting a +railroad it would be exceedingly embarrassing for him, and increase +the difficulties of his already ticklish rôle of apologist and +explainer-extraordinary. The Foreign Office accordingly sent a telegram +to von Papen: + + + "January 26--For Military Attaché.... Railway embankments and + bridges must not be touched. Embassy must in no circumstances be + compromised." + + (Signed) "REPRESENTATIVE OF GENERAL STAFF." + + +And thereafter American railway bridges and embankments were safe, +though their owners may not have been aware of the fact at the time. + +It is no mere metaphor to say that during 1915 and 1916 the smoke of +German explosions in factories in the United States was spreading +across the sun, casting the deepening shadow of war over America. +There was dynamite found in the coal tender of a munitions train +on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Callery Junction, Pa., on +December 10, 1915, the day on which enormous quantities of wheat were +destroyed by fire in grain elevators at Erie. A few hours earlier +a two-million-dollar explosion had occurred at the Hopewell plant +of the du Pont works. Shortly before Christmas a ton and a half of +nitroglycerine exploded at Fayville, Illinois. + +During 1916 there were a dozen major explosions in the du Pont +properties alone and literally dozens of lives were lost. Two arms +plants at Bridgeport, Conn., were blown up. An explosion in May wiped +out a large chemical plant in Cadillac, Michigan. A munitions works +of the Bethlehem Steel Company at Newcastle, Pa., was destroyed. The +climax in violence came, however, in the sultry night of August 1-2. +Shortly after midnight the rocky island of Manhattan trembled, and +the roar of a prodigious blast burst over the harbor of New York. Two +million pounds of munitions were being transported in freight trains +and on barges near the island of Black Tom, a few hundred yards from +the Bartholdi Statue of Liberty. Some one, somehow, supplied the +spark. The loss of life was inconsiderable, for that neighborhood was +not inhabited, but the confusion was complete. Heavy windows in the +canyons of lower Manhattan were shivered, and for a few moments many of +the streets rained broken glass. Shell-laden barges near the original +explosion set up a scattering fire which continued for some time, most +of the projectiles losing their power through lack of a substantial +breech-block. But the immigration station on Ellis Island was in +panic, and its position became more unpleasant as one of the blazing +barges drifted down upon it. The shock was felt far out in Jersey, and +northward in Connecticut. An estimate of damage was placed at thirty +millions of dollars, probably as accurate as such an estimate need be; +the event was utterly spectacular, and from the point of view of the +unknown destroying agent, effective. + +Exactly one year after von Papen gave up the first attempt upon the +Welland Canal, a second enterprise began with the same objective. +Captain von Papen felt that von der Goltz had bungled. This time +he intrusted the mission to the doughty and usually reliable Paul +Koenig. On September 27, 1915, Koenig, with Richard Emil Leyendecker, +a "hyphenated American" who dealt during the daytime in art woods +at 347 Fifth Avenue, New York, and Fred Metzler, of Jersey City, +Koenig's secretary, went to Buffalo and Niagara Falls, accompanied by +Mrs. Koenig. They had no trouble in crossing the border and making a +thorough investigation of the canal, its vulnerable points, its guards +and the patrol routes of those guards. Koenig selected men whom he +detailed to watch the guards, and he fixed on satisfactory storage +places for his explosives. The party then returned to Niagara Falls and +later to New York. + +They did not know that they were being trailed. All three men had been +under surveillance for nearly a year, and after their migrations near +the canal, the guard was reenforced. It became impossible to carry +out the plan. A few weeks later the detectives who were shadowing +Koenig noticed that George Fuchs, a relative whom he employed at a +meagre salary, was seldom seen in his company. They sought Fuchs out +and plied him with refreshment. A few glasses of beer drew out his +story: Koenig owed him $15, and he therefore bore no affection for +Koenig. The detectives turned him over to Superintendent Offley of the +Department of Justice, who sympathized with Fuchs to such an extent +that the latter retailed enough evidence of the Welland plot to secure +Koenig's indictment on five counts. Thus did a debt of thirty pieces +of silver--in this case half-dollars--rob the Hamburg-American Line of +a six-foot, 200-pound detective, and the German spy system in America +of one of its roughest characters, for, thanks to Fuchs' revelations, +Koenig was indicted for a violation of Section 13 of the Penal Code. + +Herald Square, New York, was the center of open-air oratory every +evening until after America entered the war. Those who had stood and +fought their verbal battles during the day about the bulletin board +of the _New York Herald_ remained at night to bellow to the idle +passersby along Broadway, and one night Felix Galley, a leather-lunged +contractor, gave an impassioned discourse justifying Germany's entrance +into the war. When the meeting broke up he was followed home by one who +rather passed his expectations as a convert. + +The stranger was Harry Newton. He had been employed in a munitions +plant in St. Catharine's, Ontario. He suggested to Galley that he +would take any orders for arson which the Germans had in mind, and +recommended that as proof of his ability he would oblige with a +dynamiting of the Brooks Locomotive Works at Dunkirk, N. Y., for a +retainer of $5,000. Or, he said, he could arrange to destroy the +Federal building or Police Headquarters. This was more than the German +had bargained for, and assuring Newton that he would first have to +consult the "chief," he ran straightway to the police and in great +agitation told what had happened. Captain Tunney, of the Bomb Squad, +assigned Detective Sergeant George Barnitz to the case. + +The detective, posing as a German agent, found Newton at Mills Hotel +No. 3, and opened negotiations with him. After several talks, they met +on the afternoon of April 19, 1916, at Grand Street and the Bowery. +Barnitz said: "Now, I'm in a hurry--haven't much time to discuss all +this. You say you're in the business strictly for the money. The chief +is willing to pay you $5,000 if you will smash the Welland Canal +or blow up the Brooks Locomotive Works or burn the McKinnon, Dash +Company's plant at St. Catharine's. But how do we know you won't demand +more from us after you are paid? Maybe you'll want more cash for your +assistants." + +Newton was quick to reply that he worked alone and wouldn't trust any +assistant. He was anxious to start with the Brooks "job" at Dunkirk and +told Barnitz he had left in the baggage-room of the New York Central +Railroad at Buffalo a suitcase containing powerful bombs. (The suitcase +actually contained a loaded 4-inch shell, with percussion cap and +fuse.) It would be necessary only for him to go to Buffalo, get the +suitcase, hasten to Dunkirk and blow up the locomotive works. + +"Fine," said Barnitz. "You are under arrest." + +Newton stared a moment, then laughed. "You New York cops are a damned +sight smarter than I ever thought you were," he said, "and you made me +think you were a German!" + +At Police Headquarters he described his plan for blowing up the Welland +Canal. Having worked in a town located on the canal, he was familiar +with the position of the locks. "It would be a simple matter," he said. +"You see these buttons I am wearing on my watch chain and in my coat +lapel. The plain gilt one reads 'On His Majesty's Service.' The blue +and white one reads 'McKinnon, Dash Company, Munitions. On Service.' +Those buttons are passes that would let me into any munitions plant in +Canada or this country. They would pass me through the guards of the +canal. It would be easy for me to pretend to be a workman, get a boat +and, carrying a dinner pail, filled with explosives, to pick out a weak +spot in the canal works and destroy the whole business. + +"It would be a cinch to burn the McKinnon, Dash plant. I could go back +to work there as foreman. Any Saturday night I could be the last to +leave. Before going I could saturate flooring with benzine and put a +lighted candle where within a half hour or so the flame would reach the +benzine." + +Newton also suggested his willingness to dynamite the banking house of +J. P. Morgan & Co., at 23 Wall Street, or to dynamite the banker's +automobile. He had a series of postcards in his own handwriting, which, +in case he was hired for a dynamiting, were to be mailed from distant +points every day while he was on the assignment, in order to establish +an alibi. + +He was an irresponsible person, and one who could not be said to be +under orders from the attachés in lower Broadway. Yet he is typical +of the restless and lawless floating population of which the Germans +made excellent tools. When he heard Galley he promptly offered his +services; his boldness would have made him a capital destroying agent, +and it was fired by the speech in Herald Square, a speech inspired +from Berlin. Here was his opportunity to make money. Thus, by a +word of encouragement, by the whisper of "big money" to discharged, +dissatisfied or disloyal employees of munitions plants, the seed of +German violence was sown everywhere. Men who were well dressed and +of good appearance would be remarked if they prowled about factory +districts; men must be employed who would fade into the drab landscape +by the very commonplaceness of their clothing and action. They could be +hired cheaply and swiftly disowned, these Newtons! + +The _New York Times_ on November 3, 1917, recapitulated the damage +wrought by German incendiarism as follows: + +"A graphic idea of what the fire losses in the United States owe to +the work of war incendiaries may be gained from consideration of the +fact that the total fire insurance paid in the United States in 1915, +according to the figures of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, +was $153,000,000. It is estimated that 60 per cent. of the loss by +fires in this country is represented in insurance. Therefore, the total +fire loss in the United States in 1915 was something over $200,000,000. +Of the $153,000,000 paid out by the insurance companies, $6,200,000 was +represented by incendiary fires. A total of $62,000,000 was charged to +fires from unknown causes. + +"In 1916 the total jumped by 20 per cent., meaning an increase of about +$40,000,000. The biggest items in this loss were those sustained in +munition fires and explosions. Black Tom holds the record with a loss +of $11,000,000; there was the Kingsland explosion, the Penn's Grove +explosion, and others, all generally admitted to be the work of spies, +which caused losses running into millions. + +"It was estimated yesterday by an insurance official that the +incendiary loss in 1916 was easily $25,000,000, or $15,000,000 above +normal. And these figures take into consideration only fires where the +origin was proved to be incendiary. On the books of the underwriters +the Black Tom munitions fire is not listed as incendiary, because it +was never legally proved that a German spy set it going. + +"This increase in losses for 1916 when the big munition explosions +occurred, derives significance in the discussion of losses by spy fires +since this country entered the war, because the figures of fire losses +in the United States for 1917 may reach $300,000,000, or a larger +increase over 1916 than 1916 losses showed over 1915. An estimate +made yesterday by the head of a fire insurance company shows that if +the average of the losses in the first seven months of the year is +maintained until Jan. 1 the total would reach well above $250,000,000, +and with the increases of the past few months might easily total +$300,000,000 as the cost of the American ash heaps for 1917." + +How did the Germans know where munitions were being manufactured? +Rumor fled swiftly through the labor districts, and the news was +reported through the regular channels of espionage, cleared through the +consulates and German business offices, and forwarded to the attachés +and the Embassy. But the collection of information did not stop there; +it was verified from another source--a serviceable factor in the +general system of espionage. + +The American manufacturer shared his nation's predilection for talking +at meal-time. As the war contracts were distributed about the country, +every machine shop worthy of the name became a "munitions plant" and +the romance of having a part in the war strained the discretion of most +of America's war bridegrooms; they simply "had to tell some one"; not +infrequently this some one was a reliable intimate, sitting across a +restaurant table at lunch. + +There was in America an organization bearing a title which suggested a +neutral origin, but whose officers' names, down even unto the official +physician, were undeniably German. It was ostensibly for the mutual +benefit of the foreign-born waiters, chefs and pantrymen who composed +its membership. But its real significance was indicated by the location +of its branches (its headquarters were in New York). Trenton, New +Jersey, for example, was not a "good hotel town," and foreign waiters +usually are to be found in a town which boasts a hotel managed by +metropolitan interests, and supplied with a foreign staff; but Trenton +was a munitions center, and there was a branch of this association +there. Schenectady, the home of the General Electric Company, had +no first-class hotel; there was a branch of the association in +Schenectady. Conversely, numerous cities whose hotels were manned by +foreign waiters and cooks had no branches. The organization was founded +in Dresden in 1877. + +Many a confidence passed across a table was intercepted by the acute +ears of a German spy. Members of the Anglo-French Loan Commission who +were staying at the Biltmore in 1914 were served by a German agent +in a waiter's uniform. It would have gone well for America and the +preparations of supplies for her later Allies if there had been posted +in every hotel dining-room the French admonition, + + + "Taisez-vous! Ils s'ecoutent!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +FRANZ VON RINTELEN + + The leak in the National City Bank--The _Minnehaha_--Von + Rintelen's training--His return to America--His aims--His + funds--Smuggling oil--The Krag-Joergensen rifles--Von Rintelen's + flight and capture. + + +There was a suggestion in the newspapers of dates immediately following +Paul Koenig's arrest that the authorities had been lax in allowing the +Germans to have later access to the safe in his private office in the +Hamburg-American building. As a matter of fact the contents of the safe +were well known to the authorities--how, it is not necessary to say. +The multitudinous notes and reference data kept by the industrious "P. +K." uncovered a plentiful German source of information of munitions. + +They knew the factories in which war materials were being turned out. +They knew the numbers of the freight cars into which the materials were +loaded for shipment to the waterfronts. They knew the ships into which +those cargoes were consigned. How they knew was revealed by Koenig's +secretary, Metzler, after he had been arrested in the second Welland +episode. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Franz von Rintelen] + +Down in Wall Street, in the foreign department of the National City +Bank, there was a young German named Frederick Schleindl. He had been +in the United States for several years, and had been employed by +various bankers, one of whom recommended him to the National City Bank +shortly after the outbreak of war. In the foreign department he had +access to cables from the Allies concerning the purchase of munitions. +It was customary to pay manufacturers for their completed orders when +the bank received a bill of lading showing their shipment by railroad +or their delivery at points of departure. Close familiarity with such +bills of lading and cablegrams gave Schleindl an up-to-the-minute +survey of the production of supplies. + +In late 1914 Schleindl registered with the German consul in New York, +setting down his name and address as liable to call for special +service. In May, 1915, he was directed by the consul to meet a certain +person at the Hotel Manhattan; the unknown proved to be Koenig, who had +been informed of Schleindl's occupation by the alert German consul. +Playing on the youth's patriotism and greed, Koenig agreed to pay him +$25 a week for confidential information from the bank. From that time +forward Schleindl reported regularly to Koenig. Nearly every evening +a meeting occurred in the office in the Hamburg-American building, +and Koenig and Metzler would spend many hours a night in copying the +letters, cables and shipping documents. In the morning they would +return the originals to Schleindl on his way to work--he made it his +custom to arrive early at the bank--and the papers would be restored to +their proper files when the business day began. + +On December 17, 1915, Schleindl was arrested. In his pocket were two +documents, enough to convict him of having stolen information: one +a duplicate of a cablegram from the Banque Belge pour Etrangers to +the National City Bank relating to a shipment of 2,000,000 rifles +which was then being handled by the Hudson Trust Company; the other +a cablegram from the Russian Government authorizing the City Bank to +place some millions of dollars to the credit of Colonel Golejewski, the +Russian naval attaché and purchasing agent. From a German standpoint, +of course, both were highly significant. Schleindl's arrest caused +considerable uneasiness in Wall Street, and other banking houses who +had been dealing in munitions "looked unto themselves" lest there be +similar cracks through which information might sift to Berlin. There +had been many such. Koenig was tried on the charge of having bought +stolen information, and convicted, but sentence was suspended, although +the United States already looked back on two years of waterfront +conspiracies to destroy Allied shipping. + +The City Bank episode gave a clue to the source of those conspiracies, +by the white light which it cast upon an explosion in hold number 2 of +the steamship _Minnehaha_ on July 4, 1915. Thousands of magnetos were +stored there destined for automobiles at the front. The only person +besides the officers of the bank and of the magneto factory who could +have known of the ship in which they were transported was the man who +wrote the letter to the bank enclosing the bill of lading for the +shipment. Naturally the officers were not suspected of circulating the +news; the leak therefore must have occurred in handling the letter. +That theory was a strong scent, made no less pungent by the activities +in America of one Franz von Rintelen. + +Rumor has credited Franz von Rintelen with relationship to the house +of Hohenzollern. Backstairs gossip called him the Kaiser's own son--a +stigma which he hardly deserved, as his face bore no resemblance to +the architecture of the Hohenzollern countenance. It was one of strong +aquiline curves; with a coat of swarthy grease paint he would have +made an acceptable Indian, except for his tight, thin lips. The muscles +of his jaws were forever playing under the skin--he had a tense, +nervous habit of gritting his teeth. From under his pale eyebrows +came a sharp look; it contrasted strangely with the hollow, burnt-out +ferocity and fright which peered out of the tired eyes of his fellow +prisoners when he was finally tried. He had a wiry strength and easy +carriage. If he had not been a spy, von Rintelen would have made an +excellent athlete. + +Like Boy-Ed he had a thorough gymnasium training. He specialized in +finance and economics, entered the navy, and became captain-lieutenant. +At the end of his period of service he went to London and obtained +employment in a banking house. He then went to New York, where he was +admitted to Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co., and found time during his first +stay in America to serve as Germany's naval representative at the +ceremonies commemorating John Paul Jones. The German Embassy gave him +entrée wherever he turned. He was a member of the New York Yacht Club, +was received at Newport and in Fifth Avenue as a polished and agreeable +person who spoke English, French and Spanish as fluently as his native +tongue, and he acquired a broad firsthand knowledge of American +financial principles and methods. He left New York long before the war, +saying he was going to open Mexican and South American branches of a +German bank. When he returned to Berlin in 1909, he was well qualified +to sit in council with Tirpitz and the navy group and advise them on +the development of the German Secret Service in America. American +acquaintances who visited Berlin he received with marked hospitality, +and some he even introduced to his august friend, the Crown Prince. + +In January, 1915, von Rintelen, then a director of the Deutsche Bank, +and the National Bank für Deutschland, and a man of corresponding +wealth, was commissioned to go to America, to buy cotton, rubber and +copper, and to prevent the Allies from receiving munitions. So he +went to America. And from his arrival in New York until his departure +from that port, he threw sand in the smooth-running machinery of the +organized German spy system. + +He eluded the vigilance of the Allies by using a false passport. His +sister Emily had married a Swiss named Gasche. Erasing the "y" on her +passport he journeyed in safety to England as "Emil V. Gasche," a +harmless Swiss, who observed a great deal about England's method of +receiving munitions. Then he evaporated to Norway. His arrival in the +United States was forecast by a wireless message which he addressed +from his ship on April 3, 1915, asking an American friend of his to +meet him at the pier. The American owned a factory in Cambrai, France, +which had been closed by the German invasion on August 29, 1914. The +American had hastened to Berlin in late 1914 and asked his friend +Rintelen to see that the plant be opened. Rintelen had succeeded, +and was come now to break the good news, knowing perfectly well that +the American would be under deep obligation and would secure any +introductions for him which he might need. When the ship docked, the +friend was not there, for some casual reason. But Rintelen, always +suspicious, hired a detective, who spent a week investigating; then the +friend was discovered, and became Rintelen's grateful assistant. + +So it happened that "Emil V. Gasche," the harmless Swiss, dropped +out of sight for the time being, and von Rintelen assumed the parts +of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." "Dr. Jekyll" visited the Yacht Club +and called upon wealthy friends, proving a more charming, more +delightful von Rintelen than ever. He met influential business men +who were selling supplies to the Allies. He was presented to society +matrons and débutantes whom he had use for. To these he was Herr von +Rintelen, in America on an important financial mission. "Mr. Hyde" +sought information from von Bernstorff, Dr. Albert, von Papen, Boy-Ed, +Captain Tauscher and George Sylvester Viereck about the production +of war supplies. Astounded by what he learned from them and had +corroborated from other sources, he began to realize how utterly he had +misjudged America's potential resources and what a blunder he had made +in his predictions to the General War Staff. He saw with a chilling +vividness the capacity of America to hand war materials to the Allies, +and her rapidly increasing facilities to turn out greater quantities +of ammunition and bullets. The facts he obtained struck him with +especial force because of his knowledge of the greater strategy. It +is upon a basis of the supplies of munitions in the Allied countries, +particularly Russia, as von Rintelen knew them, that his acts are best +judged and upon this basis only can sane motives be assigned to the +rash projects which he launched. + +When he arrived in New York the German drive on Paris had failed +because in two months the Germans had used up ammunition they +confidently expected to last three times as long; the English and +French in the west could not take up the offensive because ammunition +was not being turned out fast enough; the Russian drive into Germany +and Austria would soon fail for lack of arms and bullets. In the +winter and spring of 1915 the Russians had made a drive into Galicia +and Austria, hurling the Austro-German armies back. They advanced +victoriously through the first range of the Carpathian mountains until +May. Meantime the German General Staff, as von Rintelen knew, was +preparing for a retaliating offensive. The War Staff knew Russia's +limited capacity to produce arms and ammunition, knew that during the +winter, with the port of Archangel closed by ice, her only source +for new supplies lay in the single-track Siberian railway bringing +materials from Japan. Rintelen realized that by spring the Russian +resources had been well nigh exhausted and he resolved that they must +be shut off completely. He knew that England and France could not help. +But spring had already come, and the ships were sailing for Archangel +laden with American shells. + +Von Rintelen's reputation was at stake. The work for which he had +been so carefully trained was bound to fail unless he acted quickly. +He exchanged many wireless communications with his superiors in +Berlin--messages that looked like harmless expressions between his +wife and himself, messages in which the names of American officers +who had been in Berlin were used both as code words and as a means to +impress their genuineness upon the American censor. He received in +reply still greater authority than he had on the eve of his departure +from Germany. In his quick, staccato fashion he often boasted (and +there is foundation for part of what he said) that he had been sent to +America by the General Staff, backed by "$50,000,000, yes $100,000,00"; +that he was an agent plenipotentiary and extraordinary, ready to take +any measure on land and sea to stop the making of munitions, to halt +their transportation at the factory or at the seaboard. He mapped out +a campaign, remarkable in its detail, scope, recklessness and utter +disregard of American institutions. + +Germany made her first mistake in giving him a roving commission. +Germany was desperate, or she would have restricted von Rintelen to +certain well-defined enterprises. Instead he ran afoul of the military +and naval attachés on more than one occasion, offended them, and did +more to hinder than to help their own plans. + +In early April he made his financial arrangements with the +Trans-Atlantic Trust Company, where he was known by his own name. Money +was transferred from Berlin through large German business houses, and +he deposited $800,000 in the Trans-Atlantic and millions among other +banks. He rented an office in the trust company building, and had his +telephone run through the trust company switchboard. He registered +with the county clerk to do business as the "E. V. Gibbon Company; +purchasers of supplies" and signed his name to the registry as "Francis +von Rintelen." In the office of the E. V. Gibbon Company he received +the forces whom he proceeded to mobilize; he was known to them as "Fred +Hansen." If he wanted a naval reservist he called on Boy-Ed; if an army +reservist was required von Papen sent him to "Hansen." Boy-Ed gave him +data on ship sailings, von Papen on munitions plants, Koenig on secret +service. + +His first task was to buy supplies and ship them to Germany. He +boasted that there was no such thing as a British blockade. Using his +pseudonyms of Gibbon and Hansen he made large purchases and with the +aid of Captain Gustave Steinberg, a naval reservist, he chartered ships +and dispatched them under false manifests to Italy and Norway, where +their cargoes could be readily smuggled into Germany. Through Steinberg +he importuned a chemist, Dr. Walter T. Scheele, to soak fertilizer in +lubricating oil for shipment to the Fatherland, where the valuable +oil could be easily extracted. Through the same intermediary von +Rintelen gave Dr. Scheele $20,000 to ship a cargo of munitions under a +false manifest as "farm implements"; Dr. Scheele kept the $20,000 and +actually shipped a cargo of farm machinery. + +Rintelen's next venture attracted some unpleasant attention. The United +States Government had condemned some 350,000 Krag-Joergensen rifles, +which it refused to sell to any of the belligerents. Rintelen cast +a fond eye in their direction. President Wilson had told a banker: +"You will get those rifles only over my dead body." Rintelen heard, +however, that by bribing certain officials he could obtain the guns, +so he sent out agents to learn what they would cost, and found a man +who said he could buy them for $17,826,000, part of which was to be +used for effective bribery. "So close am I to the President," said the +intermediary, "that two days after I deposit the money in the bank you +can dandle his grandchild on your knee!" But just when the negotiations +were growing bright, Rintelen was told that the man who proposed to +sell him the rifles was a secret agent from another government. A +certain "Dr. Alfred Meyer" was known to have been groping for those +rifles, and the newspapers and government officials became suddenly +interested in his real identity. A dowdy woman's implication reached a +reporter's ears; presently the newspapers burst out in the "discovery" +that "Dr. Alfred Meyer" was none other than Dr. Meyer-Gerhardt, a +German Red Cross envoy then in the United States. Like the popping of +a machine gun, "correct versions of the facts" were published: "Dr. +Meyer-Gerhardt denied vigorously that he was 'Dr. Alfred Meyer,'" then +"'Dr. Alfred Meyer' was known to have left the United States on the +same ship with Dr. Meyer-Gerhardt," then "an American citizen came +forward anonymously and said that he had posed as 'Dr. Alfred Meyer' in +order to test the good faith of the Government." + +This last announcement may have been true. It was made to a New York +_Sun_ reporter by a German, Karl Schimmel, who professed his allegiance +to the United States, and by the "American citizen" who said he had +posed as "Dr. Alfred Meyer." It may have been made to shield Rintelen +himself, for the "American citizen" was an employe of a German +newspaper in New York, a friend of Rintelen's, a friend of Schimmel's +and Schimmel himself was in von Rintelen's pay. + +Let a pack of reporters loose on a half dozen tangents and they will +probably scratch the truth. A _Tribune_ man heard a whisper of the +facts and set out on a hunt for "two Germans, Meyer and Hansen, who +have been acting funny." He frightened the personnel right out of the +office of the E. V. Gibbon Company. Captain Steinberg fled to Germany +with a trunkful of reports on the necessity of concerted action to +stop the shipment of munitions to the Allies, and Rintelen migrated to +an office in the Woolworth Building. Some one heard of his activities +there and he was evicted, taking final refuge in the Liberty Tower, in +the office of Andrew M. Meloy, who had been in Germany to interest the +German government in a scheme similar to Rintelen's own. In Meloy's +office Rintelen posed as "E. V. Gates"--preserving the shadow of his +identity as "Emil V. Gasche." So effective was his disappearance +from the public view, that he was reported to have gone abroad as a +secretary, and he sat in the tower and chuckled, and sent messages by +wireless to Berlin through Sayville, and cablegrams to Berlin through +England and Holland, and enjoyed all the sensations of a man attending +a triple funeral in his honor. "Meyer," "Hansen" and "Gasche" were all +dead, and yet, here was Rintelen! + +Although his sojourn in New York covered a period which was the peak +of the curve of German atrocities in the United States, Rintelen was +a fifth wheel. No man came to America to accomplish more, and no man +accomplished less. No German agent had his boldness of project, and +no German executive met a more ignominious fate. Whatever he touched +with his golden wand turned to dross. He was hoodwinked here and there +by his own agents, and frustrated by the vigilance of the Allied and +the United States governments. He has been introduced here because of +his connection with subsequent events, and yet this picturesque figure +played the major part in not one successful venture. + +Four months he passed in America, until it became too small for him. +In August the capture of Dr. Albert's portfolio and the publication +of certain of its contents frightened Rintelen, and he applied for a +passport as "Edward V. Gates, an American citizen of Millersville, +Pa.," but he did not dare claim it. Though he had bought tickets under +the alias, and had had drafts made payable in that name, he did not +occupy the "Gates" cabin on the _Noordam_, but at the last minute +engaged passage under the renascent name of "Emil V. Gasche," the +harmless Swiss. He eluded the Federal agents, and sailed safely to +Falmouth, England, where, after a search of the ship, and an excellent +attempt to bluff it through, he finally surrendered to the British +authorities as a prisoner-of-war. Meloy and his secretary were captured +with him. + +Rintelen was returned to the United States in 1916. He was convicted +in 1917 and 1918 on successive charges of conspiracy to violate the +Sherman Anti-Trust law, to obtain a fraudulent passport, and to destroy +merchant ships--which combined to sentence him to a year in the Tombs +and nine years in a Federal prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SHIP BOMBS + + Mobilizing destroying agents--The plotters in Hoboken--Von + Kleist's arrest and confession--The _Kirk Oswald_ trial--Further + explosions--The _Arabic_--Robert Fay--His arrest--The ship plots + decrease. + + +The reader will recall a circular quoted in Chapter VIII, and issued +November 18, 1914, from German Naval Headquarters, mobilizing all +destroying agents in harbors overseas. + +On January 3, 1915, there was an explosion on board the munitions ship +_Orton_, lying in Erie Basin, a part of New York harbor. On February 6 +a bomb was found in the cargo of the _Hannington_. On February 27 the +_Carlton_ caught fire at sea. On April 20 two bombs were found in the +cargo of the _Lord Erne_. One week later the same discovery was made in +the hold of the _Devon City_. All of which accounts for the following +charge: + + + "George D. Barnitz, being duly sworn, deposes and says ... on + information and belief that on the first day of January, 1915, + and on every day thereafter down to and including the 13th day of + April, 1916, the defendants Walter T. Scheele, Charles von Kleist, + Otto Wolpert, Ernst Becker, (Charles) Karbade, the first name + Charles being fictitious, the true first name of defendant being + unknown, (Frederick) Praedel ... (Wilhelm) Paradis ... Eno Bode + and Carl Schmidt ... did unlawfully, feloniously and corruptly + conspire ... to manufacture bombs filled with chemicals and + explosives and to place said bombs ... upon vessels belonging to + others and laden with moneys, goods and merchandise...." + + +Ninety-one German ships were confined to American harbors by the +activities of the British fleet, ranging from the _Neptun_, of 197 +tons, in San Francisco Bay, to the _Vaterland_, of 54,000 tons, the +largest vessel on the seven seas, tied up to accrue barnacles at her +Hoboken pier, and later, as the _Leviathan_, to transport American +troops to France. Every one of the ninety-one ships was a nest of +German agents. Only a moderate watch was kept on their crews, and there +were many restless men among them. Every man aboard was liable to +command from Captain Boy-Ed, for the German merchant marine was part of +the formal naval organization. The interned sailors found shortly that +they could be of distinct service to their country without stirring +from their ships. + +Not far from the North German Lloyd piers in Hoboken lived Captain +Charles von Kleist, 67 years old, a chemist and former German army +officer. One day there came to him one who spoke the German tongue +and who said he came from Wolf von Igel, in von Papen's office. Those +were good credentials, especially since the gentleman was inquiring on +von Igel's behalf whether Kleist needed any money in the work he was +doing. The polite caller returned a few days later with another man, +who spoke no German. Von Kleist asked whether he was also from the +Fatherland, and was told no, but "we have to use all kinds of people +in our business--that's how we fool these Yankees!" Von Kleist laughed +heartily, and wagged his head, and went out in the garden and dug up a +bomb-case and showed the visitors how it had been made. The visitors +were Detectives Barth and Barnitz. + +They assured Kleist that von Igel wanted to know precisely what he +and his associates were doing, so no money might be paid to the wrong +parties. The aged captain wrote out a memorandum of his activities, +which he signed, and the detectives proposed a trip to Coney Island as +an evidence of good faith, so the three had a pleasant afternoon at the +Hotel Shelburne, and the officers then suggested: "Let's go up and see +the chief." "Chief" to von Kleist meant von Igel; he agreed, and was +taken gently into the arms of the chief of detectives. + +He implicated, as he sat there answering questions, Captain Eno Bode, +pier superintendent of the Hamburg-American Line, Captain Otto Wolpert, +pier superintendent of the Atlas Line, and Ernst Becker, an electrician +on the North German Lloyd liner _Friedrich der Grosse_, tied up at +Hoboken. The other conspirators were induced to come to New York, and +were arrested at once. Bode and Wolpert, powerful bullies of Paul +Koenig's own stamp, proved defiant in the extreme. Becker, knowing no +word of English, was pathetically courteous and ready to answer. But it +remained for von Kleist to supply the narrative. + +Becker, working on the sunny deck of the _Friedrich der Grosse_, had +made numerous bomb cases, rolling sheet lead into a cylinder, and +inserting in the tube a cup-shaped aluminum partition. These containers +he turned over to Dr. Walter Scheele at his "New Jersey Agricultural +Company," where he filled one compartment with nitroglycerine, the +other with sulphuric acid. Scheele supplied the mechanics with sheet +lead for the purpose. The bombs were then sealed and packed in sand for +distribution to various German gathering places, such as, for example, +the Turn Verein in the Brooklyn Labor Lyceum. Wolpert appeared there +at a meeting one night and berated the Germans present for talking +too much and acting too little; he wanted results, he said. Eugene +Reister, the proprietor of the place, said that shortly afterward +Walter Uhde and one Klein (who died before the police reached him) had +taken away a bundle of bombs from the Turn Verein and had placed them +on the _Lusitania_, just before her last voyage, and added that Klein, +when he heard of the destruction of the ship, expressed regret that he +had done it. Karl Schimmel--the same who had negotiated for the Krag +rifles--said later to Reister: "I really put bombs on that boat, but I +don't believe that fellow Klein ever did." + +Following Kleist's information, agents of the Department of Justice +and New York police inspected the _Friedrich der Grosse_, and found +quantities of chlorate of potash and other chemicals. They brought back +with them also Garbode (mentioned in the charge as "Karbade"), Paradis +and Praedel, fourth engineers on the ship, who had assisted in making +the bombs, and Carl Schmidt, the chief engineer. All of the group were +implicated in the plot to the complete satisfaction of a jury which +concluded their cases in May, 1917, by convicting them of "conspiracy +to destroy ships through the use of fire bombs placed thereon." +Kleist and Schmidt received sentences of two years each in Atlanta +Penitentiary and were each fined $5,000; Becker, Karbade, Praedel and +Paradis were fined $500 apiece and sentenced to six months in prison. +Dr. Scheele fled from justice, and was arrested in March, 1918, in +Havana. A liberal supply of vicious chemicals and explosives discovered +in his "New Jersey Agricultural Company" implicated him thoroughly, if +the evidence given by his fellows had not already done so. When he was +finally captured he faced two federal indictments: one with Steinberg +and von Igel for smuggling lubricating oil out of the country as +fertilizer, under false customs manifests; the other the somewhat more +criminal charge of bombing. + +On April 29, 1915, the _Cressington_ caught fire at sea. Three days +later, in the hold of the _Kirk Oswald_, a sailor found a bomb tucked +away in a hiding place where its later explosion would have started a +serious fire. So it came about that when the four lesser conspirators +of the fire-bomb plot had served their six months' sentences, they +were at once rearrested on the specific charge of having actually +planted that bomb in the _Kirk Oswald_. The burly dock captains, Bode +and Wolpert, who had blustered their innocence in the previous trial, +and had succeeded in securing heavy bail from the Hamburg-American +Line pending separate trials for themselves, were nipped this time +with evidence which let none slip through. Rintelen was haled from his +cell to answer to his part in the _Kirk Oswald_ affair, and the jury, +in January, 1918, declared the nine plotters "guilty as charged" and +Judge Howe sentenced them to long terms in prison. Rintelen, alone of +the group, as they sat in court, had an air of anything but wretched +fanatic querulousness. He followed the proceedings closely, and once +took the trial into his own hands in a flash of temper when the State +kept referring to the loss of the _Lusitania_. It went hard with the +nobleman to be herded into a common American court with a riff-raff of +hireling crooks and treated with impartial justice. In Germany it never +could have happened! + +If those trials had occurred in May, 1915, the history of the transport +of arms and shells would not have been marred by such entries as these: + + + May 8--_Bankdale_; two bombs found in cargo. + + May 13--_Samland_; afire at sea. + + May 21--_Anglo-Saxon_; bomb found aboard. + + June 2--_Strathway_; afire at sea. + + July 4--_Minnehaha_; bomb exploded at sea. (The magnetos.) + + July 13--_Touraine_; afire at sea. + + July 14--_Lord Downshire_; afire. + + July 20--_Knutford_; afire in hold. + + July 24--_Craigside_; five fires in hold. + + July 27--_Arabic_; two bombs found aboard. + + Aug. 9--_Asuncion de Larriñaga_; afire at sea. + + Aug. 13--_Williston_; bombs in cargo. + + Aug. 27--Lighter _Dixie_; fire while loading. + + +On August 31 the White Star liner _Arabic_, nineteen hours out of +Liverpool was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank in eleven +minutes, taking 39 lives, of which two were American. Germany, on +September 9, declared that the U-boat commander attacked the _Arabic_ +without warning, contrary to his instructions, but only after he was +convinced that the liner was trying to ram him; the Imperial Government +expressed regret for the loss of American lives, but disclaimed any +liability for indemnity, and suggested arbitration. On October 5, +however, the government in Berlin had changed its tune to the extent of +issuing a note expressing regret for having sunk the ship, disavowing +the act of the submarine commander, and assuring the United States +that new orders to submarines were so strict that a recurrence of any +such action was "considered out of the question." If the cargoes could +be fired at sea, no submarine issue need be raised. And so fires and +bombs continued to be discovered on ships just as consistently as +before. The log, resumed, runs thus: + + + Sept. 1--_Rotterdam_; fire at sea. + + Sept. 7--_Santa Anna_; fire at sea. + + Sept. 29--_San Guglielmo_; dynamite found on pier. + + +Now von Rintelen's handiwork was revealed in the adventures of Robert +Fay, or "Fae," as he was known in the Fatherland. In spite of the +imaginative quality of the enterprise, and the additional guilt which +it heaped upon the executives of the spy system, it was not successful. +There were vibrant moments, though, when only the mobilization of +police from two states and special agents from the Secret Service +and Department of Justice averted what would have developed into a +profitable method of destroying ships. + +Lieutenant Robert Fay was born in Cologne, where he lived until 1902. +In that year he migrated to Canada, where he worked on a farm, and +later to Chicago, where he was employed as a bookkeeper until 1905. He +then returned to Germany for his military service, and went to work +again in Cologne, in the office of Thomas Cook & Sons. After a period +in a Mannheim machine shop he went home and devoted himself to certain +mechanical inventions, and was at work upon them when he was called out +for war service on August 1, 1914. + +His regiment went into the trenches, and the lieutenant had some +success in dynamiting a French position. Conniving with a superior +officer, he deserted his command, and was sent to America by a German +reputed to be the head of the secret service, one Jonnersen. Jonnersen +gave Fay 20,000 marks for expenses in carrying out a plan to stop +shipments of munitions from America, and Fay arrived in New York April +23, 1915, on the _Rotterdam_. + +Dr. Herbert Kienzle, a clock-maker, of 309 West 86th Street, had +written to his father in Germany bitterly assailing the United States +for shipping munitions, and enclosed in his letters information of +certain American firms, such as Browne & Sharp, of Providence, and +the Chalmers Motor Car Company, of Detroit, who were reputed to be +manufacturing them. These letters had been turned over to Jonnersen, +who showed them to Fay as suggestions. Upon his arrival in New York, +then, Fay called on Kienzle, who, though he was friendly enough, +was reluctant to know of the details Fay had planned. Dr. Kienzle +introduced Fay to von Papen, and later to Max Breitung, from whom he +purchased a quantity of potassium chlorate. + +The deserter found his brother-in-law, Walter Scholz, working as a +gardener on an estate near Waterford, Connecticut, and brought him +to New York on a salary of $25 a week. The two crossed the Hudson to +Weehawken, N. J., and set to work to make bombs. Fay had a theory that +a bomb might be attached to the rudder of a ship, and so set as to +explode when the rudder, swinging to port, wound a ratchet inside the +device which would release a hammer upon a percussion cap. Their plan +was to have the parts manufactured at machine shops, assemble and fill +them themselves, and then steal up the waterfront in the small hours +and attach the infernal machines to outward bound vessels. Fay even +counted on disarming the police boats before setting out. + +It took the two some three months to get the parts made and properly +adjusted. Meanwhile they employed their spare hours in cruising about +the harbor in a motor-boat. A machinist in West 42nd Street, New York, +made the zinc tank which they used as a model, and the two conspirators +shortly opened a garage in Weehawken where they could duplicate the +bomb cases unmolested. + +There came a time when the devices were satisfactory, and Fay actually +attached one to the rudder of a ship to make sure that his adjustments +were correct. The next move was to obtain explosives. Fay's prejudice +against bombs placed in a ship's hold was that they rarely succeeded in +sinking the craft; seventy or eighty pounds of high explosive detonated +at the stern of a vessel, however, would blow the rudder away and not +only cripple the ship but would probably burst a hole in the stern, +mangle the screw, and split the shaft. + +Captain Tunney, of the Bomb Squad, heard in October that two Germans +were trying to buy picric acid from a man who stopped at the Hotel +Breslin, and who called himself Paul Seib and Karl F. Oppegaarde, +as the occasion demanded. Tunney's men located the two Germans, and +some days later learned that they had placed an order for fifty-two +pounds of TNT, to be delivered at the Weehawken garage. The delivery +was intercepted, a similar but harmless substance substituted for the +explosive, and two detective-truckmen took the package away on their +truck to deliver it to Fay and Scholz. While they were in New Jersey, +Detectives Coy, Sterrett and Walsh found Fay at the Breslin, and +followed him back to Weehawken. As he left the garage in the evening in +his automobile, the automobile of Police Commissioner Woods followed +at a discreet distance. Up the Palisades the two cars paraded, +until in a grove near Grantwood, Fay and Scholz got out of their car +and disappeared into the woods with a lantern. After a time they +reappeared, and returned to the garage, the police following. + +Next morning Chief Flynn was called into the hunt--the morning of +Saturday, October 23--and he assigned two special agents to the case. +The police department directed two detectives to watch the woods at +Grantwood where the conspirators had gone the night before. Detectives +Murphy and Fennelly, each equipped with linemen's climbers, arrived +at the wood-road about noon, and spent the next eleven hours in the +branches of a great oak tree which commanded the road. The perch was +high and the night wind chilly, but the watchers were rewarded at last +by the twin searchlights of an approaching car. Out of it stepped Fay +and Scholz. The men in the branches saw by the light of the lantern +which Scholz carried that Fay placed a package underneath a distant +tree, walked to a safe distance, exploded a percussion cap, watched the +tree topple over and went away, apparently satisfied with the power of +his explosives. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Robert Fay, who made bombs with which he hoped to cripple the shipment +of munitions to Europe] + +Meanwhile other detectives were watching the rooming house at Union +Hill where Fay and Scholz lived, and they saw the two come in about 4 +o'clock in the morning. Scholz had very little sleep, for there was a +ship leaving next day for Liverpool. He left the house at 7 A. M. and +went to the garage. Thereupon three detectives returned to the great +oak tree at Grantwood. About noon Fay and his brother-in-law drove up, +and unlocking the door of a rude hut in the wood, took out a bag, from +which they poured a few grains of powder on the surface of a rock. Fay +struck the rock with a hammer; a loud report followed, and the hammer +broke in his hand. A moment later he heard a twig snap behind him. +He turned, and saw a small army of detectives with drawn revolvers +closing in on him. Fay protested and pleaded, and offered to bribe the +detectives for his freedom, but he was locked up with Scholz. The two +had stored in a warehouse several cases containing their completed bomb +mechanisms; the police confiscated from their various caches five new +bombs, 25 pounds of TNT, 25 sticks of dynamite, 150 pounds of chlorate +of potash, two hundred bomb cylinders, 400 percussion caps, one +motor-boat, one chart of New York harbor showing all its fortifications +and piers, one foreign automobile, two German automatic pistols and a +long knife--a considerable arsenal. + +Their confessions caused the arrest of Paul Daeche, who had furnished +them with explosives, Dr. Kienzle, Breitung, and Engelbert Bronkhorst. +Fay received a sentence of eight years in the penitentiary, but after +America went to war, Atlanta became too confining for his adventurous +spirit, and he escaped the prison, and is believed to have crossed +the Mexican border to safety. Scholz was sentenced to four years, and +Daeche to three. Kienzle, Breitung and Bronkhorst were not tried, their +apparent ignorance of Fay's designs outweighing in the jury's mind +their obvious German sympathies. Kienzle, upon the declaration of war +of April 6, 1917, became an enemy alien, and was interned. + +So Lieutenant Fay never qualified in active service as a destroying +agent. Yet he was profligate in his intentions. He offered two men +$500,000 if they could intrigue among the shippers in order that a ship +laden with copper for England might wander from the path of convoy into +German hands, and he even entertained the fantastic hope, with his +chart and his motor-boat and his bombs, of stealing out of the harbor +to the cordon of British cruisers who hung outside the three-mile limit +and attaching his bombs to their rudders, that the German merchantmen +might escape into the open sea. + +On October 26 the _Rio Lages_ caught fire at sea; fire broke out in +the hold of the _Euterpe_ on November 3; three days later there was +fire aboard the _Rochambeau_ at sea; the next day an explosion occurred +aboard the _Ancona_. And so the list runs on: + + + Dec. 4--_Tynningham_, two fires on ship. + Dec. 24--_Alston_, dynamite found in cargo. + Dec. 26--_Inchmoor_, fire in hold. + + 1916 + + Jan. 19--_Sygna_, fire at sea. + Jan. 19--_Ryndam_, bomb explosion at sea. + Jan. 22--_Rosebank_, two bombs in cargo. + Feb. 16--_Dalton_, fire at sea. + Feb. 21--_Tennyson_, bomb explosion at sea. + Feb. 26--_Livingston Court_, fire in Gravesend Bay. + + +April saw the round-up of the group who had been working under the +Hamburg-American captains, and although numerous fires occurred during +May, 1916, in almost every case they were traced to natural accidents. +The number mounted more slowly as the year advanced. With the entrance +of America into the war, and the tightening of the police cordon along +the waterfront, the chance of planting bombs was still further reduced, +but waterfront fires kept recurring, and until the day of ultimate +judgment in Berlin, when each of Germany's arsonists in America comes +to claim his reward, none will know the total of loss at their hands. +It was enormous in the damage it inflicted upon cargo, but it is +improbable that it had any perceptible effect upon the whole export of +shells for Flanders and France. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LABOR + + David Lamar--Labor's National Peace Council--The embargo + conference--The attempted longshoremen's strike--Dr. Dumba's + recall. + + +Labor produced munitions. The hands of labor could be frightened +away from work by explosions, their handiwork could be bombed on the +railways, the wharves, the lighters, and the ships, but a surer method +than either of those was the perversion of the hearts of labor. So +thought Count von Bernstorff and Dr. Albert, who dealt in men. So +thought Berlin--the General Staff sent this message to America: + + + "January 26--For Military Attaché. You can obtain particulars as + to persons suitable for carrying on sabotage in the United States + and Canada from the following persons: (1) Joseph McGarrity, + Philadelphia; (2) John P. Keating, Michigan Avenue, Chicago; (3) + Jeremiah O'Leary, 16 Park Row, New York. + + "One and two are absolutely reliable and discreet. Three is + reliable, but not always discreet. These persons were indicated by + Sir Roger Casement. In the United States sabotage can be carried + out on every kind of factory for supplying munitions of war." + + (Signed) "REPRESENTATIVE OF GENERAL STAFF."[3] + + +So too thought von Rintelen, who hired men--usually the wrong ones. + +Full of his project, he cast about for an intermediary. No sly chemist +or muscular wharf-rat would do for this delicate task of anesthetizing +men with the gas of German propaganda while it tied their hands and +amputated their centres of right and wrong; the candidate must be a man +of affairs, intimate with the chiefs of labor, skillful in execution, +and the abler the better. Von Rintelen would pay handsomely for the +right man. Whereupon David Lamar, the "Wolf of Wall Street," appeared +on the scene and applied for the job--an entrance auspicious for the +United States, for the newcomer's philosophy (if one could judge from +his previous career) was "Me First." + +In an attempt to defraud J. P. Morgan & Co., and the United States +Steel Corporation Lamar had once impersonated Representative A. +Mitchell Palmer in certain telephone interviews. (Palmer became +custodian of alien property after the United States entered the war.) +He was convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment in Atlanta +Penitentiary. He appealed the case, and while he was out on bail +pending the appeal, he fell in with Rintelen. + +In April, 1915, a New Yorker who dealt in publicity was introduced to +Rintelen, or "Hansen," by Dr. Schimmel. Rintelen offered the publicity +man $25,000 to conduct a campaign of propaganda for more friendly +relations with Germany, to offset the commercial power Great Britain +bade fair to have at the end of the war, and assured him that he would +go to any extreme to prevent shipments of munitions to the Allies. The +war, he said, would be decided not in Europe but in America. There must +be strikes in the munitions factories. + +When the publicity man heard also that Rintelen was trying to stir up +trouble with Mexico, he wrote on May 13 to Joseph Tumulty, President +Wilson's secretary, informing him of the German's intentions. He was +referred to the Department of Justice, and at their dictation continued +in contact with Rintelen. Shortly thereafter David Lamar and his friend +Henry Martin took a trip to Minneapolis, where they met Congressman +Frank Buchanan and Ex-Congressman Robert Fowler, both of Illinois. Out +of that conference grew a plan for forming a labor organization the +object of which was ostensibly peace, and actually an embargo upon the +shipment of munitions abroad, but whether Buchanan and Fowler knew of +von Rintelen's connection with the scheme remains to be proved. It can +be readily seen that such a labor organization, if it had actually +represented organized labor, could have forced such a stoppage, either +by its collective potential voting power and influence, or by fostering +a nation-wide strike of munitions workers. + +The nucleus formed in Chicago, about one William F. Kramer. "Buchanan +and Fowler came to me in June here in Chicago," said Kramer, "and told +me about their plan to form a council. We opened headquarters, and we +engaged two organizers, James Short and J. J. Cundiff, who got $50 +a week apiece, a secretary, L. P. Straube, who got $50 a week, and +a stenographer. I was a vice-president, but I didn't get anything. +We were known then as Labor's Peace Council of Chicago, and we were +supposed to be in it because of our convictions against the shipment of +munitions. And I'll say that organized labor was made the goat." + +Buchanan had no idea of restricting the council to one city. He called +upon Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, at +Atlantic City on June 9 and tried to induce him to back a movement +in Washington for an embargo. Gompers refused flatly and completely +to have anything to do with the plan, especially when Buchanan made +known his associates. Those associates were busy meanwhile lobbying +in Congress, representing themselves as friends of organized labor, +and pressing the embargo question. About a week later Congressman +Buchanan inflated the Chicago organization into Labor's National Peace +Council, with headquarters at Washington, to recommend the convocation +of a special session of Congress at once to "promote universal peace," +which meant simply "to promote the introduction and enactment of an +embargo." Its members met frequently, and annoyed the President and +other important men,--even Andrew Carnegie,--with their importunings +for attention, and got exactly what they wanted--wide publicity. + +About July 10 Andrew D. Meloy, whose office in New York Rintelen was +sharing at the time, noticed that his German associate began to keep a +clipping-file of news of the Council. Meloy learned of the project, and +assured Rintelen that he was foolhardy to attempt, by bribery of labor +officials, to divert common labor from earning high wages. To which +Rintelen replied brusquely: "Thanks. You come into this business about +11:45 o'clock." + +Rintelen sent a telegram to Lamar in Chicago on July 16, the text of +which follows: + + + "E. Ruskay, Room 700 B, Sherman Hotel, Chicago. + + "Party who receives $12,500 monthly from competitors is now + interfering with business in hand. Do you know of any way and + means to check him? Wire. + + "F. BROWN." + + +"Ruskay" was Lamar. Later in the day the German sent this message: + + + "Twelve thousand five hundred now at capitol. Conference here + today plans to guarantee outsiders and settlement possible within + few days. New issue urgently needed. Notify B." + + +The "party" mentioned in the first despatch was the code designation +for Gompers, and he was indicated in the second message as "Twelve +thousand five hundred." "B" was Buchanan, upon whose connection with +labor Rintelen told Meloy the success of the plan rested. Lamar hurried +to New York, arriving July 19, and met Rintelen in a limousine at the +100th Street entrance to Central Park; on the ride which followed the +"Wolf" told Rintelen that a strike then going on among the munitions +workers at Bridgeport was "only a beginning of his efforts," and that +within thirty days the industry would be paralyzed throughout the +country. Meloy advanced the information that Gompers had just gone to +Bridgeport to stop the strike, to which Lamar replied: + +"Buchanan will settle Gompers within twenty-four hours!" + +The clippings kept coming in as testimony to the vigorous work being +done by the organization's press bureau: the Council attacked the +Federal Reserve Banks as "munitions trusts," it cited on July 8 nine +ships lying in port awaiting munitions cargoes, and attacked Dudley +Field Malone, then Collector of the Port of New York, for permitting +such ships to clear; it claimed to represent a million labor votes, +and four million and a half farmers; it listened eagerly to an address +by Hannis Taylor, a disciple of the late warmhearted Secretary of +State, Mr. Bryan, in which Taylor criticized President Wilson and +was roundly cheered by the German-American element in the audience. +Semi-occasionally during the midsummer heat Charles Oberwager, attorney +for the Council (whose firm had received handsome fees from von Papen), +rose to deny any German connection with the organization. The Council +assailed Secretary Lansing as a man "whose radicalism was liable to +plunge this nation into war." The Council assailed, in fact, any +project which furthered the interests of the Allies. Rintelen began to +have his doubts of the effectiveness of Lamar's work. The bank account +in the Trans-Atlantic Trust Company had dwindled from $800,000 to +$40,000, and Rintelen admitted that his transactions with Lamar cost +him several hundred thousand dollars. Labor's National Peace Conference +died quietly, Lamar flitted away to a country estate at Pittsfield, +Mass., and Rintelen started across the Atlantic Ocean. + +August wore on. The Council was getting ready for a second gaseous +session, when Milton Snelling, a representative of the Washington +Central Labor Union, who had been elected a first vice-president of the +Council, withdrew from its membership, because he "discovered persons +participating in the meetings who have been hanging on the fringe of +the labor movement for their own personal aggrandizement, men who have +been discarded ... others never having been members of any organization +of labor," and because Jacob C. Taylor, the cigar-making delegate from +East Orange, N. J., said, in answer to a query as to the Council's +purpose: "We want to stop the export of munitions to the Allies. You +see Germany can make all the munitions she wants." Then--and it may +be coincidence--about one week later the _New York World_ began its +publication of certain of the papers found in the brief case which Dr. +Heinrich Albert, of the German Embassy, allowed to escape him on a New +York elevated train; on August 19 Buchanan resigned the Council, and +Taylor was elected to succeed him. + +Indictments were returned against Rintelen, as well as against Lamar, +Martin, Buchanan and their associates, on December 28, 1915. Buchanan +at once exploded with a retaliatory demand for the impeachment of +United States District Attorney Marshall, upon which Congress dared +not take action. Marshall gracefully retired from the trial in May, +1916, lest he prejudice the Government's case, and Lamar, Martin and +Rintelen were convicted of infraction of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law and +sentenced to one year each in a New Jersey prison. Thus ended Labor's +National Peace Council, thanks to David Lamar. + +The project for an embargo looked attractive to the Embassy, +however--so attractive that while the Council was at the height of its +activity, Baron Kurt von Reiswitz wrote on July 22, 1915, from Chicago +to Dr. Albert: + +"Everything else concerning the proposed embargo conference you +will find in the enclosed copy of the report to the Ambassador. A +change has, however, come up, as the mass meeting will have to be +postponed on account of there being insufficient time for the necessary +preparations. It will probably be held there in about two weeks. + +"Among others the following have agreed to coöperate: Senator +Hitchcock, Congressman Buchanan, William Bayard Hale of New York and +the well known pulpit orator, Dr. Aked (born an Englishman), from San +Francisco. + +"Hitchcock seemed to be very strong for the plan. He told our +representative at a conference in Omaha: 'If this matter is organized +in the right way you will sweep the United States.' + +"For your confidential information I would further inform you that the +leadership of the movement thus far lies in the hands of two gentlemen +(one in Detroit and one in Chicago) who are firmly resolved to work +toward the end that the German community, which, of course, will be +with us without further urging, shall above all things remain in the +background, and that the movement, to all outward appearances, shall +have a purely American character. I have known both the gentlemen very +well for a long time and know that personal interest does not count +with them; the results will bring their own reward. + +"For the purposes of the inner organization, to which we attribute +particular importance, we have assured ourselves of the coöperation of +the local Democratic boss, Roger C. Sullivan, as also Messrs. Sparman, +Lewis and McDonald, the latter of the _Chicago American_. Sullivan was +formerly leader of the Wilson campaign and is a deadly enemy of Wilson, +as the latter did not keep his word to make him a Senator; therefore, +principally, the sympathy of our cause." + +One is inclined to wonder where Rintelen's vast credits went, during +his short visits in 1915. Lamar took a goodly sum, as we have seen; +the negotiations for the purchase of the Krag rifles cost him no small +amount; his ship bomb activities required a considerable payroll. +But as further evidence of the high cost of causing trouble, we must +consider briefly the profligate methods he employed in other attempts +to inflame and seduce labor. + +A walkout by the longshoremen of the Atlantic coast would cripple the +supply of munitions to Europe, and might be successful enough to cause +a shell famine in France of which the Central Powers could readily +take advantage. There were 23,000 dock-workers in American ports; they +must be guaranteed a certain wage for five weeks of strike; the cost +in wages alone would therefore amount to about $1,635,000, besides +service fees to intermediaries. He had the money, and the first step +was taken in the otherwise placid city of Boston. + +On May 7, 1915, the day the _Lusitania_ sank, William P. Dempsey, the +secretary-treasurer of the Atlantic Coast International Longshoremen's +Union, met Dennis Driscoll, a Boston labor leader and former city +office-holder, at the old Quincy House in Hanover Street. Driscoll +said that Matthew Cummings, a wealthy Boston grocer, had outlined to +him the plan for the strike, and said he was acting for parties who +were willing to pay a million dollars. Dempsey maintained his poise +when the startling information was recited, but he was frightened, +and at the conclusion of the interview he telegraphed at once to T. +V. O'Connor, the president of the union, requesting an interview. The +two union men met in Albany and discussed the affair pro and con, +arriving at the conclusion that they had best reveal the plot to the +Government. O'Connor accordingly told of the negotiations to Secretary +Wilson of the Department of Labor, and then in connivance with the +Secret Service, went on dealing with the grocer, constantly pressing +him for the identity of the principals who, he said, were prepared +to supply all the necessary money. He implicated George Sylvestor +Viereck, the editor of a subsidized German propaganda-weekly called +_The Fatherland_, and said that he had been introduced to him by Edmund +von Mach. Neither of those men figured except as intermediaries, and +Cummings suggested that Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, a loyal propagandist +then in the United States, was the director of the enterprises. Owing +to the high pitch of public feeling over the _Lusitania_, Cummings +could not receive permission from his superiors to go ahead with +O'Connor, but he did his best to keep O'Connor interested. The latter, +fearing that German agents were at work on the Pacific coast, took a +trip to the far West, and during his absence Cummings telegraphed him +twice. There the affair ended, for O'Connor ignored the message, and +on July 14 returned to New York to find that a German attempt to force +a walkout on the New York waterfront had failed, and that Cummings had +stopped playing with fire and had gone back to his grocery in Boston. + +When the Government turned the story over to a newspaper to publish +on September 13, the time was not ripe to fix the responsibility for +the attempt. Dr. Dernburg was a popular scapegoat at the time, and +the implication of his authority in the attempt was allowed to stand. +Rintelen was in Donington Hall, a prison camp in England, and it was +months thereafter before the United States and British Secret Services +had fully compared notes on him. By that time there were other charges +lying against him which promised better cases than an abortive attempt +to promote a strike 'longshore. + +We have witnessed the cumulative influence of newspaper reports in +surrounding Labor's National Peace Council with an almost genuine +atmosphere of national interest; we have been able to picture the +hostility which the publication of the longshoremen's strike story +aroused in legitimately organized labor; and although as a typical +instance of newspaper influence we should postpone the following +incident, it is a temptation too great to resist. It is the story of +The Story That Cost an Ambassador, and if any further plea for its +introduction be needed, let it be that it is another subtle attempt +upon labor in the summer of 1915. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Dr. Constantin Dumba, Austrian ambassador to the United States, +recalled after the disclosures of the correspondence captured on the +war correspondent, Archibald] + +James F. J. Archibald, an American correspondent who had seen most of +the wars of recent years, and who wanted to see more, set sail from New +York on August 21, 1915, for Amsterdam, with his wife, his campaign +clothes, and a portfolio. At Falmouth, England, the usual search party +came aboard, and inspected the papers in the portfolio. Archibald +proved to be an unofficial despatch-bearer, upon whom his German and +Austrian acquaintances in the United States placed great reliance--such +men as Papen, Bernstorff, and Dr. Constantine Dumba sent reports to +their governments in his care. + +On September 5 the _New York World_ burst forth with the text of one +of the letters--one from Dr. Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador at +Washington, to his chief in the foreign office at Vienna, Baron Burian. +It is worth reproducing here intact: + + + "New York, August 20." + + "Your Excellency: + + "Yesterday evening Consul-General von Nuber received the enclosed + aide memoire from the chief editor of the local influential paper + _Szabadsag_, after a previous conversation with me in pursuance + of his verbal proposals to arrange for strikes at Bethlehem in + Schwab's steel and munitions factory and also in the middle West. + + "Archibald, who is well known to your Excellency, leaves today + at 12 o'clock on board the _Rotterdam_ for Berlin and Vienna. I + take this rare and safe opportunity of warmly recommending these + proposals to your Excellency's favorable consideration. It is my + impression that we can disorganize and hold up for months, if + not entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions in Bethlehem + and the middle West, which, in the opinion of the German + military attaché, is of great importance and amply outweighs the + comparatively small expenditure of money involved. + + "But even if strikes do not occur it is probable that we should + extort under pressure more favorable conditions of labor for our + poor downtrodden fellow countrymen in Bethlehem. These white + slaves are now working twelve hours a day, seven days a week. All + weak persons succumb and become consumptive. So far as German + workmen are found among the skilled hands means of leaving will be + provided immediately for them. + + "Besides this, a private German registry office has been + established which provides employment for persons who voluntarily + have given up their places. It already is working well. We shall + also join in and the widest support is assured us. + + "I beg your Excellency to be so good as to inform me with + reference to this letter by wireless. Reply whether you agree. I + remain, with great haste and respect, + + "DUMBA." + + +The aide memoire, written by the editor of a Hungarian weekly, +proposed to create unrest by a campaign in foreign language newspapers +circulated free to labor, muck-raking labor conditions in Bethlehem, +Youngstown, Cleveland, Pittsburg, and Bridgeport, where there were +great numbers of foreign workmen, Hungarians, Austrians, and Germans. +This was to be supplemented by a "horror novel" similar to the bloody +effort of Upton Sinclair to describe the Chicago stockyards. Special +agents of unrest, roll-turners, steel workers, soapbox orators, +picnic organizers, were all to be insinuated into the plants to +stir up the workmen. This editor had stirred them up a few weeks +before at Bridgeport--the strike which Lamar claimed as his own +accomplishment--and he presented to Baron Burian a really comprehensive +plan for creating unrest through his well-subsidized foreign-language +press. And in passing it on, Dr. Dumba stood sponsor for it. + +The British government saw in the discovery of the letter and the cool +impudence of it, a rare chance for propaganda in America. So, as has +been said, the _World_ published the story, and at once the wrath of +the truly American people justified President Wilson in doing what he +and Secretary Lansing had already determined to do--to send Dr. Dumba +home. Perhaps Dumba's reference to the "self-willed temperament of the +President" in another note found on Archibald had something to do with +the haste with which the Ambassador's recall was demanded; it followed +on the heels of the publication of the letter: + + + "By reason of the admitted purpose and intent of Mr. Dumba to + conspire to cripple legitimate industries of the United States + and to interrupt their legitimate trade, and by reason of + the flagrant violation of diplomatic propriety in employing + an American citizen protected by an American passport as a + secret bearer of official despatches through the lines of the + enemy of Austria-Hungary, the President directs us to inform + your Excellency that Mr. Dumba is no longer acceptable to the + Government of the United States as the Ambassador of his Imperial + Majesty at Washington." + + +So went Dumba. + +After his departure Baron Zwiedinek, his chargé d'affaires, and +Consul von Nuber advertised widely in Hungarian newspapers calling on +Austrians and Hungarians at work in munitions plants to leave. If they +wrote the Embassy on the subject, the reply they received read: + + + "It is demanded that patriotism, no less than fear of punishment, + should cause every one to quit his work immediately." + + +But neither threats, nor walking delegates, nor German spies could +check the output of shells and guns. An attempt made by Dr. Albert +to buy, for $50,000, a strike in Detroit motor factories failed. The +factories were making money as they had never made money before, +and labor was buying luxuries. To the American munitions-worker a +comfortable supply of money meant much more than the shrill bleat of +the Central Powers. And what was more, he was not entirely satisfied +that the right was all on Germany's side. (Our space does not +permit, nor is definite information at present available, to discuss +the anarchist, socialist, and I. W. W. elements of labor, and their +relations to Germany. These three factors, especially the last named, +effected in the years 1914-1918 a sufficient amount of industrial +unrest to qualify them as allies, if not actual servants, of the +Kaiser. Whether they were employed by Germany will be brought out in a +trial which began in Chicago in April, 1918.) + +FOOTNOTE: + +[3] McGarrity, Keating, and O'Leary, upon the publication of this +despatch, uttered vigorous denials of any connection with or knowledge +of the despatch or the affairs mentioned. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA + + The mistress of the seas--Plotting in New York--The _Lusitania's_ + escape in February, 1915--The advertised warning--The plot--May 7, + 1915--Diplomatic correspondence--Gustave Stahl--The results. + + +In the eyes of the German Admiralty the _Lusitania_ was the symbol +of British supremacy on the seas. There were larger ships flying the +Prussian flag, but one of them lay in her German harbor, the other +at her Little-German pier in Hoboken, while the _Lusitania_ swept +gracefully over the Western Ocean as she regally saw fit, leaving only +a thin trail of smoke for the sluggish undersea enemy to follow. Time +and again during the early months of war the plotters in Berlin had +attempted her destruction, and every time she had slipped away--until +the last, when the plot was developed on American soil. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +The _Lusitania_ leaving the Hudson River on her last voyage] + +Her destruction would carry home to Germany news of heartening +influence out of all proportion to the mere sinking of a large single +tonnage. The German visible navy had, with the exception of scattering +excursions into the North Sea, and the swiftly quenched efforts of the +South Atlantic fleet, been of negligible--and irksome--consequence. +To sink the mistress of the British merchant fleet would be to inform +all the world that Britain was incapable of protecting her cargo and +passenger vessels, to puncture the comfortable British boast of the +moment that business was being performed "as usual," and to gratify +the blood-letting instincts of the Junkers. So von Tirpitz, with his +colleagues, undertook to sink the _Lusitania_, and to warn neutrals to +travel in their own ships or stay ashore. + +Early in December, 1914, the German agents who met nightly at the +Deutscher Verein in Central Park South speculated on ways and means of +bringing down this attractive quarry. Communication between Berlin and +New York at that time was as facile as a telephone conversation from +the Battery to Harlem. There were new 110-kilowatt transmitters in +the German-owned Sayville wireless station, imported through Holland +and installed under the expert supervision of Captain Boy-Ed, and +memoranda issued in Berlin to the naval attaché were frequently the +subject of guarded conversation in the German Club within a few hours +after they had left the Wilhelmstrasse. Occasionally the conspirators +found it more tactful to drive through the Park in a limousine during +the evening, to discuss the project. Spies had made several trips to +Liverpool and back again aboard the ship, under false passports, and +Paul Koenig's waterfront henchmen supplied all necessary information +of the guard maintained at the piers. All this was passed up to the +clearing-house of executives, and their plans began to take shape. + +Boy-Ed possessed a copy of the secret British Admiralty code, which +explained his frequent trips to Sayville. He knew--and Tirpitz's staff +therefore knew--the position of any British vessel at sea which had +occasion to utter any message into the air. But before he conceived a +use for this code other than as a source of information, he decided to +try out a code of his own. + +He arranged with Berlin a word-system whose theory was popular with +Germany throughout the earlier years of her secret war communication: +under the guise of apparently harmless expressions of friendship, or +grief, or simple business, were transmitted quite definite and specific +secret meanings. A message addressed by wireless from the _Lusitania_ +to a friend in England which read for example "Eager to see you. Much +love" would scarcely arouse suspicion, especially as there was no +word in it which might suggest military information. Yet in February, +1915, a message of that type was despatched from the eastward-bound +_Lusitania_ to a British station; it was intercepted and interpreted +by a German submarine commander in the "zone" nearby, who presently +popped up in the ship's wake and fired a torpedo. His information was +better than his aim. The _Lusitania_ dodged the steel shark, and fled +to safety, her wireless informing the British naval world meanwhile of +the presence of the U-boat. + +The plotters had to reckon with her unequalled speed. The _Lusitania_ +and her sister ship, the _Mauretania_, had each rather prided herself +in the past on reducing the other's fresh, bright passage-record from +Queenstown to New York--a record of four days and a few hours! The +submarine of 1915 knew no such speed, and it was necessary, if the +liner was to be torpedoed, to select out of the vastness of the ocean +one little radius in which the submarine might lie in wait for a +pot-shot. But just how? + +Spies had reported that it was customary as the _Lusitania_ neared the +Irish coast on her homeward voyage for her captain to query the British +Admiralty for instructions as to where her convoy might be expected. +They reported that under certain conditions German agents might be +placed on board. And they reported that the wireless operator was +susceptible to bribery. Those three facts formed the nucleus of the +final plan. + +Audacious as they were in their use of American soil as the base for +their plans, the German Embassy had certain obligations to the United +States Government, which they felt must be observed. The unspeakable +falsifying which is sometimes called expediency, sometimes diplomacy, +required that official America must know nothing of the intentions of +which the Embassy itself was fully conversant and approving. Further, +a palliative must be supplied to the American people in advance. +Consequently Count von Bernstorff, under orders from Berlin, inserted +in the _New York Times_ of April 23, 1915, the following advertisement: + + + NOTICE + + Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded + that a state of war exists between Germany and her Allies and + Great Britain and her Allies; that the zone of war includes the + waters adjacent to the British Isles; that in accordance with + formal notice given by the German Imperial Government, vessels + flying the flag of Great Britain or any of her Allies are liable + to destruction in these waters and that travelers sailing in the + war zone on ships of Great Britain or her Allies do so at their + own risk. + + IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY. + + Washington, D. C., April 22d, 1915. + + +[Illustration: OCEAN TRAVEL + +NOTICE! + +TRAVELLERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that +a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain +and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to +the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the +Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, +or of any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and +that travellers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or +her allies do so at their own risk. + +IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY + +WASHINGTON, D. C., APRIL 22. 1915. + +The newspaper advertisement inserted among "ocean travel" advertising +by the Imperial German Embassy prior to the _Lusitania's_ departure on +what proved to be her last voyage] + +Germans in New York who knew of the plot dropped hints to their +friends; anonymous warnings were received by several passengers who had +booked their accommodations; Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt received such a +message, signed "Morte." But such whispers were common, the _Lusitania_ +had outrun the submarines before and could presumably do it again; +further, most Americans at that moment had some confidence left in +civilization. + +The plot was substantially this: when Captain Turner, on the last +day of the voyage, should send his wireless query to the Admiralty, +inquiring for his convoy of destroyers, a wireless reply in the British +code directing his course must be sent to him from Sayville. His query +would be heard and answered by the Admiralty, of course, but the +genuine reply must not reach him. + +Berlin assigned two submarines to a point ten miles south by west of +the Old Head of Kinsale, near the entrance to St. George's Channel. She +selected an experienced commander for the especial duty, and with him +went a secret agent to shadow him as he opened his sealed instructions, +and shoot him if he balked. And about the time when the U-boats slipped +out of the Kiel Canal, and threaded their way through the mine-fields +into the North Sea, submerging as they picked up the smoke of British +ships on the western horizon, the _Lusitania_ warped out of her pier in +the Hudson River and set her prow for Sandy Hook, the Grand Banks, and +Ireland. + +She carried 1,254 passengers and a crew of eight hundred, a total of +more than 2,000 souls, of whom 1,214 were sailing to their death. +Germany had selected their graves; von Rintelen had two friends aboard +who were detailed to flash lights from the portholes in case the ship +made the submarine rendezvous at night. The _Lusitania_ carried bombs +which Dr. Karl Schimmel placed on board; she carried bombs which +wretched little Klein placed on board; she carried, too, the creature +who was to betray her. Her company was gay enough, and interesting; +besides Mr. Vanderbilt her passenger list included Charles Frohman, +the most important of theatrical managers; Elbert Hubbard, a quaint +and lovable writer-artisan; Charles Klein, a playwright; Justus Miles +Forman, a novelist; and numerous others of more or less celebrity, +among them an actress who lived to reënact her part in the tragedy +for the benefit of herself and a motion picture company. Ruthless as +it was, the _Lusitania_ also carried Lindon W. Bates, Jr., a youth +whose family had befriended von Rintelen. And there were the women and +children. + +Meanwhile, Sayville was in readiness, a trained wireless operator +prepared at any moment to hear Captain Turner's inquiry, and to flash +a false reply with a perfect British Admiralty touch. On May 5 Captain +Boy-Ed received word from Berlin that he had been awarded the Iron +Cross. On May 7 the _Lusitania_ spoke: Captain Turner's request for +instructions. Presently the reply came, and was hurried to his cabin. +From his code book he deciphered directions to "proceed to a point ten +miles south of Old Head of Kinsale and thence run into St. George's +Channel, arriving at the Liverpool bar at midnight." He carefully +calculated the distance and his running time on the assumption that he +was protected on every side by the British fleet, and set his course +for the Old Head of Kinsale. + +The British Admiralty also received Captain Turner's inquiry, just as +the Sayville operator had snatched it from the air, and despatched +an answer: orders that the _Lusitania_ proceed to a point some 70 or +80 miles south of the Old Head of Kinsale, there to meet her convoy. +_Captain Turner never received that message._ The British Government +knows why the message was not delivered, though the fact has not, at +this date, been made public. + +The _Lusitania_ headed northeast all morning. At 1:20 o'clock she ran +the gauntlet of two submarines; a torpedo was released, and found its +target. The ghastly details of what followed have been told so fully, +so vividly, and so appealingly that they need not be repeated here. +They made themselves heard around a world that was already vibrant with +uproar. The first sodden tremor of the ship told Captain Turner that +he had been betrayed. He described later at the Coroner's inquest how +he had received orders supposedly from the Admiralty, and had set out +to obey them. He produced the copy of those orders, but of the genuine +message from the Admiralty he knew nothing. Asked if he had made +special application for a convoy, he said: "No, I left that to them. It +is their business, not mine. I simply had to carry out my orders to go, +and I would do it again." + +America was in a turmoil. Germany had presumed too far; she--it is +almost incongruous to call Germany "she"--had believed that her warning +declaration that the waters about the British isles were a war zone +would be respected, or if not respected, would serve as an excuse, and +that the torpedoing would be accepted calmly by America. She was not +prepared for Colonel Roosevelt's burning denunciation of this act of +common piracy, nor for the angry editorial remonstrance of a people +outraged at the loss of one hundred and fourteen American lives. But +Germany recovered her presumptuous poise swiftly, and while ugly +medals were being struck off commemorating the German triumph over +the ship, and while destroyers were still searching British waters +for the bodies of the dead, she sent a note of commiseration and +sympathy to Washington. Three days later--on May 13--the United States +conveyed to Berlin a strong protest against the submarine policy which +had culminated in the sinking of the _Lusitania_. Three days before +Germany replied on May 28, a submarine attacked an American steamer, +the _Nebraska_, and the Imperial government followed up its first reply +with a supplementary note justifying its previous attacks upon the +American vessels _Gulflight_ and _Cushing_. Germany's fat was in the +fire. + +A German editor in the United States had the effrontery to announce +that American ships would be sunk as readily as the _Lusitania_. +Secretary Bryan, of the Department of State, at that time a confirmed +pacifist, resigned his post on June 8, thus drawing the sting of a +second and sharper protest which went forward to Germany the next +day. To this the Foreign Office replied on July 8 that American +ships would be safe in the submarine zone under certain conditions, +and the President on July 21 rejected this diplomatic sop as "very +unsatisfactory." Count von Bernstorff finally announced, on September +1, that German submarines would sink no more liners without warning, +and his government ratified his promise a fortnight later. The +promise was at best a quibble, and it in no way restricted undersea +depredations upon commerce and human life. After the _Lusitania_ +affair followed the _Leelanaw_, the _Arabic_, and the _Hesperian_ +and on February 16, 1916, Germany acknowledged her liability for the +_Lusitania's_ destruction--the day after Secretary Lansing declared the +right of commercial vessels to arm themselves in self-defense, and five +days before the Crown Prince began the ten-months' battle of Verdun. + +The published correspondence of the State Department gives in detail +the negotiations regarding maritime relations, a record of Imperial +hypocrisy which indicates clearly the desire and intention of the +Germans to retain their submarine warfare at any cost. There is not +space here to brief the papers, nor any great need, for it was the +_Lusitania_ which dictated the tone and outcome of the correspondence, +and which brought the United States rudely face to face with the cruel +facts of war. + +In spite of these facts, Germany employed her agents in desperate, +devious and futile attempts to gloss over the crime. Relatives of those +who had drowned were persuaded by agents (one of them was "a lawyer +named Fowler, now under Federal indictment on another count") to sue +the Cunard Line for damages for having mounted guns on the liner, +thus making her liable to attack. Paul Koenig paid a German, Gustave +Stahl, of Hoboken, to swear to an affidavit that he had seen guns on +the ship; this affidavit was forwarded by Captain Boy-Ed on June 1, to +Washington, and had a wide temporary effect upon public sentiment until +Stahl was convicted of perjury and sentenced to 18 months in Atlanta. +It was Koenig who hid Stahl where neither the police nor the press +could find him after he made his statement, and it was Koenig who, at +the command of the Federal authorities, produced him. It was Rintelen +who dined on the night of the tragedy at the home of one of the +victims; it was Rintelen who received the news with a mild expression +of regret because "he had two good men aboard." + +Tactically Germany had attained her objectives; her submarines had +obeyed orders and sunk a liner. Strategically Germany had made a gross +miscalculation; recruiting in England took a pronounced rise, the +Admiralty was shocked into redoubled vigilance, the United States +instead of swallowing the affront complicated the question of the +freedom of the seas beyond all untangling except by force of arms, and +beside the word "Belgium" on the calendar of crime the world wrote the +word "_Lusitania_," as equally typical of the warfare of the Hun. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +COMMERCIAL VENTURES + + German law in America--Waetzoldt's reports--The British + blockade--A report from Washington--Stopping the + chlorine supply--Speculation in wool--Dyestuffs and the + _Deutschland_--Purchasing phenol--The Bridgeport Projectile + Company--The lost portfolio--The recall of the attachés--A summary + of Dr. Albert's efforts. + + +In addition to the exercise of its diplomatic functions, now more +important than they had ever been before, the German Embassy had +assumed the burden of large commercial enterprises. Their execution +was entrusted to Dr. Albert, the privy councillor and fiscal agent +for the Empire. There was apparently no limit, either financial or +territorial, to the scope of his efforts, and the fact that he was able +to administrate such a volume of work is no small tribute to his zeal. +But that very zeal outran his regard for American law, so in one of his +earlier ventures he set out to substitute the law of the Empire for +that of the nation to which he was accredited. + +Dr. Albert was informed on March 10, 1915, by a German lawyer, +S. Walter Kaufmann of 60 Wall Street, that his clients, the +Orenstein-Arthur Keppel Company, had an order for 9,000 tons of +steel rails to be shipped to Russia, despite instructions from the +company's home office in Berlin that "no orders should be accepted for +shipment to any country at war with Germany, because of Paragraph 89 +of the Gesetz Buch." The Gesetz Buch is the German Penal Code. (One +of Kaufmann's law partners was Norvin R. Lindheim, legal adviser to +Germany's agents in the United States.) The manufacturers begged the +permission of the Embassy to accept the order and pass the actual +manufacture on to the United States Steel Company, in order to evade +the letter of Paragraph 89, and in order "to delay the order, if +that would in any way be desirable." The matter was neglected in the +Embassy, and on July 13 the Orenstein-Arthur Keppel Company wrote from +Keppel, Pa., to the German consul, Philadelphia, Dr. George Stobbe, +again asking permission to accept the order. The consul replied, +denying permission, on the ground that the shipment would facilitate +the Russian transport of troops, and that such action would be within +the meaning of Paragraph 89 of the Gesetz Buch. "That you are in +position to delay the delivery of the order, to the prejudice of the +hostile country ordering, in no way makes you less punishable," he +continued. He forwarded a copy of his ruling to the Ambassador for +approval, and it in turn was forwarded to Dr. Albert. The order was +not taken; the fear of punishment by Germany was greater than the +protection afforded by American Law. + +The foregoing episode reveals the nature of Dr. Albert's chief +problem--the financial blocking of supplies for the Allies. Let Boy-Ed +destroy the ships, von Papen dynamite the factories and railways, +Rintelen run his mad course of indiscriminate violence--the smooth +financial agent would undertake only those great business ventures in +which his shrewdness and experience could have play. He was receiving +reports constantly on the economic status, and the following extract +from a report from G. D. Waetzoldt, a trade investigator in the +Consulate in New York, will illustrate the German frame of mind about +midsummer of 1915: + +"The large war orders, as the professional journals also print, have +become the great means of saving American business institutions from +idleness and financial ruin. + +"The fact that institutions of the size and international influence +of those mentioned could not find sufficient regular business to keep +them to some extent occupied, half at least, throws a harsh light upon +the sad condition in which American business would have found itself +had it not been for the war orders. The ground which induced these +large interests to accept war orders rests entirely upon an economical +basis and can be explained by the above-mentioned conditions which were +produced by the lack of regular business. These difficulties, resulting +from the dividing up of the contracts, are held to have been augmented, +as stated in business circles, by the fact that certain agents working +in the German interest succeeded in further delaying and disturbing +American deliveries.... + +"So many contracts for the production of picric acid have been placed +that they can only be filled to a very small part." + +Dr. Albert also received a report from another trade expert, who had +had a long conference with ex-Senator John C. Spooner of Wisconsin +as to whether or not there could be prosecutions under the Sherman +Anti-Trust Law against British representatives because of the +restrictions placed by the British Government upon dealings by +Americans in certain copper, cotton and rubber. + +Naturally one of the most vital problems that stirred Dr. Albert was +the British Orders in Council blockading Germany, from which resulted +the seizure of meat and food supplies and cotton by British war +vessels. He was always on the alert for information of the attitude +of the Administration and the people of the United States toward the +blockade. In another report dated June 3, 1915, Waetzoldt said: + +"There can be no doubt that the British Government will bring into play +all power and pressure possible in order to complete the total blockade +of Germany from her foreign markets, and that the Government of the +United States will not make a strenuous effort to maintain its trade +with Germany.... + +"It has been positively demonstrated during this time that the falling +off of imports caused by the war in Europe will in the future be +principally covered by American industry.... + +"The complete stopping importation of German products will, in truth, +to a limited extent, especially in the first part of the blockade, help +the sale of English or French products, but the damage which will be +done to us in this way will not be great.... + +"The _Lusitania_ case did, in fact, give the English efforts in this +direction a new and powerful impetus, and at first the vehemence with +which the Anti-German movement began anew awakened serious misgivings, +but this case also will have a lasting effect, which, unless fresh +complications arise, we may be able to turn to the advantage of the +sales of German goods.... + +"The war will certainly have this effect, that the American business +world will devote all its energy toward making itself independent of +the importation of foreign products as far as possible.... + +"If the decision is again brought home to German industry it should +not be forgotten what position the United States took with reference +to Germany in this war. Above all, it should not be forgotten that +the 'ultimate ratio' of the United States is not the war with arms, +but a complete prohibition of trade with Germany, and in fact, +through legislation. That was brought out very clearly and sharply +in connection with the still pending negotiations regarding the +_Lusitania_ case." + +That Dr. Albert used secret and perhaps devious means to secure his +information is revealed by an unsigned confidential report which he +received under most mysterious circumstances concerning an interview +by a man referred to as "M. P." with President Wilson and Secretary +Lansing. The person who wrote of "the conversation" on July 23, 1915, +with "Legal Agent" Levy and Mr. John Simon does not give his name. A +striking part of this conversation follows: + +"Levy advises regarding a conference with M. P. Thereafter M. P. saw +Lansing as well as Wilson. He informed both of them that an American +syndicate had approached him which had strong German relations. This +syndicate wishes to buy up cotton for Germany in great style, thereby +to relieve the cotton situation, and at the same time to provide +Germany with cotton." (Dr. Albert attempted, with a suitable campaign +of press and political propaganda, to inflame the Southern planters +over the British embargo on cotton.) "The relations of the American +syndicate with Germany are very strong, so that they might even +possibly be able to influence the position of Germany in the general +political question. M. P. therefore asked for a candid, confidential +statement in order to make clear not only his own position, but also +necessarily the political opportunity. The result of the conversation +was as follows: + +"1. The note of protest to England will go in any event whether Germany +answers satisfactorily or not. + +"2. Should it be possible to settle satisfactorily the _Lusitania_ +case, the President will bind himself to carry the protest against +England through to the uttermost. + +"3. The continuance of the difference with Germany over the _Lusitania_ +case is 'embarrassing' for the President in carrying out the protest +against England.... + +"4. A contemplated English proposal to buy cotton in great style and +invest the proceeds in America would not satisfy the President as an +answer to the protest.... + +"5. The President, in order to ascertain from Mr. M. P. how strong the +German influence of this syndicate is, would like to have the trend +of the German note before the note is officially sent, and declares +himself ready, before the answer is drafted, to discuss it with M. P., +and eventually to so influence it that there will be an agreement for +its reception, and also to be ready to influence the press through a +wink. + +"6. As far as the note itself is concerned, which he awaits, so he +awaits another expression of regret, which was not followed in the last +note. Regret together with the statement that nobody had expected that +human lives would be lost and that the ship would sink so quickly. + +"7. The President is said to have openly declared that he could hardly +hope for a positive statement that the submarine warfare would be +discontinued." + +Dr. Albert conferred with Captains Boy-Ed and von Papen on all military +and naval matters having a commercial phase. Captain von Papen, on July +7, 1915, submitted to Dr. Albert a memorandum for his consideration and +further recommendation, headed "Steps Taken to Prevent the Exportation +of Liquid Chlorine." He told of the efforts made by England and France +to buy that chemical in America, estimated the output here, and cited +the manufacturers. He also enclosed a plan for checkmating the Allies +and concluded with the following paragraph: + +"It will be impossible, however, for this to go on any length of time, +as the shareholders wish the profits to be derived therefrom. Dr. +Orenstein therefore suggests that an agreement be consummated with the +Electro Bleaching Company, through the President, Kingsley, whereby the +delivery of liquid chlorine by this country to France and England will +be stopped. A suggested plan is enclosed herewith. + +"From a military standpoint I deem it very desirable to consummate such +an agreement, in order to stop thereby the further exportation of about +fifty-two tons of liquid chlorine monthly, especially in view of the +fact that in France there is only one factory (Rouen) which can produce +this stuff in small amounts, while it is only produced in very small +quantities, in England." + +During 1914 and 1915 German speculation in wool was active. Early +in the war von Bernstorff summoned a German-American wool merchant +recommended by a business friend in Berlin and directed him to buy all +the wool he could secure. He did so, using Deutsches Bank credits for +the purchases made for Germany, and making his purchases of wool for +Germany even in Cape Town and Australia. The German-American, after +following this practice for some months, decided that his financial +allegiance belonged to America, so he tried, through Hugo Schmidt, to +induce the German interests in his firm to sell out to him. On August +9, 1915, Schmidt wrote to Keswig, the Berlin principal: + +"Your friend here has inquired in London, and he offers no matter what +price may be realizable in London at that time to take over the wool +from you at the original price, in which case you would naturally pay +all the expenses, which are estimated to be about 6 per cent. As you +see, it is not so simple to deal with your friends." + +The German-American's offer meant a good profit to him, as the London +price of wool at that time had advanced nearly 15 per cent. Yet he +apparently fell into no ill favor with Berlin, for in June, 1916, the +German Foreign office wrote von Bernstorff: + +"Interested parties here have repeatedly made representations for +preferential treatment of the firm of Forstmann & Huffman in Passaic, +N. J., in connection with shipment of coal tar dyes to the United +States of America. Since this pure German firm, as is well known +on your side, undertook last year the wool supply for Germany, and +therefore claim it has been especially badly treated by England, it +is most respectfully recommended to Your Excellency, should there +be no reason to the contrary, to arrange for the greatest possible +consideration for this firm in the later distribution of the shipments +to consumers which now are in prospect." + +Necessity, the mother of invention, had forced America's production +of coal-tar derivatives and dyestuffs upward enormously during the +first year of war. As the British blockade tightened, the German +supply, which had long constituted the world supply, was cut off +completely. The value of dyestuffs in America increased enormously +from 1914 to 1915. Germany witnessed this growth with apprehension, +and realized gravely that export expansion would follow increased +and perfected production in America, which it promptly did. German +chemical interests involved in a drug house familiar with the German +market, have testified that their firm "paid three times the value" +of a cargo of dyestuffs shipped from Bremen to Baltimore in 1916 in +the huge undersea-boat _Deutschland_, "which paid for the ship and +cargo." Her sister ship, the _Bremen_, which set forth for America, but +never arrived, was also "built with money furnished by the dyestuff +manufacturers," according to Ambassador Gerard. + +The _Deutschland_ herself was 300 feet long, with a cargo capacity of +some 800 tons. She docked at the North German Lloyd piers in Baltimore, +and after loading a cargo of rubber and nickel, took an opportune +moment one foggy twilight to cast off and slip out to sea. She not only +returned safely to Germany but made another round trip to America, +putting in the second time at New London. She was at sea about three +weeks on each crossing of the Atlantic. + +Dr. Albert made plans for buying up carbolic acid to prevent it from +reaching the Allies. Dr. Hugo Schweitzer, a German-American chemist +of New York, paid down $100,000 cash on June 3, 1915, to the American +Oil & Supply Company in New Jersey as part payment of $1,400,000 for +1,212,000 pounds of carbolic acid, of which the American Oil & Supply +Company had directed the purchase from Thomas A. Edison. Dr. Schweitzer +said that he bought the liquid not to prevent it from falling into the +hands of the Allies but to use in the manufacture of medical supplies. + +Not the least interesting of Dr. Albert's financial experiences is +that which conceived and bore the Bridgeport Projectile Company. In a +conference early in 1915 in the offices of G. Amsinck & Co., in New +York, Count von Bernstorff came to the conclusion that one way to +prevent the shipment of munitions to the enemy was to monopolize the +industry, or at least to control it financially as far as possible. Dr. +Albert made an unsuccessful attempt to buy the Union Metallic Cartridge +plant for $17,000,000. He chose as his lieutenants for his next task +Hugo Schmidt, the New York representative of the Deutsches Bank, and +Karl Heynen, whose past record had been auspicious, as agent for Mexico +of the Hamburg-American Line. Heynen it was who had smuggled a cargo +of arms ashore for Huerta at Vera Cruz, under the nose of the American +fleet; he had received some 40,000 pesos (Mexican) for the coup, and he +was regarded as a capable individual. On March 31, 1915, the Bridgeport +Projectile Company was incorporated for $2,000,000, paid in, with +Walter Knight as president, Heynen as treasurer, and Karl Foster as +secretary and counsel. + +Schmidt drew up a contract with the new-born company calling for a +large order of shells. On May 17 Heynen reported to Albert that 534 +hydraulic presses for making shells of calibres 2.95 to 4.8 had been +ordered, and would cost $417,550. These orders, with all others for +tools and machinery which the Bridgeport company placed, were so +well concealed about the business world that as late as August the +impression was current that Great Britain was financing the company. +On June 30 Heynen reported to Albert through Schmidt that the first +shell cases would be manufactured under United States government +inspection, in order to create the impression that the company was +anxious for American contracts, and so that immediate delivery could be +made in case such contracts were actually secured. "The most important +buildings, forges, and machine shops, are almost under roof; the other +buildings are fairly under way; presses, machinery and all other +materials are being promptly assembled, and there is every indication +that deliveries will commence as provided in the contract; i. e., on +Sept. 1st, 1915." + +The Bridgeport Projectile Company contracted with the Ætna Powder +Company, one of the largest producers of explosives in America, for +its entire output up to January, 1916, and then turned round and +offered the Spanish government a million pounds of powder. The Spanish +representatives may have suspected the identity of the company, for +they raised certain objections to the contract, to which Heynen +refused to listen, and he also reported to his superiors that British +and Russian purchasing agents were going to call on him within a few +days. He made a contract with Henry Disston & Co. for two million +pieces of steel, most of them tools, for which Schmidt advanced the +money. He contracted with the Camden Iron Works of Camden, N. J., for +presses, and posted a forfeit of $165,000 in case the contract should +be cancelled; the contract was signed and cancelled the next day by +the Bridgeport company, causing the Camden concern great business +difficulty. + +Thus, by the manipulation of contracts, Dr. Albert and his associates +were accomplishing the following ends: + +1. Arranging to supply Germany with shells and powder (as soon as +smuggling could be effected) at a time when official Germany was +attempting to persuade the United States to place an embargo on the +shipment of war materials to the Allies. + +2. Securing a monopoly on all powder available. + +3. So tying up the machinery and tool manufacturers that all their +production for months to come was under contract to the Bridgeport +Projectile Company, yet so wielding the cancellation clauses in its +contracts that delivery could be delayed and the date further postponed +when the manufacturers of machinery and tools could be free to take +Allied orders. + +4. Arranging to accept contracts for the United States and the Allies +under such provisions that there would be no impossible forfeit if the +contracts could not be fulfilled. This would have the effect of making +the Allies believe that they were going to receive supplies which the +Bridgeport Projectile Company had no intention of furnishing them. + +5. Heynen, by the contract with the munitions industry, which his +work afforded, knew where Allied orders for shells were placed, and +he learned to his pleasure that the Allies were being forced to +contract for shrapnel which was forged--a less satisfactory process +than pressing. He also learned that the first two orders for forged +shrapnel placed by the Allies had been rejected because the product was +inferior. + +6. Paying abnormal wages with the unlimited funds at its disposal, +stealing labor from the Union Metallic Cartridge Company in Bridgeport, +and generally unsettling the labor situation. + +7. Offering powder to Spain, a neutral with strong German affiliations. + +The project was glorious in its forecast. But we may well let a German +hand describe how it failed; among the papers captured by the British +on the war correspondent and secret messenger Archibald at Falmouth in +late August was a letter from Captain von Papen to his wife in Germany, +in which he said: + +"Our good friend Albert has been robbed of a thick portfolio of papers +on the elevated road. English secret service men of course." (Papen +was not altogether correct in this statement.) "Unfortunately, some +very important matters from my report are among the papers, such as the +purchase of liquid chlorine, the correspondence with the Bridgeport +Projectile Company, as well as documents relating to the purchase of +phenol, from which explosives are manufactured, and the acquisition of +Wright's aeroplane patents. I send you also the reply of Albert, in +order that you may see how we protect ourselves. This we compounded +last night in collaboration."[4] + +Dr. Albert could hardly have chosen a more unfortunate set of documents +to carry about with him and lose. "Pitiless publicity" was his reward, +and the statement which he and von Papen prepared in refutation and +denial was received by those in authority as precisely the sort of +denial which any unscrupulous and able master of intrigue might be +expected to issue under the circumstances--and no more. If there had +been any doubt of the perniciousness of his activities--and there was +none--it would have been dispelled by the seizure of the Archibald +letters, but the result of the exposures of German activity which +made the _New York World_, a newspaper worth watching during August +and September, 1915, was not the expulsion of Dr. Albert, but of the +military and naval attachés. Albert, while he had been magnificently +busy attempting to disturb America's calm, had been cunning enough +to keep his hands free of blood and powder smoke; Boy-Ed and von +Papen had to answer for the origination of so many crimes that it +is almost incredible in the light of later events that they escaped +with nothing more than a dismissal. On December 4, Secretary Lansing +demanded their recall on account of their connection "with the illegal +and questionable acts of certain persons within the United States"; +Bernstorff made no reply for ten days, and received a sharp reminder +for his delay; he then replied that the Kaiser agreed to the recall. +Four days before Christmas von Papen sailed for England and Holland. +On January 2 and 3, 1916, his effects were searched by the British at +Falmouth and two documents among others found may be cited here. Boy-Ed +sailed on New Year's Day, but with no incriminating documents, for he +had been warned. + +The first document found on von Papen was a letter from President +Knight of the Bridgeport Projectile Company, dated Sept. 11, 1915, +addressed to Heynen at 60 Wall Street--the building in which von Papen +had his office--giving certain specifications for shells that were +being made in the new Bridgeport plant; the second was a memorandum of +an interview on December 21, between Papen, Heynen, G. W. Hoadley of +the affiliated American-British Manufacturing Company, and Captain +Hans Tauscher. The four men had discussed specifications for a time, +and had agreed that firing tests of the projectiles could be made "in +a bomb-proof place by electrical explosion." Delays in production at +Bridgeport are evident in the last sentence of the memorandum: + + + "It was agreed that Mr. Hoadley, till date, has complied with + all the conditions of the contracts of the 1st April, with the + exception of the commencement of the delivery of the shells, which + is due to _force majeure_, i. e., to failure to timely obtain + the delivery of machinery and tools occasioned by strikes in the + machine factories." + + +A letter to von Papen from Dr. Albert, then in San Francisco, undated +but obviously written in December, 1915, contained these farewell +sentiments: + + + "Dear Herr von Papen, + + "Well, then! How I wish I were in New York and could discuss the + situation with you and B. E.... So we shall not see each other + for the present. Shall we at all before you leave? It would be + my most anxious wish; but my hope is small. From this time, I + suppose, matters will move more quickly than in Dumba's case. + I wonder whether our Government will respond in a suitable + manner! In my opinion it need no longer take public opinion so + much into consideration, in spite of it being artificially and + intentionally agitated by the press and the legal proceedings, + so that a somewhat 'stiffer' attitude would be desirable, + naturally quiet and dignified!... Please remember me to your chief + personally. I assume that he still remembers me from the time of + the 'experimental establishment for aircraft,' and give my best + wishes to Mr. Scheuch, and tell him that the struggle on the + American front is sometimes very hard.... When I think of your and + Boy-Ed's departure, and that I alone remain behind in New York, I + could--well, better not!" + + +Perhaps Dr. Albert would have accompanied the attachés had not the +submarine situation been so acute. For while the Government had in its +possession sufficient provocation for his dismissal, and that of Count +von Bernstorff as well, the Government's desire at that time was peace, +and stubbornly, patiently, it clung to its ideal in a dogged attempt to +preserve its neutrality. Dr. Albert had run the British blockade with +his supplies for Germany, and had roared protest when Great Britain +seized cargoes of meat intended for Germany, although she paid the +packers for them in full. He had floated a German loan through Chandler +& Company, a New York house of which Rudolph Hecht, one of his agents, +was a member; he had sold $500,000,000 worth of German securities; to +sum up his financial activities, he had played every trick he knew, and +his last year in America was unfruitful of result, for he was watched. +He returned to Germany personally enriched, for time and again, +prompted by stock tips from his German friends on stocks or "September +lard," and by diplomatic information which he knew would influence the +stock market, he made handsome winnings for von Bernstorff and himself. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[4] The captain added: "The sinking of the _Adriatic_" (by which he +meant the _Arabic_, which had been sunk without warning on August 19, +with a loss of sixteen lives, two of them American), "may be the last +straw for the sake of our cause. I hope the matter will blow over." +On October 5 the German Government, consistent with its assurance of +September 1 that no more ships would be sunk without warning, disavowed +the sinking of the _Arabic_, and offered to pay indemnities. So the +matter "blew over." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE PUBLIC MIND + + Dr. Bertling--The _Staats-Zeitung_--George Sylvester + Viereck and _The Fatherland_--Efforts to buy a press + association--Bernhardi's articles--Marcus Braun and _Fair + Play_--Plans for a German news syndicate--Sander, Wunnenberg, + Bacon and motion pictures--The German-American Alliance--Its + purposes--Political activities--Colquitt of Texas--The + "Wisconsin Plan"--Lobbying--Misappropriation of German Red Cross + funds--Friends of Peace--The American Truth Society. + + +Some one has said that America will emerge from this war a gigantic +national entity, a colossus wrought of the fused metal of her scores +of mixed nationalities. That is naturally desirable, and historically +probable. If such is the result, Germany will have lost for all time +one of her most powerful allies--the German population in the United +States. Nearly one-tenth of the population of the United States in 1914 +was of either German birth or parentage. Ethnic lines are not erased +in a generation except by some great emergency, such as war affords. +Germany is doomed to a deserved disappointment in the loss of her +American stock--deserved because she tried so hard to Germanize America. + +She wasted no time in injecting her verbal propagandists into the +struggle on the American front. On August 20, 1914, Dr. Karl Oskar +Bertling, assistant director of the Amerika Institut in Berlin, +landed in New York, and went at once to report to von Bernstorff. The +Amerika Institut had of recent years made considerable progress in +familiarizing Germany with American affairs; its chief director, Dr. +Walther Drechsler, had been master of German in Middlesex, a prominent +boys' school in Massachusetts; he returned to Berlin in 1913 and was +attached, upon the outbreak of war, to the press office. All who were +associated with it knew something of America. It is characteristic of +the convertibility of German institutions to war that another executive +of this organization, employed in peace times to cement the friendship +between the two nations, should be sent on the day war was declared to +America to establish a German press bureau. + +Dr. Bertling went about delivering pro-German speeches, and prepared +articles for the press on international questions. These he submitted +to Bernstorff himself for approval--one such story was to be published +in a Sunday magazine supplement to a long "string" of American +newspapers. Although every editor was on the lookout for any "war +stuff" which was written with any apparent background of European +politics, he found small market for his wares among the New York +newspapers, and some of his speaking dates were cancelled. He proposed +to publish, with one of his stories, a set of German military maps of +Belgium, but to this von Papen wrote him on November 21: "I entirely +agree with you in your opinion in regard to the maps--it is a two-edged +sword," and he added: "One observes how very ill-informed the average +American is." Bertling's lack of accomplishment drew censure, however, +from several sources: the head of the German-American Chamber of +Commerce in Berlin chided him for not having carried out his "special +mission to supply a cable service to South America and China," and the +late Professor Hugo Muensterberg of Harvard waxed righteously indignant +over the fact that Bertling opened and read a letter entrusted by the +psychologist to him for safe delivery to Dr. Dernburg. Bertling applied +to the Embassy for special employment, and on March 19, 1915, the +ambassador's private secretary wrote him: + +"His Excellency is entirely agreeable to giving you the desired +employment, but he considers the present conditions too uncertain, as +his departure for Germany in the near future is not impossible." + +Excellent testimony to the subtle iniquity of his task lies in +the names of the men whose pro-Ally utterances he was striving to +counteract. In a letter written December 20, 1914, to Bertling by C. W. +Ernst, a Bostonian of German birth and American naturalization, appears +this passage: + +"Is it prudent to defend the German cause against such men as C. W. +Eliot and other Americans who consider themselves artistocratic and +important?... Who, apparently, was of more importance than Roosevelt, +to whom now even the dogs pay no attention?... The feeling of men like +Eliot, C. F. Adams, etc., is well understood. German they know not. +They understand neither Luther nor Kant, nor the history of Germany.... +Tactically it is a mistake to be easy going with England, or in +discussion with her American toadies. By curtness, defiance, irony one +can get much further...." + +His friend in the German-American Chamber of Commerce wrote again +to Berlin in a vein which showed how closely Germany herself was +watching publicity in America. "Viereck has sent me a letter," he +said, "and _Harper's_ printed some matter by way of Italy.... The +Foreign Office and the War Department urgently want more reports sent +here. If cables through neutral countries are not feasible, could +not Americans travelling be called upon? More steam, please.... The +exchange professors should get busy.... One is quite surprised here +that with the exception of Burgess and possibly Sloan, nobody seems +to be doing anything.... Nasmith's article, 'The Case for Germany,' +in the _Outlook_ is very good--inspired by me. The same of Mead's in +_Everybody's_." + +And again: "We will dog Uncle Sam's footsteps with painful +accuracy--his sloppy, obstinate, pro-English neutrality we utterly +repudiate. When God wishes to punish a country he gives it a W. J. B. +as Secretary of State." + +(When Bryan resigned, German rumors were circulated from time to time +that Secretary Lansing, who succeeded him, had had a falling out with +President Wilson, and was himself on the point of resigning. What Herr +Walther thought of "W. J. B."'s successor is a matter of conjecture.) + +The documents found in Dr. Bertling's possession, and the method of +securing them, brought forth a sharp editorial from Bernard Ridder of +the _New Yorker Staats-Zeitung_, then one of the stanch members of +the foreign language press engaged in defending Germany. Dr. Bertling +remained unmolested in the United States until April, 1918, when he +was arrested as an enemy alien in Lexington, Mass., and interned. +Dr. Bernhardt Dernburg, to quote the words of a German associate, +"had some propaganda and wrote some articles for the newspapers" ... +and was "certainly in connection with the German Government," gave +Adolph Pavenstedt $15,000 in early October, 1914. To this Pavenstedt +added $5,000, and on October 12 paid the sum of $20,000 to the +_Staats-Zeitung_, to tide the newspaper over a rough financial period. +"I expected," said Pavenstedt," that if the business were bankrupt it +would be lost to the Ridders, who have always followed a very good +course for the German interests here." + +[Illustration: Photographs of checks signed by Adolf Pavenstedt] + +Soon after the war began George Sylvester Viereck brought out his +publication, _The Fatherland_, a moderately clever attempt to appeal +to intelligent readers in Germany's behalf. On July 1, 1915, the +publication having stumbled along a rocky financial path--for no +publication distributed gratis can make money--Dr. Albert wrote Viereck: + +"Your account for the $1,500--bonus, after deducting the $250 received, +for the month of June, 1915, has been received. I hope in the course of +the next week to be able to make payment. In the meantime, I request +the proposal of a suitable person who can ascertain accurately and +prove the financial condition of your paper. From the moment when we +guarantee you a regular advance, I must + +"1. Have a new statement of the condition of your paper. + +"2. Practise a control over the financial management. + +"In addition to this we must have an understanding regarding the course +in politics which you will pursue, which we have not asked heretofore. +Perhaps you will be kind enough to talk the matter over on the basis of +this letter, with Mr. Fuehr." Fuehr's office was across the hall from +Viereck. + +Viereck had assembled about him among others a staff of contributors +which included Dr. Dernburg, Frank Koester, Rudolph Kronau, J. Bernard +Rethey, a writer who affects the _nom de plume_ of "Oliver Ames," +Edmund von Mach (whose brother is an official of some prominence +in Germany), and Ram Chandra (the editor of a revolutionary Hindu +newspaper published in California). Viereck, in his paper, forecasted +the sinking of the _Lusitania_ and later gloated over it as well as +over the murder of Edith Cavell. His father is the Berlin correspondent +of his paper. They are both "naturalized" citizens of the United +States. One of his contributors, as late as 1918, wrote for Viereck a +peculiarly suspicious essay on his conversion to Americanism, setting +forth in exhaustive detail the pro-German convictions which he had +previously held, and the justification for them, and winding up with +a pallid renunciation of them, the document as a whole intended +ostensibly to stimulate patriotism, while in reality it would have +rekindled the dying German apology. The pernicious Viereck, whose +mental stature may be judged by the fact that he treasured a violet +from the grave of Oscar Wilde, sought to interest the Embassy in his +merits as a publisher of German books, and was supported, as pro-German +volumes were issued from the Jackson Press which he controlled. He +suggested, too, to Dr. Albert names of American publishing houses as +excellent media for bringing out propaganda books on account of their +obvious innocence of German sympathies. + +A more patent attempt to influence the public originated in the German +Embassy itself. Dr. Albert, through intermediaries, schemed to obtain +for $900,000 control of a press association. The sale was not made. One +of Dr. Albert's agents, M. B. Claussen, formerly publicity agent for +the Hamburg-American Line, established in the Hotel Astor, New York, +the "German Information Bureau" for disseminating "impartial news about +the war" and "keeping the American mind from becoming prejudiced," and +he issued many a red-white-and-black statement to the newspapers. + +The German interests also had designs on buying an important New York +evening newspaper, the _Mail_. One of von Papen's assistants, George +von Skal, a former reporter (and the predecessor as commissioner of +accounts of John Purroy Mitchel, New York's "fighting mayor"), entered +the negotiations in a letter written by Paul T. Davis to Dr. Albert at +the embassy. This letter, dated, June 21, 1915, set forth that-- + +"In November, 1914, my father, George H. Davis, conceived the idea +that Germany ought to be represented in New York by one of the papers +printed in English. He spoke to a number of German-Americans about +the scheme and finally through Mr. George von Skal got in touch with +Ambassador Count von Bernstorff. Mr. Percival Kuhne acted as the +head of the movement until it was found that he could not devote the +necessary time to the matter in hand and at father's suggestion Mr. +Ludwig Nissen was substituted.... We decided upon the _Mail_ as the +only paper that was not too expensive.... We opened negotiations with +the proprietors of the _Mail_ and proceeded until Ambassador Count von +Bernstorff notified both Mr. Kuhne and Mr. Nissen that at that time +nothing further should be done in the matter...." + +The _Mail_ was sold, however, to Dr. Rumely. + +Dr. Albert collected for General Franz Bernhardi the proceeds of the +publication in American newspapers of the latter's famous "Germany and +the Next War." Bernhardi wrote von Papen on April 9, 1915: + +"I have now written two further series of articles for America. +The Foreign Office wanted to have the first of these, entitled +'Germany and England,' distributed in the American press; the other, +entitled 'Pan-Germanism,' was to appear in the Chicago _Tribune_. +They will certainly have some sort of effect, this is evident from +the inexpressible rage with which the British and French press have +attacked those _Sun_ articles." + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +George Sylvester Viereck, founder and Editor of _The Fatherland_ a +pro-German propaganda weekly known later as _Viereck's Weekly_] + +Bernstorff and Papen, under orders from Chancellor von +Bethmann-Hollweg, in May, 1915, had under consideration the payment of +from $1,000 to $1,200 for the expenses of a trip to Germany for Edward +Lyell Fox, a newspaper writer, who "at the time of his last sojourn in +Germany" (in 1914) "was of great benefit to us by reason of his good +despatches." + +Von Bernstorff himself wrote on March 15, 1915, to Marcus Braun, a +Hungarian, and editor of a review called _Fair Play_: + + + "_My dear Mr. Braun_: + + "In answer to your favor of the 12th instant, I beg to say that I + have read the monthly review _Fair Play_ for the last 3 years, and + I can state that this publication is living up to its name, and + that it has always taken the American point of view. During the + last 7 months _Fair Play_ has, in its editorial policy, treated + all belligerents justly and thereby rendered great services to + the millions of foreign born citizens in this country, especially + to those of German and Austro-Hungarian origin. _Fair Play_ + has fought for the rights of the latter and for truth, always + maintaining an American attitude and showing true American spirit. + + "You are at liberty to show this letter to anybody who is + interested in the matter, but I beg you not to publish it, as to + (do) this would be contrary to the instructions of my government, + who does not wish me to publicly advertise any review or newspaper. + + "Very sincerely yours, + + "J. BERNSTORFF." + + +On May 28, 1915, J. Bernstorff signed another gratifying document for +the same Braun--a check for $5,000 payable to the Fair Play Printing & +Publishing Company. Such was the reward of "true American spirit." + +When Germany embarked upon an enterprise she usually followed charts +prepared by trained surveyors. Her attempts at newspaper and magazine +propaganda in the first ten months of war had been hastily conceived +and not altogether successful. One of the most comprehensive reports +which has come to light is a recommendation, dated July, 1915, in +which the investigator discusses the feasibility of a strong German +news-syndicate in America. + +It was to be operated by two bureaus, one in Berlin as headquarters for +all news and pictures from Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and the +Balkans, one in New York for distribution of the matter to the American +press. Correspondents from America were to be given the privileges of +both Eastern and Western fronts, from 3,000 to 4,000 words a day were +to be sent by wireless from Nauen to Sayville, secret codes were to be +arranged so that the cable news might be smuggled past the enemy in +the guise of commercial messages. The bureau in New York was to gather +American news for Germany, and the service was eventually to extend +over the whole world. + +[Illustration: + +GERMAN EMBASSY +WASHINGTON, D.C. + +Washington, D.C., March 15, 1915. + +J.Na 4344 + +My dear Mr. Braun, + +In answer to your favor of 12th instant I beg to say that I have read +the monthly review "Fair Play" for the last 3 years, and I can state +that this publication has been living up to its name and that it has +always taken the American point of view. During the last 7 months +"Fair Play" has, in its editorial policy, treated all belligerents +justly and thereby rendered great services to the millions of foreign +born citizens of this country, especially to those of German and +Austro-Hungarian origin. "Fair Play" has fought for the rights of the +latter and for truth, always maintaining an American attitude and +showing true American spirit. + +You are at liberty to show this letter to anybody who is interested +in the matter, but I beg you not to publish it, as to this would be +contrary to the instructions of my Government, who does not wish me to +publicly advertize any reviews or newspaper. + +Very sincerely yours, + +_J. Bernstorff_ + +Marcus Braun, Esq., +Editor of "Fair Play" +New York City. + +Fac-simile of a letter from Count von Bernstorff to the editor of "Fair +Play"] + +"In fact," said the report, "it will be particularly desirable to +inaugurate the Chinese service at once, so that the American public +is informed about that which really happens in order to create an +effective counter-weight against the Japanese propaganda in the +American press." + +The New York bureau was estimated to cost $6,640 per month, the bureau +in Berlin about half that sum; two years' effort would have cost +about $200,000. The writer proposed to establish a lecture service as +auxiliary, the total expenses of which, covering the Chautauquas of one +summer, he estimated at $75,000. The investigator concluded: + +"Hoping that my proposals will lead to a successful result, I will take +the liberty of advising in the interest of the German cause--aside from +the fact whether my proposals will be carried out or not--that the +following should be avoided on the part of Germany in the future: + +"1. The Belgian neutrality question as well as the question of the +Belgian atrocities should not be mentioned any more in the future. + +"2. It should not be tried any more in America to put the blame for +the world war and its consequences alone on England, as a considerable +English element still exists in America, and the American people hold +to the view that all parties, as usual, are partly guilty for the war. + +"3. The pride and imagination of the Americans with regard to their +culture should not continually be offended by the assertion that +German culture is the only real culture and surpasses everything else. + +"4. The publication of purely scientific pamphlets should be avoided in +the future as far as the American people are concerned, as their dry +reading annoys the American and is incomprehensible to him. + +"5. Finally it is of the utmost importance that the authorities as well +as the German people cease continually to discuss publicly the delivery +of American arms and ammunition, as well as to let every American feel +their displeasure about it." + +The Foreign Office never saw fit to act upon the investigator's +proposals, for less than a month after he had written his report, it +appeared, verbatim, in the columns of a New York newspaper. Axiom: The +most effective means of fighting enemy propaganda is by propaganda for +which the enemy unwittingly supplies the material. + +[Illustration: Copy of a check from Count von Bernstorff to the Fair +Play Printing and Publishing Company] + +Motion pictures appealed to the Germans as a practical and graphic +means of spreading through America visual proof of their kindness +to prisoners, their prodigious success with new engines of war, and +their brutal reception at the hands of the nations they were forced +in self-defence to invade. So Dr. Albert financed the American +Correspondent Film Company, two of whose stockholders were Claussen +and Dr. Karl A. Fuehr, a translator in Viereck's office. As late as +August, 1916, Karl Wunnenberg and Albert A. Sander, of the "Central +Powers Film Company," which was also subsidized to circulate +German-made moving pictures, engaged George Vaux Bacon, a free-lance +theatrical press agent, to go to England at a salary of $100 a week, +obtain valuable information, and transmit it in writing in invisible +ink to Holland, where it would be forwarded to Germany. The two +principals were later indicted on a charge of having set afoot a +military enterprise against Great Britain, and were sentenced to two +years in prison; Bacon, the cat's-paw, received a year's sentence. +(Sander, a German, had been involved in secret-agent work on a previous +occasion when he assaulted Richard Stegler for not disavowing an +affidavit explaining his acquisition of a false passport.) The secret +ink they gave Bacon was invisible under all conditions unless a certain +chemical preparation, which could be compounded only with distilled +water, was applied to it. + +At the start of the war there began in Congress a vehement debate +over the question of imposing a legislative embargo on the shipment +of arms and ammunition to the Allies. In these debates participated +men who undoubtedly were sincere in the convictions they expressed. +Nevertheless, in the late winter and early spring of 1915, a hireling +of the Germans began to seek secret conferences with congressmen in a +Washington hotel and to outline to them plans for compelling an embargo +on munitions. His activities bring us to the affairs of the National +German-American Alliance, Germany's most powerful and least tangible +factor of general propaganda in the United States. + +The organization had a large membership among Germans in America; +it has been estimated that there were three million members, who +constituted a great majority of the adult German-American population. +It received a Federal charter in 1907. The Alliance, to quote Professor +John William Scholl, of the University of Michigan, (in the New York +_Times_ of March 2, 1918), "strives to awaken a sense of unity among +the people of German origin in America; to 'centralize' their powers +for the 'energetic defense of such justified wishes and interests' as +are not contrary to the rights and duties of good citizens; to defend +its class against 'nativistic encroachments'; to 'foster and assure +good, friendly relations of America to the old German fatherland.' Such +are its declared objects. + +"All petty quibbling aside, this programme can mean nothing else than +the maintenance of a Germanized body of citizens among us, conscious +of their separateness, resistant to all forces of absorption. It is +mere camouflage to state in a later paragraph that this body does not +intend to found a 'State within the State,' but merely sees in this +centralization the 'best means of attaining and maintaining the aims' +set forth above. + +"All existing societies of Germans are called upon as 'organized +representatives of Deutschtum' to make it a point of honor to form a +national alliance, to foster formation of new societies in all States +of the Union, so that the whole mass of Germans in America can be +used as a unit for political action. This league pledges itself 'with +all legal means at hand unswervingly and at all times to enter the +lists for the maintenance and propagation of its principles for their +vigorous defense wherever and whenever in danger.'" + +Professor Scholl, himself a teacher of German, continues: "A little +attention to the context of the sentences quoted shows that these +Germans demand the privilege of coming to America, getting citizenship +on the easiest terms possible, while maintaining intact their alien +speech, alien customs, and alien loyalties. That is 'assimilation,' +the granting of equal political rights and commercial opportunities, +without exacting any alteration in modes of life or 'Sittlichkeit.' +'Absorption' means Americanization, a fusing with the whole mass of +American life, an adoption of the language and ideals of the country, +a spiritual rebirth into Anglo-Saxon civilization, and this has great +terrors for the members of a German alliance. + +"A glance back over the whole scheme will show how cleverly it was +made to unite the average recent comeoverer with his beer-drinking +proclivities, with the professor of German, who had visions of +increased interest in his specialty, and the professor of history, +who hoped for larger journal space and ampler funds, and the readily +flattered wealthy German of some attainments, into a close league +of interests, which could be used at the proper time for almost any +nefarious purpose which a few men might dictate. + +"Add to this the emphatic moral and financial support of the +German-language press as one of the most powerful agencies of the +organization, and we have the stage set for just what happened a little +over three years ago." + +The Alliance, long before the war, had been active in extending German +influence. Among other affairs, it had arranged the visit of Prince +Henry of Prussia. Its president, Dr. C. J. Hexamer, whose headquarters +were in Philadelphia, had received special recognition from the Kaiser +for his efforts--efforts which may be briefly set forth in a speech +addressed to Germans in Milwaukee by Hexamer himself: + +"You have been long-suffering under the preachment that you must be +assimilated, but we shall never descend to an inferior culture. We are +giving to these people the benefits of German culture." + +The outbreak of war made the Alliance an exceedingly important, if +unwieldy, instrument for shaping public opinion. It promoted and +sponsored a so-called National Embargo Conference in Chicago in 1915, +working hand-in-glove with Labor's National Peace Council in an +attempt to persuade Congress to pass a law forbidding the export of +munitions. At every congressional election, particularly in such cities +as Chicago, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, the hand of Prussia +was stirring about. When O. B. Colquitt, a former governor of Texas, +decided to run for the Senate in late 1915, he corresponded with the +editors of the _Staats-Zeitung_ and a New York member of the Alliance +for support from the German press and the German vote in his state. + +The next year saw the approach of a presidential campaign, and the +Alliance established a campaign headquarters in New York to dictate +which candidates for United States offices should receive the solid +German-American vote. Such candidates had to record themselves as +opposed to the policies of the Administration. An effort was made to +further the nomination of Champ Clark as the Democratic candidate, +succeeding Wilson. A German professor, Leo Stern, superintendent +of schools in Milwaukee, after a conference with Hexamer there, +wrote to the New York headquarters approving the "Wisconsin plan" +(Hexamer's) for swaying the Republican national convention. This plan +set forth that "it is necessary that a portion of the delegations to +the ... convention--a quarter to a third--shall consist of approved, +distinguished German-Americans." The Alliance was bitterly opposed +to Wilson, it hated the lashing tongue and the keen nose of Theodore +Roosevelt, it distrusted Elihu Root, and deriving much of its income +from the liquor business, it feared prohibition. + +Politically the Alliance was constantly active. It supported in +early 1916, through its friendly congressmen, the McLemore and Gore +resolutions, the latter of which, according to Hexamer, deserved +passage because it would-- + +"1. Refuse passports to Americans travelling on ships, of the +belligerents. + +"2. Place an embargo on contraband of war. + +"3. Prohibit Federal Reserve Banks from subscribing to foreign loans." +The Alliance's lobbyist called on Senators Stone, Gore, O'Gorman, +Hitchcock (all of whom he reported as "opposed to Lansing"), Senator +Smith of Arizona, Senators Kern, Martine, Lewis ("our friend"), +Smith of Georgia, Works, Jones, Chamberlain, McCumber, Cummins, +Borah and Clapp. Borah, he said, had "a fool idea about Americans +going everywhere." In the House of Representatives he canvassed the +Democratic and Republican leaders, Kitchin and Mann, and a group "all +of whom want the freedom of the seas," which included Dillon of South +Dakota, Bennett of New York, Smith of Buffalo, Kinchloe of New York, +Shackleford of Missouri, and Staley and Decker of Kentucky. "I saw +Padgett, chairman of the house naval affairs committee," he continued, +"he will fall in line after a while.... I am working with Stephens of +the House and Gore of the Senate to put their bills in one bill as a +joint resolution. I have told them that my league would aid them in +getting members of the House and the Senate, as well as helping them +with propaganda (this was their suggestion)." + +The resolutions failed. + +All these activities cost money. The German Embassy through Dr. Albert +furnished the headquarters of the Alliance with sufficient funds for +its many purposes. Count von Bernstorff is alleged to have handled a +large fund for bribery of American legislators, but the fact has never +been established, beyond his request in January, 1917, for $50,000, for +such purposes. It is a fact, however, that the National German-American +Alliance collected a sum of $886,670 during the years 1914-1917 for +the German Red Cross; this was turned over to von Bernstorff for +transmission to Germany, and officers of the Alliance have admitted +that of this sum about $700,000 was probably employed in propaganda +by Dr. Dernburg and Dr. Meyer-Gerhardt, who posed as the head of the +German Red Cross in America. Contributions to the German and Austrian +relief funds came in as late as October, 1917, although no part of them +were forwarded to Europe after the entrance of America into the war. + +This last event occasioned further activity on the part of the +Alliance; during the period which followed the break in diplomatic +relaxations, and while Congress was debating the question of war, +members of Congress were deluged with an extraordinary flood of +telegrams from German-Americans cautioning them against taking such a +step. These telegrams were prepared by the Alliance and the "American +Neutrality League" and circulated among their members and sympathizers, +to be sent to Washington. The Alliance then issued to its branches +throughout the states a resolution of loyalty to be adopted in case war +was declared. This resolution, after making a hearty declaration of +loyalty to the United States, went on to belie its promise with such +pacifist utterances as this: + +"Our duty before the war was to keep out of it. Our duty now is to get +out of it." + +So earnest were the efforts of the Alliance to keep out of war that +some ten months after its declaration of loyalty was promulgated, +Congress decided to investigate the organization, with a view to +revoking its charter. The investigation wrote into the archives certain +characteristics of the Alliance which had long been obvious to the +truly American public; its deep-rooted Teutonism, its persistent +zeal, and its dangerous scope of activity. The courageous legislators +who initiated and pursued the investigation, in the face of constant +opposition of the most tortuous variety, had their reward, for on +April 11, 1918, the executive committee of the National Alliance met +in Philadelphia and dissolved the organization, turned the $30,000 in +its coffers over to the American Red Cross, and uttered a swan song of +loyalty to the United States. The body of the octopus was dead. One +by one, first in Brooklyn, then in San Francisco, then elsewhere, its +tentacles sloughed away. + +A word for the pacifists. One pacifist constitutes a quorum in any +society. There were in America at the outbreak of war one hundred +million people who disliked war. As the injustices of Germany +multiplied, the patriotic war-haters became militarists, and there +sprang up little groups of malcontents who resented, usually by German +consent, any tendency on the part of the Government to avenge the +insult to its independence. Social and industrial fanatics of all +descriptions flocked to the standard of "Peace at Any Price," and for +want of a dissenting audience soon convinced themselves that they had +something to say. + +Many of the peace movements which were set going during the first three +years of the war were sincere, many were not. A mass meeting held at +Madison Square Garden in 1915 at which Bryan was the chief speaker, was +inspired by Germany. In the insincere class falls also the "Friends +of Peace," organized in 1915. Its letterhead bore the invitation: +"Attend the National Peace Convention, Chicago, Sept. 5 and 6," and +incidentally betrayed the origin of the society. The letterhead stated +that the society represented the American Truth Society (an offshoot +of the National German-American Alliance), The American Women of +German Descent, the American Fair Play Society, the German-American +Alliance of Greater New York, the German Catholic Federation of New +York, the United Irish-American Societies and the United Austrian and +Hungarian-American Societies. Among the "honorable vice-chairmen" +were listed Edmund von Mach, John Devoy, Justices Goff and Cohalan (a +trinity of Britonophobes), Colquitt of Texas, Ex-Congressman Buchanan +(of Labor's National Peace Council fame), Jeremiah O'Leary (a Sinn +Feiner, mentioned in official cables from Zimmermann to Bernstorff as a +good intermediary for sabotage), Judge John T. Hylan, Richard Bartholdt +(a congressman active in the German political lobby), and divers +officers of the Alliance. + +The American Truth Society, Inc., the parent of the Friends of Peace, +was founded in 1912 by Jeremiah O'Leary, a Tammany lawyer later +indicted for violation of the Espionage Act, who disappeared when his +case came up for trial in May, 1918; Alphonse Koelble, who conducted +the German-American Alliance's New York political clearing house; +Gustav Dopslaff, a German-American banker, and others interested in +the German cause. In 1915 the Society, whose executives were well +and favorably known to German embassy, began issuing and circulating +noisy pamphlets, with such captions as "Fair Play for Germany," and "A +German-American War." O'Leary and his friends also conducted a mail +questionnaire of Congress in an effort to catalogue the convictions of +each member on the blockade and embargo questions. Their most insidious +campaign was an effort to frighten the smaller banks of the country +from participating in Allied loans, by threats of a German "blacklist" +after the war, to organize a "gold protest" to embarrass American +banking operations, and in general to harass the Administration in its +international relations. + +[Illustration: THE FRIENDS OF PEACE + +Attend the National Peace Convention, Chicago, Sept. 5 and 6, 1915 + +_Representing_ + + American Truth Society + American Independence Union + American Humanity League + American Women of German Descent + American Fair Play Society + Continental League + German-American Alliance of Greater N. Y. + German Catholic Federation of New York + United Irish-American Societies + United Austrian & Hungarian-American Soc's + Upholsterers' International Union + and other American Societies. + +_National Convention Committee_ + +JOHN BRISBEN WALKER, + of New York, Chairman + +ALEXANDER P. MOORE, + of Pittsburgh, Pa, Secretary + +_Publicity Committee_ + +RUTLEDGE RUTHERFORD. Chairman +HENRY SCHAEFFER, } +RICHARD M. McCANN, } Secretaries +HUGH MASTERSON. } + +GENERAL OFFICES: 150 NASSAU ST., NEW YORK, N. Y. +Tel. 2888 Beekman + +New York, ____________ 1915 + +_Hon. Vice-Chairman of Convention Committee_ + +Michael J. Ryan +Robert E. Ford +Edmund von Mach +John Devoy +Jeremiah B. Murphy +Henry Weismann +Horace L. Brand +Paul Mueller +Prof. Wm. I. Shepherd +Joseph Frey +Judge T. O'Neill Ryan +Richard Bartholdt +Jeremiah O'Leary +Judge John J. Rooney +Ferd Timm +E. K. Victor +Hon. John W. Goff +Hon. Daniel Cohalan +Joseph P. McLaughlin +Judge John T. Hylan +Judge J. Harry Tiernan +Patrick O'Donnell +James T. Clarke +Hugh H. O'Neill +Frank Buchanan +O. B. Colquitt +Daniel O'Connell +Col. Wm. Hoynes +Stephen E. Folan +John F. Kelly +Hon. James K. McGuire +A. L. Morrison +Miss Annie C. Malia +Ellen Ryan Jolly +Thomas O'Brien +J. B. Murphy +Thomas H. Maloney +T. J. Corrigan +Marry F. McWhorter +P. J. Reynolds +Frank J. Ryan +J. P. O'Mahony +Thomas F. Anderson + +Letter-paper of "The Friends of Peace"] + +So with their newspapers, rumor-mongers, lecturers, peace societies, +alliances, bunds, vereins, lobbyists, war relief workers, motion +picture operators and syndicates, the Germans wrought hard to +avert war. For two years they nearly succeeded. America was under +the narcotic influence of generally comfortable neutrality, and a +comfortable nation likes to wag its head and say "there are two sides +to every question." But whatever these German agents might have +accomplished in the public mind--and certainly they were sowing their +seed in fertile ground--was nullified by acts of violence, ruthlessness +at sea, and impudence in diplomacy. The left hand found out what the +right hand was about. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +HINDU-GERMAN CONSPIRACIES + + The Society for Advancement in India--"Gaekwar Scholarships"--Har + Dyal and _Gadhr_--India in 1914--Papen's report--German and + Hindu agents sent to the Orient--Gupta in Japan--The raid on von + Igel's office--Chakravarty replaces Gupta--The _Annie Larsen_ + and _Maverick_ filibuster--Von Igel's memoranda--Har Dyal in + Berlin--A request for anarchist agents--Ram Chandra--Plots against + the East and West Indies--Correspondence between Bernstorff and + Berlin, 1916--Designs on China, Japan and Africa--Chakravarty + arrested--The conspirators indicted. + + +As far back as 1907 a plot was hatched in the United States to promote +sedition and unrest in British India. The chief agitators had the +effrontery in the following year to make their headquarters in rooms in +the New York Bar Association, and to issue from that address numerous +circulars asking for money. The late John L. Cadwallader, of the +distinguished law firm of Cadwallader, Wickersham and Taft, was then +president of the Bar Association, and when he learned of the Hindu +activities under the roof of the association he swiftly evicted the +ringleaders. Their organization, chartered in November, 1907, was +called The Society for the Advancement of India. One of its officers +was a New York man to whom the British have since refused permission to +visit India. Its members included several college professors. + +The presence of several educators in the list may be accounted for +by the fact that the society existed apparently for the purpose of +supplying American college training to selected Hindu youths. Many of +them were sent to the United States at the expense of the Gaekwar of +Baroda, one of the richest and most influential of the Indian princes; +the Gaekwar's own son was a student in Harvard College in the years +1908-1912. Considerable sums of money were solicited from worthy folk +who believed that they were furthering the cause of enlightenment in +India; others who sincerely believed that British rule was tyrannical +gave frankly to the society to help an Indian nationalist movement for +home rule; others contributed freely for the promotion of any and every +anti-British propaganda in India. The source of the latter funds may be +suggested by the understanding which long existed between the Society +for the Advancement of India and the Clan-na-Gael, an understanding +witnessed by the frequent quotation in the disaffected press of India +of articles from the _Gaelic-American_. Another successful solicitor +was a contemptible Swami, Vivekahanda, who discussed soul matters to +New York's gullible-rich to his great profit until the police gathered +him in for a very earthly and material offense. But the students were +the best material for revolt, whether it was to be social or military, +and we shall see presently how they were made use of. + +The Gaekwar of Baroda came to America in the first decade of the new +century and expressed freely at that time his dislike for the British. +At the time of the Muzaffarpur bomb outrage, in which the wife and +daughter of an English official were killed, the police found in the +outskirts of Calcutta a Hindu who had been educated at an American +college at the Gaekwar's expense and who was at that time conducting a +school of instruction in the use of explosives and small arms; he even +had considerable quantities of American arms and ammunition stored in +his house. The youths who held "Gaekwar scholarships" in America were +under the general oversight of a professor attached to the American +Museum of Natural History, and the accumulation of evidence of the +activities of the students finally caused his removal. + +The Society established branches in Chicago, Denver, Seattle, and even +in St. John, New Brunswick, and it thrived on the Pacific Coast. Within +the purlieus of the University of California, there lived in 1913 one +Har Dyal, a graduate of St. John's college at Oxford. Har Dyal in that +year founded a publication called _Gadhr_, which being translated means +"mutiny," its main edition published in Urdu, other editions published +in other vernaculars, and appealing not only to Hindus, but to Sikhs +and Moslems. The publication and the chief exponents of its thought +formed the nucleus of a considerable system of anti-British activity. + +Whatever was anti-British found a warm reception in Berlin. England, in +August and September, 1914, was wrestling heroically with the problem +of supplying men to the Continent before the German drive should reach +the Channel. Her regulars went, and the training of that gallant "first +hundred thousand" followed. She combed her colonies for troops, and +having an appreciable force of well-trained native soldiers under arms +in India, she brought them to France, and the chronicles of the war +are already full of stories of the splendid fighting they did, and the +annoyance they caused to the grey troops of Germany. From the German +standpoint it was good strategy to incite discontent in India, both as +tending to remove the Hindu and Sikh regiments from the fighting zone, +and as distracting England's attention from the main issue by making +her look to the preservation of one of her richest treasure lands; +there was the further possibility, after the expected elimination of +Russia, of German conquest of India, and a German trade route from the +Baltic to the Bay of Bengal, through the Himalayan passes. Germany +seized upon the opportunity. The Amir of Afghanistan had trained his +army under Turkish officers, themselves instructed by Germany through +the forces of Enver Pasha. The Afghans were told that the Kaiser +was Mohammedan, and by the faith prepared to smite down the wicked +unbeliever, England. The Amir himself spoiled Germany's designs among +his people, however, for upon the outbreak of the war he pledged his +neutrality to the British Government, and he kept his word. + +A report found on the war correspondent Archibald and written by +Captain von Papen to the Foreign Office in the summer of 1915, outlines +the German version of the situation in India: + +"That a grave unrest reigns at the present time throughout India is +shown by the various following reports: + +"Since October, 1914, there have been various local mutinies of +Mohammedan native troops, one practically succeeding the other. From +the last reports, it appears that the Hindu troops are going to join +the mutineers. + +"The Afghan army is ready to attack India. The army holds the position +on one side of the Utak (?) River. The British army is reported to hold +the other side of the said river. The three bridges connecting both +sides have been blown up by the British. + +"In the garrison located on the Kathiawar Peninsula Indian mutineers +stormed the arsenal. Railroads and wireless station have been +destroyed. The Sikh troops have been removed from Beluchistan; only +English, Mohammedans and Hindu troops remain there. + +"The Twenty-third Cavalry Regiment at Lahore revolted, the police +station and Town House were stormed. The Indian troops in Somaliland in +Labakoran are trying to effect a junction with the Senussi. All Burma +is ready to revolt. + +"In Calcutta unrest (is reported) with street fighting. In Lahore a +bank was robbed; every week at least two Englishmen killed; in the +northwestern district many Englishmen killed; munitions and other +material taken, railroads destroyed; a relief train was repulsed. + +"Everywhere great unrest. In Benares a bank has been stormed. + +"Revolts in Chitral very serious, barracks and Government buildings +destroyed. The Hurti Mardin Brigade, under Gen. Sir E. Wood, has been +ordered there. Deputy Commissioner of Lahore wounded through a bomb in +the Anakali Bazaar. + +"Mohammedan squadron of the cavalry regiment in Nowschera deserted over +Chang, southwest Peshawar. Soldiers threw bombs against the family of +the Maharajah of Mysore. One child and two servants killed, his wife +mortally wounded. + +"In Ceylon a state of war has been declared." + +In February, 1915, Jodh Singh, a former student of engineering in the +United States, was in Rio de Janeiro. He was directed by a fellow +Hindu to call upon the German Consul, and the latter gave him $300 +and instructions to proceed to the German consul in Genoa, Italy, +for orders. Thence he was forwarded to Berlin, where he attended the +meetings of the newly formed Indian Revolutionary Society and absorbed +many ideas for procedure in America. Supplied with more German money he +came to New York and was joined by Heramba Lal Gupta, a Hindu who had +been a student at Columbia, and Albert H. Wehde, an art collector. The +three went to Chicago, and Singh called at once upon Gustav Jacobsen, +the real estate dealer who will be recalled in the Kaltschmidt bomb +plots in Detroit. Jacobsen assembled a group of German sympathizers +which included Baron Kurt von Reiswitz, the consul, George Paul Boehm +(mentioned in instructions to von Papen to attack the Canadian Pacific +Railway) and one Sterneck. At the conference Jodh Singh, Boehm, +Sterneck and Gupta were detailed to go to the far East: Singh to Siam, +to recruit Hindus for revolutionary service; Gupta to China and Japan +to secure arms; Boehm to the Himalayas, to attack the exploring party +of Dr. Frederick A. Cook, the notorious, to impersonate Dr. Cook, and +thus travel about the hills spreading sedition. Wehde, with $20,000 +of von Reiswitz's money, Boehm and Sterneck sailed for Manila, and +apparently escaped thence to Java, to meet two officers from the +_Emden_, for the three are at this writing fugitives from justice; +Jodh Singh was arrested in Bangkok and turned over to the British +authorities. + +In the diary of Captain Grasshof of the German cruiser _Geier_, +interned in Honolulu, appears the following entry, establishing +Wehde's call in Hawaii, and the complicity of the Consulate there in +his plans: + +"At the Consulate I met Mr. A. Wehde from Chicago, who is on way to +Orient on business. + +"One of the Hindoos sent over by Knorr (naval attaché of German Embassy +at Tokio) left for Shanghai on the 6th. In Hongkong there are 500 +Hindoos, 200 officers and volunteers, besides one torpedo boat and two +Japanese cruisers. + +"K-17 (A. V. Kircheisen) was almost captured in Kobe. The first +officer of the _China_ warned him and he immediately got on board +again as soon as possible. K-17 informed me that the Japs have sold +back to the Russians all the old guns taken from the latter during the +Russo-Japanese war." + +Reiswitz in June added $20,000 more to the fund for revolution in +India. Gupta, to whom von Papen had paid $16,000 in New York, went on +to Japan with Dhirendra Sarkar, a fellow conspirator. + +The presence of the two plotters in Japan became known to the +authorities and soon thereafter to the public. They were shadowed +everywhere, and a complete record was kept of their activities; the +newspapers discussed them, and it was common property that they gave +a banquet on the night of November 9, 1915, to ten other Hindus, to +toast a plot for revolution in India. On November 28 they were ordered +by the chief of police to leave Japan before December 2, which was +tantamount to a delivery into the hands of the British, as the only two +steamers available were leaving for Shanghai and Hong Kong, both ports +well supplied with British officers. On the afternoon of December 1 the +two plotters escaped in an automobile to the residence of a prominent +pro-Chinese politician (a friend of Sun Yat Sen) and were concealed +there, between false walls, until May, 1916, when they stowed away on +a ship bound for Honolulu. Sarkar returned to India, Gupta to America. +When the round-up came, in 1917, Jacobsen, Wehde and Boehm were each +convicted of violation of section 13 of the Federal Penal Code, and +sentenced to serve five years in prison and pay $13,000 fines; Gupta's +sentence was three years, his fine $200. + +The scene shifts for a moment from the Orient to the Occident, and +the twenty-fifth floor of the building at 60 Wall Street, New York, +on the morning of April 19, 1916. There von Papen had had his office; +there when he was sent home in December, 1915, he had left in charge +a sharp-eyed youth named Wolf von Igel as his successor. Von Igel, at +eleven o'clock, was surveying the result of several hours' work in +sorting and arranging neat stacks of official papers for shipment to +the German Embassy at Washington, for he had got word that trouble was +brewing, and that the documents would be safer there. An attendant +entered. "A man wants to see you, Herr von Igel," he announced. "He +won't tell his business, except that he says it is important." + +Von Igel was gruffly directing the attendant to make the stranger +specify his mission when the door burst open, and in dashed Joseph +A. Baker, of the Department of Justice, and Federal Agents Storck, +Underhill and Grgurevich. + +"I have a warrant for your arrest!" shouted Baker. Von Igel jumped for +the doors of the safe, which stood open. Baker sprang simultaneously +for von Igel, and the two went to the floor in battle. The German was +overpowered, and the attendant cowed by a flash of revolvers. + +"This means war!" yelled von Igel. "This is part of the German Embassy +and you've no right here." + +"You're under arrest," said Baker. + +"You shoot and there'll be war," said von Igel, and made another +frantic attempt to close the safe doors. A second skirmish ended in +von Igel's removal to a cell, while the agents took charge of the +documents. The collection was a rare catch. It contained evidence which +supplied the missing links in numerous chains of suspected German +guilt, and the matter was at once placed in the safe keeping of the +Government. + +One letter was dated Berlin, February 4, 1916, and addressed to the +German Embassy in Washington. It reads: + + + "In future all Indian affairs are to be exclusively handled by the + committee to be formed by Dr. Chakravarty. Dhirendra Sarkar, and + Heramba Lal Gupta, which latter person has meantime been expelled + from Japan," ... + + +(Gupta was at that moment between the walls of the Japanese +politician's house.) + + + ... "thus cease to be independent representatives of the Indian + Independence Committee existing here. + + "(Signed) ZIMMERMANN." + + +The Embassy on March 21, 1916, wrote von Igel as follows: + + + "The Imperial German Consul at Manila writes me: + + "'Unfortunately the captured Hindus include Gupta, who last was + active at Tokio. The following have also been captured: John + Mohammed Aptoler, Rulerhammete, Sharmasler, No-Mar, C. Bandysi, + Rassanala. Apparently the English are thoroughly informed of all + individual movements and the whereabouts at various times of the + Hindu revolutionists.' + + "Please inform Chakravarty." + + +The name "Chakravarty" occurring in these two memoranda makes it +necessary here to turn back the calendar to 1915, in order to outline +another conspicuous Hindu-German activity. Not only were the East +Indian students and sympathetic educators in America prolific in their +verbal advocacy of revolt in India, but with German assistance they +attempted at least one clearly defined bit of filibustering, which if +it had been successful would have supplied the would-be mutineers in +the Land of Hind with the arms they so longed to employ against the +British. + +The reader will recall the mention of a large quantity of weapons and +cartridges which Captain Hans Tauscher had stored in a building in +200 West Houston Street, New York, and which he said he had purchased +for "speculation." The speculation was apparently the project of +Indian mutiny, which in the eyes of the Indian Nationalist party was +to equal in grandeur the infamous mutiny of 1857. For those arms +were shipped to San Diego, California, secretly loaded aboard the +steamer _Annie Larsen_, and moved to sea. The plan provided for their +transshipment off the island of Socorro to the hold of the steamship +_Maverick_, which was to carry them to India. The two ships failed to +effect a rendezvous, and after some wandering the _Annie Larsen_ put +in at Hoquiam, Washington, where the cargo was at once seized by the +authorities. The _Maverick_ sailed to San Diego, Hilo, Johnson Island, +and finally to Batavia. + +Count von Bernstorff had sufficient courage, on July 2, to inform +the Secretary of State "confidentially that the arms and ammunition +... had been purchased by my government months ago through the Krupp +agency in New York for shipment to German East Africa." On July 22, +he wrote again, asking that the arms be returned as the property of +the German Government, and offering to give the Department of Justice +"such further information on the subject as I may have" if they +cared to push an examination of the cargo. On October 5 he threw all +responsibility for the movements of the _Maverick_ upon Captain Fred +Jebsen, her skipper--by this time a fugitive from justice--and stating +"the German Government did not make the shipment, and knows nothing of +the details of how they were shipped"--which was a rather shabby way of +discrediting his subordinates. + +It developed later that the arms were purchased--sixteen carloads of +them--by Henry Muck, Tauscher's manager, for $300,000, made payable +by von Papen through G. Amsinck & Co. to Tauscher. A part of the +shipment was sent to San Diego; the balance was to have gone to India +via Java and China, but never left on account of the protests of the +British Consul. Instead, a number of machine guns and 1,500,000 rounds +of ammunition were sold to a San Francisco broker who was acting as +agent for Adolphi Stahl, financial agent in the United States for the +Republic of Guatemala. When Zimmermann cabled to von Bernstorff on +April 30, 1916 (through Count von Luxburg in Buenos Aires), "Please +wire whether von Igel's report on March 27, Journal A, No. 257, has +been seized, and warn Chakravarty," he had grave concern over the +betrayal of German influences in the Hindu conspiracies. This was fully +justified when a correspondence notebook of von Igel's disclosed, among +other entries, the following transactions: + +August 12, 1915--Captain Herman Othmer inclosed documents about +the _Annie Larsen_ and von Igel forwarded charter to Consul at San +Francisco. + +September 2--The embassy forwarded papers from San Francisco about the +_Annie Larsen_ and von Igel returned them. + +September 7--The embassy sent a telegram from San Francisco about the +_Maverick_. + +September 9--The consulate, San Francisco, sent a letter for +information and von Igel replied with a telegram about _Maverick_ +repairs. + +September 9, 1915--The Embassy sent a letter from the consulate at +San Francisco about shipment and von Igel replied to embassy that the +proposals were impracticable. + +October 1--The embassy sent a cipher message to Berlin about the +_Maverick_. + +October 9--The Consulate, San Francisco, sent a letter about the +_Maverick_ negotiations. + +October 20, 1915--Von Igel received a report about a shipment of arms +from Manila. + +January 27, 1916--The embassy forwarded copies of telegrams to San +Francisco in the matter of the _Maverick_. + +August 28--The Consulate, Manila, sent a cipher letter about the +transport of arms. + +November 8, 1915--AAA 100 sent a report from or concerning Ispahan arms. + +The peaceful Har Dyal, Oxford graduate, lecturer at Leland Stanford, +denizen of the University of California, and editor of _Gadhr_, had +laid down the following rules for the guidance of members of the group +of revolutionaries which he headed: each candidate for membership must +undergo a six months' probationary period before his admission; any +member who exposed the secrets of the organization should suffer death; +members wishing to marry could do so without any ceremony, as they +were above the law. Under such amiable rules of conduct he accumulated +a number of followers of the faith, and more swarmed to the tinkle +of German money. In August, 1914, the "first expeditionary force" of +revolutionists set sail for India in the _Korea_. A few months later, +Har Dyal left for Berlin, where he organized the Indian Revolutionary +Society, leaving Ram Chandra as his successor to edit _Gadhr_ in +Berkeley. + +The avowed object of this society was to establish a Republican +government in India with the help of Germany. They held regular +meetings attended by German officials and civilians who knew India, +among them former teachers in India. At these meetings the Germans were +advised as to the line of conduct to be adopted. The deliberations +were of a secret nature. Har Dyal and Chattopadhay had considerable +influence with the German Government and were the only two Indians +privileged to take part in the deliberations of the German Foreign +Office. + +Besides these societies there were in Berlin two other associations +known as the Persian and Turkish societies. The object of the first +named was to free Persia from European influences in general, and +create ill feeling against the British in particular, and to assist +the natives to form a republic. The object of the Turkish society +was practically the same. They established an Oriental translating +bureau which translated German news and other literature selected by +the Indian Revolutionary Society into various Oriental languages and +distributed the translations among the Hindu prisoners of war. + +Har Dyal continued in close touch with American affairs. On October +20 and 26, 1915, he wrote to Alexander Berkman, a notorious anarchist +imprisoned in 1918 for violation of the draft law, urging Berkman to +send to Germany through Holland comrades who would be valuable in +Indian propaganda, and asking for letters of introduction "from Emma +or yourself" (Emma Goldman) to important anarchists in Europe; these +communications are unimportant except as they betray the Prussian +policy of making an ally of anarchy, although anarchy as a social +factor is the force from which Germany has most to fear. "Perhaps you +can find them," wrote Dyal, "in New York or at Paterson. They should +be real fighters, I. W. W.'s or anarchists. Our Indian party will make +all the necessary arrangements." + +Ram Chandra went on with the work until he was stopped by the +Foreign Office. He printed anti-Britannic pamphlets quoting Bryan +for circulation in India; he printed and delivered to Lieutenant von +Brincken at the German Consulate in San Francisco some 5,000 leaflets, +which were to be shipped to Germany and dropped by the Boche aviators +over the Hindu lines in France: the handbills read, "Do not fight with +the Germans. They are our friends. Lay down your arms and run to the +Germans." Chandra and his crew supplied the _Maverick_ with quantities +of literature, but most of it was burned when the Hindu agents aboard +feared that there were British warships near Socorro Island. In the +same group were G. B. Lal and Taraknath Das, two former students at the +University of California, the latter a protégé of a German professor +there himself engaged in propaganda work. + +Throughout the fall of 1915 the Hindus in America awaited word +of Gupta's success in Japan. They heard nothing but news of his +disappearance. Accordingly in December, Dr. Chakravarty, a frail little +Hindu of light chocolate complexion, sailed from Hoboken for Germany, +traveling as a Persian merchant, on a false passport. He made a good +impression on the Foreign Office, as may be judged by the following +letter, dated January 21, 1916, addressed to L. Sachse, Rotterdam: + + + "Dr. Chakravarty will return to the United States and form a + working committee of only five members, one of whom should be + himself and another, Ram Chandra. In addition to sending more + Indians home the new American committee will undertake the + following: + + "1--An agent will be sent to the West India islands, where there + are nearly 100,000 Indians, and will organize the sending home of + as many as possible. + + "They have not yet been approached by us and there are no such + difficulties in the way of their going to India as are encountered + by our countrymen from the United States. + + "2--An agent will be sent to British Guiana with the same object. + + "3--A very reliable man will be sent to Java and Sumatra. + + "4--It is proposed to have pamphlets printed and circulated in + and from America. The literature will be printed secretly and + propaganda will be carried on with great vigor. + + "5--An effort will be made to carry out the plan of the secret + Oriental mission to Japan. Dr. Chakravarty is in a position to get + letters of introduction to important persons in Japan, as well as + a safe-conduct for himself and other members of mission." + + +After conferring with Dyal, Zimmermann, and Under-secretary Wesendonk +of the Foreign Office, he was given money and sent back to the United +States, arriving in February, 1916. He at once sent H. A. Chen to +China to purchase arms and ship them to India. He then reported to +Wolf von Igel, who paid him $40,000 for the purchase of a house in +120th Street and one in 17th Street. There he held forth for more than +a year, working in conjunction with von Igel, and the latter with +the Embassy in Washington. His activities may be indicated, and the +complicity of the German Government again established, in the following +communications: + + +_From von Igel to von Bernstorff_ + + + "New York, April 7, 1916--A report has been received here that + Dr. Chakravarty was taken Monday, the 3d of April, to the + Providence Hospital with concussion of the brain in consequence + of an automobile accident. His convalescence is making good + progress. A certain Ernest J. Euphrat has been here and he came + from the Foreign Office and had orders with respect to the India + propaganda. He could not identify himself, but made a very good + impression. He told us Herr von Wesendonk told him to say that + Ram Chandra's activity in San Francisco was not satisfactory. + This person should for the time being suspend his propaganda + activities." + + "In re No. 303: Euphrat was sent by me to India in October of + last year, and is so far as known here reliable. He was, indeed, + recommended at the time by Marcus Braun. Please intimate to him + cautiously that he should not speak too much about his orders he + received in Berlin. San Francisco is being informed." + + "For Prince Hatzfeld." + + +_From New York to von Bernstorff_ + + + "New York, April 15, 1916--Mr. E. J. Euphrat has asked that the + inclosed documents be forwarded to his excellency in a safe way. + He asks for a reply as quickly as possible, because if he does not + receive the desired allowance he will have to change the plans for + his journey. + + "(Signed) K. N. ST." + + +_To H. Eisenhuth, Copenhagen, from New York, and unsigned_ + + + "May 2, 1916. We have also organized a Pan-Asiatic League, so that + some of our members can travel without arousing any suspicion. + Also everything has been arranged for the 'mission to Japan.' + Please let me know when your men can come, so that we can approach + the party more definitely. I had talks with one of the directors + of the _Yamato Shimbun_ of Tokio and _Chinvai Dempo_ of Kyoto. It + would not be necessary to buy off these papers, as they understand + it is to mutual interest. But they ask for certain considerations + to help their financial status. They are also decided to attack + Anglo-Japanese treaty as antagonistic to national interest. To + carry on work it will be necessary to place at the disposal of the + committee here $25,000." + + +_Cablegram from Zimmermann, Berlin, to van Bernstorff, via von +Luxburg, Buenos Aires_ + + + "To Bernstorff, May 19, 1916: Berlin telegraphs No. 28 of May 19. + Answer to telegram 23. Your excellency is empowered to give the + Indians $20,000. No. 29 of May 19 in continuation of telegram No. + 16. Please, in making direct payments to Tarak Nath Das, avoid + receipts. Das will receipt own payment through a third party as + Edward Schuster. + + "(Signed) ZIMMERMANN." + + +_Zimmermann to Peking, transmitted by Luxburg, to Bernstorff for Peking +legation_ + + + "The confidential agent of the Nationalists here, the Indian, + Tarak Nath Das, an American Citizen, is leaving for Peking by the + Siberian Railway. Please give him up to 10,000 marks. Das will + arrange the rest. + + "ZIMMERMANN." + + "Ambassador at Washington: Please advise Chakravarty. + + "LUXBURG." + + +_From Bernstorff, mailed at Mt. Vernon, N. Y., to Z. N. G. Olifiers, a +German agent in Amsterdam_ + + + "June 16, 1916--Referring to my letter A275 of June 8, Chakravarty + reports: Organization has been almost completed, and many of our + old members are active and free. Only they are afraid if arms + are not available soon there may be premature uprising in Madras + and the Punjab as well as in Bengal. The work in Japan is going + unusually well, more than our expectations." + + +_From Berlin to Chakravarty_ + + + "July 13, 1916--In organizing work in the United States and + outside, remember our primary object is to produce revolutions at + home during this war. Trinidad, British Guiana and East Africa, + including Zanzibar, should be particularly tapped for men. + + "We wired your name to Francis E. M. Hussain, Bachelor of + Arts, Barr. at Law, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Through messenger + communicate full programme desired in Trinidad to him, and mention + the name 'Binniechatto.' He can be trusted. If, after some secret + work, you think revolution can be organized in island itself, then + we may try to smuggle arms, and our men will seize Government and + set up independent Hindustani Republic. Do not let such plan be + carried out if our prospects for work at home are likely to be + ruined." + + +_A report from Chakravarty, written July 26, 1916_ + + + "I am going to Vancouver next week to see Bhai Balwant Singh + and Nano Singh Sihra, who have asked me to go there to arrange + definite plan of action for group of workers there, and then to + San Francisco to induce Ram Chandra to plan our committee here, + and to include him and his nominees in the said committee, so + that our work does not suffer in the East by placing enemies on + their guard and right track by his thoughtless, enthusiastic + writings.... Gupta is back in New York and has seen me, but has + not submitted any report. We need $15,000 more for the next six + months to carry out the new plan and to continue the previous work + undertaken." + + +_From von Bernstorff, at Rye, N. Y., to Olifiers, transmitting +Chakravarty's report_ + + + "August 5, 1916--Our organization has been well perfected in + the West Indies and Houssain has been approached. We have also + enlisted the sympathy of the Gongoles party, a strong fighting + body of colored people, who have ramifications all over Central + America, including British Guiana and Guatemala. Arms can be + easily smuggled there and if we can get some of the German + officers in this country to go there and lead them there is every + possibility that we can hold quite a while. But the question + is--ask the Foreign Secretary whether it is desirable, for it + might simply create a sensation and nothing more. As soon as we + hold there the Governmental power the island would be isolated + by the British navy, and the attitude of the United States is + uncertain, and we may be compelled to surrender sooner or later; + but if it serves any purpose either as a blind or otherwise, and + after due consideration of its advantages and disadvantages, wire + at once the authorities here to give us a few officers, as we need + them badly, and other help necessary to carry out the plan, and it + can be done without much difficulty. I believe if a sensation is + desired something also can be done in London, at least should be + tried. If we can get a few men from the Pacific Coast we can send + them easily as a crew with a Dutch passport. + + "We are sending arms in small quantities through Chinese coolies + over the border in Burmah, but in big quantities we do not find + possibility. However, we are on the lookout. We have been trying + our best with a Japanese firm who have a business affiliation + in Calcutta, whether they will undertake to transmit some arms + through their goods. + + "To complete the chain we are sending Mr. Chandra to London as a + medical student in the university, and he will send men and other + informations to you via Switzerland. We are also sending a few + Chinese students to China to help us in the work, and if you want + it can also be arranged they give you a personal report through + Russia and Sweden. + + "We need $15,000 more, as I return from the Pacific Coast, to + carry out these plans, excepting that of Trinidad operations, + which, if you approve, wire at once the military agent here to + arrange to buy and ship arms to us, before the enemy can be on + guard." + + +_To H. Eisenhuth, Copenhagen, in cipher_ + + + "September 5, 1916--Arms can no more be safely sent to India + through Pacific, except through Japanese merchandise or through + China merchants, shipped to Chinese ports and then to our border. + Responsible men are willing to take the risk and they are willing + to send their confidential agents to Turaulleur." + + +_Chakravarty to Berlin, Foreign Office_ + + + "September 5, 1916--Li Yuan Hung is now President of China. He + was formerly the southern revolutionary leader. W. T. Wang was + then his private secretary. He is now in America and starting + for China. He says Li Yuan Hung is in sympathy with the Indian + revolution and would like English power weakened. Some of the + prominent people are quite eager to help India directly, and + Germany indirectly, without exposing themselves to any great risk, + on three conditions: + + "The first--Germany to make a secret treaty with China, that + in case China is attacked by any power or powers, Germany will + give her military aid. It will be obligatory for five years + after the discontinuance of the present war and there will be + an understanding that China shall get one-tenth of all arms + and ammunition she will receive for and deliver to the Indian + revolutionaries and the Indian border. + + "In return, China shall prohibit the delivery of arms and + ammunition in the name of the Chinese Government and from China + through private sailing boats and by coolies to any nearby + point or any border place as directed. She will help Indian + revolutionaries as she can, secretly and in accord with her own + safety. + + "But this is to be regarded as a feeler through a third party, + and, if it is acceptable to the German Government, then they will + send one of their trusted representatives to Berlin to discuss + the details and plan of operations, and if it is settled, then + negotiations should take place officially and papers signed + through the embassies in Berlin and Peking. They want to know the + attitude of the German Foreign Office as soon as possible so that + they can set the ball rolling for necessary arrangements." + + +_Von Bernstorff to Zimmermann_ + + + "October 13, 1916--Chakravarty's reply is not sent; too long. + Require at end of October a further $15,000. According to news + which has arrived here Okechi has not received the $2000 and in + the meantime left Copenhagen. Please withhold payment until + Polish National Committee provides therefor. + + "BERNSTORFF." + + +_To Olifiers, Amsterdam, postmarked Washington_ + + + "November 21, 1916--Rabindranath Tagore has come at our suggestion + and saw Count Okuma, Baron Shimpei Goto, Masaburo Suzuki, Marquis + Yamanouchi, Count Terauchi and others; Terauchi is favorable + and others are sympathetic. Rash Behari Bose is still there to + see whether they can be persuaded to do something positive for + our cause. S. Sekunna and G. Marsushita are doing their best. + Yamatashimbun is strongly advocating our cause. D. Pal has not + come. Benoy Sarkar is still in China. Lala is willing to go, but + this passage could not be arranged. As soon as Tilak arrives he + will be approached. Bapat is still free and writes that he has + been trying his best, but for want of arms they have not been able + to do anything. Received a note from Abdul Kadir and Shamshar + Singh from Termes-Buchare that they are proceeding on slowly to + their destination. Barkatullah is in Kabul; well received, lacks + funds. Mintironakaono is here. Isam Uhiroi is in Pekin. Tarak + has safely reached there. Our publication work is going on well. + We have brought out seven pamphlets and one in the press. We are + waiting for definite instructions as to the work in Trinidad and + Damrara. + + "Wu Ting Fang has been now made the Foreign Minister. He has + always been sympathetic with our cause. But the influence of Sun + Yat Sen still persists in opposing us in that direction." + + +_Zimmermann to Bernstorff_ + + + "December 20, 1916--According to Chakravarty, the Indians were + paid up to September 30 $30,000. Total credit for Indians, $65,000. + + "ZIMMERMANN." + + +_Zimmermann to Bernstorff_ + + + "January 4, 1917--very secret. The Japanese, Hideo Nakao, is + traveling to America with important instructions from the Indian + Committee. He is to deal exclusively with Chakravarty. Please, + after consultation with Chakravarty, inform Imperial Minister + at Peking and the Imperial Consulate at Shanghai that they are + to send in Nakao's reports regularly. I advise giving Nakao in + installments up to fifty thousand dollars in all for the execution + of his plans in America and Eastern Asia. Decision as to the + utility of the separate payments is left to your excellency and + the Imperial Legation at Peking. Despatch follows. + + "(Signed) ZIMMERMANN." + + +On March 7, 1917, Guy Scull, deputy police commissioner in New York, +with eight detectives, called at 364 West 120th Street, found Dr. +Chakravarty clad in a loin cloth, and arrested him on a charge of +setting afoot a military enterprise against the Emperor of India. +With Sekunna, a German who had been writing tracts for him, he was +later transferred to San Francisco to stand trial. The typewriter in +the 120th Street house, whose characteristics--all typewriters are +as individual and as identifiable as finger-prints--had betrayed +the conspirators, lay idle for many months, but as late as March +18, 1918, a Hindu, Sailandra Nath Ghose, who had collaborated with +Taraknath Das in writing a propaganda work called "The Isolation +of Japan in world politics," was arrested there in company with a +German woman, Agnes Smedley. The two were accused of violating the +espionage act by representing themselves to be diplomatic agents of +the Indian Nationalist Party, and of having sent an appeal for aid in +the establishment of a democratic federated republic in India to the +Brazilian Embassy in Washington, to Leon Trotzky in Russia, and to the +Governments of Panama, Paraguay, Chile and other neutral nations. + +In the course of the years 1916 and 1917 the Government built up an +unusually exhaustive and troublesome case for nearly one hundred +defendants, including the personnel of the San Francisco consulate, +the German consul at Honolulu (who had supplied the _Maverick_ in Hilo +Harbor[5]), a large group of Hindu students, a smaller group of war +brokers, and numerous lesser intermediaries. Their trial was one of +the most cumbersome and interesting cases ever heard in an American +court. It began on November 19, 1917, in San Francisco, with Judge +Van Fleet on the bench. Witness after witness recited his story of +adventure, each stranger than the last, and all stranger than fiction. +Lieutenant von Brincken, one of the San Francisco consulate, pleaded +guilty within a few weeks; his sentence was long deferred by the +prosecution on account, presumably, of evidence which he supplied the +Government. George Rodiek, the German consul in Honolulu, followed +suit and was fined heavily; Jodh Singh turned state's evidence and +presently his mind became diseased and he was committed to an asylum; +the procedure was interrupted from time to time with wrangles among the +defendants, and on one occasion Franz Bopp, the San Francisco consul, +shouted to one of his fellows, "You are spoiling the whole case!" When +the Government, through United States Attorney Preston, introduced +evidence from the Department of State, the Hindus attempted to subpoena +Secretary Lansing; when Bryan's pacifist tracts were introduced the +defendants sought Bryan. On April 18, 1918, Chakravarty confessed, +to the irritation of the other defendants. The climax in melodrama +occurred on the afternoon of April 23, 1918, when, with the case all +but concluded, Ram Singh shot and killed Ram Chandra in the courtroom. +A moment later Ram Singh lay dead, his neck broken by a bullet fired +over the heads of the attorneys by United States Marshal Holohan. That +afternoon Judge Van Fleet delivered his charge to the jury; that night +a verdict of guilty was returned against twenty-nine of the thirty-two +defendants who had not been dismissed as the trial proceeded. + +Judge Van Fleet, on April 30, 1918, pronounced the following sentences: + +Franz Bopp, German consul in San Francisco, two years in the +penitentiary and $10,000 fine; F. H. von Schack, vice-consul, the same +punishment; Lieutenant von Brincken, military attaché of the consulate, +two years' imprisonment without fine; Walter Sauerbeck, lieutenant +commander in the German navy, an officer of the _Geier_ interned in +Honolulu, one year's imprisonment and $2,000 fine; Charles Lattendorf, +von Brincken's secretary, one year in jail; Edwin Deinat, master of the +German ship _Holsatia_, interned in Honolulu, a term of ten months in +jail and a fine of $1,500; Heinrich Felbo, master of the German ship +_Ahlers_, interned in Hilo, Hawaii, six months in jail and a fine of +$1,000. These men may be described as the loyal German group. + +Robert Capelle, agent in San Francisco of the North German Lloyd line, +fifteen months' imprisonment and a fine of $7,500; Harry J. Hart, a +San Francisco shipping man, six months in jail and a fine of $5,000; +Joseph Bley of the firm of C. D. Bunker & Co., customs brokers, fifteen +months in prison and a fine of $5,000; Moritz Stack von Goltzheim, a +real estate and insurance broker, six months in jail and $1,000 fine; +Louis T. Hengstler, an admiralty lawyer and professor in the University +of California and in Hastings Law College, a fine of $5,000; Bernard +Manning, a real estate, insurance and employment agent in San Diego, +nine months in jail and a fine of $1,000; and J. Clyde Hizar, a former +city attorney in Coronado and assistant paymaster in the United States +Navy, one year's imprisonment and a fine of $5,000. These gentlemen +constituted the so-called "shipping group" which was intimately +concerned with the affairs of the _Annie Larsen_ and the _Maverick_. + +Dr. Chakravarty, who had been delegated by no less a personage than +Zimmermann of Berlin to handle all Indian intrigue in America, received +a crushing sentence of sixty days in jail and a fine of $5,000. +Bhagwan Singh, the "poet of the revolution," was sentenced to eighteen +months in the penitentiary; Taraknath Das, the author and lecturer, to +twenty-two months' imprisonment; Gobind Behari Lal, the University +of California student, to ten months in jail. The smaller fry of the +University of California-_Ghadr_ group were disposed of as follows: +Nandekar to three months in jail, Ghoda Ram to eleven months, Sarkar, +who had been in Japan with Gupta, to four months, Munshi Ram (of the +_Ghadr_ staff) to sixty days, Imam Din to four months, Nerajan Das to +six months, Singh Hindi to nine months, Santokh Singh to twenty-one +months in the penitentiary, Gopalm Singh to one year and a day, and +Nidhan Singh to four months. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Dr. Chakravarty (on the right), the accredited agent of Germany in the +Hindu-German intrigues in America. With him is Ernest Sekunna, also a +German agent, arrested with Chakravarty] + +Those defendants who remained had not been allowed at large on bail, +thanks to the vigilance of Preston. Yet in spite of all precautions, +the proceedings frequently threatened to get out of control. The United +States had been at war for a year; the Federal Court was trying both +alien enemies of military status and alien enemies who had engaged in +and stood convicted of conspiracy, as well as conspirators against the +rule of Britain in India who had revolution quite definitely in mind. +Great Britain, for six months before the trial began, had been our +ally and, in spirit at least, a traitor to Great Britain was a traitor +to the United States. In spirit, but not in the letter of the law: +the worst punishment which any existing statutes could impose on any +single defendant found wholly and completely guilty of the charge was +_two years' imprisonment and a fine of $10,000_. For such conviction, +and for such punishment of the United States' military enemies, the +prosecution clambered about through the tangle of civil procedure; we +had been six months at war and laws had not been supplied to facilitate +the swift justice due such enemies, nor have laws been supplied as +this is written. More than eighty "court days" were consumed, the +shorthand reporting alone cost more than $35,000. A court commissioner +released four important witnesses "for want of evidence." (One of them +was indicted in New York and the commissioner was himself dismissed.) +Gupta, arrested in New York, was released on bail and swiftly fled +across the Mexican border to continue his propaganda. Trying as the +case was to all who were concerned in it, expeditiously as it was +handled by the authorities, and informative as it proved to be, it was +monumental in its confession that civil courts cannot act with the +warning vigor and speed made necessary by war conditions. + +The evidence introduced pointed clearly to the conclusion that the +German-Hindu plot, complex as it is to us as critics, was unfruitful +even to Berlin. Perhaps its very breadth made it awkward to manage. +Nearly four years of war passed, and there was no mutiny in India. The +stewards of the Indian domain knew anxious moments, but they found some +solace in the realization that half way around the world, in the United +States, there was a pair of eyes to watch every pair of mischievous +hands, and that the conspiracy directed against the Orient could not +take effect while those eyes were open. + +It requires no special gift of prophecy to predict that secret +conspiracies will continue unless those eyes are more vigilant than +ever. The United States Attorney announced as the conspirators were +being sentenced that he felt that the court might well instruct their +dark associates to "cut out their propaganda," and that their _Gahdr_ +presses were even then turning out "barrels and bales of seditious +literature." To this Judge Van Fleet gravely responded: + +"The people are going to take the law into their own hands, as much +as we regret it. The citizens of this country are going to suppress +manifestations hostile to our allies." + +FOOTNOTE: + +[5] The _Maverick_ was lost in a typhoon off the Philippines in August, +1917. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MEXICO, IRELAND, AND BOLO + + Huerta arrives in New York--The restoration plot--German intrigue + in Central America--The Zimmermann note--Sinn Fein--Sir Roger + Casement and the Easter Rebellion--Bolo Pacha in America and + France--A warning. + + +Germany learned during President Roosevelt's administration that +the Monroe Doctrine was not to be tampered with. The United States +stood squarely upon a policy of "hands off Latin America." But both +commercial and diplomatic Germany were attracted by the bright colors +of the somewhat kaleidoscopic political condition of the Central +and South American nations. In political confusion, Mexico, at the +outbreak of war, led all the rest. This suited Germany's purpose +perfectly--provided that at least one faction in Mexico might be +susceptible to her influence. The first three years of war proved +to the satisfaction of the most skeptical that Mexican unrest would +trouble the United States, and it was upon this theory that Germany +long before 1914 baited her hook for Mexico. + +Propagandists in our neighbor republic added fuel to the already +brisk flame of native hostility to the Yankee. A considerable German +commercial colony grew up, assimilated the language and customs of +Mexico, and bade fair to be a strong competitor in the development of +the huge natural resources waiting there for foreign capital. By 1914 +Germany had evidently expected to be in a position sufficiently strong +to enlist Mexico on her side in case the United States gave trouble. +The reader will recall that Admiral von Hintze in the summer of 1914 +had recommended Captain von Papen for a decoration for having organized +a fair military unit of the Germans in Mexico. That same summer, +however, saw Mexico with troubles of her own, and German efforts +against the United States through Mexico had to be postponed. + +Early in 1914 General Huerta, an unscrupulous, powerful and dissolute +factionist, had executed a _coup d'etat_ which placed him in the +president's chair. He at once advertised for bids. The United States +had no intention of protecting him, and in order to stop at its source +any trouble which might prove too attractive to a foreign power, +placed an embargo upon the shipment of American arms into Mexico. The +American fleet was despatched to Vera Cruz to see that the order was +carried out. The steamship _Ypiranga_, with a cargo of arms, succeeded +in eluding the fleet, and under orders from the German admiral, and the +direction of Karl Heynen, the arms were landed. + +Huerta had promised the presidency to Felix Diaz. In order to get him +out of the way he sent Diaz to negotiate a Japanese understanding. The +United States gently diverted Señor Diaz from his mission. Huerta began +to lose the grip he held; three other factionists, Villa, Carranza +and Zapata, each at the head of an army, were aiming at his head, and +shortly before the world went to war the old rogue fled to Barcelona. + +There Rintelen negotiated with him in February, 1915, and out of their +conferences grew a plan to restore him to the Mexican presidency. +This plan would have meant war between Mexico and the United States, +which was precisely what von Rintelen and his Wilhelmstrasse friends +desired: American forces would have to be mobilized at the Rio Grande, +and American munitions, destined for the Allies, would have to be +commandeered and diverted to Mexico. + +The aged general arrived in New York in April, and was interviewed +and photographed. He told the public through the newspapers that he +proposed to acquire an estate on Long Island and the public considered +it not inauspicious that the veteran warrior should have come to pass +the remainder of his stormy life in the world's most peaceful country. +Fortunately for the peace of the United States not every one believed +him. + +Within a week of his arrival von Rintelen slipped into New York. He +placed in the Havana branch of the Deutsches Bank and in banks in +Mexico City some $800,000 to Huerta's credit, and within a short time +the political jackals who lived on foreign subsidy began to prick up +their ears. Von Papen and Boy-Ed had made trips to the Mexican border, +arranging through their consular agents in the Mexican towns across the +river the mobilization of Germans in Mexico, the storing of supplies +and ammunition, and the deposit of funds in banks at Brownsville, El +Paso, San Antonio and Douglas. Not all Mexicans in the United States +were Huertistas, however, and one Raphael Nieto, Assistant-Secretary of +Finance to Carranza, was quite as eager to follow Huerta's activities +as were the agents of the United States. The Carranzistas joined forces +with the Secret Service and found out that the plot had already begun +to develop. + +During the month of May, Huerta frequently met a member of the German +Embassy at the Hotel McAlpin. Von Rintelen was clever enough not to +negotiate in person, but he dined frequently with the Embassy member. +Much of what had occurred at these conferences in the McAlpin was known +to government agents, who had been concealed where they could take +notes on the conversation. On June 1, 1915, General Huerta, with Jose +Ratner, his "financial adviser," held a conference in the Holland House +with a former Huertista cabinet minister, a son of the Mexican general, +Angeles, and certain other personages who purposed to take part in +the revolution for the sake of this world. One of the men present was +a Carranza spy, and through him it became known that Huerta outlined +that he had ten millions of dollars for immediate use in a plot to +restore him to his former position, twice that sum in reserve, and that +more would be forthcoming if necessary. Arms and ammunition, he said, +would be shipped into Mexico secretly, supplies would be accumulated +at certain border towns, and envoys had already been sent to incite +desertion from the armies of Carranza and Villa. + +Rintelen did not know that the Carranzistas had sold out to the +authorities. Rintelen had already purchased some $3,000,000 worth of +arms and cartridges, and he was prepared to see the enterprise to a +successful conclusion. Incidentally he was quietly supplying six other +Mexican factions with funds in case Huerta's measure of success should +prove too intoxicating. + +Because he was a figure of considerable international notoriety and +indisputable news interest, the press had been following Huerta's +movements with strict attention. Affairs at the border were not +reassuring and there persisted the feeling that Huerta in the United +States held promise of Huerta once more in Mexico. In July, his +agent, Ratner, issued the following frank though apparently ingenious +statement: + +"General Huerta and those of us associated with him are confident that +the whole Mexican situation will be cleared up within ninety days. We +believe that to rule the country is a one-man job. And in that time +we expect that one man to come forward and unite the country. General +Huerta does not care to indicate the man he has in mind, but he is from +our viewpoint a true patriot, and naturally that excludes both Carranza +and Villa. + +"General Huerta may or may not return to Mexico some day, and may or +may not hold office there again. At present he is giving himself up +wholly to an agreeable and home life in this city (New York)." + +Whether or not General Huerta was to "return to Mexico some day" +depended upon the temper of the United States. He knew that when he +authorized the statement. He did not know--or else he was incredibly +bold--that the Government was in possession of the whole story, and +that orders had been issued from the highest source in the country +not to let him return. One day in the late summer he slipped away, +ostensibly to visit the San Francisco Exposition. Government agents +shadowed him and let him make his own pace. He took the southern route, +and traveled so quietly that his flight was not publicly marked until +he had passed through Kansas City. As he approached the border he +became as eager as a boy at the prospect of his 'return from Elba'; +then, as he was almost in sight of the soil from which he had been +exiled, he was arrested on a technical charge and jailed. + +In August Rintelen fled the country. The _Providence Journal_ had just +published an irritating charge that Boy-Ed was carrying on negotiations +with Mexico; the German Embassy denied the charge, although Boy-Ed +with his knowledge of Mexico had assisted ably in the plot; and the +excitement of official interest in Huerta's recent connections made von +Rintelen nervous. When he was captured at Falmouth by the British, his +man-Friday, Andrew V. Meloy, confessed that he had inadvertently tipped +over the plot when he had innocently telephoned a Carranzista to find +out, for safety sake, whether the Carranza party suspected Huerta. It +was this Carranzista who made a few inquiries of his own, and succeeded +in planting the spy in the Holland House meeting. + +The aged general, although he was transferred to a more comfortable +prison, took his confinement bitterly. His dream had been bright +indeed, and it had been bluntly interrupted. As the autumn came on his +health showed signs of failing, and his career of dissipation began +to total the final reckoning. The illness became grave, and after +two surgical attempts to save his life, he died in January, 1916, +heartbroken. + +Von Eckhart, the minister to Mexico City, was to Mexico what +Bernstorff was to the United States and he employed faithfully the +familiar tactics of his superior: revolution, editorial propaganda, +filibustering and double dealing. In the fall of 1916 the fine German +hand could be seen prompting a note sent by Mexico to the United +States urging an embargo on the shipment on munitions and foodstuffs +to the warring nations (Mexico had neither foodstuffs nor munitions to +supply). And in December, 1916, Eckhart was robbed of the achievement +of a conspiracy of fantastic proportions. + +In order to appreciate the fantasy, one must bear in mind the +temperament of a Central American. Eckhart and his colleague, Lehmann, +German minister to Guatemala, proposed to harness that temperament to +a German wagon and drive the Latin republics to the formation of "the +United States of Central America," which presumably would have borne a +Prussian eagle in the field of its ensign. + +Carranza disliked Cabrera of Guatemala; so, too, did Dr. Irias, a +Nicaraguan liberal. Certain factions in Honduras disapproved of their +president; certain factions in Guatemala could be counted on to support +revolution against Cabrera; Dr. Irias, the defeated candidate, disliked +Emiliano Chammorra, the President of Nicaragua, enormously. What more +natural than that they combine forces and with German money and arms +kindle not one revolution but a series of them, with an invasion thrown +in for good measure? Accordingly they conferred with a Salvadorean +politician, a Cuban revolutionist, and an associate of the Costa +Rican minister of war. The cast complete, they planned to assemble +revolutionary forces, with German military advisers, on the coast of +Salvador. Using Salvador as a base, attacks were to be made upon +Nicaragua and Guatemala, and at the proper time Carranza was to invade +Guatemala from the north. Colombia's services were to be enlisted +by the promise of restoration of the Republic of Panama--originally +a Colombian province. As soon as the combined revolutionaries had +succeeded in overthrowing their governments, they were to form the +United States of Central America, with Irias as president, and William +of Hohenzollern as counsel. + +Our levity is pointed not at the Central American temperament and +political instability, but rather towards the grotesquely serious +objective of the German plotters. If their military forces had been +Prussian shock troops they would certainly have succeeded. The use +of a Mexican gunboat to transport German officers with an airplane +and wireless apparatus from Mexico to Salvador exposed the plan. +President Cabrera of Guatemala had a small but effective force of +thirty thousand men, and a well-equipped artillery, armed--and he +was prepared for attack from either frontier. He also enjoyed the +confidence of Washington, and he informed Washington at once what was +afoot. The answer arrived presently in the shape of the American fleet, +on a peaceful expedition to survey the Gulf of Fonseca, its newly +acquired Nicaraguan naval base. The revolutions failed for want of +revolutionists, the German enterprise failed for want of revolutions, +and of the conspirators only one, Tinoco of Costa Rica, succeeded in +capitalizing the unrest by a _coup d'etat_ which made him president. +The plot never reached maturity in Colombia or Panama. + +Before dismissing it from consideration, however, it is worth a +moment's analysis. With any degree of success it would have distracted +the United States, and perhaps have involved her marine corps as well +as her navy. It contained possibilities of war between Mexico and the +United States. It projected a blow at the Panama Canal. It concerned +a territory in which commercially as well diplomatically the United +States had definite concern and in which Germany had already shown a +greedy interest. Incidentally it reveals--in its offer to Colombia--the +same diplomatic technique as that which was shortly to startle the +United States into the last step towards war, the so-called "Zimmermann +note." + +At 3 A. M. (Berlin time) on January 19, 1917, the following message was +sent by wireless to Count von Bernstorff from the Foreign Office: + + + "BERLIN, January 19, 1917. + + "On the first of February we intend to begin submarine warfare + unrestricted. In spite of this it is our endeavor to keep neutral + the United States of America. + + "If this is not successful we propose an alliance on the following + basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and together + shall make peace. We shall give general financial support and it + is understood that Mexico is to recover the lost territory in + New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. The details are left to you for + settlement. + + "You are also instructed to inform the president of Mexico of the + above in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain there + will be an outbreak of war with the United States and suggest that + the President of Mexico on his own initiative should communicate + with Japan suggesting adherence at once to this plan; at the same + time offer to mediate between Germany and Japan. + + "Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the + employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel + England to make peace in a few months. + + "(Signed) ZIMMERMANN." + + +This document was decoded from the official dictionary cipher and laid +in the hands of President Wilson almost immediately following the +rupture of diplomatic relations. It was made public on February 28, +when the public temper was at whitest heat. Mexico did not repudiate +the note at once, and four days later despatched a denial of having +received any such proposal as Zimmermann had suggested. Eckhart +was forcing Carranza's hand with the lure of the projected Central +American enterprise already outlined. (Eckhart had had Carranza so +completely under his influence at one time that when the United States +despatched to Mexico a friendly note warning her of the presence of +German submarines in the Gulf, Mexico retorted--at Eckhart's literal +dictation--that the United States might do well to ask the British +Navy why it did not prevent German undersea craft from approaching the +Americas.) The month of March fled by, and America went to war; since +that date no official expression except one of praise for Mexico's +attitude of amiable neutrality has issued from Washington. + +Just as the proximity of Mexico to the United States had for a number +of years past carried with it the possibility, almost the certainty, of +differences between the two countries, rising out of the temperamental +differences of their peoples, so for a longer period had Ireland and +England suffered for their contiguity. It is a truism to remark that +the Irishman cherishes his national grievances, but that characteristic +accounts for a further phase of German intrigue on American soil. +Hatred of England sent many thousands of Irish to the United States in +the past fifty years. They found it a country to their liking, which +England was not, and although they had become indissolubly attached +to their adopted land, there were in America in 1914 (and there are +in 1918) numerous Irish who had no dearer wish than that England come +off second best in the great war. Allies after Germany's own heart +they were, therefore. They had been cultivated long since: in 1909, +when plans were being made for a centenary celebration in 1914 of +the peace that had reigned between the United States and England, +German-American and Irish-American interests began to raise a structure +of their own, exploiting the prominence which certain Germans, such +as Franz Sigel and Carl Schurz, had enjoyed in the construction of +the nation. The programme of these interests included the erection of +elaborate memorials over the graves of prominent German Americans, +the dissemination of legends of German heroes in America, and more +practically the frustrating of the projected Peace Centenary. + +Many of the organizations thus united for a practical purpose found a +clearing-house in the American Truth Society, of which Jeremiah O'Leary +was the head. Although the Centennial Celebration itself was rudely +interrupted by the advent of war, the German-Irish acquaintanceship +was nourished by the German propagandists in America. They observed +with pleasure the circulation by the Clan-na-Gael of cards informing +the Irish in America that troops from Erin were being assigned to the +most dangerous posts and the bloodiest attacks and subjected to the +most severe enemy fire in France, and that the hated British were +dragging Irish boys from their homes to fill up the ranks. Between +September, 1914, and April, 1915, funds amounting to $80,000 for the +purchase of arms and the printing of seditious papers and leaflets +were forwarded from America to Dublin banks, and then mysteriously +were withdrawn. An inflammatory publication known as _Bull_, published +by O'Leary, and not barred from the mails until September, 1917, went +broadcast over the United States, inciting bitterness against England, +and found a greedy circle of readers in the German-American population. +John Devoy, a Sinn Feiner of standing in America, fanned the flame +with a newspaper known as the _Gaelic American_, published in New +York, and it is this American-printed sheet which furnished the Irish +revolutionists with material for a part of the plot which they were +preparing for fruition in the year 1916. + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Jeremiah A. O'Leary] + +In 1916 Sir Roger Casement, an Irish knight, made his way into Germany. +He was permitted to visit the prison camp at Limburg where some 3,000 +Irish prisoners of war were quartered, and he moved about among them +attempting to obtain enlistments in an army which was to effect a +coup in Dublin to overthrow the British government in the Castle and +to proclaim an Irish Republic. He circulated numerous copies of the +_Gaelic American_ to arouse the men. He was variously received. Some +of the prisoners held their release worth treason--but only fifty-odd. +The greater majority rejected Sir Roger's offer, and some even chose +to curse and spit at the suggestion that they break their oaths of +allegiance to Great Britain. He succeeded, however, in enlisting German +financial assistance, and in early April, 1916, a cargo of captured +Russian arms and ammunition was forwarded to Kiel and loaded into the +German auxiliary steamship _Aud_. + +Some 11,000 revolutionists were in a state of mental if not martial +mobilization in Ireland by this time. There were in Dublin some 825 +rifles. But so cleverly were the volunteers' orders passed from +member to member, that Sir Matthew Nathan, Under-secretary of State +for Ireland, testified later that he did not know until three days +before the outbreak occurred that German interests were coöperating. +Evidently, however, sympathizers in America knew it full well, for in +the von Igel papers captured in von Papen's office in New York was +found the following message to von Bernstorff: + + + "NEW YORK, April 17, 1916. + + "Judge Cohalan requests the transmission of the following remarks: + + "The revolution in Ireland can only be successful if supported + from Germany, otherwise England will be able to suppress it, + even though it be only after hard struggles. Therefore, help is + necessary. This should consist primarily of aerial attacks in + England and a diversion of the fleet, simultaneously with Irish + revolution. Then, if possible, a landing of troops, arms, and + ammunition in Ireland, and possibly some officers from Zeppelins. + This would enable the Irish ports to be closed against England + and the establishment of stations for submarines on the Irish + coast and the cutting off of the supply of food for England. The + services of the revolution may therefore decide the war. + + "He asks that a telegram to this effect be sent to Berlin." + + +Presumably such a telegram was sent, although on April 17 Sir +Roger, with his recruits, was at Kiel. Three days before the Berlin +press bureau had authorized the issuance of a despatch through +the semi-official Overseas News Agency that "political rioting in +Ireland is increasing." On the same day a news item was published in +Copenhagen stating that Sir Roger had been arrested in Germany to +allay any suggestion that he was engaged in any other enterprise. On +the afternoon of Thursday, April 20, a German submarine stuck its +conning tower out of water off Tralee, on the Irish coast. Three men +presently emerged, unfolded a collapsible boat, and rowed ashore in it. +The three were Casement and two of his henchmen, come home to Ireland +to spread the news that German arms and German aid were at hand. Off +the southwest coast the patrol ship _Bluebell_ of the British Navy +sighted, on Good Friday morning, a ship flying the Norwegian flag, and +calling herself, in answer to the _Bluebell's_ hail, the _Aud_, out of +Bergen for Genoa. Under the persuasive effect of a warning shot from +the _Bluebell_ the _Aud_ followed her as far as Daunt's Rock, where +her crew of German sailors set fire to her, hoisted the German naval +ensign, abandoned ship, and then surrendered under fire. The _Aud_ +sank, carrying the arms for Irish revolution with her. Sir Roger was +arrested in hiding, and on Easter Sunday Dublin broke out in revolt. On +Monday a cipher message reached O'Leary, telling him of the uprising +hours before the British censor permitted the news story to cross the +ocean. John Devoy burst out in a heated charge in the _Gaelic American_ +that-- + +"The sinking of the German ship loaded with arms and ammunition +... was the direct result of information treacherously given to the +British Government by a member of the Washington Administration ... +Wilson's officials obtained the information by an act of lawlessness, a +violation of international law and of American law, committed with the +deliberate purpose of helping England, and it was promptly put at the +disposal of the British Government...." + +This charge was denied at once from Washington. The specific "violation +of international law and of American law" to which Devoy referred was +generally supposed to be the seizure of the von Igel papers, for the +accusation is the same as that which von Igel made when his office was +raided. How Devoy knew that the von Igel papers contained information +of the proposed expedition from Kiel to Ireland is a question which +Devoy has no doubt had to answer to the Government of the United States +since then. He and O'Leary, with Dennis Spellisy, who had collected +large sums of money for the Sinn Fein cause, were loud in their +protests against the execution of the ringleaders of the revolt on May +3rd, which put a sharp end to the endeavors of the revolutionists. That +O'Leary was known to the German system of secret agents in America +needs no further substantiation. To credit him with generalship, +however, would be doing him too great honor and the Irish-American +population injustice; O'Leary was bitterly pro-German, but so were +hundreds of more prominent and influential Irish-Americans: one could +find the names of several New York Justices upon the roster of the +Friends of Peace. Sir Roger Casement petitioned for a Philadelphia +lawyer at his trial for treason, and Sir Roger's sister attempted +unsuccessfully to reach President Wilson, through his secretary, Joseph +P. Tumulty, in an effort to bring about intercession in the doomed +knight's favor. (Mr. Tumulty was approached more than once by persons +whom he had reason to suspect of alloyed motives who desired to "set +forth a case to the President.") The link between the old country and +the new is close, the future of Ireland is one of more than usual +interest and concern to the United States, and the fact that the great +majority of Irish-Americans have subordinated their insular convictions +to the greater conviction of loyalty to their adopted land is at once a +fine augury of ultimate solution of the Irish question, and a dignified +rebuke to the efforts which Germany has made through America to exploit +Ireland. + +On Washington's Birthday, 1916, there came to New York one who posed +as a French publisher and publicist. He brought excellent letters of +recommendation, and was well supplied with money. He was personable, +and well sponsored, and he was correspondingly well received. Within +a month he left the United States for France, with appropriate +expressions of his appreciation of American hospitality. + +In April, 1918, that same man faced a French firing squad, guilty of +having attempted to betray his country, and of having traded with the +enemy. + +He was Paul Bolo Pacha, Paul Bolo by common usage, Pacha by whatever +right is vested in a deposed Khedive to confer titles. Born somewhere +in the obscurity of the Levant, he came as a boy to Marseilles. He was +successively barber's-boy, lobster-monger, husband of a rich woman who +left him her estate, then café-owner and wine-agent. Then he drifted to +Cairo, and into the good graces of Abbas Hilmi, the Khedive. Abbas was +deposed by the British in 1914 as pro-German, and went to Geneva; Bolo +followed. + +Charles F. Bertelli, the correspondent in Paris of the Hearst +newspapers, naïvely related before Captain Bouchardon, a French +prosecutor, the circumstances of his acquaintanceship with Bolo, which +led to the latter's cordial reception at the hands of Hearst when he +arrived in New York. " ... Jean Finot, Directeur of _La Revue_, ... had +sent him a letter of introduction to Mr. Hearst and had requested me to +accredit him with Mr. Hearst. He had said to me: 'Occupy yourself with +the matter, Bolo has very great political power; he is the proprietor +of _Le Journal_ and it would be well that Hearst should know him.' +... I made the voyage with Bolo.... I spoke of Bolo to Hearst and the +latter said to me, 'If he is a great proprietor of French newspapers, +I should be very glad to....' As a compliment to Hearst, Bolo gave a +grand dinner at Sherry's.... Bolo had two personal guests: Jules Bois +and the German, Pavenstedt...." We need draw on Bertelli no further +than to introduce the same Adolph Pavenstedt in whose offices Papen +and Boy-Ed had sought refuge at the outbreak of war in 1914; Adolph +Pavenstedt, head of the banking house of G. Amsinck & Co., through +which the attachés paid their henchmen for attempts at the Welland +Canal, the Vanceboro bridge, and at America's peace in general. Bolo +had made Pavenstedt's acquaintance in Havana in 1913. + +Four days after he landed in New York, and before the Hearst dinner +(which was incidental to the plot) Bolo had progressed with his +negotiations to betray France to a point where von Bernstorff sent the +following message to the Foreign Office in Berlin: + + + "Number 679, February twenty-sixth. + + "I have received direct information from an entirely trustworthy + source concerning a political action in one of the enemy countries + which would bring about peace. One of the leading political + personalities of the country in question is seeking a loan of one + million seven hundred thousand dollars in New York, for which + security will be given. I was forbidden to give his name in + writing. The affair seems to me to be of the greatest possible + importance. Can the money be provided at once in New York? That + the intermediary will keep the matter secret is entirely certain. + Request answer by telegram. A verbal report will follow as soon as + a trustworthy person can be found to bring it to Germany. + + "BERNSTORFF." + + +[Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ + +Paul Bolo Pacha (on the right)] + +Herr von Jagow felt that even at that date peace with any belligerent +was worth $1,700,000. He cabled back: + + + "No. 150, February twenty-ninth. + + "Answer to telegram No. 679: + + "Agree to the loan, but only if peace action seems to you a really + serious project, as the provision of money in New York is for us + at present extraordinarily difficult. If the enemy country is + Russia have nothing to do with the business, as the sum of money + is too small to have any serious effect in that country. So too + in the case of Italy, for it would not be worth while, to spend so + much. + + "(Signed) JAGOW." + + +The plan approved, the next step was to pay Bolo. Bernstorff's +cablegram of March 5, Number 685, pleaded for the money. + + + "Please instruct Deutsches Bank to hold 9,000,000 marks at + disposal of Hugo Schmidt. The affair is very promising. Further + particulars follow." + + +The next day Hugo Schmidt, American representative of the Deutsches +Bank, sent the following wireless through the station at Sayville to +the Deutsches Bank Direktion, Berlin: + + + "Communicate with William Foxley (the Foreign Office) and + telegraph whether he has placed money at my disposal for Charles + Gladhill (Count von Bernstorff)." + + +The reply came three days later. It read: + + + "Replying your cable about Charles Gladhill (von Bernstorff) Fred + Hooven (the Guaranty Trust Company of New York) will receive + money for our account. You may dispose according to our letter of + November 24, 1914, to Fred Hooven." + + +On March 11, Schmidt, who was working night and day to consummate the +deal, wirelessed again to Berlin: + + + "Your wireless received. Paid Charles Gladhill (von Bernstorff) + $500 (which signified $500,000) through Fred Hooven (the Guaranty + Trust Company). Gladhill requires further $1,100 ($1,100,000) + which shall pay gradually." + + +Bolo's affairs were promising well. He had brought with him from +Paris a letter of introduction to the New York manager of the Royal +Bank of Canada, stating that he was the publisher of _Le Journal_, +which required a large quantity of news print paper every day, and +that he had been commissioned by all of the other large newspaper +publishers in Paris to arrange a contract for 20,000 tons monthly. Bolo +confirmed his intention to perform this mission when he deposited in +the Royal Bank of Canada $500,000 which Hugo Schmidt had drawn from +the German government deposits in the National Park Bank and had given +to Pavenstedt, who in turn checked it over to the French traitor. It +was not the purchase of print paper which interested him, however, but +the perversion, through purchase, of as many French newspapers as he +could lay his slimy hands on; once in his possession, they could be +made to carry out a sinister propaganda for a separate peace between +France and Germany. Germany had offered, through Abbas Hilmi, to yield +Alsace-Lorraine in return for certain French colonies, and to evacuate +the occupied portions of French soil, and by painting such a settlement +in bright colors to the people of France Bolo could have served +Germany's ends effectively either by actually accomplishing some such +settlement, or by weakening the morale which was so largely responsible +for holding the German drive against Verdun, then in the first stages +of its fury. + +On March 17, the Deutsches Bank wirelessed to Schmidt: + + + "You may dispose on Fred Hooven (the Guaranty Trust Company) on + behalf Charles Gladhill (von Bernstorff) $1,700 (which meant + $1,700,000)." + + +Bolo had his million and three-quarters, which he had asked. He had +made disposition of it through the Royal Bank, setting a portion aside +to his wife's credit, depositing another portion to the credit of +Senator Charles Humbert (part-owner with Bolo of _Le Journal_) and +holding a reserve of a million dollars in the Royal Bank subject to his +call. Then he took ship for France. + +His final arrangements with Pavenstedt prompted von Bernstorff to send +the following message on March 20 to the Foreign Office: + + + "No. 692, March 20. + + "With reference to telegram No. 685 please advise our Minister + in Berne that some one will call on him who will give him the + password Sanct Regis who wished to establish relations with the + Foreign Office. Intermediary further requests that influence may + be brought to bear in France so far as possible in silence so that + things may not be spoiled by German approval. + + "(Signed) BERNSTORFF." + + +Von Bernstorff had been cautious enough during Bolo's sojourn in the +United States to negotiate with him only through Pavenstedt, in order +that the Embassy might not be compromised in an exceedingly hazardous +undertaking if any suggestion of Bolo's real designs leaked out. He +was fully prepared in such an event to repudiate Pavenstedt, and to +state honestly that he had never seen or heard of Bolo, for until +the day before he left, when Pavenstedt asked the Ambassador for the +telegram of introduction quoted above, Bernstorff did not know Bolo's +name. That he did know it then, and that he discussed Bolo with Berlin +during April and May is evident from the following cable, sent from the +Foreign Secretary to the Embassy at Washington on May 31: + + + "Number 206. May 31st. The person announced in telegram 692 of + March 20th has not yet reported himself at the Legation at Berne. + Is there any more news on your side of Bolo? + + "JAGOW." + + +There was not, although Bolo was keeping the cables hot with messages +directing the further transfer of the nest-egg of $1,700,000 which he +had acquired in his month in New York. He wanted the money credited +to the account of Senator Humbert in J. P. Morgan & Co., then through +Morgan, Harjes & Co. of Paris he directed the remittance of his +funds to Paris, then cancelled those instructions and directed that +his million be credited to him in Perrier & Cie., in which he was +interested. What twists and turns of fate occasioned the juggling of +these funds after he returned to France is not known, but certainly +no bag of plunder ever passed through more artful manipulation. The +explanation of its hectic adventures may lie in the fact that the +spectacle of Bolo, commissioned to go to the United States to spend +money for news print, and returning with nearly two millions of +dollars, would have interested the French police. + +For more than a year he covered his tracks. Shortly after his return +the _Bonnet Rouge_, the declining publication which served ex-Premier +Joseph Caillaux as mouthpiece, began to attract attention for its +discussion of peace propaganda. A strain of pessimism over the conduct +of the war began to make itself apparent in other journals. The arrest +of Duval and Almereyda of the _Bonnet Rouge_ disclosed certain of +Bolo's activities and a search of his house in February revealed papers +covering certain of his financial transactions in America. The United +States was requested to investigate, and refused, as the affair was +considered political, and it was not until we joined France in the war +that the request was repeated, this time with better success. + +Attorney-General Merton Lewis of New York State conducted an +investigation which revealed every step of Bolo's operations in New +York. His search of the records of the banks involved indicated that +a fund of some $50,000,000 in cash and negotiable securities lay on +deposit in America which the Deutsches Bank could place at the disposal +of von Bernstorff and his fellow conspirators at any time for any +purpose, and which was adequate as a reserve for any enterprise which +might present itself. The evidence against Bolo was forwarded to Paris, +and he was arrested. On October 4, 1917, Secretary Lansing made public +the correspondence which the State Department had intercepted. + +The French public became hysterically interested in the case. Senator +Humbert promptly refunded the 5,500,000 francs which he had received +from Bolo for 1,600 shares in _Le Journal_. Almereyda of the _Bonnet +Rouge_ committed suicide in prison; his death dragged Malvy, Minister +of the Interior under Ribot, out of office under suspicion of trading +with the enemy; the editor of a Paris financial paper was imprisoned +on the same charge; "Boloism" became a generic term, and the French +government, feeling a growing restlessness on the part of the public, +encouraged the new diversion of spy-hunting which resulted in the +exposure of negotiations between Caillaux and German representatives in +Buenos Aires. Russia had been dissolved by similar German propaganda, +Italy, after vigorous advances into Italia Irridenta, had had her +military resistance sapped by another such campaign as Bolo proposed +for France, and had retreated to the Po valley; the sum total of +"Boloism" during the autumn and winter of 1917-1918 was an increased +conviction on the part of the Allied peoples that the line must be held +more firmly than ever, while the rear was combed for prominent traitors. + +Thus, a year before she entered war, the United States supplied the +scene of one of the outstanding intrigues of the war. How voluble was +Adolph Pavenstedt in confessing his services as intermediary for the +Kaiser; Pavenstedt was interned in an American prison camp ... a rather +comfortable camp. Hugo Schmidt, who on his own testimony was the +accredited manipulator of enormous sums for the German government, was +ingenuous to a degree in his denial of any knowledge of what the money +paid Bolo was to be used for; Schmidt was interned. Bolo was shot. + +Revolution in India, a battle royal on the Central American isthmus, a +revolution in Mexico, uprisings in the West Indies, a separate peace in +France--these were ambitious undertakings. For three years they were +cleared through Washington, D. C. We must accept that fact not alone +with the natural feeling of chagrin which it evokes, but with an eye +to the future. We should congratulate our smug selves that our country +was concerned only with the processes of these intrigues, and was not +subject directly to their results. And then we Americans should ask +ourselves whether it is not logical that, our country having served as +the most fertile ground for German demoralization of other nations, we +should be on our guard for a similar plot against ourselves. + +That plot will not come noisily, obviously. It will be no crude effort +to suggest that "American troops are suffering at the hands of the +French high command." It will not be phrased in terms which reek of +the Wilhelmstrasse--earnest, plodding, grotesque German polysyllables. +The German knows that an army must depend upon the hearts of its +people, and he reasons: "I shall attack the hearts of the people, and +I believe that if it is a good principle to attack my enemy from the +rear through his people, it is also a good principle to attack his +people from the rear. The heart is as near the back as it is the front, +_nicht wahr_?" The plot will seem, in its early stages, part and parcel +of our daily life and concern; we shall not see the German hand in it; +the hand will be so concealed as not even to excite the enthusiasm +of the German-American, often a good danger-signal. It will involve +institutions and individuals whom we have trusted, and we shall take +sides in the controversy, and we shall grow violently pro-this and +anti-that. We shall grow sick of the wretchedness of affairs, perhaps, +and we shall lose heart. That is precisely what Germany most desires. +That is what Germany is striving for. That is why the nobility of our +citizenship carries with it the obligation of vigilance. It is in the +hope that each one of us Americans may learn how Germany works abroad, +that we may be better prepared for her next step here, that this +narrative has been written. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +AMERICA GOES TO WAR + + Bernstorff's request for bribe-money--The President on German + spies--Interned ships seized--Enemy aliens--Interning German + agents--The water-front and finger-print regulations--Pro-German + acts since April, 1917--A warning and a prophecy. + + +On January 22, 1917, President Wilson set forth to the Senate of the +United States his ideas of the steps necessary to secure world peace. +On the same day Count von Bernstorff sent his Foreign Office this +message: + + + "I request authority to pay out up to $50,000 (Fifty thousand + dollars) in order, as on former occasions, to influence Congress + through the organization you know of, which perhaps can prevent + war. I am beginning in the meantime to act accordingly. In the + above circumstance a public official German declaration in favor + of Ireland is highly desirable in order to gain the support of + Irish influence here." + + +The money did not have the desired soothing effect. Nine days later +Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare as her immediate +future policy and the head of the German spy system in America received +his passports for return to Germany. He was succeeded by the head of +the German spy system in America. + +The real name of this successor is not known to the authorities at +this date. If it were he would be arrested, and punished according to +whatever specific crime he had committed against a set of American +statutes created for conditions of peace. Then, with the head of the +German spy system in America in prison, he would be succeeded, as +Bernstorff was, by the head of the German spy system in America. + +And so this absurd progression would go on, until finally there would +be no more spies to head the system on the American front. How much +the system would be able to accomplish during the painstaking pursuit +and capture of its successive heads would depend upon America's +swiftness in pursuit and capture. Who the individual in authority over +the system is, and what is his structure of organization, cannot be +answered here. But it is vitally necessary for every citizen who has +the free existence of this republic at heart to decide, basing his +judgment on certain events since the declaration of war, what measure +of accomplishment the German spy system shall have, and what it has +already effected against a nation with which it is now openly and +frankly at war. + +Let him first recall that in his Flag Day speech of June 14, 1916, +President Wilson said in part: + +"There is disloyalty in the United States, and it must be absolutely +crushed. It proceeds from a minority, a very small minority, but a very +active and subtle minority.... If you could have gone with me through +the space of the last two years and could have felt the subtle impact +of intrigue and sedition, and have realized with me that those to whom +you have intrusted authority are trustees not only of the power but +also of the very spirit and purpose of the United States, you would +realize with me the solemnity with which I look upon the sublime symbol +of our unity and power." + +Let him then refer to the President's Flag Day address of one year +later (quoted at the beginning of the book). With those admirable +expressions in mind, let him recapitulate the activities of German +sympathizers or agents since February, 1917. + +Ninety-one vessels flying the German flag were in American harbors. +Their displacement totalled nearly six hundred thousand tons--the +equivalent of a fleet of seventy-five of the cargo carriers on which +the United States later began construction to offset the submarine. +Months in advance of the severance of diplomatic relations, orders had +been issued from the Embassy to the masters of all these vessels in +case of war between Germany and the United States to cripple the ships. +With the break in relations imminent, German agents slipped aboard +the vessels and gave the word: the great majority of the ninety-one +ships were then put out of commission by the 368 officers and 826 +men aboard. The damage was performed with crowbars and axes. Vital +parts had been chalk-marked weeks in advance, so that the destruction +might be effected swiftly: delicate mechanisms were mashed beyond +recognition, important parts removed and smuggled ashore or dropped +overboard, cylinders cracked, emery dust introduced in the bearings +of the engines, pistons battered out of shape, and the machinery of +the ships generally destroyed as only skilled engineers could have +destroyed them. Out of thirty ships in New York harbor, thirty ships +were damaged--among them the liners, _Vaterland_, of 54,000 tons, +the _George Washington_, of 25,000 tons, the _Kaiser Wilhelm_, the +_President Lincoln_, and the _President Grant_, of about 20,000 tons +each. In the harbor of Charleston, S. C., lay the _Liebenfels_, of +4,525 tons; her crew, led by Captain Johann Klattenhoff, scuttled +her on February 1, in the navigating channel of Charleston Harbor; +Klattenhoff, with Paul Wierse, a Charleston newspaper man, and eight +of the _Liebenfels'_ crew were tried and convicted of the crime, fined +and sentenced to periods averaging a year in Atlanta. The discovery +of the damage forced the Government to take over the vessels at once. +The Department of Justice hastened on February 2 to notify all of its +deputies "to take prompt measures against the attempt at destruction or +sinking or escape of such ships by their crews" which those crews had +already done; and the customs authorities who boarded the ships in San +Francisco, Honolulu, New York, Boston, Manila, and every other American +port came ashore with rueful countenances. The combined damage served +to tie the vessels up for at least six months more, and to require +expensive repair. To return to the comparison: a fleet of seventy-five +8,000 ton cargo vessels, such as have since been built, would have been +able to make, during those six months, at least four round trips to +France each, or 300 voyages. + +When the German fleet put into neutral American ports of refuge in +1914 the personnel of its ships totalled 476 officers and 4,980 men. +When the ships were seized in 1917, there were 368 officers and 826 +men aboard. Of those who had been discharged or allowed indefinite +shore leave a considerable number were active German agents, by far +the great majority were German citizens, and the United States was +on the horns of a dilemma: either each of the sailors ashore must be +watched on suspicion, or else each was free to go about the country as +he pleased. Thus more than 4,000 potential secret agents from an active +auxiliary arm of the German navy were dumped on the hospitality which +our neutrality entailed. When war was declared those men came within +the troublesome problem of the status of the enemy alien. + +What was an enemy alien? The United States, on April 6, declared war +against Germany. "Meanwhile," reads the report of the Attorney-General +for 1917, "prior to the passage of the joint resolution of Congress +of April 6, 1917, elaborate preparation was made for the arrest of +upward of 63 alien enemies whom past investigation had shown to +constitute a danger to the peace and safety of the United States if +allowed to remain at large." These "alien enemies" were male Germans. +Not Austrians, for the United States did not go to war with Austria +until December 7. Not Bulgars, nor Turks, for the United States has not +declared war upon Bulgaria or Turkey. Not female Germans, in the face +of the full knowledge of the predilections of Bernstorff, Boy-Ed, and +von Papen for employing women in espionage. Of the thousands of Germans +in the United States whose sympathies were presently to be demonstrated +in numerous ways against the successful prosecution of America's war, +sixty-three had been deemed worthy of arrest. By June 30 this number +had risen to 295, and by October 30 to 895. "Some of those, interned," +continues the report, "have been paroled with the necessary bonds and +restrictions." Although the United States went to war on April 6, Karl +Heynen, who managed the Bridgeport Projectile Company for Bernstorff +and Albert, and who had previously earned the good will of the United +States by gun-running in Mexico, was not arrested until July 6, in his +offices in the Hamburg-American Line at 45 Broadway. At the same time +F. A. Borgemeister, former adviser to Dr. Albert, and latterly Heynen's +lieutenant, was arrested. Both were interned at Fort Oglethorpe and +during December, Borgemeister was allowed three weeks' liberty on +parole. Rudolph Hecht, confidant of Dr. Albert, who had sold German +war loan bonds for the Kaiser, and who had also been interned, was +released for a like period of liberty in December. G. B. Kulenkampf, +who had secured false manifest papers for the supply-ship _Berwind_ in +August, 1914, was arrested on May 28, 1918, more than one year after +America had entered the war; on the same day Robert J. Oberfohren, a +statistician employed by the Hamburg-American, was arrested and in +his room were captured compiled statistics covering the exports of +munitions from the United States during the two years past: Oberfohren +said he expected to turn the figures in to the University of Munich +after the war. + +Bernstorff himself left an able alien enemy in the Swiss Legation in +Washington. He was Heinrich Schaffhausen, and had been one of the +brightest attachés of the German Embassy. As a member for three months +of the Swiss Legation he might readily have sent (and no doubt did +send) information of military value to his own people in code, under +protection of the Swiss seal. The State Department on July 6 ordered +his deportation. Adolph Pavenstedt was arrested on January 22, 1918, +in the Adirondacks, after having enjoyed nine months' immunity; Otto +Julius Merkle was not interned until December 7; Gupta, the Hindu, was +finally caught in New York in 1917, gave bail, and escaped; Dr. John +Ferrari, alias F. W. Hiller, a German officer who had escaped from a +British detention camp in India and had joined the German intrigue +colony, was interned in January, 1918; Baron Gustave von Hasperg was +arrested only after he had displayed undue interest in the National +Army cantonment at Upton in the same month; Franz Rosenberg, a wealthy +German importer, convicted in 1915 of having attempted to smuggle +rubber in cotton bales into Germany, and fined $500 for that offense, +was allowed at liberty until February 9, 1918; in a round-up which +took place in January, 1918, the Federal authorities collected such +celebrities as Hugo Schmidt, Frederick Stallforth, and Baron George von +Seebeck (the son of General von Seebeck, commander of the Tenth Corps +of the German army). + +The cases cited are picked at random out of a mass. They illustrate +the breathing periods given to Germans who had been active under +Bernstorff in disturbing America's peace and defying her laws. They +serve also to illustrate the contrast between the methods employed +by the United States, and those adopted by her Allies, from whom she +has taken other lessons in the business of warfare. France gave alien +enemies forty-eight hours in which to leave the soil of the country, +and any such person found at large after that date was to be interned +in a detention camp. To have interned all of the Germans in the United +States would have been impossible and the Government took some time to +find a second best method. By May 2 the Department of Justice was in a +position to announce that it had plans for internment camps for three +classes of aliens: prisoners of war, enemy aliens, and detained aliens, +and it announced on that date there were some 6,000 in those classes +already detained. By February 17, 1918, however, there were actually +no more than 1,870 aliens interned under the war department and under +military guard at Forts McPherson, Oglethorpe and Douglas, and some +2,000 at Hot Springs, North Carolina, in the Department of Labor's +detention camp. + +At both camps the prisoners were fed and housed at the expense of the +Government, and it was not until the early spring of 1918 that they +were put to work. + +From April 6 to July 10, 1917, an enemy alien could be employed by any +shipbuilder, tug-boat captain, lighterage firm or steamship line; he +could go about any waterfront at will, provided he did not enter the +so-called "barred zones" in the vicinity of Government military or +naval property, and he could make unmolested such observations as his +eyesight afforded of the shipping upon which the United States depends +for its share in this war. After that date he was forbidden such +employment, and denied approach to all wharves and ships. On July 9 the +Government discharged from its employ 200 German subjects who for weeks +past had been loading transports at the docks in an "Atlantic port." A +raid on the Hoboken waterfront in the following winter rounded up 200 +more enemy aliens who had calmly ignored the "barred zone" regulations. + +The Government was confronted with a stupendous problem. How to handle +with its normal peace-time police force the great unwieldy flow of +the alien population presented a constantly baffling question, yet it +was absolutely essential to the control of internal affairs that the +Government know the comings and goings of the enemies within its gates. +The date of February 13, 1918, was eventually set as the last on which +citizens of enemy countries living in the United States might set down +their finger prints and names and file their affidavits of residence +and condition. + +What facilities had the United States provided for transacting this +great volume of additional protective duty? There existed, first of +all, the Department of Justice, whose chief function in peace-time +had been the enforcement through its investigators and prosecutors +of acts of Congress, such as the so-called Mann "White Slave" Act, +and the Sherman "Anti-Trust" Act. There was the United States Secret +Service, a bureau of the Treasury Department, whose chief function had +been the detection of smuggling and counterfeiting and the protection +of the person of the President. There was the Intelligence Bureau +of the War Department, and a similar Bureau of the Navy Department, +both undermanned, as was every other branch of our military forces +at that time. The advent of war brought a complicated necessity for +coordination of these four branches and of several other Federal +investigating bureaus. + +The German did not wait for coordination. He inspired food riots among +the poorer classes of the lower East Side in New York. He opposed the +draft law, rallying to his support the Socialist, the Anarchist, and +the Industrial Worker of the World, under whose cloak he hid, not too +well concealed. He celebrated the declaration of war by blowing up a +munitions plant at Eddystone, Pa., on April 10, 1917, and killing 112 +persons, most of whom were women and girls. He sneaked information into +Germany through the Swedish legation. He tried to promote strikes in +Pittsburg, but his agent, Walter Zacharias, was arrested. He tried +to dynamite the Elephant-Butte dam on the Rio Grande, but his agent, +Dr. Louis Kopf, was caught. He caused a serious revolution in Cuba +until his agents were expelled. He tried to block the Liberty Loans, +in vain. He tried to obstruct the collection of Red Cross funds. He +caused strikes in the airplane-spruce forests of the Northwest. He +assisted Lieutenant Hans Berg of the captured German prize _Appam_ to +escape from Fort McPherson with nine of his crew in October, 1917. He +erected secret wireless stations at various points, to communicate to +Berlin via Mexico, whither thousands of his army reservists had fled +on false passports at the outbreak of war. He smuggled information +of military importance in and out of the country in secret inks, on +neutral vessels, and even wrote them (on one occasion) in cipher +upon the shoulder of a prima donna. He burned warehouses and shell +plants. He sawed the keel of a transport nearly through. He placed a +culture of ptomaine germs in the milk supply of the cadets' school +at Fort Leavenworth. He invented a chemical preparation which would +cause painful injury to the kidneys of every man who drank water in a +certain army cantonment. He received Irish rebellionists and negotiated +with them for further revolution. He made his way into our munitions +plants and secured data which he forwarded to Berlin; he worked in our +aeroplane plants and deliberately weakened certain vital parts of the +tenuous construction so that our aviators died in training; he kept +track of our transports, and of the movements of our forces, and passed +them on to the Wilhelmstrasse. He sold heroin to our soldiers and +sailors. He supplied men for the motor boat _Alexander Agassiz_ which +put to sea from a Pacific port to raid commerce. In short, he continued +to carry out, with multiplied opportunity, the same tactics he had +employed since August, 1914. + +The German spy in America continues to attack our armies in the rear. +He is here in force. A word to him may mean that within twenty-four +hours Kiel will know of another transport embarking with certain forces +for France. He is here to take the lives of Americans just as certainly +as his kinsman is firing across a parapet in Lorraine for the same +purpose. Whatever provision will save those lives must be made swiftly. +The Departments, already overtaxed with the magnitude of their task, +ask simply that they be given the weapons to make their splendid battle +on the American front successful. + +Whatever aid and comfort the enemy may find in this recitation of +his disgraceful achievements and graceless failures, he may have and +welcome. He has imposed upon the hospitality of the United States, has +dragged his clumsy boots over the length and breadth of their estate, +has run amuck with torch and explosive, and has earned a great deal of +loathing contempt, hardly amounting to hatred. But no fear--and that +is what he sought. The spectacle of what the disloyalists of America +have done, and the easily conjurable picture of what they would do if +Germany should win, are graphic enough for loyal America. The United +States must proceed with incisive vigor to cut out this poisonous +German sore. And the United States will remember the scar. It is so +written. + + + + +APPENDIX + +A GERMAN PROPAGANDIST + + +In 1915 Fritz von Pilis came to America. He had been a member of the +colonization bureau of the German Government maintained to Prussianize +Poland, and later an emigration agent of the North German Lloyd. + +He posed here as an anti-German Austrian who desired to give the +American public the "true facts" of Germany's intentions in the war. +He approached the _Sun_, offering it the following brief of a volume +written in late 1914 by a Prussian Pan-German, provided he (von Pilis) +be allowed to write a commentary to accompany the outline. His offer +was not accepted, for the _Sun_ saw him in his true light of Prussian +propagandist sent here to spread the gospel of might which is preached +in the book. + +The brief is offered here as an authoritative platform of Germany's +aims by conquest as the Pan-German party saw them after a few months of +war. Many of these aims have already been achieved. + + +(The phraseology and spelling is von Pilis'.) + +_Denkschrift, etc._ + +_General War Goal._ Weakening of foes: discard all "world citizen" +sentiment and dangerous objectivity in favor of strangers. We want +peace terms based solely on our interests. + +Severity: Let's hear no more of "considerations of humanity," +"cultural demands." Must impose indemnities on foes and take land in +Europe and overseas to lessen political power: + +(a) In Europe for healthy colonization. + +(b) Colonial: to supply raw materials and take finished products. + +(c) Indemnities to be devoted to common social betterment of German +people. + +_Internal._ Rehabilitation of farmer class by providing ample land. +Combat city evils. + +(1) Opportunity provided by fate in this attack by our foes. + +(2) France and Russia must cede land near our gates as punishment; +estates to German farmers. + +(3) City evils to be remedied by better housing conditions; by war +indemnities, not single tax. (Cheap rents, tenants become owners.) +(Gift of fate through foes.) Old age pensions larger and at lower +period of age (65 years instead of 70). + +_Overseas._ Take over colonies and settle by Germans to give economic +independence for imports and exports. This will give opportunities to +eliminate "intelligent proletariat" by use elsewhere. + +_Belgium._ Conspiracy and conduct of people and Government show Belgium +not entitled to independence. + +(1) All well-informed people in Germany say: "Belgium must cease to +exist." + +(2) Impossible to take into German people with equal rights. + +Rather leave with indemnity which must pay anyway. But we need the +coast against England. + +Belgium to be property of Empire, Kaiser its Lord: + +Belgium to lose its name. + +Belgium to be divided into 2 parts: Walloons and Flemish. + +Kaiser's officials to govern as dictators of province. + +Belgians taken into Empire to have no political rights. All who object +may emigrate. Walloons unworthy of being "Germanized." + +_France._ Must "bleed it white" so as never to be attacked again: + +(1) i.e., indemnity and land. Land from Switzerland via Belfort, +Moselle, Epinal, Toul, Meuse, Verdun, Sedan, Charleville, St. Quentin +to Somme and Channel at Cayeux. + +(2) France to take over and indemnify the present inhabitants. We get +the land sans dangerous people. Such expulsion immoral? Retribution. +Not bricht eisen! France'll be thankful for the population. Needs it. + +(3) Ceded area to become military frontier, administered by dictator. +To be settled by Germans: discharged soldiers or war veterans' families. + +(4) Toulon and environs to be made impregnable fortress on land and +seaside for base on the Mediterranean. + +Rather forego all French territory than take with it the hostile +French population. Walloons to be kept in land only to furnish mass of +laborers, lest new German settlers become industrial laborers again. + +_England._ Its world-rule must be ended! Can't formulate demands until +naval warfare decided. _Build ships with all your might!_ + +_Japan._ Must be punished for white race. Revenge. + +_Russia._ Must be put _hors de combat_ by permanent weakening. We must +forcibly once more turn Russia's face towards East by curtailing its +frontiers as before Peter I's time. Then its pressure vs. Asia. + +(1) A new Poland (off G. territory) including Grodno, Minsk and part +of Mohilen to Dnieper. Probably a kingdom with personal connection to +Hapsburg House. + +(2) G. to seize hegemony of Baltic; take Kniland, Livona, Esthonia and +Lithuania safeguarded by territories to rivers that were frontiers of +R. before Peter. + +(3) To take Suwalki and military strip of Poland to strengthen Thorn +and Silesia, Soldau, Wloclanek Kolo. + +(4) Finland to be independent or go to Sweden? + +(5) R. to lose most of Black Sea coast. + +(6) Ukraine Empire under Hapsburg for "Small Russia." Bessarabia to +Rumania. Austria to get good part of Serbia and Montenegro. + +How avoid clash of nationalities in newly formed territories? Ans.: By +forced migration. No home feelings in Russian farmer; R's precedents +Siberia. Exchange of G. settlers in New Russia for R's in new G. +(several years). Possibly so exchange Poles in Posen too? Lithuanians +may readily be incorporated into Poland and Letts and Esthonians to be +left or transferred to Russia according to treatment of G's in this +war. R. Jews unthinkable in G. Empire: Bar their migration westward. +Remedy (1) Bind R. to remove restrictions vs. Jews and then Jews back +there. + +(7) Zionism: Palestine to be ceded through G. and A-Hung. influence. +This--safe wall vs. Jews and stimulate migration of Jews to Russia. + +Prussia to get New Territory in East or else form "Marks" for +Germanization. + +Tenants to be settled by public grant in return for enhanced realty +values. + +We must never be without enemies strong enough to compel defensive +militia. Fr. and Eng. made powerless, let R. always threaten us and be +our foe; that'll be our luck. + +_The Colonies._ French Morocco, Senegambia & Congo. + +Egypt freed from England; England's colonies in Africa depend on +developments. + +Tunis to Italy. + +Bizert and Damietta (with Italy's and A-H's consent), Djibuti, Goa, +Ceylon, Sabang, Saigon, Azores, Caperdon (?), Isls, Madagascar. + +_Austria-Hungary._ Heavy indemnity from Russia. + +New Poland and Ukraine Empire personally united to A-H. North half +of Serbia. South 1/2 to Bulgaria. Guarantees to be given to Germanic +minority by Slavs. West Galicia to Poland. East Galicia to Ukraine +Empire. German to be Reichsprache? + +_The Neutrals._ Luxemburg to win G. Statehood (too weak to control B. +Luxemburg). + +Holland. Avoid pressure politically. Not to receive Flemish Belgium. +These need strict masters. + +Italy, if neutral, Corsica, Lower Savoy, Nizzia, Tunis. + +Rumania: Bessarabia (Odessa, if she joins G. in war). + +Bulgaria: South 1/2 of Serbia (more if she joins G. in war). + +Turkey, if enters war, heavy indemnity and land in Caucasus. Integrity +guarantees by G. and A-H: spheres of influence economically. + +Sweden may get Finland if both willing. + +Economic unity of territories and G. and A-H., Switzerland, Holland, +Italy, Scandinavia, Rumania and Bulgaria probably join. + +Offensive and Defensive Germanic Alliance: Scandinavia. Maybe and +voluntarily restore settlements of N. Schleswig to Denmark, if +necessary. New Germanic blood needed to make good war losses. + +_Special Demands._ Exclusion of all East people from G. soil; rights to +expel Letts, Esthonians and Lithuanians for 25 years. + +No colored person on G. soil. + +G. high schools for G's and foreigners of G. descent; special +exceptions. + +Only allied officers to be in G. army. + +Only mature and fortified G. youth to study abroad. + +Only G. language, G. fashions, G. Geographical names. + +Steady supply of grain. + +Subsidies to married officers out of war indemnity. + +G. nobles to marry only Germans. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The German Secret Service in America +1914-1918, by John Price Jones and Paul Merrick Hollister + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58652 *** |