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A rroRXKY-GENERAL THOMAS W. GREGORY
Who directed the nation-wide work of arresting and prosecuting German
plotters and of interning dangerous enemy aliens

FIGHTING
GERMANY'S SPIES

FRENCH STROTHER

Illustrated

Garden City New York

DOUBLEDAY PAGE & COMPANY

1918

GIFT OF
H. W. V.MLSON
MAP 2 2 1929

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES,

INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

FOREWORD

^^Fighting Germany's Spies'' is published to bring
home to the public in a detailed and convincing
manner the character of the German activities in
the United States, By courtesy of the Bureau of
Investigation of the Department of Justice the facts
and documents of this narrative have been verified.

CONTENTS

Foreword v

Introduction xi

I. The inside story of the passport
frauds and the first glimpse of
Werner Horn 3

II. The inside story of Werner Horn
and the first glimpse of the ship
bombs

III. Robert Fay and the ship bombs

IV. The inside story of the Captain of

the Eitel Friedrich

V. James J. F. Archibald and his pro-
German activities

VI. A tale told in telegrams . i .

VII. German codes and ciphers . .

VIII. The Tiger of Berlin meets the Wolf
of Wall Street ....

IX. The American Protective League

X. The German-Hindu conspiracy

XI. Dr. Scheele, chemical spy .

Z7
60

92
109
134

158
192

223

258

LIST OF HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS

Attorney-General Thomas W. Gregory

Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

German agents who dealt in fraudulent
passports i6

The official German plotters at Washington 32

Captain Thierichens and scenes on the
Eitel Friedrich 88

"When the water gets to the boilers" . . 112

Mr. A. Bruce Bielaski 152

Rintelen and his confederates .... 184

Officers of the American Protective League 200

LINE CUTS IN THE TEXT

PAGE

A German attache reminds Bernstorff of
Wedell . 6

The successful use of a fraudulent passport 18

Von Papen and Albert appear as unneutral
plotters 28, 29

ILLUSTRATIONS

PA«

The card **of the guileless stranger from
Tokyo" 31

Von Pa pen becomes accessory to a crime ^}

Two of Ruroede's visitors' credentials 34

Horn's appHcation for a furlough ... 39

Werner Horn's plan of escape .... 41

Werner Horn's commission in the German
army 48, 49

Werner Horn's confession .... 56, 57

The Lusitania warning 94, 95

Code message transmitting money to Sir
Roger Casement 137

A letter from John Devoy, an Irish-
American, exposing his hand in a plot
with the Germans 140

Extracts from a German code expert's
blotter 147

Bolo's handwriting 148

A tale told in cablegrams . . . . 150, 151

The Cohalan-Irish Revolution message 154, 155

INTRODUCTION

Espionage has always been to Americans one
of the hateful relics of an outworn political
system of Europe from which America was fortu-
nately free. We lived in an atmosphere not
tainted with dynastic ambitions or internal
oppression. We had no secret agents spying
and plotting in other countries and were slow
to suspect other countries of doing such things
here.

The war, however, disillusioned us. We found
our soil to be infested with representatives of an
unscrupulous Power which did not hesitate to
violate our hospitality and break its most sacred
pledges in using this country as a base for un-
neutral plots against France and Great Britain.
We soon learned that these plots were directed
against us as well. They were only another
manifestation of the spirit which led to the open
hostility of Germany which forced us into war.

For a time we were at a great disadvantage
in meeting the situation. We had no secret
police; we had no laws adequate to deal with
these novel offenses.

. INTRODUCTION

The Department of Justice met the situation,
so far as it could under existing law, by a great
enlargement of its Bureau of Investigation, and
by the creation of a legal division devoted
entirely to problems arising out of the war.
Congress substantially supplied the deficiency
in the laws by the passage of appropriate
statutes. Under the powers obtained in these
two directions the Department proceeded vig-
orously to the suppression of sedition, the intern-
ment of enemy aliens, and the prosecution of
German agents. Its success is, I feel, attested
by the absence of disorder in this country under
war-time conditions. Open German activities
have long since ceased here and the more subtle
operations have been driven so far under cover
as to be ineffective. In this work the Depart-
ment of Justice has had the efficient and loyal
aid of private citizens, who have responded
generously to a patriotic impulse, through the
agency of the American Protective League and
similar organizations.

Mr. Strother's narrative covers some of the
more outstanding cases of the period when
German plotting was at its height. The fail-
ure of these plots and the retribution visited
upon the evil-doers are evidences, not merely of
governmental efficiency, but of that of old,
age-old, substantive laws of morality, which

xii

INTRODUCTION

Germany as a nation has undertaken to flout —
as we now know, in vain — both here and else-
where.

T. W. Gregory
Attorney-General.
Washington, D. C.
August 14, 1918.

Xlll

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

FIGHTING
GERMANY'S SPIES

CHAPTER I
The Inside Story of the Passport Frauds

AND

The First Glimpse of Werner Horn

WHEN Carl Ruroede, the "genius" of the
German passport frauds, came suddenly
to earth in the hands of agents of the Department
of Justice and unbosomed himself to the United
States Assistant District Attorney in New York,
he said sadly:

"I thought I was going to get an Iron Cross;
but what they ought to do is to pin a little tin
stove on me."

The cold, strong hand of American justice
wrung that very human cry from Ruroede,
who was the central figure (though far from the
most sinister or the most powerful) in this
earliest drama of Germany's bad faith with
neutral America — a drama that dealt in for-
gery, blackmail, and lies that revealed in

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

action the motives of greed and jealousy and
ambition, and that ended with three diplo-
mats disgraced, one plotter in the penitentiary,
and another sent to a watery grave in the
Atlantic by a torpedo from a U-boat of the
very country he had tried to serve. This is
the story:

Twenty-five days after the Kaiser touched
the button which publicly notified the world
that Germany at last had decided that ''The
Day" had come — to be exact, on August 25,
1914 — Ambassador Bernstorff wrote a letter
effusively addressed to "My very honoured
Mr. Von Wedell." (Ruroede had not yet
appeared on the scene.) The letteriitself was
more restrained than the address, but in it
Bernstorff condescended to accept tentatively
an offer of Wedell's to make a nameless voyage.
The voyage was soon made, for on September
24th Wedell left Rotterdam, bearing a letter
from the German Consul-General there, asking
all German authorities to speed him on his way
to Berlin, because he was bearing dispatches
to the Foreign Office. Arrived in Berlin, Wedell
executed his commission and then called upon
his uncle, Count Botho von Wedell, a high
functionary of the Foreign Office. He was
aflame with a great Idea, which he unfolded to
his uncle. The idea was approved, and right

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

after the elections in November he was back
in New York to put it into execution, incidentally
bearing with him some letters handed him by
order of Mr. Ballin, head of the Hamburg
American Steamship Company, and another
letter ''for a young lady who goes to America
in the interest of Germany." If unhappy
Wedell had let this be his last voyage — but
that belongs later in the story.

WedelFs scheme was this: He learned in Berlin
that Germany had at home all the common
soldiers she expected to need, but that more
officers were wanted. He was told that Ger-
many cared not at all whether the 100,000
reservists in America got home or not, but
that she cared very much indeed to get the
800 or 1,000 officers in North and South America
back to the Fatherland. Nothing but the
ocean and the British fleet stood in their way.
The ocean might be overcome. But the British

fleet ? Wedell proposed the answer: He would

buy passports from longshoremen in New York
— careless Swedes or Swiss or Spaniards to
whom $20 was of infinitely more concern than
a mere lie — and send the officers to Europe,
armed with these documents, as neutrals travel-
ling on business. Once in Norway or Spain or
Italy, to get on into Germany would be easy.

For a few weeks Wedell got along famously.

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

He bought passports and papers showing nativity
from Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, and Swiss
longshoremen and sailors. Meantime, he got
in touch with German reserve officers and passed
them on to Europe on these passports.

•OSTAL TELEGRAPH - COMMERCIAL CABLES

■*^

.^&w 0&</Iu^^oUv

A GERMAN ATTACHE REMINDS BERNSTORFF OF WEDELL
This telegram is from Haniel von Haimhausen, the counsellor of the
German Embassy in Washington, and was sent in response to an inquiry
from Bernstorff for the name of the man who had offered to act as a
messenger to Germany for him. The message reads:

Count Bernstorff, care Ritz Carlton. Hans Adam von Wedell attorney fifteen
Willianfi Street, New York he has been introduced by consul Hossenfelder, Haniel.

But he was not content with these foreign
passports. In the case of a few exceptionally
valuable German officers he wished to have
credentials that would be above all suspicion.
Consequently, he set about to gather a few
American passports. Here his troubles began,
and here he added the gravest burden to his

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

already great load of . culpabilities. For Von
Wedell was an American citizen, and proud
of it. But he was prouder still of his German
origin and his high German connections, and
in his eagerness to serve them he threw over-
board his loyalty to the land of his adoption.
Von Wedell applied to a friend of his, a cer-
tain Tammany lawyer of pro-German sympa-
thies, who had supplied him with a room
belonging to a well-known fraternal organiza-
tion as a safe base from which to handle his
work in passports. What he wanted was an
agent who was an American and who had politi-
cal acquaintanceship that would enable him
to work with less suspicion and with wider or-
ganization in gathering American passports.
Through the lawyer he came in contact with^an
American, who for the 'purposes of this story
may be called Mr. Carrots, because that is not
his name but is remotely like it. Carrots
seemed willing to go into the enterprise and
at a meeting in Von Wedell's room Von Wedell
carefully unfolded the scheme, taking papers
from a steel cabinet in the corner to show a
further reason why the American passports he
already had would soon be useless. This reason
was that the Government was about to issue
an order requiring that a photograph of the
bearer should be affixed to the passport and that

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

on this photograph should appear half of the
embossing raised by the impression of the
seal of the Department of State. He agreed
to pay Carrots ^20 apiece for all genuine pass-
ports he would supply to him. Carrots accepted
his proposal and departed.

Instead of going out to buy passports, he
went at once to the Surveyor of the Port of New
York, Mr. Thomas E. Rush, and told him what
Wedell was doing. Mr. Rush promptly got
in touch with his chief in the Treasury Depart-
ment at Washington, who referred the matter
to the State Department, and they, in turn, to
the Department of Justice. The result was
that Carrots went back to Wedell about a week
later and told him he would not be able to
go on with the work but would supply some-
one to take his place. This was satisfactory to
Wedell.

In the meantime, Wedell had introduced
Carrots to a fellow-conspirator, Carl Ruroede,
a clerk in the ship forwarding department of
Oelrichs & Company — a man of little position,
but fired by the war with the ambition to make
a name in German circles that would put him
in a position to succeed Oelrichs & Company
as the general agent of the North German
Lloyd in New York.

About this time Wedell lost his nerve. He

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

was a lawyer and realized some of the possible
consequences of certain of his acts. He had had
occasion to forge names to two passports; and
also he found out that he had reasons to suspect
that he was under surveillance. These reasons
were very good: he had arranged for the trans-
portation to Italy of a German named Doctor
Stark, using the passport of a friend of his in
the newspaper business named Charles Raoul
Chatillon. Wedell got wind of the fact that
Stark had been taken off the steamer Duca de
Aosta at Gibraltar, and was being detained
while the British looked up his credentials.

Wedell by this time was in a most unhappy
plight. Bernstorff and Von Papen had no use
for him because he had been bragging about
the great impression he was going to make upon
the Foreign Office in Berlin by his work. If
any impressions were to be made upon the
Foreign Office in Berlin by anybody in America,
Bernstorff and Von Papen wanted to make them.
Wedell was so dangerously under suspicion
that Von Papen, Von Igel, and his Tammany
lawyer friend had all warned him he had better
get out of the country. Wedell took their
advice and fled to Cuba.

The substitute whom Carrots had promised
now entered the case, in the person of a man
who called himself Aucher, but who was in

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

reality a special agent of the Department of
Justice. Aucher was not introduced to Ruroede,
the now active German, and so, when he began
his operations, he confronted the very difficult
task of making his own connections with a
naturally suspicious person.

Carrots had been dealing with Ruroede after
Wedell's disappearance; and, by the time he
was ready to quit, Ruroede had told him that
*' everything was off for the present," but that
if he would drop around again to his office
about January 7, 1915, he might make use of
him. Aucher, now on the case, did not wait
for that date, but on December i8th called on
Ruroede at his office at room 204 of the Mari-
time Building, at No. 8 Bridge Street, across
the way from the Customs House.

In this plainly furnished office Aucher ap-
peared in the guise of a Bowery tough. He
succeeded admirably in this role — so well,
indeed, that Ruroede afterward declared that
he '* succeeded wonderfully in impressing upon
my mind that he was a gangman, and I had
visions of slung shots, pistol shots, and hold-
ups when he saw him. Aucher opened the con-
versation by announcing:

"Fm a friend of Carrots."

** That's interesting," was Ruroede's only
acknowledgment.

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

'*He's the guy that's getting them passports
for you," went on Aucher, "and all I wants
to know is, did you give him any cush?"

**What do you mean?" asked Ruroede.

"'Nix on that!" Aucher exclaimed. "You
know what I mean. Did you give that fellow
any money .^"

To which Ruroede replied : " I don't see why
I should tell you if I did."

" Well, " retorted Aucher, " I'll tell you why.
I'm the guy that delivers the goods, and he
swears he never got a penny from you. Now
did he?"

It was at this point that Ruroede had his
visions of slung shots, so he admitted he had
paid Carrots ^loo only a few days before.

"Well," demanded Aucher, "ain't there going
to be any more?"

"Nope. Not now,' Ruroede replied. "May-
be next month."

"Now see here," said Aucher. "Let's cut
this guy out. He's just nothing but a booze
fighter, and he's been kidding you for money
without delivering the goods. What's the mat-
ter with just fixing it up between ourselves?"

Ruroede now tried to put Aucher off till
Christmas, having recalled meanwhile that the
steamer Bergensfjord was to sail on January
2d, and that he might need passports for

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

officers travelling on that ship. But Aucner
protested that he was "broke/' and further
impressed on Ruroede that he had gotten no
money from Carrots or Wedell for his work
for them. He also produced six letters written
by the State Department in answer to applicants
for passports, and finally convinced Ruroede
of his good faith and that he ought to start
him to work right away. They haggled over
the price, and finally agreed on $20 apiece for
passports for native-born Americans and $30
apiece for passports of naturalized citizens — the
higher price for getting the latter because they
involved more red-tape and hence more risk.
Aucher was to come back on December 24th
and bring the passports and get some money
on account.

On that day Aucher called at Ruroede's
office, and after further quarrelling about Car-
rots and his honesty, Ruroede declared that
he was ready to do business. Aucher objected
to the presence of a young man in the room
with them, and Ruroede replied:

"Oh, he's all right. He's my son, and you
needn't be afraid to talk with him around."

Aucher then produced an American passport,
No. 45,573, made out in the name of Howard
Paul Wright, for use in Holland and Germany.
It was a perfectly good passport, too, as it had

THE PASSPORT FR.\UDS

been especially made out for the purpose by
the Department of State at the request of the
Department of Justice. It bore Mr. Bryan's
genuine signature, and a photograph of
"Wright/' who was another agent of the Bureau
of Investigation. Aucher also declared he was
on the way toward getting the other five pass-
ports. Ruroede threw the Wright passport on
his desk and said:

"I'll keep this. Go ahead and get the
others."

"What about money .^" demanded Aucher.

"I'll pay you ^25 for it — no, I'll do better
than that. To show you I mean business,
take that," and he threw a $100 bill on the
table. Ruroede also gave Aucher photographs
of four German officers, and begged him to
get passports right away to fit their descriptions,
because he wanted to get these men off on the
Norwegian Line steamer Bergensfjord, sailing
January 2d. He added that the officers of
the Norw^egian Line had all been "smeared"
(otherwise "fixed") and that they would "stand
for anything." He also said that he would
take at least forty more passports from Aucher,
and that he would want them right along for
six months or a year, depending on the length
of the war.

Aucher delivered two more passports to

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Ruroede in his office on the morning of Decem-
ber 30th. Ruroede was rather indifferent about
getting them, because — alas for the glory of
the '* invincible'' Prussian arms! — two of his
German officers had gotten "cold feet" and had
refused to go. Ruroede told Aucher to come
back at two o'clock and he would give him
$100. Aucher invited Ruroede to have luncheon
with him, and as they left the building Ruroede
explained with much pride that he had chosen
his office here because the building had several
entrances on different sides of the block, and
he used one entrance only a few days at a time
and then changed to another to avoid suspicion.

The Government's special agent complimented
him highly on this bit of cleverness in the art
of evasion. Five minutes later the two were
sitting at a lunch counter with another special
agent casually lounging in and taking the seat
next to his fellow operative, where he could
overhear and corroborate the account of Ru-
roede's conversation.

After a discussion of Wedell's forgeries and
present whereabouts, and a further discussion of
the buying of passports (in which Ruroede
confided to Aucher that ''there is a German
fund that was sent over here for that purpose")
the pair walked back toward Ruroede's office.
At the Whitehall Street entrance Ruroede

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

told Aucher to come around to the Bridge
Street entrance in about fifteen minutes to
get the money, and that in the meantime he
would send his son out to cash a check so that
he could deliver it in bills. Aucher spent part
of the fifteen minutes signalling to four other
special agents who had reinforced him, and then
went around to the Bridge Street entrance,
with one of his confederates in sight.

In a few moments, Ruroede's son rushed out
with a bank book in his hand. Aucher stopped
him and told him he ought to have a coat on, a
device to let Aucher's fellow operative see him
talking to the boy so he could identify him.
The boy then went on to the bank, followed by
Aucher's confederate, who saw him cash the
check and followed him back to the building.

When the boy returned, Aucher again spoke
to him and said: ''Tell your father I will be
in the cafe at Whitehall and Bridge streets and
that he is to meet me there. I don't think it
is a good thing for anybody to see me hanging
around the front entrance."

Aucher then went on into the cafe and sig-
nalled to the other three operatives to follow
him. He took a seat in a bootblack's chair
near the entrance and proceeded to have his
shoes blacked. In about ten minutes Ru-
roede's son came out and was about to pass by

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

him when Aucher hailed him. Ruroedc's son
then took a sealed envelope from his inside
pocket and handed it to Aucher.

''Where is your father.^" Aucher asked.

"Oh, he's got a man upstairs with him,"
said young Ruroede, ''and he couldn't come
down."

"Wait a minute," said Aucher, and tore open
the envelope in the presence of Ruroede's son,
and, so that the other special agents could
see him do it, counted out ten ^lo bills, $ioo in
all. As he was counting them, the operative
who had followed Ruroede's son to the bank
came in and shouldered the boy to one side
and then stood right by him while the money
was being counted. Aucher went on to impress
on Ruroede's son that business was business
and that the best of friends sometimes fell out
over money matters; that his father might
have unintentionally counted out $80 or $go
instead of the full $100 and It was safer to take
some precautions than to take a chance of
creating bad blood between them. He then
Invited Ruroede's son to have a drink with
him, which he did, both of them taking the
strongest Prussian drink — milk. When they
were about to part on Whitehall Street Aucher
told Ruroede's son to tell his father he would
be down the next morning with the other two

GERMAN AGENTS WHO DEALT IN FRAUDULENT PASSPORTS
H. A. Von Wedell Carl Ruroede

AMERICANS HIRED TO BLOW UP SHIPS AND FACTORIES
C. C. Crowley Lewis J. Smith

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

passports he had mentioned to him, and again
impressed on the boy the importance of accuracy
in money matters. Aucher then returned to
headquarters with the other special agents and
Hsted the distinguishing marks on the bills
and marked them for future identification.

The next morning Aucher telephoned to
Ruroede and told him he had been able to get
only one of the two passports he wanted, giving
as the excuse for his failure to get the other
the story that it had been promised to him by a
man working on a job in Long Island and that
this man had met with an accident and was
in the hospital; that it would take a day or
two to go out there to get a written order
from him to a brother who would turn the pass-
port over to Aucher. Ruroede accepted an
invitation to take luncheon with Aucher at
Davidson's restaurant at the corner of Broad
and Bridge streets.

Shortly after noon they met on the street
and went into the restaurant together. A few
minutes after they were seated two of the
special agents came in and took a table about
fifteen feet away. After Aucher had ordered
lunch for himself and Ruroede, he took out of
his pocket another of the series of genuine
passports supplied by the State Department, to
which he had attached one of the photographs

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

J^^^^/^/"^

THE SUCCESSFUL USE OF A FRAUDULENT PASSPORT
An English translation of the letter, the first and last pages of which
are shown above, follows:

S. S. Kristianiafjord, Bordjen, Nov. 20, 1914. Most honoured Mr. Ruroede: As you
see, my voyage across succeeded magnificently with your kind help. The weather until
Sunday was fine — then three days' storm. The beginning was not of a nature to inspire
confidence, for five hours after we had left New York we were stopped by a cruiser and for
two hours the ship's papers were searched for contraband. We had also some copper on
board, but that was for Norway, whereupon they let us go. Our Captain then ran straight
North to the 63 latitude. We nearly touched Iceland in order to get out of the way of
other cruisers. It was only while we were making for Bergen from a northerly direction
yesterday that a cruiser overtook and stopped us, and for a short while six of your men were
feeling pretty shaky, especially I, for among the 18 first-class passengers, more than half
were Germans, also a former vice-consul from Japan (now captain of cavalry) of the
Bonn Hussars, Naval Officer from China, and others. The incident lasted only a half
hour. After searching for ship's papers, the gentlemen disappeared, and we breathed

more freely, and drank a cocktail to the and your prosperity. Once more many thanks

for your assistance. May you help many others as well. With best wishes. Yours,
Edward Eaton, in Japan named Eichelbert.

Ruroede had given him for this purpose. He
handed the passport to Ruroede, who opened
only one end of it, just enough to glance at the
photograph and seal.

"That's fine," said Ruroede, and was about
to slip it into his pocket when Aucher seized it
and exclaimed:

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

'' Fine ? I should say, " and opened the pass-
port wide so that one of the other special agents
could see the red seal on it. "Just look at
that description. Eh? He is the fellow wfth
the military bearing and I gave him a description
I figured a man like him should answer to.''

At this point, the special agent who had
seen the seal left his seat at the table and
walked to the cashier's desk. As he passed,
Ruroede was holding the passport in his hands
and Aucher was pointing out the description.
Ruroede then put the passport into his pocket
and said again: "That's fine."

Aucher then opened a discussion of Von
Wedell's career and disappearance. Ruroede
was very contemptuous of the missing man.
"He was a plain fool," he said. "He paid
$3,500 altogether and got very little in return.
A fellow came to him one day and told him he
could get him American passports and Von
Wedell said: *A11 right; go ahead.' The fel-
low returned later and said he would have to
have some expense money and he gave him $10.
A little while later a friend of the first man
came to Von Wedell wanting expense money.
When Von Wedell decided to put him off, he
became threatening and Von Wedell, fearing
he might tell the Government authorities,
gave him some money. A few days later

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

about twenty fellows came looking for Von
Wedell. But quite aside from that sort ' of
business Von WedelFs foolishness in forging
names on two American passports is the thing
that made him get away."

**Did I understand you to say/' asked
Aucher, "that he had gone to join his wife?"

**No," replied Ruroede, ''she will be in
Germany before him. She sailed last Tuesday.
He went to Cuba first and there got a Mexican
passport of some sort that will take him to
Spain. He ought to be in Barcelona to-day
and from there go to Italy, and then from there
work his way into Germany."

*'You say Von Wedell spent $3,500 of his
own money .? " Aucher asked.

"No, no," exclaimed Ruroede, "he got it from
the fund."

*'Well, who puts up this money — who's back
of it.?"

"The Government."

"The German Government ?"

"Yes," said Ruroede. "You see it is this
way: There is a captain here who is attached
to the German Embassy at Washington. He has
a list of German reservists in this country and
is in touch with the German consulates all
through the country and in Peru, Mexico,
Chile, etc. He gets in touch with them, and

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

the consuls send reservists, who want to go to
the front, on to New York. When they get
here, this captain tells them: 'Well, I can't
do anything for you, but you go down to see
Ruroede/ Sometimes he gives them his
personal card."

*'Is this captain in reserve?" Aucher inter-
rupted.

**0h, no, he is active," Ruroede replied.
*'You see," he continued, "he draws on this
fund for ^200 or $300 or ^1,000, whatever he
may need, and the checks are made to read
'on account of reservists.' You see, they
have to have food and clothing, also, so there
is nothing to show that this money is paid out
for passports or anything like that. I meet this
captain once a week or so, and tell him what
I am doing and he gives me whatever money
I need. You see, there must be no connection
between him and me; no letters, no accounts,
nothing in writing. If I were caught and were
to say what I have told you, this captain
would swear that he never met me in his life
before."

Who this captain was became perfectly
clear through an odd happening two days later.
On that day, January 2, 1915, Aucher tele-
phoned to Ruroede at his office and made an
appointment to meet him at a quarter of one.

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

This meeting will doubtless remain forever
memorable in Ruroede*s experience.

At twelve-thirty a whole flock of special
agents left the oflice of the Bureau of Investi-
gation of the Department of Justice in the
Park Row Building. There were nine repre-
sentatives of the Department in the group.
When they got near Ruroede's office they
were joined by two others who had been shadow-
ing Ruroede. They had located him at the
Eastern Hotel, several blocks away, where he
was at the moment with one of the German
officers who planned to sail that day on the
Norwegian Line steamer Bergensfjord with one
of the false passports.

Shortly after one o'clock one of the special
agents notified the group that Ruroede had
returned to his office and then this operative,
and one other, went to the Customs House
and stationed themselves at a window opposite
Ruroede's office to wait for a signal which
Aucher was to give when he had delivered
the passport to Ruroede.

When Aucher met Ruroede in the latter's
office Ruroede's son was present, but in a few
moments the younger man took his leave, and
his departure was noted by one of the agents
outside. After a few minutes' conversation
Aucher handed Ruroede the missing passport

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

and made his signal to the two men inside the
Customs House window. These men reported
to the main group on the street and thereupon
the whole flock descended on Ruroede's office
and placed both Ruroede and Aucher under
arrest.

They seized all of Ruroede's papers before
they took him away, including the passport
which Aucher had just delivered to him.
Aucher put up a fight against his brother
ofl[icers, so as to make Ruroede believe that his
arrest was genuine, but was quickly subdued
and taken away. A few minutes later Ruroede
also was taken from his office over to the
offices of the Bureau of Investigation, but to
another room than Aucher. Operatives were
left behind in Ruroede's office, and in a little
while Ruroede's son came in. He, too, was
arrested and taken to still another part of the
office of the Bureau.

Now there entered Ruroede's office a stran-
ger, who to this day does not know that he
unwittingly gave the officers of the United
States Government the information that Cap-
tain Von Papen was directly responsible for
the passport frauds. This man entered while
one of the operatives was busily gathering up
the papers on Ruroede's desk. He said he
wanted to see Mr. Ruroede. The operative

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

asked him what his business was, and he re-
pHed that he had a letter to give him; and an-
swering an inquiry, he said this letter was given
him by Captain Von Papen, to be delivered to
Ruroede.

The operative calmly informed the caller
that he was Mr. Ruroede's son and that he
could give the letter to him. The stranger
refused, so the operative told him that his
''father,'' Ruroede, would be in in a few min-
utes. After the few minutes were up, he told the
caller that he was sure that his ''father" would
not return after all, and that he had better go
with him to where his "father'* was. The
stranger agreed and they left the office to-
gether, the operative taking him directly to
the office of the Bureau of Investigation.

On the way, the stranger decided to give him
the letter from Captain Von Papen, and also
told him that he had come from Tokyo by way
of San Francisco; that he was very anxious
to get back to Germany; and that he was sorry
he was not sailing on the boat leaving that day.
He knew, he said, that Ruroede had a great
many officers sailing on the ship that day, and
asked if he thought the operative's ''father"
could make an arrangement to start him to
Germany, too. He gave as a reason for his
urgency the fact that he had wdth him eight

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

trunks which contained very important papers
in connection with the war that should be de-
livered in Berlin without delay.

Upon arriving at the office of the Bureau of
Investigation the operative excused himself
for a moment and went into another room,
where he concocted a plan with a fellow agent
to pose as the senior Ruroede. The operative
then brought the stranger in and introduced
his confederate as his father. The stranger
gave this agent of the Department his card
which was printed in German and, which trans-
lated into English, read, "Wolfram von Knorr,
Captain of Cruiser, Naval Attache, Imperial
German Embassy, Tokyo."

But let us leave the guileless caller in the
hands of the guileful agent of Justice for a
few moments, returning to him a little later.

Meanwhile, four of the agents from the
Department — the minute they received the
signal that Ruroede was under arrest — has-
tened to the Barge Office dock and boarded
the ;( revenue cutter Manhattan, on which they
overtook the Norwegian Line steamship Ber-
gensfjord at four o'clock, about one half hour
after it had set sail. They were accompanied
by several customs inspectors and ordered
the Bergensfjord to heave to. All the male
passengers on board were lined up. Strange

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

as It may seem, they discovered four Germans,
of such unmistakable names as Sachse, Meyer,
Wegener, and Muller, travelling under such
palpably English and Norwegian names as
Wright, Hansen, Martin, and Wilson. Stranger
still, they all turned out to be reserve officers
in the German army. Sache proved to be
travelling as none other than our friend " Howard
Paul Wright," for whom Aucher had supplied
Ruroede with the passport — as, indeed, he had
for the three others.

Meanwhile, Ruroede was the centre of an-
other little drama that lasted until well toward
midnight. He was being urged by the United
States Assistant District Attorney to *'come
across" with the facts about his activities in
the passport frauds, and he had stood up pretty
well against the persuasions and hints of the
attorney and the doubts and fears of his own
mind. About eleven o'clock at night, as he
was for the many'th time protesting his ig-
norance and his innocence, another agent of
the Bureau of Investigation walked across the
far end of the dimly lit room — in one door and
out another — accompanied by a fair-haired lad
of nineteen.

'*My God!" exclaimed Ruroede, ''have they
got my son, too? The boy knows nothing at
all about this."

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

This little ghost-walking scene, borrowed
from "Hamlet, ' broke down Ruroede's reserve,
and he came out with pretty much all the
story, ending the melancholy exclamation with
which this story began: '*I thought I was
going to get an Iron Cross; but what they ought
to do is to pin a little tin stove on me."

Ruroede admitted that he had met Cap-
tain Von Papen in New York frequently and
that Von Papen had given him money at dif-
ferent times, but he denied that this money
was given him for use in furnishing passports.
On this point he stood fast, and to this day
he has not directly implicated Von Papen in
these frauds, though it cost him a sentence of
three years in the Federal penitentiary at
Atlanta, imposed just two months later.

One thing Ruroede did confess, however,
and in doing so he was the Hand of Fate for
the timorous Von Wedell. Ruroede confessed
that his assertion to Aucher, that Wedell was
then in Barcelona, was a lie, and that the truth
was that Wedell had recently returned from
Cuba and was aboard the Bergensfjord! This
confession came too late to serve that day, for
the agents of the Bureau had by that time
left the ship with their four prisoners and the
Bergensfjord was out to sea. But Fate had
nevertheless played Wedell a harsh trick, for

FORMERLY 8ARD1NS

tCLCPHONES

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VON PAPEN AND ALBERT APPEAR AS UNNEUTRAL PLOTTERS
This letter [of which the facsimiles are of the first and last pages] was
written by Wedell to BernstorfF to justify his action in abandoning the
work of gathering passports for fraudulent use. The full text follows.

in English. It is an interesting document, not only because it reveals a
lot of weak human nature in the agents of "German efficiency" but
also because it definitely revealed Von Papen and Albert as principals in
the German plots as early as three months after the war started:

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

HOTEL ST. GEORGE Felix Fieger, Proprietor. Nyack-on-Hudson, December 26, 1914.
His Excellency The Imperial German Ambassador, Count Von BernstorfF, Washington,
D. C. Your hxccliency: Allow me most obediently to put before you the foiiowinij facts:
It seems that an attempt has been made to produce the impression upon you that I pre-
maturely 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 travellers through
Ciibraltar; in which I succeeded. Mr. Ruroede will testify to you that without my suit-
able 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 unfortu-
nately compelled me, out of sheer self-respect, to emphasi/e 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 appli-
cation forged by me. Why?

2. Ten days before my departure 1 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 under-
takings 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 de-
parture, 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 comntiis-
sion, I objected to going and represented to the gentleman that my entire livelihood which
1 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 su pport myself and wife and to build my future
on. I have finally, at the suasion of Count Wedell, undertaken it, read v 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 sonie-
times been awkward, but always full of good will and I now travej back to Gerrnany with
the consciousness of having done my duty as well as I understood it, and of having accom-
plished my task. r- n

With expressions of the most exquisite consideration, I am, your Excellency.

Very respectfully,

(Signed) Hans Adam von Wedell.

the processes of extradition were instantly put
in motion with what strange resuhs will in a
few moments be made clear.

Now we may appropriately return to the
conference between the guileless stranger from

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

THE CARD OF " THE GUILELESS.STRANGER FROM TOKYO

Tokyo and the guileful agent of the Bureau of
Investigation, in another room. The guileless
stranger from Tokyo revealed what Ruroede
would not disclose — and revealed it all uncon-
sciously. He talked so frankly with "young
Ruroede's father" that he told several most
important things. For one, Captain Von Knorr
declared that Captain Von Papen had sent
him. Whereupon the pretended Ruroede asked
him whether the fact that he was expected to
assist Von Knorr back to Europe was known to
the German Embassy at Washington. To this
Von Knorr replied :

"Of course. I just had a talk with Captain
Von Papen right here in New York."

"Ruroede" still insisted on having better
proof that Von Knorr came directly from the
Embassy, to which Von Knorr retorted that

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

"Von Papen has had sufficient deaHngs with
you for you to know that any one sent by him
to you is all right."

Unding himself dealing with a somewhat
reluctant saviour, Von Knorr adopted a con-
ciliatory mood and slapped his broad hand
several times on "Ruroede's'' left breast, say-
ing: "That chest ought to have something'* —
meaning a decoration from Berlin.

After some verbal sparring, Von Knorr was
allowed to drift off the scene as innocently as he
had entered it, and he has yet to learn that his
visit was in an office of American law and that
his dealings were with the officers of Justice.

But he left behind a legacy quite as valuable
as his carefully remembered spoken words.
This legacy was the paper which he had brought
from Franz von Papen. This paper proved to
be not a letter, but rather a typewritten memo-
randum— though all doubt as to its origin was
removed by the innocent insistence of Von
Knorr that he had come with it from Von
Papen's hand.

Two most important facts emerged ulti-
mately from a study of this innocent bit of
paper. When Ruroede was arrested, among
other papers taken from his desk by the officers
of the law were numerous typewritten sheets
containing lists of names of German officers,

THE OFFICIAL GERMAN PLOTTERS AT WASHINGTON

Above, Ambassador Count Johann von Bernstorff; left, Capt. Franz von Papen,

Military Attache; right, Capt. Karl Boy-Ed, Naval Attache

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

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VON PAPEN BECOMES ACCESSORY TO A CRIME
Though this check was made out in favor of G. Amsinck & Co., the
German-American bankers of New York, the counterfoil bears the no-
tation "Traveling expense v W," that is, "von Wedell." This check
was sent him by Von Papen to enable him to escape after he had forged
signatures to two fraudulent passports and realized that he was under
surveillance — ^Von Papen thus becoming accessory after the fact to a
crime against American laws

their rank, and other facts about them. Ru-
roede never would admit that these v^ere from
Von Papen, but that admission was made for
him by a far more trustworthy testimony
than his own. This testimony was an expert
comparison, under a powerful magnifying glass
of the typewriting on these sheets and the
typewriting on the Von Knorr memorandum
which had undoubtedly come from Von Papen.

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

They were beyond all questioning identical.
The same typewriter had written all. By this
little microscopic test Von Papen and the
other ruthless underlings of Germany were
first brought tangibly within sight of their
ultimate expulsion from this country, for crimes

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TWO OF RUROEDE'S VISITORS' CREDENTIALS
These cards were presented by two German officers in search of frau-
dulent passports. They were sent by Von Papen and Mudra (German
Consul at Philadelphia), who both frequently directed such officers to
Ruroede for this purpose

THE PASSPORT FRAUDS

of which the passport frauds were the least
odious.

The other pregnant fact about the Von
Knorr memorandum was that the eyes of Jus-
tice rested on the name of Werner Horn and
Hngered long enough to fix that name in mem-
ory. Here first swam into its ken the man who
tried to destroy the international bridge at
Vanceboro, Maine, and whose story is one of the
most romantic and adventurous of all the Ger-
man plotters !

One last touch in this drama: A few moments
ago we left Von Wedell — ambitious, timorous
Von Wedell — on the high seas bound for Norway.
But Fate was after him. Ruroede's moment
of weakness — his moment of pique, when he
swore he would not shoulder all this bitterness
alone — had set her on his trail. A cable mes-
sage to London, a wireless from the Admiralty,
and then — this entry in the logbook of the
Bergensfjord for Monday, January ii, 1915-

All male first and second class passengers were gathered
in the first-class dining saloon and their nationality in-
quired into.

About noon, the boarding officer of the Cruiser

(English) went back and reported to his ship. About
0:45 P. M. he came over with orders again to take off
six German stowaways and two suspected passengers.
These passengers were according to ship's berth list as
follows :

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

I. Rosato Sprio, Mexican, Destination Bergen, Cabin
71, second-class. . . .

Rosato Sprio admitted after close examination to be
H. A. Wedell. Claimed to be a citizen of the United
States. . . .

Dr. Rasmus Bjornstad claimed to be a Norwegian. . .

As both passengers apparently were travelling under
false pretense, the Captain did not feel justified to protest
against the detention of the two passengers. These
were accordingly . . . taken off and put on board
the Auxiliary Cruiser .

Unhappy Wedell! "The Cruiser "was

a ship that never made port. Wedell's high
connections in the German Foreign Office could
not save him from the activities of the high
officials of the German Admiralty. A U-boat

fired a torpedo into **the Cruiser " and

sent her to the bottom with Rosato Sprio,
alias H. A. Wedell, aboard.

Exeunt Wedell and Ruroede.

Enter Werner Horn.

CHAPTER II
The Inside Story of Werner Horn

AND

The First Glimpse of the Ship Bombs

THE real mystery in the case of Werner
Horn is this: Who was the man in Lower

3? (If he had only known !) Because,

except for this one missing fact, the story of
Werner Horn is as clear as day. It is the story
of a brave man, too honest to lie with a straight
face, who was used by the villainous Von
Bernstorff and Von Papen only after they had
lied without a quiver, on at least three vital
points, to him. He meant to fight the enemy
of his country as a soldier fights, and they
cynically sent him on an errand which they
meant should be an errand of miscellaneous
crime, including murder. He was to go to a
felon's death for this one of the many devilish
plots they were concocting against American
lives, while they lived in luxury in Washington
and lied with smiling faces to the representatives
of the people whose hospitality they were
betraying. There have been few more despic-

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

ably outrageous, more cold-blooded crimes
than this — except that other one (also of their
devising) in the ship bombs case; but that is
another story, to be told later.

The story of Werner Horn begins in Guate-
mala. Horn was the manager of a coffee
plantation at Moka. He had seen ten years
of service in the German Army when, in 1909,
he got a furlough from the authorities in Cologne
permitting him to go to Central America for
two years. This furlough writes him down
as an "Oberleutnant on inactive service." That
means, roughly, that he was a first lieutenant
of the German Army, out of uniform but sub-
ject to call ahead of all other classes of men liable
for military duty. Then came the war.

Two hours after word of "The Day" reached
Moka, Werner Horn was packed and on his
way to Germany. From Belize he sailed to
Galveston, where he spent two weeks looking
in vain for passage. Then on to New York,
where he tried for a month to sail. Finding
that impossible, he went to Mexico City and
there learned that another man in Guatemala
had his job. He had just found another one,
on an American coffee plantation at Salto de
Aguas, in Chiapas, and was about to go there by
launch from Frontera, when he got a card
telling him to try again to get to Germany.

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HORN'S APPLICATION FOR A FURLOUGH
Issued by the military authorities of Cologne, on the Rhine near the
Dutch border, permitting him to leave Germany for two years, i he tur-
lough was later extended, as Horn was gone nearly five years betore the
war broke out

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

By December 26th he was back in New Orleans,
and a few days later he was lodging in the Arietta
Hotel on Staten Island.

Now began a series of conferences with Von
Papen. Horn was afire with honest zeal to
serve the Fatherland, and Von Papen was
unscrupulous as to how he did it. When he
could not get passage for him back to Ger-
many, Von Papen determined to use this
blond giant (Horn is six feet two) for another
purpose. He then unpacked his kit of lies.

A little after the midnight of Saturday,
December 29, 1914, a big German in rough
clothes and cloth cap entered the Grand
Central Station carrying a cheap brown suit-
case. A porter seized it from him with an
expansive smile. The smile faded long before
they reached Car 34 of the one o'clock New
Haven train to Boston. **Boss, yoh sho' has
got a load o' lead in theah," was his puff-
ing comment as he got his tip. The German
grinned, and a few minutes later swung the
suitcase carelessly against the steam-pipes under
Lower 3, and clambered to the upper. A
suitcase full of dynamite — and the man in
Lower 3 slept on.

Several people on the Maine Central train
that left North Station, Boston, at eight
o'clock the next morning, afterward identified

STORY OF WERNER HORN

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V/ERNER HORN'S PLAN OF ESCAPE
The pencilled line left from Vanceboro and down to Princeton was
Horn's own mark upon the map of the route by which he hoped to escape
after he had blown up the international bridge. He did not know the
country and hence did not calculate upon the wilderness he was planning
to traverse, unguided, in the dead of a New England winter. The pen-
cilled ring around St. John, N. B., gives the cue to his purpose in blowing
up the bridge — St. John was a port from which the war supplies from
America to Great Britain could be shipped for use against the Germans

the big blond German who left It at Vance-
boro, Maine, at six forty-five that evening.
None of them recalled his baggage.

But trust the people in a country town to
catalogue a stranger. Horn went directly from
the train about his errand; which was reckon-

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

ing without the Misses Hunter and the twelve-
year-old Armstrong boy. They saw him toiling
through the snow, marked the unusual weight
of his suitcase from the way he carried it,
saw him hide it in the woodpile by the siding
— and then they talked. Soon Mr. Hunter
hurried to the Immigration Station and told an
inspector there about the suspicious stranger.
The inspector hurried down the railroad track
and met Horn returning from the international
bridge that spans the St. Croix River a few hun-
dred feet away. He asked where the stranger
was going. Horn's reply was to ask the way to a
hotel. When his name was next demanded he
gave it as Olaf Hoorn, and said he was a Dane.
The inspector then asked what he was in town
for, and Horn said he was going to buy a farm.
And, finally, the inspector asked him where
he came from. When Horn explained in detail
that he had come from New York via Boston
the inspector, with a true legal mind, decided
that he "had no jurisdiction," and let it go
at that. His concern in life was with "immi-
grants" from Canada — and this man had proved
that he had come from "an interior point."
Hence he could do nothing officially, for the
moment.

But the Misses Hunter's sharp eyes saw the
stranger, after this interview, recover the suit-

STORY OF WERNER HORN

case from the woodpile before going on to
Tague's Vanceboro Exchange Hotel for the
night. The host at the hotel was not on duty
when Horn registered, and never saw his
baggage, but his mother, who happened to have
occasion to enter Horn's room in his absence on
the following Monday, noticed the suitcase,
tried to lift it, and wondered how any one could
carry it. Horn was a marked man from the
moment he arrived in the town.

Evidently he sensed the suspicions he aroused,
for he made no effort to proceed about his
business that night, or the next. But shortly
before eight o'clock on Monday night Horn
gave up his room and said he was going to
Boston on the eight o'clock train. He took
his suitcase and disappeared. Instead of going
to the station, he hid out in the woods until
the last train for the night should go by. At
eleven he was encountered in the railroad cut
above the bridge by an employee of the Maine
Central Railroad, who got such unsatisfactory
answers to his questions that he talked the
matter over with a fellow workman in the round-
house, though without results. So Werner
Horn marched out alone upon the bridge —
alone except for his cigar and his suitcase, the
spirit of the Fatherland upon him and the ly-
ing words of Von Papen in his ears.

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

He had need of the fire of patriotism to warm
his blood and to steel his courageous spirit.
It was a black winter night. The mercury
was at thirty degrees below zero, the wind
was blowing at eighty miles an hour, the ice
was thick upon the cross-ties beneath his
stumbling feet. The fine snow, like grains of
flying sand, cut his skin in the gale.

But Werner Horn was a patriot and a brave
man. Von Papen had told him that over these
rails flowed a tide of death to Germans — not
only guns and shells, but dum-dum bullets
that added agony to death. He must do his
bit to save his fellow soldiers; must help to
stop the tide. Destroy this bridge, and for a
time at least the cargoes would be kept from
St. John and Halifax. It was a short bridge,
but a strategic one, and the most accessible.
So Horn stumbled on. He must get beyond
the middle. Von Papen had not urged it, but
Werner Horn had balked about this business
from the first — not through lack of courage
(he would go as a soldier upon the enemy's
territory and there fire his single shot at any
risk against their millions), but he would not
commit a crime for anybody, not even for the
Kaiser; nor would he trespass on the soil of
hospitable America. Hence on each sleeve he
wore the colours of his country: three bands,

STORY OF WERNER HORN

of red and white and black. Von Papen had
beguiled him into thinking these transformed
him from a civilian to a soldier. Twice as he
struggled through the darkness he slipped and
fell, barely saving himself from death on the
ice below. Each time he clung doggedly to
his suitcase full of dynamite.

Suddenly a whistle shrieked behind him, and
in a moment the glaring eyes of an express
train's locomotive shone upon him. Horn
clutched with one hand at a steel rod of the
bridge and swung out over black nothingness,
holding the suitcase safe behind him with the
other. The train thundered by, and left him
painfully to recover his uncertain footing on
the bridge. The second of Von Papen's lies
had been disproven.

He had promised Horn that the last train
for the night would have been gone at this
hour, for Horn had said he would do nothing
that would put human lives in peril. But
Horn thought only that Von Papen had mis-
understood the schedules.

A few moments after he had got this shock,
another whistle screamed at him from the
Canadian shore, and again he made his quick,
precarious escape by hanging out above the
river by one hand and one foot. He now decided
that all schedules had been put awry, and that

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

he must change his plans to be sure of not
endangering human beings. To accompHsh this,
he cut off and threw away most of the fifty-
minute fuse that he had brought along, and
left only enough to burn three minutes. No
train would come sooner than this, and then the
explosion would warn everybody of the danger.

In doing this, Horn deliberately cut himself
off from hope of escaping capture. He had
planned such an escape — an ingenious plan,
too, except that it was traced on a railroad
time-table map of the Maine ^woods in winter
by a strange German fresh from the tropics.
He had meant to walk back one station west-
ward, then cut across the open country to the
end of a branch line railroad, and then ride
back to Boston on another line than that on
which he had come east to Vanceboro. It was
a clever scheme, except that it missed all the
essentials, such as the thirty miles of trackless
woods, the snow feet-deep upon the level, the
darkness of winter nights, and the deadly cold.
Still, Horn childishly believed it feasible, and
he did a brave and honourable thing to throw
it overboard rather than to cause the death of
innocent people.

He fixed the dynamite against a girder
of the bridge above the Canadian bank of the
river, adjusted the explosive cap, and touched

STORY OF WERNER HORN

his cigar to the end of the three-minute fuse.
Then he stumbled back across the gale-swept,
icy bridge, made no effort to escape, and walked
back into the hotel in Vanceboro, with both
hands frozen, as well as his ears, his feet, and
his nose. A moment after he entered the
hotel the dynamite exploded with a report
that broke the windows in half the houses
in the town and twisted rods and girders on
the bridge sufficiently to make it unsafe but
not enough to ruin it.

Everybody in Vanceboro was aroused. Host
Tague, of the Exchange Hotel, leaped from
his bed and looked out of the window. See-
ing nothing, he struck a light and looked at
his watch, which said i:io, and then he hurried
into the hall, headed for the cellar, to see if
his boiler had exploded. In the hall he faced
the bathroom. There stood Werner Horn,
who mildly said "Good morning" to his
astonished host. Tague returned the greeting
and went back to get his clothes on. He had
surmised the truth, and Horn's connection
with it. When he came back out into the hall,
Horn was still in the bathroom, and said:
'*I freeze my hands." Small wonder, after
five hours in that bitter gale. Tague opened
the bathroom window and gave him some
snow to rub on his frozen fingers, and then

(u:()^lMll5^llr3lQuu)!i^l|l^}(I^^^^^^^

^-Li^ ^^/'./ ^:^/' /.,.// .a. // \.

7../.'.,..

WERNER HORN'S COMMISSION IN THE GERMAN ARMY
Found in an ironbound trunk In his room in the Arietta Hotel on
Staten Island. His position was approximately that of a first

v£ ^^y^c^/ yj^r^f ^

j^*'^

fCfty-tyU

. u'y^c^v-^/^^-^/i'yrz^/, ^

C^^^l

lieutenant, returned to civil life, but of the class first subject to duty
in the event of war

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

hurried to the bridge to see the damage. He
found enough to make him press on to the station
on the Canadian side, and then come back
to Vanceboro, so that trains would be held
from attempting to cross it.

When he got back to his hotel, Horn asked
to have again the room he had given up that
evening. Tague had let it to another guest,
but gave Horn a room on the third floor. There
the German turned in and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, human nature as artless as
Werner Horn's was at work in Vanceboro.
The chief officer of law thereabouts was *'John
Doe," a deputy sheriff, chief fish and game
warden, and licensed detective for the state
of Maine. His later testimony doubtless would
have had a sympathetic reader in the Man
in Lower 3 (if only he had known): "I was
asleep at my home, which is about three or
four hundred feet from the bridge; heard a
noise about 1:10 a.m., which I thought was
an earthquake, a collision of engines, or a
boiler explosion in the heating plant. The
noise disturbed me so that I could not get to
sleep. (And the Man in Lower 3 slept on!)
I got up in the morning at about half-past
five; met a man who said they had blown up
the bridge."

But while Mr. Doe was about his disturbed

STORY OF WERNER HORN

slumbers, the superintendent of the Maine
Central Railroad was making a Sheridan's
Ride through the night by special train from
Mattawamkeag, fifty miles away. , He, at least,
was on the job — he had brought along a claim
agent of the road, to take care of i damage
suits. When [^they reached the Vanceboro
station, they sent for Mr. Doe, and when he
arrived at seven o'clock, Canada also was
represented by two constables in uniform. This
being a case for Law and not for Commerce,
Mr. Doe took charge. He told the others
that the first thing to do was to cover all the
stations by telegraph and arrest all suspicious
parties. Then he led his posse to the hotel.

There Mr. Tague told them about the Ger-
man peacefully asleep upstairs. He led them
to the upper floor and pointed out the room,
but went no farther, as he thought there might
be shooting. His sister, being of the same
mind, sought the cellar. Doe knocked upon
the door,

"What do you want?" called Werner Horn.

"Open the door," commanded Doe.

The door swung open, and the big German
sat back on his bed. Then he saw the Cana-
dian uniforms and jumped for his coat. Doe
shoved him back, and one of the constables
got the coat, and the revolver in it. When

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Doe told Horn he was an American officer,
Horn stopped resisting and said:

''That's all right, then. I thought you
were all Canadians. I wouldn't harm any one
from here."

Doe handcuffed Horn to his own arm and
took him to the Immigration Station to make
an inquiry. Here Horn told a straightforward
story, but with one embellishment that caused
more excitement than all the rest, and that
ultimately revealed his own character in its
clearest light. This story was that he had
not brought the dynamite in his suitcase,
but that, by prearrangement, he had carried
the empty suitcase to the bridge and there
met an Irishman from Canada, to whom he
gave the password "Tommy," and that this
Irishman had given him the explosive and
then disappeared.

"Tommy" immediately became a sensation
who overshadowed Horn himself. Canadian
officers scoured the Canadian shore for days,
looking for this dangerous renegade, and Amer-
icans were as zealous on our side of the river.

But Horn himself was in a dangerous posi-
tion. Lynching bees were discussed on both
sides of the river, and probably only prompt
action by the local authorities prevented one.
Both to hold Horn for more serious prosecution

STORY OF WERNER HORN

and to get him out of peril, he was charged
in the local police court with malicious mischief
in breaking the window glass in one of the
houses in Vanceboro; he pleaded guilty and
was at once removed to Machias, the county
seat, to serve thirty days in jail. Five days
after the explosion, the Department of Justice
had Horn's signed confession, taken in person
by the Chief of the Bureau of Investigation.

It was in the giving of this confession that
Werner Horn revealed himself most fully as
a patriot and a gentleman, and, all uncon-
sciously, revealed that the cynical Von Papen
was a liar, a cold-blooded criminal, and, for
the second time in the first months of the war,
the secret hand behind the violations of
American neutrality instigated through him
and Bernstorff at the behest of the Imperial
German Government.

When the government agent saw Horn in
jail at Machias, and warned him that what he
said would be used against him in proceed-
ings for his extradition into Canada, or
prosecution here, Horn told the same straight-
forward story, with the same embellishment
about "Tommy." "I met a white man,"
so Horn said, "whom I had never seen before,
but who was about 35 or 40 years of age
clean shaven — 'Tommy' — I was told to say

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

'Tommy' when I met him — I cannot say
anything that would involve the consulate
or the embassy — Germany is at war — I re-
ceived, however, an order which was from one
who had a right to give it, a verbal order only —
received it two or three days before leaving
New York for Vanceboro."

Later he said: *'I cannot speak of the rank
of the man who gave the orders — I cannot
even say that he was an officer. No one was
present when the orders were given me in
New York City. I cannot tell more because
it was a matter for the Fatherland. I would
rather go to Canada [where he knew they
wanted to lynch him] than to tell more about
my orders — this would be impossible — at least
until after the war is over."

Horn admitted he had met Von Papen sev-
eral times at the German Club in New York
City, but no art could compel him to admit
that he had got his orders from him. But,
as the agent noticed, his manner gave his
words the lie; and whenever he tried to tell
anything that was inaccurate he did so with
great difficulty and embarrassment. But find-
ing him determined, at whatever risk, to
withhold this information, and determined,
too, to stick to the absurd story about ''Tom-
my," the agent wrote out by typewriter a

STORY OF WERNER HORN

statement of the facts as he had given them
for Horn to sign.

Horn read the statement over and said that
he would sign it. Then the agent took out his
pen, added a few items of new information,
and wrote these words :

"I certify on my honour as a German officer
that the foregoing statements are true," and
handed Horn the pen to sign it. Horn read
the last sentence and seemed nonplussed.
He turned back through the pages of the
statement, blushed, scratched his head, and
finally grinned up at the agent with the one
word:

^'Tommy."

The agent grinned in turn:

''You mean it's all right except for Tommy?"

"Yes."

Horn would not sign a lie and pledge his
honour it was truth. A close scrutiny of the cut
on page 57 will show where the period after
the word "true" has been erased, so that the
sentence could go on to say, before he signed it,
"except as to 'Tommy' — that I did not buy
the nitro-glycerine but received it in New
York and took it with me in the suitcase. I
cannot say from whom I received it. Wer-
ner Horn."

If Werner Horn had been less honest, less

0-M/-- S'J/ /f/s^ Itochlaa , ^Ine,

Feb.. 7, 1918,

I, Wornor Horn, after having boen advlsod thnt my extradition
to Canada has been aalced by the Oovemrmnt of Great Britain and
that anything I may aay will or may beuaed agalnat mo In an extra-
dition proceeding by the Dnl>ed States or In a proaecutlon bv the
United States If It shall be found that I have violated any of the
laws oX that country ajid that I may decline to l«lk at all or to
answer any particular questions do voluntatfly, fillilng and without
any promlsea other than that my case will be deal) with by the
United stated faJlrly, Impartially and In accoraance with the law,
make this statement.

I am thirty-seven years of age, a citizen of Germany and" at
the outbreak of the war was the manager of a coffee plantation In
Guatamalq,^ that 1 em an Over-lieutenant l.n the German peoerv^ army,«,w.
^^[Jiavlng had ten years active service In the German army, that two
hours after receiving the call to return for army service I was on
my way. I werlSLiVom Cuatama'la to Galveston, Texas, In August, 1914^
remained there fourteeen days, proceeded to New York City, waited
there four weeks trying to get a steamer to return to Germany,
found that this was impossible, started to Vexlcao, remaining en
route 15 days In Gan Antonio, Texas, that In VoxlceoClty I received
a card from .the coffeepplantotlon in Guatemala that another man had my
position, thst I. secured a position on an American coffee plantation,
that about four hours befoi*e ^olng >ft.Fronterar[ recelved<?a card •^y-
that all German officers should proceed to Germany, that I returned
on the same launch pn which t had Intended to go -t« Frontera, -sa«
Vh» Ocnnan <ifin»irt~ln Vora-Cj?<M, sailed on a Norwegian steamer trim
Vera Ci^is. to Hew Orleans, was on the sea on Christmas day, arrived
la New Orleiins December 2C, 1914, proceeded at once to New York by
train, reported to the German Consul there elther^^a. 2ft or 2Q,
asked Captain on ?apen If it. was possible to go tb Gerrr.any, he ^!jg,d
that It »ac ♦r.post.lble, that i stayed at the Ariette. Itotel on
Arietta Street, .-»-taten Islar.d, Liu-ee olr four -.veeka and then v.ent
"to vahceboro, .Valne,

WERNER HORN'S CONFESSION
In which he unintentionally revealed the guilty purposes of Von
Papen to violate American neutrality and commit a crime against
human life, and vs'hich Horn refused to sign upon his "honour as

^tet.,^ ^9^0.0.^ cx^^^ j^^-^-^^-^^AAa.^

•O::

a German officer" until it was altered to remove the fantastic tale
about a confederate in Canada. By looking closely the erasure of
the period after the word "true" can be seen, made to permit this
correction to be added

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

luimanc, the black wickedness of his Imperial
masters would have been less clearly visible.
He was the one who was punctilious to respect
American neutrality — while they flouted it.
He was the one who risked his own life rather
than imperil others — while they sat snug in
Washington devising means to place on the
rudders of American ships the bombs that
would add another horrid chapter to their
crimes. A mere criminal at Vanceboro might
have been accused of exceeding their criminal
instructions — Werner Horn refused to carry
out the instructions they had given.

One cannot forbear to publish here a humor
ous incident in this case, in no way related to
its immediate currents, but so characteristic
of the American attitude in general at that
time. Here was a drama of international
politics, fertilizing the germs of war — the seeds
of our own entrance into the conflict, with its
present expenditures of billions in treasure and
its prospective expenditure of human blood
and tears. Into this epic picture walks a
Yankee trader with a bottle of liniment for
frost bite in his hand, and asks for a ** testi-
monial." It is significant, because it was a
faithful miniature of America at large in
February, 191 5 — asleep to the perils of its
"isolation," but wide awake to the main

STORY OF WERNER HORN

chance In war-begotten trade. Well could Von
Papen and Von Bernstorff, well could the
Kaiser in Berlin, afford to smile a little longer,
and marvel again at a people still ''so stupid."
But the American Government was on still
other German plotters' trails. They were not
asleep, nor stupid. Even while they went
through the long, legal processes in which
German intrigue tried in vain to save Werner
Horn from delivery to Canadian justice (and
Horn was supplied with good counsel and
every facility for making his defence), among
the Yankee traders there was alert activity
as well as dormant patriotism. The way in
which the Department of Justice, through these
merchants, lawyers, doctors, men of the ''main
chance,'^ soon had a network of special agents
in every city, town, and hamlet in the country,
is one of the cleverest pieces of American
Government detective work born of the war.

CHAPTER III
Robert Fay and the Ship Bombs

ROBERT FAY landed in New York on
April 23, 1915. He landed in jail just
six months and one day later — on October 24th.
In those six months he slowly perfected one of
the most infernal devices that ever emerged
from the mind of man. He painfully had it
manufactured piece by piece. With true Ger-
man thoroughness he covered his trail at every
point — excepting one. And five days after he
had aroused suspicion at that point, he and
his entire group of fellow conspirators were in
jail. The agents of American justice who put
him there had unravelled his whole ingenious
scheme and had evidence enough to have sent
him to the penitentiary for life if laws since
passed had then been in effect.

Only the mind that conceived the sinking of
the Lusita7iia could have improved upon the
devilish device which Robert Fay invented
and had ready for use when he was arrested.
It was a box containing forty pounds of tri-
nitrotoluol, to be fastened to the rudder post of

THE SHIP BOMBS

a vessel, and so geared to the rudder itself
that its oscillations would slowly release the
catch of a spring, which would then drive
home the firing pin and cause an explosion
that would instantly tear off the whole stern
of the ship, sinking it in mid-ocean in a few
minutes. Experts in mechanics and experts
in explosives and experts in shipbuilding all
tested the machine, and all agreed that it was
perfect for the work which Fay had planned
that it should do.

Fay had three of these machines completed,
he had others in course of construction, he
had bought and tested the explosive to go
into them, he had cruised New York harbour in
a motor boat and proved by experience that
he could attach them undetected where he
wished, and he had the names and sailing dates
of the vessels that he meant to sink without
a trace. Only one little link that broke — and
the quick and thorough work of American
justice — robbed him of another Iron Cross
besides the one he wore. That link — but that
comes later in the story.

Fay and his device came straight from the
heart of the German Army, with the approval
and the money of his government behind him.
He, like Werner Horn, came originally from
Cologne; but they were very different men.

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Where Horn was almost childishly simple,
Fay's mind was subtle and quick to an extraor-
dinary degree. Where Horn had been hu-
mane to the point of risking his life to save
others, Fay had spent months in a cold-blooded
solution of a complex problem in destruction
that he knew certainly involved a horrible
death for dozens, and more likely hundreds,
of helpless human beings. Horn refused to
swear to a lie even where the lie was a matter of
no great moment. Fay told at his trial a story
so ingenious that it would have done credit to
a novelist and would have been wholly con-
vincing if other evidence had not disproved
the substance of it. The truth of the case
runs like this:

Fay was in Germany when the war broke
out and was sent to the Vosges Mountains in
the early days of the conflict. Soon men were
needed in the Champagne sector, and Fay was
transferred to that front. Here he saw some
of the bitterest fighting of the war, and here
he led a detachment of Germans in a surprise
attack on a trench full of Frenchmen in su-
perior force. His success in this dangerous
business won him an Iron Cross of the second
class. During these days the superiority of the
Allied artillery over the German caused the
Germans great distress, and they became very

THE SHIP BOMBS

bitter when they realized, from a study of the
shells that exploded around them, how much
of this superiority was due to the material
that came from the United States for use by
the French and British guns. Fay's ingenious
mind formed a scheme to stop this supply, and
he put his plan before his superior officers. The
result was that, in a few weeks, he left the army
and left Germany, armed with passports and
$3,500 in American money, bound for the
United States on the steamer Rotterdam. He
reached New York on April 23, 19 15.

One of Fay's qualifications for the task he
had set for himself was his familiarity with the
English language and with the United States.
He had come to America in 1902, spending a
few months on a farm in Manitoba and then
going on to Chicago, where he had worked
for several years for the J. I. Case Machinery
Company, makers of agricultural implements.
During these years. Fay v/as taking an extended
correspondence school course in electrical and
steam engineering, so that altogether he had
good technical background for the events of
1915. In 1906, he went back to Germany.

What he may have lacked in technical
equipment. Fay made up by the first connec-
tion he made when he reached New York in
191 5. The first man he looked up was Walter

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Scholz, his brother-in-law, who had been in
this country for four years and who was a civil
engineer who had worked here chiefly as a
draftsman — part of the time for the Lacka-
wanna Railroad — and who had studied me-
chanical engineering on the side. When Fay
arrived, Scholz had been out of a job in his own
profession and was working on a rich man's
estate in Connecticut. Fay, armed with
plenty of money and his big idea, got Scholz
to go into the scheme with him, and the two
were soon living together in a boarding house
at 28 Fourth Street, Weehawken, across the
river from uptown New York.

To conceal the true nature of their opera-
tions they hired a small building on Main
Street and put a sign over the door announcing
themselves in business as "The Riverside
Garage." They added verisimilitude to this
scheme by buying a second-hand car in bad
condition and dismantling it, scattering the
parts around the room so that it would look as
if they were engaged in making repairs. Every
once in a while they would shift these parts
about so as to alter the appearance of the
place. However, they did not accept any
business — whenever a man took the sign at its
face value and came in asking to have work
done, Fay or Scholz would take him to a near-by

THE SHIP BOMBS

saloon and buy him a few drinks and pass him
along, referring him to some other garage.

The most of their time they spent about the
real business in hand. They took care to
have the windows of their room in the board-
ing house heavily curtained to keep out prying
eyes, and here, under a student lamp, they
spent hours over mechanical drawings which
were afterward produced in evidence at the
trial of their case. The mechanism that Fay
had conceived was carefully perfected on paper,
and then they confronted the task of getting
the machinery assembled. Some of the parts
were standard — that is, they could be bought
at any big hardware store. Others, however,
were peculiar to this device and had to be made
to order from the drawings. They had the
tanks made by a sheet-metal worker named
Ignatz Schiering, at 344 West 42nd Street,
New York. Scholz went to him with a draw-
ing, telling him that it was for a gasolene tank
for a motor boat. Scholz made several trips
to the shop to supervise some of the details of
the construction and once to order more tanks
of a new size and shape.

At the same time Scholz went to Bernard
McMillan, doing business under the name of
McMillan & Werner, 81 'Centre Street, New
York, to have him make special kinds of

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

wheels and gears for the internal mechanism
of the bomb, from sketches which Scholz
supplied. At odd times between June loth
and October 20th McMillan was working on
these things and delivered the last of them to
Scholz just a few days before he was arrested.
In the meanwhile, Fay was taking care of
the other necessary elements of his scheme.
Besides the mechanism of the bomb, he had
to become familiar with the shipping in the
port of New York, and he had to get the ex-
plosive with which to charge the bomb. For
the former purpose he and Scholz bought a
motor boat — a 28-footer — and in this they
cruised about New York harbour at odd times,
studying the docks at w^iich ships were being
loaded with suppHes for the Allies and cal-
culating the best means and time for placing
the bombs on the rudder posts of these ships.
Fay finally determined by experience that
between two and three o'clock in the morn-
ing was the best time. The watchmen on
board the ships were at that hour most likely to
be asleep or the night dark enough so that
he could work in safety. He made some ac-
tual experiments in fastening the empty tanks
to the rudder posts, and found that it was
perfectly easy to do so. His scheme was to
fasten them just above the water line on a

THE SHIP BOMBS

ship while it was light, so that when it was
loaded they were submerged and all possibiHty
of detection was removed.

The getting of explosives was, however, the
most difficult part of Fay's undertaking. This
was true not only because he was here most
likely to arouse suspicion, but also because
of his relative lack of knowledge of the thing
he was dealing with. He did know enough,
however, to begin his search for explosives in
the least suspicious field, and it was only as
he became ambitious to produce a more power-
ful effect that he came to grief.

The material he decided to use at first was
chlorate of potash. This substance in itself
is so harmless that it is an ingredient of tooth
powders and is used commonly in other ways.
When, however, it is mixed with any substance
high in carbons, such as sugar, sulphur, char-
coal, or kerosene, it becomes an explosive of con-
siderable power. Fay set about to get some of
the chlorate.

But it is now time to get acquainted with
Fay's fellow conspirators, and to follow them
through the drama of human relationships
that led to Fay's undoing. All these men v/ere
Germans — some of them German-Americans —
and each in his own way was doing the work
of the Kaiser in this country. Herbert Kienzle

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

was a dealer in clocks with a store on Park
Place, in New York. He had learned the
business in his father's clock factory deep in
the Black Forest in Germany and had come to
this country years ago to go into the same
business, getting his start by acting as agent
for his father's factory over here. After the
war broke out he had become obsessed with
the wild tales which German propaganda had
spread in this country about dum-dum bullets
being shipped back for use against the soldiers
of the Fatherland. He had brooded on the
subject, had written very feelingly about it
to the folks at home, and had prepared for
distribution in the United States a pamphlet
denouncing this traffic. Fay had heard of Kienzle
before leaving Germany, and soon after he
reached New York he got in touch with him as
a man with a fellow feeling for the kind of work
he was undertaking to do.

One of the first things in Fay's carefully
worked-out plan was to locate a place to which
he could quietly retire when his work of de-
struction should be done — a place where ht:
felt he could be safe from suspicion. After a
talk with Kienzle he decided that Lush's
Sanatorium, at Butler, N. J., would serve the
purpose. This sanatorium was run by Ger-
mans and Kienzle was well known there.

THE SHIP BOMBS

Acting on a prearranged plan with Kienzle,
Fay went to Butler and was met at the station
by a man named Bronkhorst, who was in
charge of the grounds at the sanatorium.
They identified each other by prearranged
signals and Fay made various arrangements,
some of which are of importance later in the
story.

Another friend of Kienzle's was Max Brie-
tung, a young German employed by his uncle,
E. N. Brietung, who was in the shipping busi-
ness in New York. Young Brietung was con-
sequently in a position to know at first hand
about the movements of ships out of New
York harbour. Brietung supplied Fay with the
information he needed regarding which ships
Fay should elect to destroy. But first Brietung
made himself useful in another way.

Fay asked Kienzle how he could get some
chlorate of potash, and Kienzle asked his young
friend Brietung if he could help him out.
Brietung said he could, and went at once to
another German who was operating in New
York ostensibly as a broker in copper under
the name of Carl L. Oppegaard.

It is just as well to get better acquainted
with Oppegaard because he was a vital link
in Fay's undoing. His real name was Paul
Siebs and for the purpose of this story he might

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

as well be known by that name. Siebs had
also been in this country in earlier days and
during his residence in Chicago, from 19 lo
to 191 3, he had gotten acquainted with young
Brietung. He, too, had gone back to Germany
before the war, but soon after it began he had
come back to the United States under his false
name, ostensibly as an agent of an electrical
concern in Gothenburg, Sweden, for the pur-
pose of buying copper. He frankly admitted
later that this copper was intended for re-
export to Germany to be used in the manu-
facture of munitions of war. He did not have
much success in his enterprise and he was
finally forced to make a living from hand to
mouth by small business transactions of almost
any kind. He could not afford a separate
office, so he rented desk room in the office of
the Whitehall Trading Company, a small sub-
sidiary of the Raymond-Hadley Corporation.
His desk was in the same room with the mana-
ger of the company, Carl L. Wettig.

When Brietung asked Siebs to buy him
some chlorate of potash Siebs was delighted at
the opportunity to make some money and
immediately undertook the commission. He
had been instructed to get a small amount,
perhaps 200 pounds. He needed money so
badly, however, that he was very glad to find

THE SHIP BOMBS

that the smallest kegs of the chlorate of potash
v/ere 112 pounds each, and he ordered three
kegs. He paid for them with money supplied
by Brietung and took a delivery slip. Ulti-
mately this delivery slip was presented by Scholz
who appeared one day with a truck and driver
and took the chemical away.

Fay and Scholz made some experiments
with the chlorate of potash and Fay decided
it was not strong enough to serve his purpose.
He then determined to try dynamite. Again
he wished to avoid suspicion and this time,
after consultation with Kienzle, he recalled
Bronkhorst down at the Lush Sanatorium in
New Jersey. Bronkhorst, in his work as
superintendent of the grounds at the sana-
torium, was occasionally engaged in laying
water mains in the rocky soil there, and for
this purpose kept dynamite on hand. Fay
got a quantity of dynamite from him. Later,
however, he decided that he wanted a still more
powerful explosive.

Again he applied to Kienzle, and this time
Kienzle got in touch with Siebs direct. By
prearrangement, Kienzle and Siebs met Fay
underneath the Manhattan end of the Brook-
lyn Bridge, and there Siebs was introduced to
Fay. They walked around City Hall Park
together discussing the subject; and Fay, not

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

knowing the name of what he was after, tried
to make Siebs understand what explosive he
wanted by describing its properties. Siebs
finally reaHzed that what Fay had in mind
was trinitrotoluol, one of the three highest
explosives known. Siebs finally undertook to
get some of it for him, but pointed out to
him the obvious diflSculties of buying it in as
small quantities as he wanted. It was easy
enough to buy chlorate of potash because that
was in common commercial use for many
purposes. It was also easy to buy dynamite
because that also is used in all quantities
and for many purposes. But trinitrotoluol
is too powerful for any but military use, and
it is consequently handled only in large lots
and practically invariably is made to the order
of some government. However, Siebs had an
idea and proceeded to act on it.

He went back to the Whitehall Trading
Company, where he had desk room, and saw
his fellow occupant, Carl Wettig. Wettig
had been engaged in a small way in a brokerage
business in war supplies, and had even taken a
few small turns in the handling of explosives.
Siebs had overheard him discussing with a
customer the market price of trinitrotoluol
some weeks before, and on this account thought
possibly Wettig might help him out. When

THE SHIP BOMBS

he put the proposition up to Wettig the latter
agreed to do what he could to fill the order.

In the meanwhile Fay had sent another
friend of Brietung's to Bridgeport to see if he
could get trinitrotoluol in that great city of
munitions. There he called upon another
German who was running an employment
agency — finding jobs for Austro-Hungarians who
were working in the munitions plants, so that
he could take them out of the plants and
divert their labour from the making of war
supplies for use against the Teutons. The only
result of this visit was that Brietung's friend
brought back some loaded rifle cartridges which
ultimately were used in the bombs as caps to
fire the charge. But otherwise his trip was of
no use to Fay.

Carl Wettig was the weak link in Fay's''
chain of fortune. He did indeed secure the
high explosive that Fay wanted, and was in
other ways obliging. But he got the explosive
from a source that would have given Fay heart
failure if he had known of it, and he was oblig-
ing for reasons that Fay lived to regret. Siebs
made his inquiry of Wettig on the 19th of
October. The small quantity of explosives
that he asked for aroused Wettig's suspicions
and as soon as he promised to get it he went
to the French Chamber of Commerce, near by,

FIGHTING GERMANY^S SPIES

told them what he suspected, and asked to be
put in touch with responsible police author-
ities under whose direction he wished to act
in supplying the trinitrotoluol.

From that moment Fay, Siebs, and Kienzle
were "waked up in the morning and put to
bed at night'' by detectives from the police de-
partment of New York City and operatives
of the Secret Service of the United States.
By arrangement with them Wettig obtained a
keg containing 25 pounds of trinitrotoluol, and
in the absence of Fay and Scholz from their
boarding house in Weehawken, he delivered
it personally to their room and left it on their
dresser. He told Siebs he had delivered it and
Siebs promptly set about collecting his com-
mission from Fay.

Siebs had some difficulty in doing this, be-
cause Fay and Scholz, being unfamiliar with
the use of the explosive, were unable to explode
a sample of it and decided that it was no good.
They had come home in the evening and found
the keg on their dresser and had opened it.
Inside they found the explosive in the form of
loose white flakes. To keep it more safely,
they poured it out into several small cloth bags.
They then took a sample of it and tried by
every means they could think of to explode it.
They even laid some of it on an anvil and broke

THE SHIP BOMBS

two or three hammers pounding on it, but
could get no result. They then told Siebs
that the stuff he had delivered was useless.
Wettig volunteered to show them how it should
be handled. Accordingly, he joined them the
following day at their room in Weehawken
and went with them out into the woods behind
Fort Lee, taking along a small sample of the
powder in a paper bag. In the woods the
men picked up the top of a small tin can, built
a fire in the stump of a tree, and melted some
of the flake **T. N. T." in it. Before it cooled,
Wettig embedded in it a mercury cap. When
cooled after being melted, T. N. T. forms a solid
mass resembling resin in appearance, and is
now more powerful because more compact.

However, before the experiment could be
concluded, one of the swarm of detectives who
had followed them into the woods stepped on a
dry twig, and when the men started at its
crackling, the detectives concluded they had
better make their arrests before the men might
get away; and so all were taken into custody.
A quick search of their boarding house, the
garage, a storage warehouse in which Fay had
stored some trunks, and the boathouse where
the motor boat was stored, resulted in rounding
up the entire paraphernalia that had been used
in working out the whole plot. All the people

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

connected with every phase of it were soon
arrested.

Out of the stories these men told upon exami-
nation emerged not only the hideous perfec-
tion of the bomb itself, but the direct hand
that the German Government and its agents
in this country had in the scheme of putting
it to its fiendish purpose. First of all appeared
Fay's admission that he had left Germany with
money and a passport supplied by a man
in the German Secret Service. Later, on the
witness stand, when Fay had had time enough
carefully to think out the most plausible story,
he attempted to get away from this admission
by claiming to have deserted from the German
Army. He said that he had been financed in
his exit from the German Empire by a group of
business men who had put up a lot of money to
back an automobile invention of his, which he
had worked on before the war began. These
men, so he claimed, were afraid they would
lose all their money if he should happen to be
killed before the invention was perfected.
This tale, ingenious though it was, was too
fantastic to be swallowed when taken in connec-
tion with all the things found in Fay's posses-
sion when he was arrested. Beyond all doubt
his scheme to destroy ships was studied and
approved by his military superiors in Germany

THE SHIP BOMBS

before he left, and that scheme alone was his
errand to this country.

Far less ingenious but equally damning was
his attempt to explain away his relations
with Von Papen. The sinister figure of the
military attache of the German Embassy at
Washington leers from the background of all
the German plots; and this case was no excep-
tion. It was known that Fay had had dealings
with Von Papen in New York, and on the wit-
ness stand he felt called upon to explain them
in a way that would clear the diplomatic ser-
vice of participation in his evil doings. He
declared that he had taken his invention to
Von Papen and that Von Papen had resolutely
refused to have anything to do with it. This
would have been well enough if Fay's explana-
tion had stopped here.

But Fay's evil genius prompted him to make
his explanation more convincing by an elabo-
ration of the story, so he gave Von Papen^s
reasons for refusal. These were not at all
that the device was calculated to do murder
upon hundreds of helpless men, nor at all
that to have any part in the business was to
play the unneutral villain under the cloak of
diplomatic privilege. Not at all. At the
first interview, seeing only a rough sketch
and hearing only Fay's description of prelim-

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

inary experiments, Von Papen's sole objection
was:

**Well, you might obtain an explosion once
and the next ten apparatuses might fail."

To continue Fay's explanation:

"He casually asked me what the cost of it
would be and I told him in my estimation the
cost would not be more than ^20 apiece. [$20
apiece for the destruction of thirty lives and a
million-dollar ship and cargo!] As a matter of
fact, in Germany I will be able to get these
things made for half that price. *If it is not
more than that/ Von Papen said, 'you might
go ahead, but I cannot promise you anything
whatever.'"

Fay then went back to his experiments and
when he felt that he had practically perfected
his device he called upon Von Papen for the
second time. This time Von Papen's reply was :

'*Well, this thing has been placed before our
experts and also we have gone into the political
condition of the w^hole suggestion. Now in the
first place our experts say this apparatus is not
at all seaworthy; but as regards political con-
ditions I am sorry to say we cannot consider it
and, therefore, we cannot consider the whole

situation."

In other words, with no thought of the moral
turpitude of the scheme, with no thought of

THE SHIP BOMBS

the abuse of diplomatic freedom, but only
with thoughts of the practicability of this de-
vice and of the effect upon political conditions
of its use, Von Papen had put the question
before technical men and before Von Bernstorff,
and their decision had been adverse solely on
those considerations — first, that it would not
work, and second, that it would arouse hostility
in the United States. At no stage, according
to Fay's best face upon the matter, was any
thought given to its character as a hideous crime.

The device itself was studied independently
by two sets of military experts of the United
States Government with these results:

First, that it was mechanically perfect;
second, that it was practical under the condi-
tions of adjustment to a ship's rudder which
Fay had devised; and third, that the charge of
trinitrotoluol, for which the container was
designed, was nearly half the quantity which is
used on our own floating mines and which is
calculated upon explosion twenty feet from a
battleship to put it out of action, and upon
explosion in direct contact, absolutely to de-
stroy and sink the heaviest superdreadnaught.
In other words, beyond all question the bomb
would have shattered the entire stern of any
ship to which it was attached, and would have
caused it to sink in a few minutes.

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

A brief description of the contrivance re-
veals the mechanical ingenuity and practical
efficiency of Fay's bomb. A rod attached to the
rudder, at every swing the rudder gave, turned
up, by one notch, the first of the bevelled wheels
within the bomb. After a certain number of
revolutions of that wheel, it in turn gave one
revolution to the next; and so on through the
series. The last wheel was connected with
the threaded cap around the upper end of
the square bolt, and made this cap slowly un-
screw, until at length the bolt dropped clear
of it and yielded to the waiting pressure of the
strong steel spring above. This pressure drove
it downward and brought the sharp points
at its lower end down on the caps of the two
rifle cartridges fixed below it — like the blow
of a rifle's hammer. The detonation from
the explosion of these cartridges would set off
a small charge of impregnated chlorate of potash,
which in turn would fire the small charge of
the more sluggish but stronger dynamite, and
that in turn would explode the still more
sluggish but tremendously more powerful tri-
nitrotoluol.

The whole operation, once the spring was
free, would take place in a flash; and instantly
its deadly work would be accomplished.

Picture the scene that Fay had in his mind
80

THE SHIP BOMBS

as he toiled his six laborious months upon this
dark invention. He saw himself, in imagina-
tion, fixing his infernal box upon the rudder
post of a ship loading at a dock in New York
harbour. As the cargo weighed the ship down,
the box would disappear beneath the water.
At length the ship starts on its voyage, and, as
the rudder swings her into the stream, the first
beat in the slow, sure knell of death for ship
and crew is clicked out by its very turning.
Out upon the sea the shift of wind and blow of
wave require a constant correction with the
rudder to hold the true course forward. At
every swing the helmsman unconsciously taps
out another of the lurking beats of death.
Somewhere in midocean, perhaps at black mid-
night, in a driving storm, the patient mecha-
nism hid below has turned the last of its calcu-
lated revolutions. The neckpiece from the bolt
slips loose, the spring drives downward, there
is a flash, a deafening explosion, and five min-
utes later a few mangled bodies and a chaos
of floating wreckage are all that is left above
the water's surface.

This is the hideous dream Fay dreamed in
the methodical i8o days of his planning and
experimenting in New York. This is the
dream to realize which he was able to enlist the
cooperation of half a dozen other Germans.

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

This is the dream his superiors in Germany
viewed with favour, and financed. This is the
dream the sinister Von Papen encouraged and
which he finally dismissed only because he
believed it too good to be true. This is the
dream Fay himself on the witness stand said he
had thought of as *'a good joke on the British."
In this picture of infernal imaginings the
true character of German plottings in this
country stands revealed. Ingenuity of con-
ception characterized them, method and pa-
tience and painstaking made them perfect.
Flawless logic, flawless mechanism. But on
the human side, only the blackest passions and
an utter disregard of human life; no thought of
honour, no trace of human pity. It happened
in the case of Fay that the agent himself was
ruthless and deserved far more than what the
limit of existing law was able to give him when
he was convicted of his crimes. But through all
the plots Von Papen, Von Bernstorff, and the
Imperial German Government in Berlin were
consistent. Their hand was at the helm of all,
and the same ruthless grasping after domina-
tion of the world at any price led to the same
barbarous code of conduct in them all.

CHAPTER IV
The Inside Story of the Captain of the

*'ElTEL FrIEDRICH"

OUT of the black picture of the German de-
pravity in fighting this war have emerged
four or five dramatic episodes that have stirred
the imagination of the world and appealed to
the romantic and chivalric instincts even of
Germany's enemies. The cruise of the Emden
will always remain one of the glorious traditions
of the sea. The knightly spirit of those Ger-
man aviators who flew low over the bier of
their fallen foe of the French cavalry of the
clouds, and strewed flowers upon it, was in
the spirit of the best that war produces.
America was the scene of two such episodes.
The first unexpected appearance of the U'S3
upon our shores, rising unheralded from the
unsuspected waters, thrilled the sporting instinct
of our people. But perhaps the most dramatic
incident was the arrival of the Prinz Eitel
Friedrich.

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

During the night of March 9-10, 1915, this
gallant cruiser of the Kaiserliche Marine,
slipped into the harbour at Norfolk, having
run the British blockade of cruisers outside
the three-mile limit, ending a career of six
months as a commerce raider, recalling the
feats of the Alabama in the Civil War. The
Eitel Friedrich was soon interned for the period
of the war and her officers and crew put under
formal arrest. Even the British, whose fleet
had been outwitted, gave their tribute of
praise to the men who had taken their fair
chance and had got away.- Captain Max Thier-
ichens and his crew became objects of admira-
tion to the world. They were showered with
felicitations, most of all, as was natural enough,
from Germans and German-Americans.

That is the bright side of the picture — and
no one, even now, would care to dim its lus-
tre.

But even at his best the German of the ruling
class seems tainted with the ineradicable nature
of the beast. The world has long accepted
the Latin affinity of Mars and Venus — perhaps
too complacently, though not without reason
— so it would not have been surprised if the
gallant Thierichens had not measured up to
the standards of a Galahad. Nevertheless,
It had a right to expect that he would not

THE STORY OF CAPTAIN THIERICHENS

descend to the level of a Caliban; and Thieri-
chens fell below even that low standard.

Among the great quantities of letters of con-
gratulation which Captain Thierichens re-
ceived were many from German-American
women. They were stirred by the brilliancy
of his exploit : it was a ray of light in the gloom
that had fallen on the Teuton peoples after
the Battle of the Marne, when the rosy vision
of quick victory had turned to the gray fog of
a long, defensive war. These letters breathed
the passionate loyalty of the German spirit
to the Fatherland. To these women, Thieri-
chens was the embodiment of the martial spirit
of their race — the spirit of the sons they saw
themselves in imagination sending forth to war.
Some phrases from their letters strike the key:

It is a pleasure for us to help our German brothers, but
I also understand that you, my dear brother, are waiting
to come out from your predicament. How grand it is
that you are receiving letters from the Fatherland. We
don't hear anything. Can't write anything, as the letters
are not being delivered. So far good news. It is wonder-
ful. My heart is jumping with joy. I look with con-
fidence in the future. I have to please so many; have so
many times to defend my Germany, but I have an unlim-
ited confidence in God and in the truth.

Again: Hold your head high and do not forget: "star-
light itself is in the night and God does not forsake his

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Their attitude was one of high patriotism
and maternal solicitude. They sent him books
and delicacies, scraps of news from Germany,
and in every way sought to comfort and inspirit
their hero.

Thierichens was indifferent to the lofty pur-
pose of these letters. His mind was depraved
by the social custom of military Germany by
which men of the officer class are in youth
taught to consider themselves above the moral
law. He was quite aware of the kinship of
all emotions, and he promptly undertook to
change the direction of these currents of pas-
sion into a channel more pleasing to his tastes.
It was not long until he had narrowed his
correspondence chiefly to three women and
of these more particularly to two. Of these
latter one was a German servant girl of rather
better than average understanding, and the
other a kindergarten teacher in the Middle
West, one twenty-five and the other forty-five
years of age. Their correspondence in both
cases started on an exalted plane. It ended in
depravity unprintable. Only a reading of the
complete series of Thierichens's letters to these
women could give a full understanding of the
heartlessness, the baseness, and the ingenuity
with which this man, always playing upon their
patriotic fervour, transmuted their finer feelings

THE STORY OF CAPTAIN THIERICHENS

into the most degrading travesty of romantic
love. He and the kindergarten teacher never
met. But by the time their correspondence
came under Government censorship it had
become a blend of exahed patriotism and of
passion perverted to the obscenities pictured
on the walls of ruined Pompeii.

Terrible as was the plight to which the teacher
had descended, the case in which the German
servant found herself was infinitely worse.
Thierichens and she had met after their first
interchange of letters and they had entered
on a liaison of a character that became so base
it cannot even be suggested.

All this while Thierichens was in corres-
pondence with at least eight other misguided
women. Fortunately for them the strong hand
of the law intervened and Thierichens to-day
is safely behind prison bars for his crimes.
In the midst of this promiscuous correspondence
he was receiving letters of affection and devotion
from his vv^ife and children, two of which may well
be reproduced to make clearer the depth to which
he fell. One is from his little daughter Christel,
the other from his wife. They are as follows:

Kiel, November 26, 1916.
My Dear Father:

My darling, to-day the day of my 6th birthday, I
will thank you all alone for the pretty things, lovely

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

kisses for same. I hope my next birthday you will be
with us again. I am praying every evening and morning
to the dear God that he will protect my dear father,
and that the war will soon be ended, and you come
again to the dear Fatherland.

Many hundred thousand kisses sent you,

Your thankful daughter,

Christel.

Kiel, Germany, 23rd March, 191 7.
My Only Muckicken :

I want to chat with you again a little to-day; had
very little time yesterday; did some shopping morning,
and some stocking mending in the afternoon; some
linen work in the evening; went early to bed; had love
pains; had a little cold. This morning I went with
Christel to Karestadt, bought some stockings, a school
hat and gloves for her; also a leather hat for Elly; very
neat. I am dressing Elly still like a child; she also is
still wearing her hair down her back; she is any way a
child yet. To-morrow I will get some bones from the
war kitchen for Fritz, and then I shall ride together with
the children to Aunt Niemann. To-day is a sunny
day, but still a little cold. And now I shall answer
No. 50. From Christmas Eve, 24-12-16. No, darling,
we want to hope that we shall enjoy the 6th Christmas
evening together; a description of our Christmas evening
you probably received. You darling, you're writing so
as if we were hungry, no, my darling, we have not had
any hunger here in Germany yet. We are having our
butter, eggs, meat, bread, and potatoes every day; only
not so much of it as in times of peace. Well, of course,
then everything was extravagantly used. So now every-
body has to learn to be economical which is a good lesson

CAPTAIN THIERICHENS (top)
And scenes on the Eitel Friedrich, which escaped from Tsing-tau and interned

at Norfolk

THE STORY OF CAPTAIN THIERICHENS

for days to come, so please don't listen to the talk of our
enemies, — we are all right; nobody will conquer us; God,
the Lord, won't leave us alone, — we are all brave. What
did Russia gain by the revolution? Something of that
kind is impossible in Germany. The responsibility for
same rests with England again. We shall wait to see
how everything turns out. England will be punished
surely. Now, my darling, enough for to-day. Please re-
main healthy, and retain your humor. Be thankful and
bravely greeted from your three sprouts and Thiere.

To make complete the picture of this hero
of the Prussian officer class, it may be well
to quote also the round robin of the crew
of the Prinz Eitel Friedrich, To them even the
air of an American internment camp was
the breath of freedom compared to their service
on a ship of his Imperial Majesty's Marine.
Here is their opinion of life in it and of their
gallant captain:

Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.,
July 8.
United States District Attorney,

Philadelphia, Pa.
Dear Sir:

We of the crew of the Prince Eitel Friedrichy beg to
inform you about the conditions as there had been existing
on board said vessel, and of the character of Captain
Max Thierichens. He is one of the most cruel and dis-
honest men who ever had been in charge of a vessel. He
is a disgrace to any military organization, and we feel
ashamed that he brought disgrace to our vessel. He is

FIGHTING GERMANY^S SPIES

one of the worst egoists in existence, without any feeling
for his fellowmen. He is guilty of using the United
States mails for fraudulent purposes, advertising in the
papers that he would receive liehesgahen (love packages)
for the soldiers in order to benefit himself, and later
selling the same in the cantine after an inspection and
rilling; he kept everything of value. He has received
1,000 of packages and money from very near every Ger-
man society and countless private people, but his men
never saw a penny of the same. The money he has spent
for himself and some of his officers in his orgies.

As we had been out on the high seas, he only had an
eye for his personal welfare. If we met a vessel, after
stopping the same, the first thing he always did was to
secure as much wine and other good things for himself,
and officers, so that they always had plenty. He would
not allow his sailors to bring enough potatoes and common
food on board to satisfy their hunger. There had been
cases where men had been severe punished just for taking
a piece of meat from the table of one of the sunken vessels.
The men did not even have drinking water but he and
his officers used the same for bathing. He had been
afraid that the U. S. Government would find out about
his various misdeeds, so in order to make the Govern-
ment think that he was all he should have represented he
pulled off the biggest bluff ever thought of. He told ten
men that they could run off, supplied the same with
money, and after a few moments sent some other boys
over the side to make as much noise as possible to call
the attention of the guards. He had his men maltreated
wherever there was a chance to do so. He even did this
after we had been brought to Fort Oglethorpe. We have
to thank the U. S. Officers for putting a stop to it. The
captain had been mad that he lost the power over the

THE STORY OF CAPTAIN THIERICHENS

men. He swore he would bring the men to a military
prison for years to come, simply because they refused
to be treated like dogs after being informed by the U. S.
Officers that they don't have to stand for anything like
that. If it was not for the iron discipline maintained
by the Germans, there would have been a mutiny on
board the ship. Even a common man hates to see good
supplies going to waste just because the captain could
not get quick enough to his wine, and the men feed on
hardtack that was full of wormiS. Some of the men are
wilHng to appear in court against the captain to bear out
because they are not protected by the U. S. Government,
and may have to face a court martial law if they are
returned to Germany. We do hope that there will be
an investigation of the evil doings of said Captain. If
found guilty, we do hope that he may find out what it
does mean to do wrong to his fellowmen.

CHAPTER V

James J. F. Archibald and His Pro-German
Activities

THE case of James J. F. Archibald, war
correspondent, is another sample of the
Germans' fatal gift for trusting a weak link
in an otherwise ingenious and complete chain.
Their "cleverness" was the cleverness of the
cocky boy who thinks he can outwit any one.
The sad ending of Archibald's career, the igno-
minious exposure of his character as a messenger
for the Germans, was simplicity itself. And the
revelations contained in the messages he carried
were most discreditable to the honour and the
wisdom of the plotters in the Teutonic embassies.
The story begins on July 29, 1914, six days
after Austria's ultimatum to Serbia and three
days before the formal historical date of the
opening of the war. On that day an enter-
prising American newspaper syndicate tele-
graphed Mr. Archibald as follows:

Please telegraph us your terms for going to the European
war, so that we can size up the syndicate field. As soon
as received will try for quick action.

The Wheeler Syndicate, Inc.

THE ACTIVITIES OF JAMES ARCHIBALD

Archibald soon had his arrangements made,
though his employers were ignorant of the
reason for the surprising ease with which he
obtained the highest possible entree to the
best possible points of observation within the
German lines. It should be said at once that
their attitude was perfectly correct and that
the moment they discovered the true nature
of his errand they discharged him by cable,
on October 27th. But that comes later in
the story.

Archibald was a man of true grandiose
German style. Writing to the syndicate on
September 4th he said:

You should not confound my efforts with more than
five hundred correspondents of every description who have
attempted to get to the Enghsh, French, and Belgian
fronts, none of them with any official recognition and most
of them without even a passport. At the hysterical
beginning of the war, correspondents are very much in
the way but every cartoonist, humorist, and amateur
millionaire who wanted a Httle private excitement rushed
to the front and embarrassed the armies in their mobil-
ization and naturally they were not gladly received.
I have been working quietly, just as I did In the Russian
War when I was the first, and only, foreign correspondent
to be accepted after four months' waiting.

There is no necessity of coming into conflict with any
censors if one knows military censorship as I do, for all
they require is that you will not embarrass their present
actual movements. There is not one single foreign cor-

SCRNAC C«B«S<T

WASHINCTOM p w

J.Nfl A 2875.

Dear Sir,

I beg to enclose a ,no*.ice" to prospective
Afflorlcan travellers and to ask whether you could have
It printed as advertisement in the newspapers mention
ed on the encl6sed list once a week during the next
three or foufweeks. 1 presume that the prices given
are correct end that it will be possible to reduce
the rates somewhat for a repetition of the advertise-
Eent.

Thanking you In advance for a kind answer at
jfour earliest convenience, I am

Yours very truly,
For .the German Ambassador

Councillor of the Embassy.

Ir. Albert J. Schaffer,
Washington, D.C.

THE " LUSITANIA " WARNING
This letter, signed by Haniel, the Councillor of the German Embassy
in Washington, clears up the mystery of the advertisement printed
in leading newspapers in all parts of the country on May i, 1915,

.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 Imperia
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.

a LINE

•Screnr Eteamshtp*

to GLASGOW

May 1, Noon

torn Pier 64, N. R.

ulverpooL'

Foot W. l«h tit.,

^^^4 state st.. n'. y.

I Ali-the-Way
I. J>y-Watef

* LINX;. Steamships
Star. Lve. Pier 19,

nt.. C P. M. Tups..

Ilchtnu a90-mlle. 22-
the CiTY BBAUTI-

,so Tourist and N. Y.

Phone : 8980 — Cort.

IP COBPORATION.

; UNE

them BoBt«

•our» from Pari*.

GS « MAK8^1LL£;B

Sant' Anna.. June S
Lisbon ft Marseille*

Roma. iA«g. 8

4.. 17 State 6t., N. Y.

VLIANO

11 OATS. . ^

T I. O B I D A

I4ne. New Yor

-H. osjnw.

■ADVERTTBEarayT.

NOTICE!

TRAVELLERS intenaing 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 wateri' adja-
cent to the British Isles; that,
in accordance with formal no-
tice given by the Imperial Ger-
man Government, vessels fly-
ing 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 EMBA33Y

WAeHiNairoN, d. c, april 22, 1915.

BAMKBtJPTOT. UrOTICES.

u Ot>en Jlmis lit: > Set
8. B. MANWA&n^Q;

heatonTh^

Stockbridge, Ma^&A)

in th« Berkshir* H

WILL OPEN JUME:

TblB Modern Hotel Is Finely A
pellghtfully tocated. Tbe Man,
SaavlU,' will be at the Hotel ST«
47tb St., New York, from April.
10th. Information ragardloj rati
'bo pronipt,ly jittended to.

/ Marblehead, Ma

THE ROCk-M^

Hotel d« Luxe Opens'

\ Faces all the Yacl
BOOKLIpTS G. H. ERA

EARLY^GOi

STOCKBRIDGE, F

RED LION I

NOW OPEN.

MDiinlli

five days before the Lusitania was sunk. The date on Haniel's letter
and the repetition of it on the copy of the advertisement as supplied by
him, clears up the hitherto unexplained discrepancy between the date on
the advertisement and the date of its publication i J* '

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

respondent with either the German or Austrian armies,
and it will be a great achievement to get dispatches out
from there and I am positive, with the papers that I now
hold, that there will be no difficulty whatever. The
difficulty is merely in establishing one's responsibility
with these armies, and my residence in Washington for
the last ten years has been for that purpose alone.

Archibald was soon in Germany and began
sending back cable dispatches to a syndicate of
papers, the principal ones of which were the
New York Times, Tribune, and World. His
dispatches, however, were so blatantly pro-
German and had so much more propaganda
than news in them that these papers quickly
became dissatisfied. For example, the Times
cut out of one of his dispatches a large section
of fulsome eulogy of the German Government.
Imagine their astonishment the next morning
to receive a telephone call from Captain
Boy-Ed, the Naval Attache of the German
Embassy with offices in New York. Captain
Boy-Ed demanded the reason for the omis-
sion of these paragraphs. The Times natur-
ally demanded Captain Boy-Ed's source of
information that such paragraphs existed.
It soon developed that Boy-Ed was receiving
direct from Germany duplicates of all the
material that Archibald was cabling for pub-
lication. As soon as the American news-

THE ACTIVITIES OF JAMES ARCHIBALD

papers understood this situation they dedined
to proceed further. In the same spirit and
simultaneously the Wheeler Syndicate '* fired"
Mr. Archibald by cable and wrote him a sting-
ing letter from which the following two para-
graphs may be quoted:

Perhaps because of the nature of your stuff, at any
rate, we have to face the veiled insinuation that you are
in the pay of the German and Austrian Governments.
In this connection, we have been told that the German
and Austrian Ambassadors to this country have received
in skeleton form the several wireless dispatches you sent
to us addressed care the Times. We think you should
know this, and also know that, with the nature of your
dispatches such as they were, we dared not allow our-
selves, by continuing the service, to be laid open to the
charge that we were in the employ of the German and
Austrian Governments. So we had to terminate the
service.

We have instructed the Times not to accept any more
wireless dispatches from you, and the wireless company
has been notified that no dispatches will be accepted.
We regret exceedingly the situation, but it is one that has
arisen solely from the fact that you have sent over your
personal pro-German opinions instead of the battlefront
news you assured us that you would furnish us.

Nothing daunted by these rebuffs, Archi-
bald continued his exploits as **war corres-
pondent," interspersing his labours at the front
with voyages back to the United States, osten-
sibly to deliver lectures. The true character

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

of his movements stands revealed in a letter
Archibald received from Bernstorff, the Ger-
man Ambassador, a few days before he em-
barked on the voyage from New York which
was to be his last. This letter was written
from Bernstorff's summer home at Cedarhurst,
Long Island, on the 19th of August, 1915,
and reads as follows:

Dear Mr, Archibald:

I send you herewith the two letters of recommenda-
tion asked for and hope that they will be useful to you.
I learn with pleasure that you wish once again to return
to Germany and Austria as you have interceded for our
concerns here so courageously and successfully.
With best compliments,

Yours very sincerely,

Bernstorff.

One of these letters was as follows:

The German Frontier Custom Authorities are re-
quested to kindly give to the bearer of this letter, Mr
James J. F. Archibald, from New York, who is going to
Germany with photographic apparatus, etc., in order to
collect material for lectures in the United States in the
interests of Germany^ all possible facilities compatible
with regulations in the dispatching of his luggage.

Imperial Ambassador
Bernstorff.

The familiar story of what happened next
is that Archibald carried some secret docu-
ments for Bernstorff and Dumba in a hollow

THE ACTIVITIES OF JAMES ARCHIBALD

cane. This could scarcely be, for the docu-
ments he carried were so numerous and some
of them so bulky that the cane would need to
have been a giant's walking stick. In any
event, the documents themselves are of more
interest than their vehicle. They were taken
from Archibald by the British authorities at
Falmouth. The series can be best introduced
by a letter from Ambassador Dumba to his
chief, Baron Burian, Minister for Foreign
Affairs in Vienna, which reads:

My Lord :

Yesterday evening Consul General von Nuber received
the inclosed aide mhnoire from the chief editor of the
locally known paper^ Szabodsog, after a previous con-
ference with him and in pursuance of his proposals to
arrange for strikes in the Bethlehem Schwab steel and
munitions war factory, and also in the Middle West.

Dr. Archibald, who is well known to your lordship,
leaves to-day at 12 o'clock on board the Rotterdam, for
Berlin and Vienna. I take this rare and safe opportunity
to warmly recommend the proposal to your lordship's
favourable 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, Vv^hich,
in the opinion of the German military attache, is of great
importance and amply outweighs the expenditure of
money involved.

But even if strikes do not come off, it is probable that
we should extort, under the pressure of the crisis, more

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

favourable conditions of labour for our poor, down-trodden
fellow countrymen. In Bethlehem these white slaves are
now working for twelve hours a day and seven days a week.
All weak persons succumb and become consumptives.

So far as German workmen are found among the
skilled hands, a means of leaving will be provided for
them.

Besides this a private German registry office has
been established, which provided employment for persons
who have voluntarily given up their places, and is already
working well. They will also join, and the widest support
is assured me.

I beg your excellency to be so good as to inform me
with reference to this letter by wireless telegraphyp reply-
ing whether you agree.

DUMBA.

The consideration which "Doctor" Archi-
bald received for his complacency in giving
his friends Dumba and Bernstorff "this rare
and safe opportunity" is indicated by his
receipt of April 24, 191 5, to the German
Embassy in Washington for $5,000 for propa-
ganda work.

Further light upon "the enclosed aide
memoire. ... in pursuance of his pro-
posals to arrange for strikes in the Bethlehem
Schwab steel and munitions war factory," is
gained by the following quotations from the
enclosure mentioned by Dumba in his letter
to Burian. The enclosure was an outline of
a scheme for fomenting strikes, submitted to

100

THE ACTIVITIES OF JAMES ARCHIBALD

Dumba by William Warm, the Editor of
Szahodsog [in English, Freedom.]

In my opinion we must start a very strong agitation
on this question in the Freedom {Szahodsog) a leading
organ, with respect to the Bethlehem works and the
conditions there. This can be done in two ways, and
both must be utilized. In the first place, a regular daily
section must be devoted to the conditions obtaining there
and a campaign must be regularly conducted against
those indescribably degrading conditions. The Freedom
has already done something similar in the recent past,
when the strike movement began at Bridgeport. It
must naturally take the form of strong, deliberate, decided,
and courageous action. Secondly, the writer of these
lines would begin a labour novel in that newspaper much
on the lines of Upton Sinclair's celebrated story, and this
might be published in other local Hungarian, Slovak,
and German newspapers also. Here we arrive at the
point that naturally we shall also require other news-
papers. The American Magyar Nepszava (Word of the
People) will undoubtedly be compelled willingly or un-
willingly to follow the movement initiated by the Free-
dom (Szahodsog), for it will be pleasing to the entire
Hungarian element in America, and an absolute patriotic
act to which that open journal (the Nepszava) could
not adopt a hostile attitude. . . .

In the interest of successful action at Bethlehem and
the Middle West, besides the Szahodsog, the Nepszava,
the new daily paper of Pittsburg must be set in motion,
and those of Bridgeport, Youngtown District, etc., also
two Slovak papers. Under these circumstances, the
first necessity is money. To Bethlehem must be sent
as many reliable Hungarian and German workmen as

lOl

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

I can lay my hands on who will join the factories and
begin their work in secret among their fellow workmen.
For this purpose, I have my men Turners in Steelwork.
We must send an organizer, who in the interests of the
Union will begin the business in his own way. We
must also send so-called "soap-box" orators who
will know, and so to start a useful agitation. We shall
want money for popular meetings and possibly for or-
ganizing picnics. In general, the same applies to the
Middle West. I am thinking of Pittsburg and Cleveland
in the first instance, as to which I could give details only
if I were to return and spend at least a few days there.

It is my opinion that for the special object of starting
the Bethlehem business and for the Bethlehem and
Western newspaper campaign, $15,000 to $20,000 must
be able to be disposed of, but it is not possible to reckon
how much will ultimately be required; when a beginning
has been made it will be possible to see how things de-
velop, and where and how much it is worth while to
spend. The above-mentioned preliminary sum would
suffice to partially satisfy the demands of the necessary
newspapers and to a considerable extent those of the
Bethlehem campaign.

These documents should be read in the
light of their date, August 20, 1915, and of the
fact that the United States was a neutral
nation, still harbouring the representatives of
the '* friendly" German and Austro-Hungarian
empires. They are conclusive enough, in
themselves, of the pernicious activities of
these Embassies, but they wiill become doubly
significant in a later article in this series when

102

THE ACTIVITIES OF JAMES ARCHIBALD

they are read in the Hght of the activities of
"Labour's National Peace Council/*

Another document which Dumba entrusted
to Archibald was his report to Burian on the
then recent publication in the New York World
of the papers taken from a satchel left in an
elevated train by Dr. Heinrich Albert, the
financial adviser of the German Embassy in
America and the paymas'ter for a great deal
of its work in plots and propaganda. This
dispatch of Dumba's is worthy of reproduction
in full. It is :

A map and a number of documents — typed but un-
finished copies or statements of petitioners — were stolen
from the financial adviser of the German Embassy here,
obviously by the English Secret Service. These docu-
ments are now pubHshed in the current issue of the
World, which has gone over to the EngHsh "Yingolager"
(Jingo camp) as a great sensation, with cheap advertise-
ment. The paper makes the most violent accusations
against the German Embassy, mainly against Count Von
BernstorfF, Military Attache Captain Von Papen, and
Geheimrat Albert, who are said to have conspired secretly
against the safety of the United States, in that they have
bought arms and munition factories, have concluded
bogus contracts for delivery with France and Russia,
have purchased large quantities of explosive materials,
have incited strikes in the munition factories, have sought
to corrupt the press, and have spread far-reaching agitation
for the effecting of an embargo in the different American
circles. The other important New York papers second

103

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

the World although with less violence, for, in their leading
articles, by misrepresentation of the facts, they accuse
Germany of all possible and impossible machinations —
for instance, they, like the World, bring forward the asser-
tion that the German Government wished to stop the
supply of ammunition to the Allies, while itself secretly
sending quantities over.

Count Von BernstorfFtook the view that these calumnies
were beneath reply, and by a happy inspiration, refused
any explanation. He is in no way compromised. On
the contrary, it appears from the published correspondence
of various press agents that he vetoed the purchase of
a press agency.

On the other hand, Geheimrat Albert published in
the newspapers a very cleverly worded explanation,
the tenor of which I venture to submit to Your Excellency
in an enclosure. It is especially to the credit of the
German Embassy that on July 15th last it informed the
State Department officially that it found itself compelled
to buy as many materials of war in this country as it
possibly could, and to control their production, with the
intention of preventing their being supplied to the
enemy. These materials, it stated, were at any time at
the disposal of the American Government at favourable
prices, either as a whole or in parts, and of course this
could only further the readiness of the United States for
taking the field in war.

Here the absurd accusations of the conspiracy collapse.
Also, with regard to the accusations as to the incitement
of strikes, there is no proof of the empty statements made.
Nevertheless, everything German here is slandered and
run down with emphasis and consistency. An impartial
individual can hardly escape the feeling of appreciation
with which the far-reaching activity of Geheimrat Albert

104

THE ACTIVITIES OF JAMES ARCHIBALD

must inspire him. But there are very few impartial
persons in New York.

The torpedoing of the Arahic, in the event of its having
been done without warning, or its having caused American
passengers to lose their lives, will do more than any
newspaper accusations to prejudice Germany in the public
opinion of the United States.

The Imperial and Royal Ambassador,

(Signed) C. Dumba.

Archibald carried numerous other papers —
for the Germans as well as for the Austrians.
The most interesting of these was a report
from Franz von Papen, military attache of the
German Embassy upon the same World ex-
posure. The following are extracts from this
dispatch:

Military Report

On July 31 important papers were abstracted from
Herr Geheimrat Dr. Albert in the elevated railway,
apparently by an individual in the employ of the English
Secret Service. These papers were sold to the World and
formed the basis of the revelations (Enclosure i) which
gave to the New York press, friendly to the Allies, a wel-
come opportunity to make a fresh outburst against the
Imperial Government and the Imperial representatives
in this country. . . .

Apart from political results the consequences of the
publications for us show themselves in connection with
business.

los

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Bridgeport Projectile Co.

The report of June 30 of the Treasurer of this Company
which I forwarded to the Royal Ministry of War on July
I3> J- No. 1888, was among the stolen papers.

The declaration, published in the papers, of the Presi-
dent of the Aetna Explosive Co. that he intended to
throw up powder contracts with the Bridgeport Pro-
jectile Co. Is of course only newspaper gossip and was
already much weakened yesterday through a fresh expla-
nation by the firm (Enclosure V).

In connection also with the delivery of presses, I
do not believe that the manufacturers will place difficulties
in our way because the careful drawing up of the contract
excludes all attack on the Projectile Co. under the well-
known Sherman Law, and the claim that the manufacturers
had supposed the deliveries to be Intended for the Allies —
in other words, that the contracts had been obtained by
us under false representations — offers a legal basis too
weak to enable the persons who undertake delivery to
risk the expense and results of a law^sult.

The only actual damage consists In that the Russian
and English committee have at once broken off their
negotiations with the Bridgeport Projectile Co. and that
thus our plans to cut off, by the acceptance and non-
delivery of a shrapnel contract, other firms here from the
possibility of beginning the furnishing of war material
have come to nothing.

The purchase of phenol by Dr. Schweitzer of the
Edison Co., which has at the same time been disclosed.
Is disposed of by the explanation published to the effect
that this phenol is only to be worked up Into medicine.

Most of all have our efforts for the purchase of liquid
chlorine been interfered with, since the tying up through
middlemen of the Castner Chemical Company, which

106

THE ACTIVITIES OF JAMES ARCHIBALD

is friendly to England, appears now to be out of the
question.

I shall use the means placed at my disposal (informa-
tion of Herr Grothen) for the purpose of arriving at an
agreement with the Electro Bleaching Company. The
published negotiations for the acquisition of the Wright's
patent is without importance, since on our behalf a judical
decision against the Curtiss Company so far as one can
see, would not have been obtained.

Part of the significance of Von Papen's
dispatch is his reference to the Bridgeport
Projectile Company. Other documents in the
possession of the United States Government
demonstrate completely the ownership of this
corporation by the Teutonic Allies. Hans
Tauscher, the agent of Krupps and other
German munition factories in this country,
was in the habit of reporting direct to the
War Ministry in Berlin as if he were its repre-
sentative in this country — as indeed he was
though not ostensibly so. Among other papers
in the hands of the Government is a letter
from the President of the Bridgeport Projectile
Company, informing him that the company
is being reorganized and that hereafter Mr.
Tauscher will hold as trustee only 60 per cent.
of the capital stock. Naturally Tauscher was
not acting as trustee for anybody but his em-
ployers.

Another document, of Httle importance, is
107

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

a letter Von Papen wrote to his wife and sent
by Archibald. But two parts of it are inter-
esting. After speaking again of the World ex-
posure he, says:

The answer of Albert I am sending you herewith so
you can see how we defend ourselves. The document we
drew up together yesterday.

But the bright spot for the Americans whose
hospitality he was abusing lies in this:

How splendid in the East! I always say to these
idiotic Yankees that they should shut their mouths and
better still be full of admiration for all that heroism.
My friends from the Army are In this respect quite
different.

Papen's *' friends from the Army" have, with
a good many of ** these idiotic Yankees,'' or-
ganized an army and are looking for Captain
Franz again, this time over the top in France,
with the determination to settle the question
with his government on the battlefield.

io8

CHAPTER VI
A Tale Told in Telegrams

ONE day in October, 19 15, a good-looking
young fellow wandered into the office of
the United States Attorney at Detroit and
inquired if the office was making any investi-
gations into dynamite cases. His inquiry was
odd enough of itself, but coupled with his
personal appearance and his entirely unexpected
arrival on the scene, it was doubly mysterious.
Lewis J. Smith, as his name turned out to be,
looked like a handsome, big, farmer's boy who
had come to town and made a little money.
He was well dressed in what he considered
the style, and in conversation developed a
winning smile and a very engaging and con-
vincing personality. There was the fresh whole-
someness of country breeding about him that
comported strangely with his guarded and
mysterious talk of dynamite. The United
States Attorney thought he must be a *' little
off," but referred him to the local agent of
the Department of Justice.

To this agent Smith told at first an incoher-
109

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

ent story. But the agent was tactful and sym-
pathetic and by asking a question now and
then and even more by refraining from asking
questions at embarrassing moments, he drew
out from Smith most of the details of one of
the most dangerous German plots, incidentally
exposing the organization of theGerman spysys-
tem west of the Mississippi River.

The story revealed by Smith and by the
corroborative testimony in the subsequent in-
vestigation was this: Consul-General Bopp
discovered that the California Powder Mills
at Pinole, across the bay from San Francisco,
was manufacturing powder for the use of
the Russians on the Eastern Front in Europe,
and that this powder was being shipped from
Tacoma and Seattle to Vladivostok. One
particularly large shipment was under way
and he wanted to stop it. He employed
C. C. Crowley, who had been for many years
head detective for the Southern Pacific Rail-
road but lately discharged for grafting, to
undertake this job along with several others.
Crowley lived in the Hotel Gartland in San
Francisco, and bought his cigars at a little
German stand across the street. Through this
German, who was also patronized by Smith,
Crowley learned that Smith had been employed
recently in the California Powder Mills but

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

was out of a job. Crowley introduced him-
self to Smith and first gave him the task of
going back to the mill and finding out exactly
how the powder for Russia was being routed.
He gave Smith several hundred dollars, and
the next day Smith's former fellow employees
were astonished to see him ride up to the works
in an automobile, completely outfitted in new
clothes and flourishing a roll of bills big enough
to make them gasp. Smith soon found how
the powder was packed and marked and also
that it was being loaded on a big scow and would
be towed by sea to Tacoma for loading there
on ships for Vladivostok.

A few days later Crowley told Smith to go
to Tacoma and register at the Donnelly Hotel,
and that he would join him there, going by
another train. There they would manufacture
bombs of a type which Smith had devised,
and Smith was to place these bombs on the
ships that would carry the powder to Russia.

Smith took his wife to Tacoma. They
registered at the Donnelly Hotel, but as they
soon discovered they would have to spend
some time in the city, they took an apartment.
Smith and Crowley were constantly meeting
and between them surveyed all the shipping
in the harbour and found out when the boats
would sail and what they were carrying. The

III

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

barge load of powder from California was
towed into the harbour while they were there,
and anchored in midstream to await the Hght-
ering of its cargo to the trans-Pacific ships.
These ships proved to be the Kifuku Maru and
the Shhisei Maru (Japanese), the Hazel Dollar,
an American boat flying the British flag, and
the Talthyhius, a British ship. Smith under-
took to place bombs on all of them.

What Smith actually did was to visit small
stores in Tacoma and near Seattle and buy
regular commercial 40 per cent, dynamite in
sticks, telling the storekeepers that he was
clearing a farm and wanted the dynamite for
use in blowing up stumps. He loaded a lot of
it into an old suitcase and left Crowley one
afternoon, telling him he was going to place
this on one of the ships that night. Instead,
he went out into the woods with it, cached it
under a log, the position of which he fixed in
memory by a big stump and a tree that had a
big rock in its fork, then walked on down to the
railroad track, carrying his suitcase, and later
threw the suitcase away down an embankment.
He reported to Crowley that he had not been
able to get anything on the Kifuku Maru,
which was the first to sail, but that he had
"fixed'' the Hazel Dollar^ the Shinsei MarUy
and the Talthybius,

112

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

Crowley, in the meantime, had been keeping
in touch with the Germans in San Francisco.
It had been arranged that all dealings with
them were to be through Von Brincken.
Crowley, on his part, kept in touch with his
secretary, Mrs. Cornell, she communicating
in person, or by telephone, with Von Brincken,
and Von Brincken reporting to Bopp and get-
ting further orders.

A great deal of the story from this point on
is A Tale Told in Telegrams. The first of
these telegrams, which figured in the subsequent
trial, was dated Tacoma, May 13, 191 5. It
was addressed to Crowley who had not yet
joined Smith. The message was:

Fine weather Kaifuku Box 244 five days.

S. Hotel Donnelly.

This message was, of course, from Smith and
was in the crude code that had been agreed
upon. "Fine weather" meant that every-
thing was O. K. "Kaifuku" gave the name
of the ship on which the powder would probably
be carried. "Box 244" was the post-office
address through which Smith could be reached,
and "five days" was the probable sailing date
oi the Kifuku.

It so happened, however, that a few hours
after Smith had sent this telegram Crowley

113

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

arrived in Tacoma. Crowley was always full
of fear that he would be detected, and he
was afraid of the message that Smith had sent.
He, therefore, immediately telegraphed to Mrs.
Cornell to go to the Gartland Hotel in San Fran-
cisco and get this telegram, and telegraphed also
to the hotel to give it to her when she called.

Between one and two o'clock in the morn-
ing of Sunday, May 30th (Decoration Day),
everybody in Tacoma and Seattle was jarred
from his slumbers by a terrific explosion in
the harbour. The scow load of powder had
disappeared in one grand flash, crash, and cloud
of smoke, carrying with it the night watch-
man who had been living on it. One hundred
thousand dollars' worth of plate glass in Tacoma
and Seattle w^as destroyed and news of the
explosion was telegraphed to the papers all
over the country. Crowley had got the main,
part of his job done in one quick stroke.

Here was good news for the Gerpians.
Crowley could not wait for the mails to carry
it, so the next day he sent the following tele-
gram to Mrs. Cornell:

Work has been good. And all fixed. No connection
with the big Circus it was an accident to the Elephant.

This cryptic message meant:
"Work has been good and all fixed," that he
114

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

and Smith had had good luck in their plots
against the ships and that bombs had been
placed on all of them. '*No connection with
the big Circus it was an accident to the Ele-
phant," the "big Circus" was the four ships
for Vladivostok and the "Elephant" was the
scow — in other words, the explosion had not
interfered with their work against the ships.

Before Crowley got his message off, however,
Mrs. Crowley had sent one to him. The Ger-
mans were in a panic. Von Brincken had tele-
phoned her that Bopp had word that Smith
had been arrested and had given the game away,
so she telegraphed:

Von learned your friend told all before leaving.
Anxious. Answer.

M. W. C.

To this Crowley replied:

Show that telegram to him also say I do not credit
report on S. he made good.

"That telegram" meant his message about
the circus. To this Mrs. Cornell replied:

Don't understand your message. Get letter Portland
Post-office on arrival.

M. W. C.

Crowley, she knew, was leaving immediately
for San Francisco.

115

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

There were some grounds for the Germans
apprehension. Smith was arrested and charged
with having caused the explosion on the scow.
But after a Httle manceuvring he managed to
get free of the charge and, with money wired
to him at Tacoma by Crowley, went back to
San Francisco where Crowley paid him first
jSjOO and then $600 in currency.

The Germans, however, had been pretty
well frightened and they thought it was about
time to get both Smith and Crowley away.
Smith and his wife were hustled off to Sacra-
mento where they lived at a hotel for a little
while and then Mrs. Smith was sent on ahead
to New York, while Crowley and Smith arranged
to meet in Chicago to carry out a new plan
that the Germans had devised.

This plot was to use Detroit as headquarters
for operations in Canada and there to blow
up the stockyards at St. Thomas, Ontario, and
trains carrying horses for shipment to Europe.
Crowley and Smith got together in Chicago
and visited the stockyards to spot the ship-
ments of horses toward the Atlantic seaboard.
They learned that a good many of these ship-
ments were being routed through Canada by
way of Detroit. In the meantime, however,
the Germans in San Francisco were getting rest-
less. They had expected almost every day

116

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

that the ships for Vladivostok would be re-
ported blown up or missing. They had heard
neither, and they were beginning to suspect
that they had been deceived. They had been
deceived, but so had Crowley — and this ex-
plains the tenor of his replies in the Second
Tale Told in Telegrams. The first intimation
of trouble he received was a telegram from
Mrs. Cornell on June 21st, to which she signed
her middle initial :

Saw him noon gave message. He was astonished.
Said we'Il^ suspend judgment for a few days. Queer
news this morning. He suspects you were interested
in the failure.

' Meantime, Crowley had gone on to Detroit
and this message was wired to him at the
Hotel Statler there. His reply is missing, but
he evidently expressed astonishment at the
message, giving some instructions for his office
and asking for more particulars. To this mes-
sage Mrs. Cornell replied:

Your instructions will be acted upon. Wired you
first arrived.

The second sentence of the message meant
that the first boat, the Shinsei Maru, had ar-
rived safely at Vladivostok, despite Crowley's
previous assurances that it had been ''fixed."

117

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

This was what the Germans could not under-
stand, and what had aroused their suspicions
that Crowley had been deceiving them, and
that he had possibly even been in somebody
else's pay to "double cross" them. Their sus-
picions were redoubled, as seems natural enough
in the light of Mrs. CornelFs message of June
29th to Crowley:

All three arrived. I am waiting your advice. Some-
thing queer.

In other words, the other two boats, the Hazel
Dollar and the Talthybius, had safely made
Vladivostok.

Meanwhile, Crowley had been having other
troubles with Smith. One day he called for
him at the Briggs Hotel in Chicago and found
that he had disappeared. He learned that he
had gone on to New York, leaving as his for-
warding address simply *' Station L, General
Delivery, New York." Smith had two causes
for anxiety. In the first place, he had not heard
from his wife and did not know whether she
had arrived safely. Consequently, on June
1 8th he had telegraphed to a friend in New
York:

Can you give my wife's address. Important. An-
swer paid,

and received a reply the same day giving the

118

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

address. He left Chicago at once and tele-
graphed her from Buffalo the following evening:

On train 36 Grand Central Depot 703 Sunday morning.

Lewis.

On Sunday afternoon Crowley telegraphed
him from Chicago :

What is the matter? Was surprised when found you
had gone. Send me some word to Stratford Hotel.

c. c. c

Smith did not reply until four days later, after
he had learned that Crowley had gone on from
Chicago to Detroit. He then telegraphed him:

From Tacoma at Chicago. Address 308 East Fiftieth
St., New York City.

To Crowley the second sentence was plain
enough, but the first one was unintelligible,
so he wired Smith:

Do not understand message. Let me know if you
are coming here. Important.

Smith did not dare to explain by telegraph
what the matter was, but he had become con-
vinced that detectives were on his trail and
that he had been followed all the way from
Tacoma to Chicago. He had suddenly de-
cided to give them the slip and temporarily to
break his connection with Crowley until

119

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Crowley should be at a safer place for him to
get in touch with him again. Also he wanted
to 'Svork'' Crowley for some more money,
consequently his reply on June 25th was:

Cannot explain by wire. Would come but finances
don't permit. Can't find wife. Answer.

The latter part of this message was another lie

because he was with his wife at the time, but

it served to excuse his absence and baited the

hook for more money. Crowley promptly bit

and replied:

I wired vou fifty dollars. Come W. U.

Corroborating this message was a service
message of the Western Union operator to
their New York Office at 24 Walker Street:

Send notice to L. J. Smith, 308 East 50 St. Report
delay of transfer payable at Grand Central Terminal.

M. T. A.

This telegram authorized the payment of $50.

At the same time Crowley undertook to
satisfy his German employers and to divert
their minds from their previous disappointment
by promising them some results on the new
venture. He telegraphed Mrs. Cornell on
June 25th:

Tell him I expect S. by Sunday then action.

120

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

The "'him" was Von Brincken and the "S"
was, of course, Smith. The promised "action"
was action in the plot to dynamite the cattle
trains at St. Thomas, Ontario. The next day
Smith was on his way to Detroit, sending a
message on the train to his wife to let her know
he was all right :

Arrived at Toledo O. K.

Smith met Crowley in Detroit the following
day and Crowley immediately telegraphed Mrs.
Cornell further reassuring news for his German
friends :

He arrived and will be in action In day or two. Weather
cool. All O. K. Give all clippings to him let me know
if any word from Hazel and friend. Let him know of S.

This message meant that Smith had arrived
and would dynamite the stockyards in a day
or two, that there was nothing exciting to
report, and everything was going well. The
** action" referred to was the blowing up of the
cattle trains and the St. Clair Tunnel at Port
Huron. The "clippings" were newspaper re-
ports of the explosion on the scow at Tacoma
which he wanted Mrs. Cornell to give to
"him" that is to Von Brincken. "Let him
know of S" meant: "Tell Von Brincken that

121

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Smith IS here." **Let me know if any word
from Hazel and friend," meant that Crowley
had not given up hope that there was a mistake
about the ships having made Vhidivostok in
safety and that he expected still to hear that
Hazel (that is the Hazel Dollar) and ''friend"
(Talthybius)had been destroyed.

The promised '' action" was now, so Crowley
thought, about to be produced. He was going
to take Smith into Canada and cause some
explosions. Consequently he telegraphed Mrs.
Cornell on June 29th:

Night letter follows. Go to Toronto few days. Don't
wire until Friday.

This announced the approaching trip for action.
Crowley's scheme for ''action" was this:
Smith was to carry a suitcase full of dynamite
and buy a ticket to St. Thomas, Ontario.
Crowley was to carry a suitcase very similar
in appearance, containing his travelling things,
and was to buy a through ticket to Buffalo which
would take him over the same route through
Canada that Smith was to travel. This plan
was actually worked out with one exception.
Smith had a perfectly good imagination^ and
a perfectly developed yellow streak in his
courage. He still wanted the $300 monthly
he was making and was determined to con-

122

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

tinue getting it, but he had no relish at all for
the pictures conjured in his mind of what
would happen to him if he were discovered in
Canada with a suitcase full of dynamite. He
showed the dynamite packed in the case to
Crowley. Then he went out into the suburbs
of Detroit, got rid of the dynamite and, from
a night watchman on a brick building in course
of construction, bought a half-dozen bricks with
which he filled the suitcase. This Irishman was
afterward discovered and readily recalled both
Smith and the circumstances, as he had been both
puzzledjand amused at the idea of anybody buying
bricks when he could easily have stolen them.

As they had arranged. Smith boarded the
Michigan Central train at Detroit late Sunday
afternoon on July the 4th, and took a seat in
the day coach. Crowley, who did not walk
with him but followed close behind, took the
seat behind Smith. Each, of course, stowed
his suitcase at his feet. In a few minutes
Smith walked to the front end of the car for a
drink of water, whereupon Crowley stepped out
on the platform at the rear. Smith came back
and took Crowley's seat. Crowley returned
and took Smith's seat. Shortly after, the cus-
toms inspector came through the train with
the conductor. His presence was the reason
for this exchange of seats. As Crowley had a

123

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

through ticket to Buffalo and would not leave
the train, the customs inspector did not open
his suitcase but simply pasted on it the through
ticket label by which it would be identified
by the other customs inspector who would
board the train at Niagara Falls, when the train
was about to reenter the United States at
Buffalo. Hence the suitcase containing the sup-
posed dynamite was not opened, and this was
Crowley's plan. Crowley's own suitcase, now
in the seat with Smith, was, of course, opened
and examined. But it contained nothing but
Crowley's personal belongings. An hour or so
later the stratagem was repeated and Smith and
Crowley resumed their original seats and got
possession of their original baggage. Smith
dropped off the train at St. Thomas at about
eleven o'clock that night and Crowley went on
through to Buffalo.

Smith's nerve was no better this time than
it had been before. In St. Thomas he emptied
the bricks out of his suitcase, bought some
travelling things to replace them, and took the
train on to New York. In the meantime, Crow-
ley had been having his troubles with the
anxious and irritated Germans in San Francisco.
There was an interchange of messages based
on his need for money and on a break in the
chain of communication between him and Bopp.

124

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

Von Brincken had been made very unhappy
by Bopp, as the latter was in a furious rage
over the failure of the earher plot at Tacoma,
and had accused Von Brincken of everything
from embezzlement to treachery and had made
his life so miserable that he was glad of an
excuse to get out of San Francisco. The imme-
diate occasion he made for his leaving was
an opportunity he had to go to Tia Juana,
Mexico, just across the border from California.
As both Crowley and his representative Mrs.
Cornell had been positively forbidden to com-
municate with Bopp, Crowley was at the moment
considerably embarrassed by his inability to
get in touch with headquarters. This explains
the meaning of Mrs. Cornell's message of July
2d, addressed to Crowley at Detroit:

Am trying to find him. Waited to hear from you.

She did manage to reach Von Brincken just
before he left for Mexico late the same day,
again telegraphing Crowley :

He said: If you have plans go ahead with them. State
amount required. Have been looking for results.

Crowley replied the next morning:

Tell him have planned action for within a week. No
doubt able to make showing. Ans.

125

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

His reply, however, was too late. Von Brincken
had gone to Mexico, hence Mrs. Cornell tele-
graphed:

Cannot get in touch with him. Have tried everything.
Wired you last night state amount required. Advise
me.

To this message Crowley replied:

Don't worry. Did he get night letter thirtyth? Go
to Buffalo to-morrow night. Statler. If you find him
wire me. Don't send money until decided.

The following day was the Sunday on which
Crowley and Smith left Detroit together. Smith
dropped off at St. Thomas and Crowley pro-
ceeded to Buffalo. The following evening Crow-
ley again telegraphed Mrs. Cornell from Buffalo:

Nothing from you. Send me long letter to-night.

Her reply was:

Nothing from him since last Wednesday except one

phone telling you state amount. BeHeve he is fighting

for time. Don't commit yourself he has no authority.

Told me he expected to take another position in a month

as the atmosphere was intolerable. I gave up apartment

Saturday morning. Will wire.

Mrs. Cornell had been unable to reach

Von Brincken for the very good reason that he

was out of town. Her quotation of his remark

126

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

that he "expected to take another position
within a month" referred to Von Brincken's
untenable position in the Consulate in San
Francisco, and to his manoeuvres to get himself
transferred to the New York end of the German
spy system with his friend Von Papen, with whom
he had become quite chummy on a recent visit
of Von Papen's to the Pacific Coast.

Two days later, however, Von Brincken had
come back to San Francisco and Mrs. Cornell
had a talk with him. Following this talk she
telegraphed to Crowley, who was now in New
York, stopping at the Wallick Hotel:

Manager informed Bradford that experiences made
were discouraging that outlook of lawsuit was too poor
to justify advances for appeal. He is willing to offer
lawyer contingent fee depending upon success only.
Bradford privately advises see his friend in New York

at once. Will send night letter.

In this message Mrs. Cornell dropped into the
code they had agreed to use before Crowley
left San Francisco. ''Manager" was Bopp, the
head German in San Francisco. "Bradford"
was Von Brincken. The '' lawsuit " was the plot.
The ''lawyer" was Smith. "Bradford's friend
in New York" was Von Papen.

In her promised night letter Mrs. Cornell said:

I asked for a hundred. They refused let him have it.
He was indignant at refusal but decided it would be best

127

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

in the end as it would justify your seeing other party who

had plenty. He hopes to work with you soon. Don't

forget to boost him. He looks to you for help. I have

not selected a home yet.

The latter part of this message urges Crowley
to recommend Von Brincken very strongly to
Von Papen when he sees him in New York
so that Von Papen will be sure to transfer
Von Brincken to the eastern territory so he can
get away from Bopp. The next day Crowley
telegraphed Mrs. Cornell from New York:

Appointment for to-morrow. Outlook not good. Will

wire. Tell him I expect them to settle for all up to time

of return or commencement here.

The appointment, of course, was with Von
Papen, but Crowley was not very happy about
It as he seemed to have been failing right along
to get anywhere, and he had now been so much
criticized from San Francisco that he became
fearful that Bopp would shut down on his
money. Mrs. Cornell now gave up hope of get-
ting action. On July loth she telegraphed him:

Wasting time trying get them through me. Communi-
cate direct. He knows I want him but won*t see me.
Moved 305 A Steiner with Alice few days.

M. W. C.

Crowley in desperation telegraphed for money
from his personal bank account and got back

128

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

a telegraphic order from Mrs. Cornell for $125.
He divided with Smith and then bought a
ticket for San Francisco so that he could deal
direct with Bopp. Following Von :Brincken's
suggestion he told Smith when he left to go
and see Von Papen, and get the rest of his money
from him. Smith went to the German Club,
on Central Park South, and sent up a message
to Von Papen to which he got the curt reply-
that Von Papen did not want to see anybody
from San Francisco. He had not yet been
informed by Von Brincken that Smith was a man
he could use.

Smith was now very angry, and casting all
discretion to the winds, telegraphed openly and
directly to the German Consulate in San Fran-
cisco, addressing the message to Von Shack
on the theory that having exhausted all ap-
proaches to Bopp and Von Brincken he would
go after the one man who still might be reached:

Why dont you answer?

Smith.

Three days later Smith telegraphed to Crow-
ley who, he knew, would now be in San Francisco:

Please advise office that I request immediate reply-
also transportation back to Frisco. I resist (resent)
the treatment I have lately received for my faithful

service. Answer,

L. J. Smith.

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

A few days later, telegraphing from an office
on the Exposition Grounds, in San Francisco,
Crowley sent a message to Smith in New York:

Two hundred to-morrow one hundred Tuesday both

Postal. Come.

Crowley had now managed to restore some
degree of confidence in his work and Smith's,
and had adopted his favourite method of divert-
ing attention from past failures by setting forth
a glowing prospectus of a new scheme. For
a third time the Germans ''bit." In his
eagerness Crowley thereupon sent a rush mes-
sage to Smith:

Come to San Francisco at once.

Smith promptly replied:
Enroute to-night.

He arrived in San Francisco six days later,
telephoned to Crowley at the Gartland Hotel,
and Crowley in turn telephoned to Bopp that
Smith was on hand. That evening Crowley
and Smith got together in Crowley's room and
made out a statement of Smith's expenses.
This statement was a work of art. At Crow-
ley's suggestion Smith carefully ''padded" the
account so that they both made a handsome
profit on that besides their salaries. They met

130

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

Bopp in the Palace Hotel the following morning
and he there paid the amount of the expense
account, ^845, in bills.

Bopp and Crowley told Smith that they
would probably have more work for him to do
and for him to go back East. He left San
Francisco on July 28th, telegraphing when he
started to his wife at Cedarhurst, L. L:

Remain one more week then meet me at Detroit.
Answer at once.

L. Occidental Hotel.

She replied that she would meet him as directed.
Smith went on to Detroit and stopped first
at the Normandie Hotel and then moved out to a
boarding house.

In a couple of weeks Crowley had got fur-
ther orders from Bopp and wrote a letter to
Smith in Detroit, saying that Bopp would give
$500 apiece for blowing up the powder works
outside Gary, Ind., and Ishpeming, Mich.,
besides paying his salary of ^300 a month and
expenses. Before Smith had time to get the
letter he got another telegram from Crowley:

The matter in my letter is off. Write me letter

What had happened was: Bopp had decided
that Smith could get better results by working
in California where he was more familiar with

131

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

the powder plants and where he would be more
closely under his direction and not under Von
Papen's direction. After a discussion with
Crowley, Bopp had agreed to a plan to have
Smith return to California and get a job again
in the California Powder Mills at Pinole, now
owned by the Hercules Powder Company, and
cause an explosion there. Following this agree-
ment Crowley telegraphed Smith on August 30th :

Delay in information you want also in getting Consent
on other matter will know in few days and will advise
you. Will recommend if you can get good title to place
here and the one north you be given an amount. Round
trip transportation be furnished no other expense allowed.

Garrett.

Crowley had used the name of Garrett several
times and often received mail under this name
at his hotel in San Francisco. ' The meat of
this message was: "if you can, get good title to
the one here" and ''the one north." The
"place here" was the California Powder Mills,
and "the one north" was a powder mill of the
/Etna Explosive Company outside Tacoma with
which Smith was familiar as a result of his
trip there at the time of the explosion on the
scow.
On September 7th Crowley telegraphed Smith:

They cannot decide on matter.

132

A TALE TOLD IN TELEGRAMS

Smith waited a week for a decision and then
wired Von Shack again:

I expect immediate and satisfactory answer from you.
Crowley has my letter.

L. J. Smith.

The satisfactory answer did not come. The
Germans in San Francisco had spent all they
were willing to spend without getting any re-
sult. Smith got a job in an automobile fac-
tory in Detroit, and his wife returned to her
vocation as a masseuse in a Turkish bath.
Pretty soon they both began to "see things" —
Mrs. Smith in particular. First she thought
she saw Crowley following her in disguise on
the street one night. Smith began to suspect
also that they were being trailed by detectives
in the employ of the Germans, and finally he
feared both bodily harm and violence, and the
possibility of the American Government hav-
ing gotten wind of some of his activities and
dogging his steps to arrest him. He finally
decided that the safe thing to do was to turn
State's evidence, and hence he wandered into
the office of the United States Attorney and
started various trains of investigation that ulti-
mately sent Bopp, Crowley, Von Brincken, and
Von Shack to two years in prison, and Mrs.
Cornell to one year. Smith and his wife were
given immunity for turning State's evidence.

133

CHAPTER VII

German Codes and Ciphers

SECRECY is, of course, the most important
consideration in the German plots in this
country. When Bernstorff wished to arrange
with Berhn to give Bolo Pasha ten milHon francs
to betray his country, he naturally did not write
out his messages in plain English for every wire-
less station on both sides of the Atlantic to
read them as they went through the air. He
did, to be sure, write the messages in English,
and they looked plain enough — and innocent
enough — but they meant something very dif-
ferent from what they seemed to mean. And
when it got down to the actual transfer of the
money, another German agent in New York
signed the messages, which likewise were not
what they seemed.

Those messages were in code. (They are
reproduced and explained in this chapter.)

Now code should not be confused with cipher.
When some Hindus in New York, subsidized
by Berlin, wished to write their plans to some
other Hindus in San Francisco, concerning their

134

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

common purpose of fomenting revolution against
British rule in India, they wrote out messages
that consisted entirely of groups of Arabic
numerals.

Those messages were in cipher.

To any one but an expert, many code mes-
sages look simple and harmless, and cipher
messages usually look unintelligible and sus-
picious. Yet, oddly enough, the cipher mes-
sages are by far the easier to make out. In-
deed, unless you have a copy of the code, code
messages can almost never be translated, whereas
a straight cipher message can almost invariably
be unraveled by an expert, if you give him
enough time and material. Hence, by people
who know the subject (and nobody had mastered
it so thoroughly as the Germans), codes are
used for secrecy, and ciphers are used simply
as an added precaution and to delay the un-
raveling of a message if, by any chance, the
enemy^has gotten possession of a copy of the code.

German plot messages, therefore, are usually
written out first in plain German, then coded,
and the code then put into cipher. Such messages
are called enciphered code.

For an enemy to get them to make sense,
he has first to decipher them, and then decode
them. Any expert can decipher them — in time.
Decoding them is a very different matter.

135

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Before taking up some of the German code
and cipher messages that have been translated,
with dramatic results, it will be well to discuss
codes and ciphers in general.

A code is an arrangement by which two
people agree, when exchanging messages, always
to substitute certain words or symbols for the
real words of the message. Thus, they might
agree on these substitutions:

a = the
French ship = market
sailed from New York = price
sailed from Boston = quotation
to-day = is
for Marseilles = any even number
for Bordeaux = any number with a fraction

With such a code, a German spy in New York
could cable a seemingly harmless message to a
friend in Holland, such as:

*'The market price is no."

That would mean, of course:

"A French ship sailed from New York to-day for
Marseilles."

Whereas a very slight change in wording:

**The market quotation is iiof."

would mean:

"A French ship sailed from Boston to-day for Bor-
deaux."

136

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

Messages of that sort could be exchanged
daily between a broker in Wall Street and a
broker in Amsterdam, and, by the addition of
a few more words, could be infinitely varied

J, Sr, 307/W

Ue'w York, d^n 10, April I«Ift.

4261 4690 435& 90972 91650 4165 4311 2022 98500 ZiSt
91692 rait <l0r 13C7 C122 8778 0266 8102 7004 7350 3734. 1S9Z
6060 2646 91778 90210. Eb i»Xracehortani»t gobeten, flemgtmKBe zu
Tcrfahren und den Bctrag der Ii-lteBr^chrlchte^Btelle zu bel»8-
ton; '^Bpfonfisbecchelnle^ns llegt em.

8. «. Zt.

den Xaleerlichen Cotschftftor

Hfirrn Crftfen von Borniiorff

Washington* P. C.

Herr^ John Devoy/hat hler . $600 elpcerahlt/mit der Bltta
//x>- i'77/" ^>/r i>it.:jm¥ j^m ajj^ jTjJ- ni>, ^y*^^ ^7/ 7*1/*.

8le telegraphlsch an Sir. Roger Ca««mant zu Uber^elsen. Es »flrd

gehorsamaf cebeten, demgemSaa zn vecfahren uni den Detrng der

g
Srie^sjaachrichtenslelle zu beiasten. Empgwsbesche immune ll.e£t

«ln«

CODE MESSAGE TRANSMITTING MONEY TO SIR ROGER CASEMENT
In English it reads: "Embassy. 307-16, New York, April 10,1916.
Mr, John Devoy has paid in $500 here with the request that they be
transmitted telegraphically to Sir Roger Casement. You are respect-
fully requested to proceed accordingly and to charge the amount to the
Military Information Bureau. Receipt enclosed."

137

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

and would look like perfectly legitimate com-
mercial correspondence. In fact, most inter-
national business before the war (the Govern-
ment now requires that all messages appear
in plain English) was carried on by coded
cables which turned long messages into short
groups of words that of themselves made
gibberish. Several code books for business
use were on the market, containing hundreds
of pages of these arbitrary substitutions, which
were useful, not for secrecy but for economy.
A dozen words could be made to say what
normally would require five hundred words.

Ciphers, however, have almost always been
resorted to when secrecy was desired. This
sounds like a contradiction. But people who
are not experts use them because they think
they are more secret, since they look so. And
experts use them when they are concerned
only with temporary secrecy. They use them,
then, because cipher messages can be written
and translated (by one's correspondent) with-
out any equipment, like a code book, and much
more rapidly than code. Thus, if a general
in the field wishes to send a message ordering
a colonel to advance in two hours, he sends it
in cipher, because it would take the enemy more
than two hours to decipher the message even if
he intercepted it immediately, and because after

138

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

the two hours have elapsed the information in
the message would be of no value to him.

A cipher is the substitution of some symbol
for a letter of the alphabet. The substituted
symbol may be another letter — as writing e
when you mean a. Or it may be a figure —
as using 42 when you mean m. Or it may be
an arbitrary sign — as * to mean c. In cipher,
then, every word is spelled out, but the word
Washington might be spelled x = II | .M a : ° B
if you had agreed that

w=x n=! '

a== g=A

s= II t=:

h=J 0=°

i=? n = B

That is called a substitution cipher, because
some other letter or symbol is arbitrarily sub-
stituted for every letter.

But another kind is called a transposition
cipher, because in this the letters of the alphabet
are simply transposed by agreement — the
simplest and most obvious example being to
reverse the alphabet, so that z stands for a
and 3; for b, etc. Such a transposition cipher
would read :

Alphabet of plain text abcdefghljklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Alphabet of cipher zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba

139

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

•TTins** lhr«« •<•• •! oiMa*— An* for safo ^Trlttl, •DOthor f»T
th» rooKlMilty af 4sXiy •n^l tho thlM to "daiMt* Ihit Ma«tlln< bad
fon« vTonc. so, aa ws have rAol««i nan* 1% siust ■••n th«t tho party

1b unlor raatraloV— prooably Uald In LlT«rpoel for eziminatlan»

Unleaa thay ooulA (ot tho k«T of the olphar. It la unlUalj ttit

•*«D an axpart ooul-l loolphnr tho otoaaage for a oonalOarabl* tlaa,

t»t our frionda aro xinawaro of th* oontanta •t the saesa^e.- ttatf

will probably jot tho Oupllotto tr Aprli «, an tho noeaongor wha

toot It baa no»ar toon aoapeotol and la net a paaeangor . Ro la

nover eearohed or (jueetlonod. He vlll oahfc-on arrival.

Another Boesoncer will alart noxt siturday and will ^atl« on/
arrival,

so far, the ohlef dlfflouity lo tho failure to get the jrra-
Tiealtlon to our frlenla. In oaao the enesiy hae learned or aoa-
pooto the jTo^oot wo Phall probably hawe ntsaa evldonae In tlna
to >«end warning to your peopla, but it la well to let thes )UM«
that this hltoh haa oaourrod.

h:;^ A^

A letter from John Devoy, an Irish-American, exposing his hand in a
plot with the Germans to foment revolution in Ireland

and Washington would be spelled dzhsrmtglm.

Perhaps the cleverest transposition cipher
ever devised — It is so good that the British
Army uses it in the field and, moreover, has
published text books about it — is the very
simple "Playfair" cipher. First a square is
drawn, divided into fifths each way. This
arrangement gives twenty-five spaces, to con-
tain the letters of the alphabet — / and / being

140

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

put in one square because there would never
be any plain sentence in which it would not be
quite obvious which one of them is needed to
complete a word of which the other letters are
known.

Next a "key word" is chosen — and herein
lie the cleverness and the simplicity of this
cipher, because every time the key word is
changed, the whole pattern
of the alphabet is changed.
Suppose the key word - is
Gardenia. It is now spelled
out in the squares:

The second A is left out,
as there must not, of course,
be duplicates on the key-
board. Now the rest of the alphabet is written
into the squares in their reg-
ular sequence:

That is the complete key-
board. The method for us-
ing it is this :

The message is written
out in plain text; for exam-
ple:

DESTROY BRIDGE AT ONCE

(Only capital letters are commonly used in
cipher work.) This message is now divided

141

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

into groups of two letters, in the same order, so
that it reads:

DE ST RO YB RI DG EA TO NC EX

(The X is added to complete the group and is
called a null.) These groups of twos are now
ciphered from the keyboard into other groups
of twos, by the following method :

Where two joined letters of the original mes-
sage appear in the same horizontal row on the
keyboard, the next letter to the right is sub-
stituted for each. Thus, the first two letters
of our message are DE. They occur in the
same horizontal row on our keyboard. Con-
sequently, for D we write E, and for E we go
*'on around the world" to the right, or back
to the other end of the row, and write G for
E. This gives us DE enciphered as EG.

Where two joined letters of the original
message appear in the same vertical row on the
keyboard, the next letter below is substituted
for each.

Where two joined letters of the original
message appear neither in the same horizontal
nor the same vertical row on the keyboard,
we imagine a rectangle with the two letters
at the opposite corners, and in each case sub-
stitute the letter found on the keyboard at
the other corner of the same horizontal row.

142

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

This looks complicated, but in reality is very
simple. For example, take the third two-
letter group of our message — RO. The rec-
tangle in this case is

RDE
BCF
LMO

and for R we substitute E, and for O we sub-
stitute L.

Substituting our whole message by this system,
it reads :

Original DE ST RO YB RI DG EA TO NO EX
Cipher EG TU EL XC AB EA GR UM IF RZ

As telegraph operators are accustomed to
send these gibberish messages in groups of
five letters (so that they can check errors,
knowing that when only four appear in a group,
for example, something has been left out) these
enciphered groups of twos are now combined
into groups of fives, so that the finished cipher
reads :

EGTUE LXCAB EAGRU MIFRZ

The foregoing looks extremely compli-
cated, but the truth is that anybody, after half
an hour's practice, can put a message into this
kind of cipher ("Playfair" cipher) almost as
fast as he can print the straight English of it in
capital letters. And unless the person who reads

143

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

it knows the key word which determined the
pattern on his keyboard, he would have to be an
expert to decipher it, and even he could do it
only after a good deal of work.

Another ingenious cipher is called the "Chess
Board." First, a sheet of paper is ruled into
squares exactly like a chess board — that is, a
square divided into eighths each way. This
arrangement gives, of course, sixty-four small
squares. Then, by agreement between the
people who intend to use this cipher, sixteen of
these squares are agreed upon and are cut out
of the sheet with a knife. Suppose, for example,
this pattern is chosen :

and the squares showing
in white are cut out.

Next, another sheet of
paper is ruled into a
chess board, of exactly
the same size as the first.
The perforated sheet is
now laid on top of the
second sheet, so that the
squares on the one exactly cover the squares
on the other. Now, with a pen or pencil,
the plain text of the secret message is printed
on the under sheet by writing through the
perforations of the upper sheet, only one letter
being written in each square. This, of course,

144

nanan

nnHnaniin

nnDHD

■

■DHDD

■D

naDHcnnn

■nnnnnnB

iBBBSB^

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

permits the writing of sixteen letters of the mes-
sage.

Suppose the complete message is to be:

"Authorize payment ten million dollars to

buy copper for shipment to Germany." Then

the lower sheet, after we have written through

the perforations, will look like this :

The perforated sheet
is now turned to the right
through one fourth of a
complete revolution, so
that the top of it is at
the right side of the lower
sheet and so that the two
chess boards again
"match up." This op-
eration exposes, through the perforations, a new
set of sixteen open squares on the lower sheet.
The writing of the message is continued, and the
lower sheet now looks like this (left) :

•-H

145

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Again the perforated sheet is turned to the right,
and sixteen more letters are written. Once
more, and the whole sixty-four squares are uti-
lized, lookinglike the last cut on the previous page.
These letters are now put upright, like this.

They are now read
from left to right and
from the first line down,
like ordinary reading
matter. They are then
grouped into fives for
telegraphic transmis-
sion, and an X added at
the end to make an even
five-group there. Thus the message, as trans-
mitted, reads:

SADUL RRYAL TOHOF TRLNO IRNEI
MZNPI EEIPE PGOMC APYTU LAYHM
EBOOM NRNOT TESTX

When this message Is received, it can, of course,
be quickly deciphered by printing it out on a
chess board and placing over it a sheet perfo-
rated according to the prearranged pattern.

This survey of codes and ciphers does not more
than scratch the surface of the subject, nor more
than suggest the almost infinite variations that
are possible — in ciphers especially. It simply
gives a groundwork for an understanding of the
German secret messages now to be described.

146

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

JSTSGXC^

CX\> V o <..v"(-«

^i;^,)CiH )v.m£ Ml(\B.E\^VRA ^i^

"^oj^

K. u

2:.\V^l ft^lT.I

EXTRACTS FROM A GERMAN CODE EXPERT'S BLOTTER

Showing the use of capital letters in the actual work of enciphering a

message, and the combined use of cipher and code

Among the most interesting of these secret
messages is the series of wireless telegrams
by means of which the German money was paid
to Bolo Pasha for the purchase of the Paris
Journal — one of the principal episodes in the
treasonable intrigue for which Bolo was recently
executed by a French firing squad. These
messages were in English, and meant exactly
what they said, except for the proper names and
the figures, which were code. To decode them,
it was necessary only to make the following
substitutions :
William Foxley = Foreign Office
Charles Gledhill = Count BernstorfF
Fred Hooven = Guaranty Trust Company (New York)
$500=^500,000

147

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

and to all other figures add three ciphers to
arrive at the real amount. For example, one
of these messages read: **Paid Charles Gledhill
five hundred dollars through Fred Hooven."
This meant: '*Paid Count Bernstorfif five hun-
dred thousand dollars through Guaranty Trust
Company."

— ^*^ vi^>^^ ^

*«••- /f'C

BOLO'S HANDWRITING
A letter written in New York to his bankers in transactions for the pur-
chase of the Paris Journal^ with German money, the crime for which he
was shot

148

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

The story of these messages is briefly this:
Marie Paul Bolo started Hfe as a barber, became
an adventurer and, in the service of the Khedive
of Egypt, received the title of Pasha for a finan-
cial service which he rendered him. Returning
to France as Bolo Pasha, he married two wealthy
women and lived in grand style on their money.
He became an intimate of Charles Humbert,
another adventurer, who achieved political
power by questionable methods and became a
member of the French Senate. In the mean-
time, the Khedive had been deposed by the
British on account of his pro-Turkish (and hence
pro-German) activities after the Great War be-
gan. Abbas Hilmi joined the colony of ex-
rulers in Switzerland, and there became a part
of the German system of intrigue. He received
money from the Germans and, after he had de-
ducted his "squeeze" (which sometimes amount-
ed to half the total), he paid over the rest to
Bolo, to be used by Bolo, Humbert, and ex-
Premier Caillaux in an effort to restore Caillaux
to power and then to further the propaganda
for an early and hence inconclusive peace.

Either this method of supplying the French
traitors with funds became too dangerous, or the
Germans preferred to keep their gold and wished
to use their credit in the United States to get
American gold for this purpose. In any event,

149

■ THELES3 ^jIA'SAYTIUa.'
DsuUch* B«nk DUeV;tlon «v«rlln

CWttUnlc«t« wlti. «Ull^i- -tAV'J and t«l»e'"»{*»
^.ftlh^r ho has rlr.Md aioney «t o; (lU|po«lC.^itt> fny» fo^

*^^ Chmrge ; John H.'llcClenBnt

Ikrch 6th, 1916.

Wlrelea* Ton b«\it«ch» Q*nk, B«rlln,

ing«k<ianon 4 tn IS. U«ert^916,
Raplylng jQur cable about %wli' fro i U\ ti^^toJ^"! yw t u ■ 1 U
fec«lT» monay for our account you nay Jiipo^ according 3jr
letters Iloryaabcr twntyfoorth 19\\ to'^5<4***^A«*4^<i

TfTRSLESS TiA. SAniLLS.

reeelved^id Slitti lOV Qluaiijll
lEWricii-'iwjiuu .aiwaifin rejClrea

Ceutscha Sank Cirelctlon Berlin
.Your wlreiesi received
flveh-andrad"/lollar» throu|
furthsr eleven hundred do ll«ra which eh411-;pay grftdwU^

a*»«»SL<Jobji R, JJtoMeiabnt
'-(arch 15th, 1916.

Wireless von Oevt«ch« BaNt». Berlin

You nay disperse or]
sevonteenthousand DoilkZe

»rtiden 17."Miert 1918

angeJc<nra>rt , den 17 .'1*«er J
on OehftU^-

A TALE TOLD IN CABLEGRAMS
Code messages in the Bolo Pasha case, explained in the accompanying

pages

15°

Deutsche fanlc Dlrelctlon
. Berlin

further: twohunUrgd Dollara
^ Huga Schroidtr
March 13,- .1916

y3^

glHELESS VIA SAYVriLE.
Deutsche iffank nireTrtion Berlin

Palc^ .jwiiiiLj oiUUPUil 'further threehupdred-

Qhargef- -John-B,-.Ui>CIoineoi.
Uarch 26th, 191S.

■Rireless Tie, Sayville

V Deutsche Bank Dii-efctlon A»

' Berlin «-*•/ "^

rmflni I — ; -~" -"■-'■' ->■-'' T ji..-.^* .»;,j ^' ' ' " j

i±- ItfSf a-lw.illl -furtheg two!>unrlred dollars

JD/T^^ St^^CJj^ -?•" <"»<» Hu£S Schnidfc-

^ Ibrch 24, 1916

WIRELESS- VIA SAYVILLE.

Dettt»Ch9 Bank Direkt lot. Bsrlitt „^_

ahalf dollars as final payment stop ^^11 jiliui' iffnifif f>yiii—<
<i»e *»i'iO prinow ««»» imn inpinnnr

Rugo-SchoidV

•Char'e: 'John H. MoClement-

April 1st, 1916.

iSi

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Bolo Pasha appeared in New York early in
March, 1916. Strangely enough, this French
citizen bore letters of introduction to several
Germans. The most important was addressed
to Adolf Pavenstedt, who was senior partner in
G. Amsinck & Company and for many years a
chief paymaster of the German spy system in
this country. Through Pavenstedt, Bolo met
Hugo Schmidt, a director of the Deutsche Bank
of Berlin, a government institution, who had
been sent to this country soon after the war
broke out to provide complete cooperation be-
tween the older representatives of the Deutsche
Bank here and the management in Berlin.

Through Pavenstedt, as messenger, Bolo also
got in touch with Bernstorff, and arranged the
details of the plan by which Bolo was to receive
10 million francs from the German Government.
He was to use this money to buy the Paris Jour-
nal, which would then be edited by Senator
Humbert, who agreed to change its editorial
policy to favour an immediate peace. As the
Journal is one of the most powerful dailies in
France, with a circulation among more than a
million and a half readers, the sinister possibili-
ties of this scheme are readily seen.

Bernstorff committed the financial details to
Hugo Schmidt. He, in turn, asked Berlin by
wireless for suitable credits in American bank-

i;2

MR. A. BRUCE BIELASKl
Who, as Chief of the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice,
organized and managed the Government agents who unraveled the German
plots and captured the plotters

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

ing houses. These were arranged with the
Guaranty Trust Company and the National
Park Bank — for many years American corres-
pondents of the Deutsche Bank. The amounts
were then credited to G. Amsinck & Company,
of which Pavenstedt had long been senior part-
ner. He, in turn, placed them, with the New
York branch of the Royal Bank of Canada, to
the account of Bolo Pasha. As the exchange
rate at the time ran in favour of American dol-
lars and against French francs, the lo million
francs (normally equal to about 2 million dol-
lars) which Bolo got, required only $1,683,500
of American money — which is just the sum of
the amounts named in the wireless messages.

The Journal was actually bought by Bolo and
Humbert, but before they could do much damage
with it, they were arrested, and Bolo has already
been executed.

The Hindus in this country, who were plot-
ting with the Germans the revolution that
should destroy the British rule in India, used
two systems for their secret messages. The
first was this substitution cipher :

2345

6 7

I A

B C D E

F G

2 H

I J K L

M N

P Q R S

T U

W X Y Z

153

J. Mr, 356 Ae

Bui'York, dan 17« April 1916,

729C 1708 4098 5279 2810 m 90U6 fol£enil«r B«in«i>kuaeMt
"72f>4 4507 94076 4769 nur 2466 6061, wnn 90967 93256
0619 W.bi, Antemfalls 46£i 93437 liSBtan(>«, 8122 9177S
«0404, Venn ouch «rat C121 41&5 2£13 47(2. Dashalb 4621
4410 £3C7. 1975 BollU beat«hen cunMcrsi 4607 560S 0311
2513 4507 03437 9G309 S215 0311 3925 593* 94077 7284,
1777 w»nn irft rd niis^lich 1-294 90C26 911S0 6071 4507
•4076, tvw.tueli 2*0C 2637 t471 90987 5608. 1974 wOrd*
7706 ,:9d826 04077 4105 3000 93437 5995 6«3«, BOwl* 0334
6384 3433 90086 14-14 02C5 94077 o225, 0128 01809 6804
61. 1 93437, 2C«4 l?iOC 7204 ;cAnn dah«r 1863 61«1 2688,*
2637 bittet In dlasem Sinn* 6778 C121 92664 01778 llll*

6132 6167 0250*

An 5e. Excellr.n*

den KaJoerlle en 8olBC. after

H»rrp G. ai^.n von Bcr#»tonrf

««fihlneton," 0» .C.

THE COHALAN-IRISH REVOLUTION MESSAGE
Above is the code message from Von Papen's office in New York
to BernstorfF, transmitting a message from Justice Cohalan, of the
Supreme Court of New York, advising the Germans upon the best
means to make Sir Roger Casement's revolution in Ireland a success.
On page 155 is the message written out and coded for transmission. In
English it reads as follows: "No. 335 — 16 very secret New York, April
17, 1916. Judge Cohalan requests the transmission the following
remarks: 'The Revolution in Ireland can only be successful if sup-
ported from Germany. Otherwise, England will be able to suppress
it, even though it be only .after hard struggles. Therefore, help is

154

Rlohtor Cohalai^/ersucht ti
. >>.*/ yr/7 ?yojt ^jl^
It«TOlntloa In Irland Icaiui our erfolgrelob ^eln, «enn «4» Von'

nebermlttlnog folgender Bemarlot&ngen:

-UC 303/ fiffy

' Deataonland aus tmterstatzt

'•'7

, Andemfalls l^Englund instande,

//>»- I'ljf ■}'•/> V i,i.t f/SJ- i-T/j '/jii^

sl« sa untordraoken^ vonn aueh erst nach harten E&apren. . Deahalb

let Bllf» notvendlg. Dleee a611t» bestehen soafichst In Luftangrlff en
Vr«7 joyi-} fitif o^.r ojn ^f>j- -^j^ Jvtyy ;>^v^

la Bnglaad "oxA PlottendlTarsloa glelchzaitlg Bit Iriscber Revolution

Dann wenn. Irgend «3gllch Landung Truppen sat WaTfen Itaaltlon In

Zrlasdf erentuell elnlger Offlzler von Zeppelins. Dies wOrde
yji^ i»j>t, ?y'77.' v/or' -^it^ fjfi7 •^'ff'^ ^^J^
'-(Schlleseung Irlaoher HSfea gegen l^ngland nagllchnachen, covjle
oiAV *3t^ -3^)* <?e»^i /•'i^i/ «iir ^yi>77 •^♦S'f «'»■»-

AailagA Stationen fOr Tauchbota an Irl sober KOst^, Absobntt^aqg

2ufQhr HshniQgsmittal naeh England, <

Sr 1>itt«« la dias^ .SliiM7^eh. Berlin sa berloht«B«

^'grt9lgCev RBTOlutipn kann daher den Krie^ entscheldea.

e,i7 a-"^

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 success of the revolution may therefore
decide the war.' He asks that a telegram to this effect be sent to Berlin.
5132 8167 0230 To His Excellency Count von Bernstorffy Imperial Ambas'
sadofy Washington, D. C."

155

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

The message, "Leave San Francisco" would be
written, in this cipher, as follows:

25 15 II 41 15 35 II 27 16 34 II 27 13 22 35 13 31

by giving each letter of the message the number
to the, left of it, combined with the number above
it.

The other system used by the Hindus was a
book code. They agreed upon a small English
dictionary of a certain edition, and wrote from
it messages that were also groups of numbers,
after this fashion: 625-2-1 1 27-1-36 45-2-20
and so on. The first figure in each group was
the number of the page on which the word would
be found, the second figure gave the column,
and the third figure was the number of the word
in the column, counting from the top of the
page.

But perhaps the most dramatic of all the
intercepted messages (except the Luxburg and
Zimmerman notes, of which the story cannot
yet be told) were those which revealed the part
played by well-known Irish-American leaders
in the ill-fated Casement revolution in Ireland.
The story of the Casement expedition is too
familiar to need to be retold. And comment
upon the political morals of Justice Cohalan
and John Devoy becomes superfluous in the
light of these messages. American citizens

156

GERMAN CODES AND CIPHERS

(one of them signally honoured with public
office in New York), both held their Irish blood
superior, in their duty of loyalty, to the United
States, using their citizenship as a cloak under
which to strike at Great Britain, which has been
for a quarter century the chief bulwark of this
country against Germany's plan to conquer us
and to impose upon our country the most hateful
tyranny in the history of the world.

157

CHAPTER VIII

The Tiger of Berlin' Meets the Wolf
OF Wall Street

FRANZ VON RINTELEN was the German
tiger who missed his spring. He was the
most powerful, the most dangerous, agent of the
Kaiser in the United States : and to-day he nurses
his hatred of us behind prison bars. But He
did not retire to confinement until after our
Government completed an extremely difficult
and tedious investigation that was made nec-
essary by his care in concealing the insidious
work of propaganda and destruction in which
he had engaged.

Rintelen was a tiger in the implacable hatred
he bore this country and in the ferocity with
which he carried that hatred into action. Sent
to America in 191 5 to hinder the shipment of
munitions to the Allies, he sought first to poison
the press, then to corrupt labour, and, not con-
tent with these things, he finally tried to hire
thugs to burn, to dynamite, and to assassinate,
where other persuasions failed; and he did suc-
ceed in setting fire to thirty-six ships at sea,

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THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

causing millions of dollars of loss, and imperil-
ing hundreds of human lives.

Rintelen had, however, the other side of the

tiger's character — its graces. When the

made port at New York on April 3, 1915, it
bore as passenger one Emil Gasche, a Swiss.
The moment Gasche passed the customs officers
Gasche ceased to exist, and in his place appeared
handsome young Von Rintelen, unexpectedly
arrived in America for his fourth visit and re-
newing pleasant acquaintanceships in society and
in Wall Street. He was "the same old chap,"
to quote his own description of himself in one
of his letters — rich, of a family long accustomed
to riches; well-bred, of a family long proud of
its aristocratic connection with the Imperial
Court at Berlin' (his father had long been the
equivalent of our Secretary of the Treasury);
young, the youngest of the chief bankers of
Germany; handsome, with the good looks that
come of regular features and of a slender frame
hardened by athletics and made distinguished
by the bearing of an officer; a sportsman, who
raced his yacht in the Emperor's regattas at Kiel
— an affable, cultivated, witty, accomplished
man of the world. No wonder he had been
popular on his former visits. On one of them
he had opened in New York a branch of the
Deutsche Bank, one of the greatest of the gov-

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

ernment-controlled banks of Germany, and on
another he had widened these financial relation-
ships with Wall Street. He had travelled the
country over and knew people everywhere; and
he knew about hundreds more, even to their
private affairs in money and politics and those
intimate weaknesses that pass into the gossip of
the smoking-room. He spoke the language with
only the slightest accent but in its purest form,
and was adept in our peculiar kind of humour —
altogether, a fine and likable fellow, who liked us.

Until the war. And until the Germans, stung
by the lost illusions of a quick and glorious vic-
tory, facing the gray outlook of a long and bitter
struggle, looking about for some one to blame for
their plight, and wearied of "strafeing" Eng-
land, found a new narcotic in a hatred of Amer-
ica. America, that made the cartridges and
shells that patched up the unpreparedness of
France and Britain and Russia, which Germany
had calculated as one of the factors in the equa-
tion of victory. America, that — as their rising
rage made their voices shriller — "is murdering
our sons and brothers on every battlefield from
Switzerland to the sea for the sake of blood-
bought gold."

This cry became an article of fanatical faith
to the German people. It became likewise
a very practical problem to the hard-headed

1 60

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

leaders in Berlin. If they could cut off this
supply of munitions, the Allies could be beaten.
There was no hope of cutting it off at sea — the
British Navy would attend to that. It must
be stopped at its source: stopped in America,
by a made-to-order public opinion, or by cor-
ruption, or by violence — but stopped.

"Whom shall we send to America?" was
their problem. Rintelen was chosen. He could
be trusted — he was a director of the Deutsche
Bank, he knew America. He was given credit
at the Hamburg-American Line office in New
York for $547,000, authority for as many millions
more as he wanted, independent powers as
great as the German Ambassador's at Wash-
ington, the instructions of the German Govern-
ment, and the blessing of the Fatherland.

An American traitor in Berlin gave Rintelen
his cue for operations in America. This man's
name is known, and will one day be written
alongside Benedict Arnold's, but to disclose
it now would interfere with more practical
efforts for his mortal punishment. Part of
that punishment he is already enduring — he is
still in Germany. This traitor told Rintelen
that the most useful man in America for his
purpose was David Lamar, of New York.
Rintelen fixed that name in his memory, and
left Berlin.

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

His first barrier was the old, old barrier to
German conquest, the British blockade. Rin-
telen ran that under cover of the Swiss pass-
port, under the name of Gasche.

Arrived in New York on April 3d, Rintelen
lost no time in getting acquainted with Lamar.
He disclosed to him his mission to this country
and the money he had to execute it. The
Tiger of Berlin met the Wolf of Wall Street.
• And how the Wolf's eyes must have glistened,
for he was at the leanest of the hungry days
which regularly followed seasons of opulence
in the ups and downs which varied the career
of this extraordinary man. For Lamar was,
and is, an extraordinary man. Endowed by
nature with a fascinating personality and with
a brilliant mind, which he had enriched by study,
a man capable of great things, he was possessed
by that strange perversity which often afflicts
men of exceptional cleverness — he would rather
make one dollar by adroit crookedness than a
million by unexciting honesty. Perhaps his
origin affected his character — he declined, on
the witness stand, to give his true name and
parentage on the ground that to do so would
bring disgrace upon persons still living. He
entered Wall Street as a young man from
nowhere, and at first gave promise of a brilliant
and honourable career. He early made his mark

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THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

in finance. He was employed by J. P. Morgan
& Company and other great banking concerns,
and in those days of his legitimate activities
amassed a large fortune. But this was dis-
sipated in gambling on the stock market, and
then Lamar gravitated to the gutter. For
years it was a by-word on the Street that if
you wanted a clever man to do a crooked job,
David Lamar was the man you were looking
for. He had the brains to do it right, he had the
presence to ''get away with it," and he would
do anything for money.

These traits had got him into trouble shortly
before Rintelen met him. When the Pujo Com-
mittee of Congress was investigating the ''money
trust" several years ago, some crooked brokers
in Wall Street wanted some inside information
that was going to affect the price of certain
stocks in which they were interested. They
could not get this information by legitimate
means, and so they adopted Lamarian means.
Lamar knew that a member of Congress was
entitled to ask for this information. Mr. Mit-
chell Palmer was a Member of Congress. Lamar
had one of his devious inspirations. He called
up a banker's office, got the man there who
knew what Lamar wanted to know, declared
that he was Mr. Palmer, and demanded the
information — and got it. Lamar repeated the

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

exploit several times. But once too often. He
was detected, arrested and tried, convicted,
and on December 3, 1914, was sentenced to
two years' imprisonment for the crime of imper-
sonating an officer of the Governmer.t. He
appealed the case on the ground that a Repre-
sentative in Congress was not "an officer of
the Government." When Rintelen met him
the following April, Lamar was out on bail
pending the decision on this appeal.

Lamar was then in desperate straits. Bad
luck had followed him in the Street for two
years, and had crowned his misfortunes with
this expensive trial and threatened imprison-
ment. He owed money everywhere for personal
expenses; the merchants with whom he traded
had stopped his credit; he had descended to
borrowing from his friends in sums as small as
two dollars at a time. Then he met Rintelen,
who was on fire with a passion that blinded him
to consequences and who flourished before the
eyes of the famished Wolf a half million dollars
of real money. Here was manna fallen from
heaven.

''Could Lamar help Rintelen!" With his
most convincing eloquence, Lamar assured him
that he could. Never had Rintelen been better
advised, so Lamar declared to him, than when
his friend in Berlin had given him his name^

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THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

For he had friends in Washington, he whispered,
men powerful in the Government. And friends
among the labouring people, the men whose
hands made those munitions Rintelen had come
to stop, and whose hands might be paralyzed
by the clever use of brains and money. Lamar
would supply the brains: Rintelen would sup-
ply the money. The Wolf saw good hunting
ahead.

Lamar laid before Rintelen a scheme. They
would capitalize the American passion for peace:
they would capitalize in particular the labouring
man's aversion to war. A section of opinion
among labouring men held that wars were
instigated by capitalists for gain, and were fought
by labouring men who gave their lives to make
good the selfish ambitions of the rich. And one
of the American people's deepest convictions
was that war was an odious moral crime; and
that universal peace was attainable by the pur-
suit of moral ideals.

Lamar declared, then, that by working
through his friends in labour, he could organize
the workers of America so that they would re-
fuse Jo work on the implements of destruction
of "capitalistic" war. And that, by working
through his friends in the Government, he
could create a national sentiment that would
force Congress to place an embargo on muni-

165

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

tions. But these things would cost money.
Lamar never forgot money.

Now we see a sudden transformation in Lamar's
circumstances. The frayed debtor appeared
in his old haunts garbed in the most fastid-
ious selections of the tailor; the accumulated
debts of years were paid; the subway and the
street car gave way to automobiles — and Lamar
was particular that the garage should supply
only the fine car that was father to the Liberty
motor. He moved his family from a cheap
apartment in New York to a fine house at Pitts-
field, Mass. His own quarters were the hotels
Astor and Belmont in New York, the Willard in
Washington, the La Salle in Chicago, the Clay-
pool in Indianapolis. Things were looking up.

Lamar carried other men with him on his
rising tide of fortune. Frank Buchanan, labour
Representative in Congress from the Seventh
District of Illinois (North Chicago), likewise
became a traveller and the patron of exclusive
Tiotels. Henry B. Martin, who eked out a
precarious living in the lobbies of Congress,
after a dubious career as an officer of the Knights
of Labour in the 'nineties, framed his wizened
jfigure in a new and luxurious setting. H.
Robert Fowler, the splendid high light of whose
gray life as a half-lawyer, half-farmer, in a
country town in Illinois, was expiring in the last

i66

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

days of a term in Congress, was suddenly re-
vived, before his final extinguishment, by the
Hght glittering from anonymous gold. Herman
J. Schulteis, whose talents, insufficient for suc-
cess in the law, had been more profitably em-
ployed in the defunct Anti-Trust League (of
which more later), rose rapidly in the monetary
scale.

These men were the instruments Lamar used
in his scheme to stop the munitions industry and
to get Rintelen's money. That scheme was to
build up a great political organization of labour-
ing men and farmers. This organization would
oppose the making and shipment of munitions;
it would exert pressure to compel workers to
abandon the factories, and it would exert pres-
sure to compel Congress to declare an embargo
on the shipment of arms. This organization was
labelled "Labour's National Peace Council."

Lamar, fortified with Rintelen's money,
launched his scheme in Washington. This scheme
was an inspiration of genius. Able lawyers
have declared that no cleverer conspiracy has
ever come to their attention. Its beauty was
its simplicity. Rintelen dealt with no one but
Lamar — the other leaders never saw him, and
most of them never heard of him until after the
scheme was exposed by the Government. In
his turn, Lamar operated entirely through

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Martin. To Martin he gave his instructions to
see labour leaders, to organize the fake Peace
Council, to hold its camouflage *' convention,"
to flood the country with lecturers and printed
matter urging an embargo on munitions. And
through Martin he paid the bills.

Lamar and Martin were old associates.
They had worked together in the Anti-Trust
League, another of the creations of Lamar's
restless mind. The Anti-Trust League origi-
nated in the feverish 'nineties, when the country
had its fears that the growth of great corpora-
tions spelled the control of the Government by
monopolies. The League had its days of promi-
nence when it was financed by big interests
that used it to fight other big interests to get the
things they both wanted. But in 191 5 the
League was a skeleton, consisting of Lamar,
Martin, Schulteis, and a few others, held to-
gether by the bond of small salaries drawn
from some source that preferred to remain un-
known.

When Martin undertook to organize Labour's
National Peace Council, under the direction
of Lamar, the first man he approached was
Frank Buchanan. Buchanan was labour's lead-
ing champion on the floor of Congress. He
had been president of the international union
of the structural iron workers, and he had earned

168

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

the confidence of organized labour, and the
friendship of Samuel Gompers, the patriarch of
organized labour.

Lamar, Buchanan, and Martin, assisted by-
Fowler and Schulteis, engineered a mass meeting
of workingmen in Chicago in June, 191 5, at
which resolutions were adopted calling for a
convention of labourers and farmers at Washing-
ton to protest against the traffic in munitions.
The same men, with this *' mandate" behind
them, met in Washington on June zzd, and or-
ganized Labour's National Peace Council. They
prepared printed appeals, in the high language
of humanitarianism, addressed to the labour
unions and the granges, and mailed them by the
ton to all parts of the country. They offered
to pay all travelling expenses and for lost time
to delegates which these bodies should send to a
convention to be held in Washington on July
31st and August ist.

As a preliminary to this convention, Martin
paid labour leaders and other speakers to go
into all sections of the United States and ad-
dress labour unions and granges. Probably
all these speakers acted in good faith. They
were pacifists, and when they got an oppor-
tunity to preach their doctrine, they accepted
it. The opportunity seemed legitimate enough
— the name of Frank Buchanan as a sponsor

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

of the movement was sufficient. Their audi-
ences, too, were sincere. Workmen and farm-
ers had before their eyes the contrast of their
own peaceful land with a Europe drenched in
blood. The blessings of peace were never more
apparent. They sent delegates gladly to a
meeting that seemed designed to perpetuate
those blessings.

But Samuel Gompers opposed the conven-
tion of Labour's National Peace Council. He,
too, was a pacifist — had for years taken a leading
part in the movement for international peace.
But Gompers was a thoughtful man as well.
And experienced. And wise. He told Bu-
chanan some things Buchanan should have told
himself. Buchanan came from Chicago to At-
lantic City to meet Mr. Gompers and upbraid
him for his opposition to the Council. Mr. Gom-
pers gave him some fatherly advice. In effect,
he said:

'* Frank, you have earned a good name in
labour. We are proud of you, and we trust
you. You are at life's meridian, with years of
useful service ahead. But listen to an old man,
who sees the shadows growing very long, and
who has watched many movements come and
go. You are in wrong. This scheme is bad.
There is too much easy money being passed
around in it. Labour hasn't got money to spend

170

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

like this. Somebody who has not labour's inter-
ests at heart is putting up that money.

*'And take the Council's aims themselves.
Suppose you succeed in stopping the manu-
facture of munitions — what will happen to
labour? Two years ago, our boys were walking
the streets, begging for a job. To-day, every
man of them has work, and wages are going up.
War work has done that. Do you want to stop
the opportunity of labour to make a living?"

But Gompers's eloquence left Buchanan cold.
In the face of his pleadings and advice, Bu-
chanan accepted ^2,700 from Martin in the
following six weeks. He saved his face at the
last minute by resigning the presidency of
Labour's National Peace Council the day before
the convention met.

The convention met in Washington on July
31st, at the New Willard Hotel. Its members
were impressed, as it was intended that they
and the country in general should be impressed,
by the sonorous voice and important presence
of Hannis Taylor, former American Minister
to Spain and author of text books on consti-
tutional and international law, such as *'The
Origin and Growth of the English Constitution"
and "International Public Law." He made an
opening address in which, from his heights of
knowledge, he solemnly declared that munitions

171

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

shipments were in violation of international
law. His address was largely devoted to assur-
ances to his hearers that he was an authority
on such matters and that they could take his
opinion as disposing of the legal aspect of this
question. Mr. Taylor was there to lend dis-
tinction to the gathering, and he left no doubts
in their minds that he thought he was doing it.

But when the delegates got down to business,
there was trouble. The farmer delegates became
suspicious — they had vague fears of the source
of the money that was paying the bills; they
did not like the company they found themselves
in. They first declined to bind their constitu-
ents to the resolutions that were offered: then
they left the convention.

On the second day, the labour delegates
became equally restless. Buchanan had with-
drawn. The delegates who used the oppor-
tunity of being in Washington to call on
Mr. Gompers came away from his office with
heavy hearts. Returning to the Willard, they
saw the machinery being manipulated by the
descredited Martin and Schulteis. "What have
these fellows got to do with us?" they asked
one another. And then they asked ''these
fellows" quite bluntly, "Who's putting up the
money for this show.?" Martin, backed to the
wall of the Willard bar by their insistent demand

172

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

for an answer, replied with an evasive, *'What
difference does it make?" And when they
shouted that it made a profane lot of difference,
he answered defiantly that it was all right
*'even if it's German money."

That finished the labour delegates. They, too,
went home.

But the ringleaders had put out a resound-
ing resolution calling for an embargo on muni-
tions. And though the convention had fizzed
out, it had done an enormous lot of harm.
Thousands of labouring men and farmers had
been indoctrinated with a specious pacifism
that was reflected later in the attempts to evade
the Conscription Act when we entered the war.
The Government to-day is contending with
the moral antagonisms aroused in certain sections
of the country by the orators and writers of
Labour's National Peace Council.

In this moral infection, the work of Hannis
Taylor played an important part. He wrote
legal opinions for the Council, declaring that
the traffic in munitions was unconstitutional.
He received ^700 for this work. These opinions
were printed and distributed broadcast, and
did much harm. More recently, Taylor was
counsel for Robert Cox, the Missouri draft
registrant who sued to restrain General Leonard
Wood from sending him with his regiment to

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

France. On his behalf, Hannis Taylor con-
tended that the Conscription Act was uncon-
stitutional, asserting that the only power of
Congress to call out troops was under the
militia clause of the Constitution which reads:
''To execute the laws of the Union, suppress
insurrections and repel invasions." This meant,
so Taylor contended, that no citizen could be
sent, against his will, outside the United States
to fight its battles.

This absurd doctrine, which would force us
to fight this war on our own soil instead of
allowing us to defend ourselves in Europe against
German aggression, was promptly punctured
by the Supreme Court of the United States.
In his brief before that Court Hannis Tay-
lor used language so violent that the counsel
for the Government asked that it be expunged
from the record. Taylor in his brief accused
the President of being a *' dictator," of seizing
powers ^'in open defiance of the judgments"
of the Supreme Court, and of demanding *'such
an aggregation of powers as no monarch ever
wielded in any constitutional government that
ever existed."

The decision of the Supreme Court, affirming
the Government's right to draft its citizens
for service overseas, was delivered by Chief
Justice White. That stern old veteran of the

174

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

Lost Cause in our Civil War, speaking with the
aloofness and dignity of that august Court, in
measured terms expressed an opinion of Mr.
Hannis Taylor that is worth repeating. He
said:

. . . we must notice a suggestion made by the
Government that because of impertinent and scandalous
passages contained in the brief of the appellant the brief
should be stricken from the files. Considering the pas-
sages referred to and making every allowance for intensity
of zeal and an extreme of earnestness on the part of
counsel, we are nevertheless constrained to the conclusion
that the passages justify the terms of censure by which
they are characterized in the suggestion made by the
Government. But despite this conclusion which we re-
gretfully reach, we see no useful purpose to be subserved
by granting the motion to strike. On the contrary, we
think the passages on their face are so obviously in-
temperate and so patently unwarranted that If as a result
of permitting the passages to remain on the files they
should come under future observation, they would but
serve to Indicate to what intemperance of statement an
absence of self-restraint or forgetfulness of decorum will
lead and therefore admonish of the duty to be sedulous
to obey and respect the limitations which an adhesion to
them must exact.

^ In all the operations of Labour's National
Peace Council, including its convention, Lamar
kept in the background, as he knew labour had
no reason to own him or to love him. Buchanan
and the rest supplied the proper colour of pro-

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FIGHTING GERMANY^S SPIES

priety. From his retreat in the Willard Hotel
in Washington, Lamar was sending ecstatic
telegrams, reporting progress, signing the name
of David H. Lewis, and receiving in reply
approving messages from Rintelen, who used
Jones, Miller, and MuUer as aliases. The con-
vention seemed a great success. And its prepa-
ration and operation had got the German's
money. , Of the $547,000 that Rintelen brought,
Lamar got more than $300,000. It looked so
good to Rintelen that he was ready to get more —
from Germany or from his Hmitless sources of
credit here.

But all was not well with Rintelen. He had
other lines out besides Lamar's, and he caught
some disquieting fish — some of which he did
not identify until later. First, he was playing
the social game not wisely but too well. He
gave "dinner parties; was a guest, at others.
He should have been more politic than he was.
The Lusitania was sunk on May 7th. Instead of
adopting the manner of a man deep enough in
intrigue to know that he should speak of this
crime as a lamentable blunder of his country's,
he justified it. His words gave the gravest
offense to his guests. He went further, and
threw out hinted threats of other perils that
would confront ships carrying munitions — hints
that he himself had had a hand in the mysterious

176

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

fires on ships that were almost a daily occurrence.
Some dinner guests in New York took him
seriously and reported him to the Government,
which had been suspicious of him almost from
the day of his arrival in this country.

Also, Rintelen undertook to get newspaper
publicity favourable to an embargo on the ship-
ment of munitions. He got himself introduced
to "Jack" Hammond, an old newspaper man
in New York, and closed with him a contract
for syndicate articles in a chain of papers across
the/' country. He met Hammond as one Fred
Hansen, a ship captain. (Hammond later testi-
fied that Rintelen told him that he ''killed"
Hansen the day after the Lusitania was sunk.)
After sizing Hammond up as worthy of trust, he
re-introduced himself as E.V. Gibbons, a purchas-
ing agent, with offices in the building occupied in
part by the Transatlantic Trust Company. And
at length he confided to Hammond his real im-
portance in the scheme of things German.

Early in this relationship Hammond be-
came sure that this man was planning to violate
the laws of the United States, and he reported
the matter to the Department of Justice. The
Department, already suspicious, asked Ham-
mond to keep up his connection with Rin-
telen, and through this means it learned a
great deal about him. Not enough to cause

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

his arrest — Rintelen never confided that much
in any American but Lamar, who had his own
reasons for silence.

fc Out of Rintelen's multifarious activities arose
many of the mysterious fires and explosions
in munitions plants, the burning of ships at sea,
the attempts on the Welland Canal in Canada,
strikes in war industries, and the hke. The
discovery of Dr. Walter A. Scheele's part in the
incendiary bombs matter, and his connection
with Rintelen, began to make the ground fairly
warm under Rintelen's feet. And the Govern-
ment was taking an uncomfortable interest in
Labour's National Peace Council. Rintelen be-
came uneasy.

His fears were now fed from a new quarter.
Andrew D. Meloy became a confidant of his,
and Meloy had his own axe to grind. Rin-
telen had taken an interest in the German
activities in Mexico, and almost from the day
of his arrival had been intimate in this work
with Federico Stallforth, a German banker of
Mexico City who joined Rintelen in New York.
Stallforth had offices with Meloy at 55 Liberty
Street, and when the Transatlantic Trust Com-
pany became embarrassed by Rintelen's pres-
ence, Stallforth persuaded Meloy to rent Rin-
telen desk room. Their acquaintance started
there, about July ist.

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THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

Meloy was a well-known engineer and pro-
moter. He had exploited concessions in Mexico
— railroad rights of way and gold mines — and
in his home state of New Jersey had floated
some real-estate "developments.'' Meloy saw
in Rintelen exactly what Lamar had seen —
a lot of real money and an eagerness too great
for caution. He began to belittle Lamar's
scheme. Labour's National Peace Council would
never do. It looked good on paper, but it
would never stop the shipment of munitions.
He even hinted that Lamar had been "playing"
Rintelen. Now, if Rintelen wanted a real
scheme, certain to succeed, he knew the very
thing. Direct action — stop the bluffing and
the dangerous intrigues. Buy the whole mu-
nitions output of the country. Bid high enough
to get it, pay for it outright, and store it. That
would cost money, lots of it: but what was
money in comparison with the certainty of
German victory which this plan would insure?

Rintelen was dazzled. Here was the authen-
tic voice of American big business speaking.
A magnificent scheme. He would take it to
Germany, take Meloy with him, and get his
Government to O. K. it.

But how get back to Germany ? He had grave
doubts about the Gasche passport being good
again. He put the question to Meloy, and

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Meloy advised against it. There was a better
way: get a new passport under a new name. So
for a few days Rintelen became "Edward V.
Gates, wine merchant, of Millersburg, Pa.*'
In this guise Meloy introduced him to one of
his own real-estate salesmen, and Rintelen took
this man to dinner once or twice to work up the
illusion. Then, one day, he asked the salesman
to go with him to the passport bureau in New
York and be his witness to an application for a
passport. The salesman went, and in good
faith swore that Rintelen was Edward V. Gates.
His faith was not so good when he swore he
had known him for three years. The appli-
cation was transmitted telegraphically to Wash-
ington. Much to Rintelen's astonishment and
alarm, it was denied.

Meanwhile, Meloy had been working on a
devious scheme to protect himself in his mis-
sion to Berlin. He must be cloaked in emi-
nent respectability on this errand, for it would
be an unpopular one with the British if they
knew its real purpose, and he must hide that.
First of all, he would take his wife, who did not
know what his mission was. She had taken an
active interest before the war in the peace move-
ments centring at The Hague, and nothing was
more natural than that she should wish now,
during the war, to renew her friendships in Hol-

i8o

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

land with an eye to furthering a cause now more
than ever vital to the world.

But Meloy was not content with only one
companion. He must have others who would
expand the picture of innocence abroad. One
of his neighbours in the suburb on the Jersey
Coast where he made his country home was a
wealthy woman known widely in America for
her interest both in the peace and suffrage
movements. Meloy telephoned to her and
asked her to see him at his home. This lady
drove over one summer evening in her motor
car, accompanied by two women friends. The
friends sat in the open car while she sat on the
porch talking to Meloy. Meloy is very deaf;
the lady had to talk loudly to make him hear.
Meloy differed from most deaf people, who
usually speak in a lower tone than those who
hear well — he went rather to the other extreme,
and spoke louder than most folks do. The
women in the car heard the conversation, and
they heard it a second time when their friend
repeated it to them on the way home. And the
Government heard it also, from the lips of all
three.

The burden of the conversation was this:
Meloy was taking his wife to Europe for a vaca-
tion; they were going to Holland, where so many
forward-looking movements for the good of

i8i

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

mankind made their international headquarters;
he would be drawn aside a great deal by busi-
ness affairs and Mrs. Meloy would be lone-
some; he was anxious to provide companionship
for her, if the lady would accompany them, he
would pay all her expenses, he would assure her
that her journey would be made de luxe^ he
would (he put it more delicately) even add a
money consideration, he would see that the
journey included a visit to war-bound Germany,
now so difficult of access, that in Germany she
should have entree to social circles so exclusive
that they were inaccessible even to the American
Ambassador, and that, to crown all, she should
be presented to the Kaiser.

The lady said she would think it over. It
was an attractive invitation, but she did not
just like it — perhaps it was too attractive. She
talked it over with her friends: they advised
against it. She telephoned Meloy next day and
declined.

Meloy repeated the invitation to several
women. All declined. Then, as the Noordam
was to sail on August 3d, and he had no more
time, he decided to take his secretary, a Miss
Brophy.

Rintelen was now thoroughly alarmed. The
Government's refusal to grant his fraudulent
application for a passport indicated that it

182

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

knew about him. The Government was get-
ting "warm" in its investigation of the incen-
diary bombs. The Government was taking an
unpleasant interest in Labour's National Peace
Council. Rintelen felt irresistibly the pangs of
Heimweh, the longing for home. He must go, at
any risk. He would chance it as Gasche again.

So he sailed on the Noordamy with Meloy
and party. He bore with him Lamar's urgent
appeals for more funds for Labour's National
Peace Council, now at the high tide of its
success. And he was in the hands of Meloy,
who was at the first of his own rainbow of hope
of millions with which to buy America's munition
output — on commission.

At Falmouth the Noordam was detained for
fourteen hours. The British took a great
interest in the Gasche-Meloy party. Gasche's
baggage revealed nothing suspicious, but Gasche
was removed to a long residence in an intern-
ment camp near London. Meloy was detained
for several days. Mrs. Meloy soon appeared
to be beyond suspicion. Miss Brophy de-
clared that her baggage contained only personal
effects. But at the bottom of her last trunk
was found a wallet containing Gasche's papers.
These were seized, and Miss Brophy and Mrs.
Meloy were allowed to proceed to Holland,
where they were later rejoined by Meloy.

183

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

The Gasche papers were most interesting.
They contauied some of Rintelen*s letters show-
ing his intimacy with well-known New Yorkers,
and letters in which he referred to his "official
mission'' to the United States that were very
important, for they proved what Rintelen
steadfastly denied, namely, that he was in this
country by orders of the German Government.
In one of them to a man in Germany, whom
he addressed as '*Most Honourable Counsellor,"
he wrote: "'Your letter of the 25th March
[191 5] was sent after me when I was on an
official journey^ and I request you to excuse
the delaying in replying." And another letter,
from the National Bank Fuer Deutschland,
dated Berlin, 25th May, 1915, and addressed
**To the Landed Proprietor, Von Preskow,"
contained this sentence: '* Director Rintelen,
who looked after Major Von Katte's account,
entered the navy on the outbreak of hostilities,
and as he is at present on an official journey is
not available at the moment."

With Rintelen's internment ended Lamar's
golden fortune and Meloy's golden vision and
Rintelen's dream of destruction. And now
began one of the most difficult and one of the
longest tasks of the Department of Justice.
For, out of the fragments of evidence at its
command, and out of the seemingly innocent

184

%//////' ///r'/// ///r:u ///■/ uWj.j^/// rr///r ■ A/Z'/y

RINTKLEx\ AxN'D HIS CONFEDtRATES
Above, Rintelen's photograph on a false passoort with which he tried to escape
from the United States; left, Andrew D. Malov; right, David Lamar, "the
Wolf of Wall Street"

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

public acts of Labour's National Peace Council,
and out of the obscure and isolated outrages
to ships and factories in the United States^
the Department of Justice had to construct a
pattern that should prove, by tangible legal
evidence, the guilt of Rintelen and Lamar in
a plot to violate the laws of the United States.

This long investigation was a fascinating
study in human nature. If only Lamar had
been a little different in his manners, he might
have escaped the clutches of the law. If Rin-
telen had been as wise as he was clever, he
might still be in an internment camp instead
of a prison.

Lamar, it may be recalled, had a weakness
for automobiles. He hired them on all occasions.
They were especially useful to him for con-
ferences with Rintelen. They did not wish to
be seen together, so Lamar would drive to an
unfrequented spot in Central Park. Rintelen
would drive up in another car and get into
Lamar's, and then they would go for a long ride
while they discussed their plans. Sometimes
they would go for hours on the North Shore
of Long Island; sometimes for long excursions
in the Pelham region of Westchester County,
stopping perhaps at a wayside inn and taking
a room for greater privacy in their conferences.

An agent of the Department of Justice spent
185

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

SIX weeks making the rounds of the garages
in New York. He carried Lamar's picture in
his pocket. He showed it to every chauffeur
in every garage. And every chauffeur who had
driven a car for Lamar during that summer of
1915 recognized the picture, and every one of
them apphed the same epithet to its original
that Trampas apphed to the Virginian in Owen
Wister's book when the Virginian, in response,
drew his gun and demanded that "when you
call me that, smile!" For Lamar, who was the
suave, the gracious, the ultra-polite and charm-
ing man to people whom he wished to cajole,
was overbearing, fault-finding, and peremptory
toward those who served him. His movements
in the hotels about the country were several
times traced by a rough description completed
by a remark about his manner toward servants.
No waiter or bell-boy ever forgot him. He was
forever "kicking about the service."

This vivid impression that he made on the
chauffeurs contributed greatly to his undoing.
They remembered him perfectly, and recalled
his companions. They recognized Rintelen's
photograph. And several of them had over-
heard parts of the conversations that were
useful to the Government. Through these
men, Lamar's connection with Rintelen in a
conspiracy to violate the Sherman Act by

186

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

restraining our foreign trade in munitions was
established.

One^s laundry, too, may be a dangerous
thing. Lamar denied that he had stopped
at hotels in Chicago and Indianapolis and
elsewhere at the same time that Martin and
others were there. But handwriting experts
proved that the names ** David Lenaur,'' ^'David
Lewis," and the like, on hotel registers on those
days were in Lamar's handwriting. And the
conclusive proof of their evidence was that the
laundry lists of the hotels on those days showed
that the laundry mark on the linen of "Lenaur"
and of "Lewis" was the laundry mark of Lamar.

Charge accounts at stores may also prove
troublesome. It became necessary to find out
where Lamar banked his money. That was dis-
covered through Lamar's stomach trouble. He
was a patron of a druggist in New York who had
his pet prescription for his pet ailment. Lamar
sometimes wrote, and sometimes telegraphed,
for another bottle of this medicine. A telegram
of this kind sent the Government agent to the
druggist. Did Lamar ever pay by check .f*
On what banks? The answers led to those
banks and thence to others and thence to
Lamar's brokers, from one of whom alone evi-
dence was obtained that the whilom bankrupt
had lost, in one series of speculations that sum-

187

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

mer, $38,000 in cash. Whose cash? The Gov-
ernment was able to prove that Lamar had got
thousands of dollars from Rintelen, because
they produced the men who saw Rintelen pay
it, and Lamar was not able to prove that he
had got any such sums from anybody else,
so the jury took the Government's theory as
fact that Lamar was Rintelen's man.

The story of this proof is worth telling. On
the witness stand at the trial, George Plockman,
the treasurer of the Transatlantic Trust Com-
pany (the Austrian bank in New York with
w^hich Rintelen kept his funds) described the
arrangement Rintelen had made to conceal
the passage of money for illegal acts. He had
instructed the Transatlantic Trust Company,
when it received checks drawn by him in a
certain form, to cash them without questioning
the identity of the bearer and without requiring
him to endorse them.

One check of this kind was presented at the
bank one day, and the paying teller brought it
to Plockman to ask if he should pay it.

''Who presented it?" asked Plockman.

*'That dark man over there," replied the
paying teller.

■ "I thought," said Plockman on the witness
stand, ''that this man was a Mexican, but while I
was looking at him our vice-president came up

188

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

and when he understood the situation and saw
the man he said : *Mein Gott ! Dot is de Volf of
Vail Street! I hope Rintelen has not got into
Azj clutches!"'

One other incident of the trial should be told/
Testimony was brought in that showed how
the money for the Peace Council was spent.
One item was for funds to pay the expenses of a
German preacher from St. Louis to attend the
convention at Washington and open the pro-
ceedings with prayer. Lamar had never heard
of this until he heard it in the courtroom. It
was too much for him. When this evidence
came out, of the lengths to which his own pupils
had out-distanced even their teacher in the art
of political camouflage, he burst into roars of
uncontrollable laughter which literally stopped
all proceedings in court, the tears rolling down
his cheeks as he struggled to subdue his mirth.

Out of all the investigations of the Govern-
ment arose a card index of every man that Rinte-
len and Lamar had seen during the four months
from April 3 to August 3, 191 5, of every hotel
they had visited, of practically every telephone
call they had made and every telegram sent or
received, of nearly every dollar they had had and
spent. Thousands upon thousands of these cards
were made and filed. They convicted both men.

The Government indicted Rintelen, Lamar,
189

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Buchanan, Fowler, Martin, Schulteis, and a
man named Monnett, for conspiracy to violate
the Sherman Act in the operations of Labour's
National Peace Council to restrain our foreign
trade. Rintelen, Lamar, and Martin were con-
victed. The rest got the benefit of a very slim
doubt, except Frank B. Monnett, the farmer
attorney-general of Ohio, whose reputation in
the early suit of Ohio to oust the Standard
Oil Company from the state had been used as
''stage setting" by Martin. He was freed by
the Court before the jury was sent out to de-
liberate. The convicted men got the limit of
the law — one year in jail. Rintelen was like-
wise indicted for perjury in his application for
a passport as Edward V. Gates, and again for
another crime against our laws. He was con-
victed on both charges, and sentenced to several
months' imprisonment on each.

No one realized better than the judges who
sentenced him how inadequate these punish-
ments to expiate his crimes. But the laws
under which Rintelen was convicted — and they
were the only laws under which his acts (all
committed before our entry into the war) could
be questioned — were enacted in times of peace,
when no one dreamed of the world conflict or
could have imagined how it would affect us
when it came.

190

THE TIGER AND WOLF MEET

Rintelen has completed serving time on the
first of his three sentences, and has the other
two still to serve. The Tiger of Berlin is
securely caged, and not likely soon to be again
at large.

191

CHAPTER IX
The American Protective League

ON GOING to war with the great masters
of spy craft last year, the United States
had only a handful of secret service men to
guard its internal frontier. Within our borders
were a million and a half men and youths who
were enemy aliens. Not all of them hostile, it
is true; but all potentially dangerous because
great national organizations existed — even shoot-
ing societies — through which German influences
might reach in a few hours or days. And in
every centre of population there were captains
and field marshals of German intrigue, supplied
with unlimited money, to appeal to their feelings
and to lead them should a chance come to
strike.

Yet America, during the first year of war,
has been singularly peaceful. No serious dis-
turbance has hampered war preparations con-
ducted on a gigantic scale. Even the Selective
Service Act, inconsistent with all our volunteer
traditions and pride, was accepted almost with-
out opposition. Instead of a red reign of con-

192

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

flagration and civil strife, there have been no
outbreaks worthy of the name; and, according
to the Underwriters' Association, not a single
fire in our munitions plants of a clearly estab-
lished incendiary character.

Attorney-General Thomas W. Gregory, in
fact, had solid grounds for declaring to the
executive committee of the American Bar Asso-
ciation recently: "'I do not believe that there is
to-day any country which is being more capably
policed than is the United States." He added
that for every man engaged in detecting and in-
vestigating violations of federal lazus in April,
igiy, there are at least one thousand to-day; while
reports on new cases are coming in at the rate
of fifteen hundred a day!

That sounds like a miracle of organization,
doesn't it.^ Even the army, with its pride-
compelling record of expansion, is a slow coach
beside these legions of "plain-clothes" soldiers
w^ho hold our inner lines. Let's see how it
happened.

When the war broke, the only secret service
work done by the Government was handled
by five small organizations. The Department
of Justice had its Bureau of Investigation,
charged with the discovery of off*enses against
the federal statutes — not a large force, but
quite adequate to its peace-time job. The

193

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Treasury Department maintained a secret ser-
vice with two definite functions — to protect the
President's Hfe and person, and to prevent
counterfeiting. The Army and Navy had each
a few officers detailed to its intelligence service
—the gathering of military and naval informa-
tion and the protection of our own plans and
operations. And finally the State Department
possessed a small intelligence section of its own.
But by comparison with the territory to be
covered and the number of active German and
Austrian agents in the country, there were few
experienced men available for counter-espionage.
And there in the background were that million
and a half enemy aliens who would bear a lot
of watching.

The declaration of war, then, instantly brought
an emergency. Part of it the Department of
Justice met by striking swift and hard at all
who were unquestionably enemy agents. Be-
cause of their propaganda and other activities
against the Entente Allies, these agents had
been under observation for some time. Within
forty-eight hours the more dangerous had been
rounded up — under the hoary old act of 1798,
which gave the President power to intern enemy
aliens when their being at liberty might con-
stitute a menace to the public safety.

There remained the urgent need of an immense
194

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

increase in the Government's counter-espionage
forces. It would take thousands of trained and
intelligent operatives to keep watch of the
German agents and German sympathizers who
swarmed throughout the country. As a class,
such operatives did not exist: to draft the right
kind of raw material from civil life would in-
volve delays, great personal sacrifices on the
part of the men drafted, and an enormous yearly
budget. Thousands of business and profes-
sional careers would be interrupted at critical
stages. Most of the men who accepted the call
would be risking after-the-war failure in their
chosen callings. The work simply couldn't be
done that way.

Then it was that the American Protective
League found a way to do it.

The League is a volunteer body of 250,000
patriotic Americans, organized with the ap-
proval and operating under the direction of the
Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation.
It cross-cuts every commercial, industrial, pro-
fessional, social, and economic level in American
life. Bank presidents and bell hops, judges
and janitors, managers and mechanics — all ranks
meet on its common platform of loyalty and
service. It has woven a net of discreet surveil-
lance across more than a thousand American
cities and towns; and the meshes are so small

19s

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

that few active German agents slip through.
It reaches out into the country as well. More
than 52,000,000 people — about half the popula-
tion of the United States — live in communities
where the League has active and effective organi-
izations; where too, propaganda, or sedition,
sabotage or plain slacking are neither popular
nor healthy.

The League was born in March, last year,
two weeks before we declared war. The idea
originated with Mr. A. M. Briggs of Chicago.
Mr. Briggs is now Chairman of the National
Board of Directors of the American Protective
League. He secured authority to establish it
as a volunteer auxiliary of the Department of
Justice on March 22, 1917. Within a month
he had the League in operation with several
thousand members. With him, Captain Charles
Daniel Frey and Mr. Victor Elting were re-
sponsible for its development and the organiza-
tion of the work. Mr. Frey is organizer and
First Chief of the Chicago District, the original
working unit of the American Protective League.
The plan, the policies, and the methods de-
veloped in the Chicago District, which includes
280 cities and towns, were approved by the
Department of Justice, and have been generally
followed throughout the country as the model
and standard for subsequent organizations. Mr.

196

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

Elting, as Assistant Chief at Chicago, has from
the inception of the League been active in the
development of its poHcy. These three, now
national directors with headquarters at Wash-
ington, are modest about taking any credit for
the amazing extension of the League and its
extraordinary present usefulness. They insist
that the first great response was due to the
general recognition of a national crisis, the
impulse to do something to meet it, and the
patriotic and unselfish cooperation of every local
chief and individual operative in the country.
At all events, it was knowledge of how wide-
spread and unscrupulous was the German spy
system, and how seriously it was affecting the
temper and loyalty of aliens and naturalized
citizens, that launched the League. Proposal
was made to the Department of Justice that a
volunteer auxiliary of simon-pure Am.ericans be
formed to keep w^atch for the Government in
every neighbourhood and to make most of the
Department's investigations for it. The service
would be without pay. No inquiries would be
undertaken without reference of the case to the
Department first. And no expense accounts
would be presented for money spent. Doubts
may have existed regarding the feasibility of
the plan. Such men as were needed would be
hard to interest in the drudgery of police in-

197

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

vestigation. But Mr. Briggs was confident that
there were thousands of business and profes-
sional men past service age and necessary to
their famiHes and communities who still were
fired with patriotism and filled with wrath
at the progress of German propaganda and
plotting in this country. They were success-
ful men of affairs — men of proved judgment,
intelligence, initiative, and energy. The De-
partment could not buy their full time at any
price, but it could command their spare time,
plus as many work-hours, on occasions, as were
necessary to complete any task. There were
also men of service age, eager to fight but held
at home by obligations or other causes, who
would not stint either time or energy in the
League's service.

Given authority to go ahead March 22, 1917,
the League was organized on military lines.
The plan was that each city and its tributary
country should be broken up into divisions, in
charge of inspectors. Divisions were cut up
into districts, with captains in command. And
each captain recruited as many working squads,
under lieutenants, as the size and character of
his district demanded. Reinforcing this terri-
torial organization was another which treated
every important industry, trade, and profes-
sion, and even large business establishments

198

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

and office buildings as individual organization
units. The territorial organization was known
as the Bureau of Investigation; the classified
trade, professional, and industrial force as the
Bureau of Information. As a matter of fact,
they were just the right and left arms of the
League. Each had its specialized work to do,
but the big jobs in each case were the same.

From the start, the two main functions of
the League stood out boldly. The first was
"to make prompt and reliable report of all dis-
loyal or enemy activities and of all infractions
or evasions of the war code of the United States."
The second followed naturally: *'to make prompt
and thorough investigation of all matters of
similar nature referred to it by the Department
of Justice." Close cooperation with the local
agent of the Department was essential in both
instances.

Because the plan had been carefully worked
out, the League made a flying start in a great
Western city. Inspectors, captains, lieutenants
were commissioned and assigned to their units.
** Operatives," picked with equal caution, were
sworn in and given their credentials. By May
first, there were a thousand men engaged in
the absorbing new game.

Thousands of investigations taxed the young
ardour and endurance of the League — suspected

199

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

spy activities, seditious speeches, lying reports
about the Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., and Knights
of Columbus, pro-German propaganda, sus-
pected treasonable conspiracies, sabotage cases
and, later, organized and individual efforts to
evade the draft. But every member was under
pledge to run down to the end any case assigned
to him, whether it took a day or a week, and
results came speedily.

Though lacking in experience, most of the
members had unusuar equipment as investiga-
tors. Nearly all had imagination and logical,
work-trained minds. Many of them were men
of means and could devote all of their time to
urgent cases. Instead of waiting for an O. K.
on a requisition for a motor car, they had ma-
chines of their own to use. Without consider-
ing how an item would strike a government
auditor, they could and did spend their own
money to get the facts they sought. Without
having to finesse approaches to necessary sources
of information, they could usually draw on a
wide circle of friends for inside facts which a
professional detective might require days to
secure.

The League's rule in assigning cases, indeed,
is to choose as investigator the man whose
social, professional, or business connections are
such that he can *' clean up" with the least

200

Officers of the American Protective League, an organization of 250,000
patriotic American business men who cooperate effectively with the Depart-
ment of Justice in its operations against spies, slackers, and seditionists.
Above, Mr. A. M. Briggs, founder; left, Capt. Daniel Frey, and right, Mr.
Victor Elting, National Directors

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

effort and in the shortest space of time. When
there are many places to visit, the case goes to
a man owning a motor car. If it is complex in
character, with lines extending into various
industries, clubs, trades, and so on, the work
may be divided and several members assigned
to it. The main idea is to get the work done,
and done quickly — the secondary purpose to
make it as easy as may be for the members.

League members knew little about methods
of investigation. But they had that priceless
gift, intelligence, and they learned by doing.
There was such a mass of complaints, tips,
and wild guesses concerning enemy activities
waiting to be handled, that no extensive school-
ing could be attempted. The cleverest govern-
ment operatives available and experienced city
and private detectives talked to groups of
captains and lieutenants, and these passed
along the information to their men. A. Bruce
Bielaski, Chief of the Bureau of Investigation,
Department of Justice, was quick to recognize
the possibilities of the League. Everywhere his
organization gave invaluable aid and coopera-
tion in training League members.

Able lawyers made brief but comprehensive
digests of the laws involved and the rules of
evidence to be observed. Methods of work
and problems of authority and conduct were

201

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

explained at length in a handbook. Supple-
menting the handbook and the law digest,
bulletins were published at intervals to suggest
better methods, to report fresh evidence of Ger-
man plans and propaganda, or to sum up and
interpret the new laws which Congress was
enacting for the punishment of espionage and
sedition.

Close touch was kept at every step with the
Department of Justice. Forms for reports and
records were adopted, conforming to the system
in use by the Department. Carbons of all re-
ports and records were made for the files of
the Bureau of Investigation. Eventually a com-
plete record of each case found its way to the
master file in Washington. In this way dupli-
cation of effort was avoided, complete coopera-
tion assured, and the exact status of any inquiry
could be learned in a moment by any one
needing the information.

Far from running wild in its enthusiasm to
corral all enemy agents, the League tried to
give every alien it investigated an American
square deal. Perhaps the finest paragraph in
the handbook is this one urging the right of
aliens to considerate treatment until their uu-
friendly attitude is revealed:

"Many aliens resident in this country are
absolutely loyal to its institutions and its laws,

202

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

and many individuals having the legal status
of alien enemies are not only conducting them-
selves with due respect to our laws, but are of
great value in industry and business. Great
care must be exercised by members to avoid
unnecessary alarm to aliens and to avoid causing
apprehension upon their part as to the fairness
and justice of the attitude of the Government
toward them. In this regard members will be
called upon for the exercise of judgment and
discretion of a high order. They should protect
citizens and aliens from unjust suspicion, but
must fearlessly ascertain and report treason
and disloyalty wherever found."

All this has to do with the investigation of
specific cases after they have been brought to
the League's attention by the report of a mem-
ber, an outside complaint, or a request from the
Department of Justice for an inquiry into the
facts. Quite as important in discouraging dis-
loyalty or pro-German activities is the service
of League members as eyes and ears for the
Government in detecting and making first re-
ports on offenses or intended offenses against
the war code of the United States.

This means that every League member is
always on the lookout for any word or act that
smacks of sedition or espionage. It is here
that the classified organization by industries,

203

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

trades, professions, and individual business es-
tablishments develops its full value. When a
factory making munitions, clothing, motor trucks,
or any other war necessity has been organized
as a League unit, the members are on the
alert for signs of disturbance. They can quickly
report to their supervisor what they have seen
or heard, and, after comparing notes, can take
precautions against the threatened trouble. If
they need outside help in checking up a suspect
after working hours, the territorial organization
is ready to cooperate. The suspect need never
know that he is under suspicion until his guilt
or innocence is pretty well established.

Such a factory unit is typical of the League
organization in the larger cities. Besides the
strictly industrial group, there are usually
eight broad divisions, any one of which may be
important enough to have an assistant bureau
chief, and several captains, lieutenants, and in-
dividual units. These divisions take in the real
estate, financial, insurance, and professional
groups, the hotels, transportation companies,
public utilities, and merchandising interests —
wholesale, retail, and mail-order. And the in-
dustries alone may be numerous and powerful
enough to call for separate divisions — munitions,
packers' products, food stuffs, war equipment,
metal trades, lumber, motor cars, electrical

204

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

machinery and supplies, chemicals and paints,
and so on. It all depends on how numerous
and how large are the establishments in each
line. Outside the larger cities territorial organi-
zation is the rule. When the district is identified
with some industry of special value in war,
like mining, lumbering, or cattle raising, protec-
tion of that industry may be the chief function
of the League.

Not only does the classified method of or-
ganization help each trade and profession to
police itself; it greatly facilitates important
inquiries. For example, suppose that the Gov-
ernment wants to find and learn the local errand
of a visiting electrical engineer with a German
name and considerable cash whom it has had
under surveillance elsewhere. On being asked
for a report, the League's local Chief assigns the
case to one of his deputies. The latter notifies
the supervisors of the various hotel units to
watch out for the stranger, report his arrival,
and keep watch of his letters and telephone
calls. He also communicates with the head of
the professional division and asks that an
electrical engineer be detailed on the case.

When the suspect has been located and the
hotel supervisor has transmitted any other in-
formation he has been able to get, the engineer
member begins work. Going to the hotel he

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FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

finds or makes a way to become acquainted with
the stranger, offers him the usual professional
courtesies, and gives him a chance to suggest
why he is in town or whom he wants to see.
Direct questions are not asked, of course, since
they would put the stranger on his guard. After
he has carried the inquiry as far as he can, the
engineer member quietly and casually goes his
way, unless the stranger has accepted his offers
of help or hospitality.

If the suspect has ''covered up" more than
an honest engineer should, he is systematically
shadowed by other League operatives during
the remainder of his stay. Walking out or
staying in his room, travelling in taxicabs or in
street cars, making business calls or social calls,
one or more of his two ''shadows" would
probably keep him in sight and make memo-
randa regarding every person he met and spoke
with and every significant circumstance that
took place. Only when in a private house or
in his hotel room would he escape observation
— and even then a fairly close tab would be
kept on what he was doing.

A record would be made of every telephone
call, every telegram, every letter received, with
particular reference to the postmark, dates,
and the return cards on the envelopes. His
baggage would be inventoried and described,

206

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

even to its hotel labels, its character, and its
probable price and origin. When he finally
departed, if the porter bought his tickets for him
or whether he purchased them himself at the
station, his route, and his first destination —
all would be matters of history. One of his
"shadows'* would even see him safely past the
last suburban stop from which he might double
back to the city or to a waiting confederate.

This seems a mighty pother to make about
an apparently innocent traveller. But the
League prefers to work overtime and play safe.
The narratives of some of the "tailings" would
make marvellous reading if they only led up to
the proper dramatic climax. Many of them
do — but those are not to be talked about yet
awhile. And the others are significant only be-
cause they are the records of uninteresting tasks
as faithfully executed as though the sheltering
doorway or hotel lobby chair were a listening
post in France.

Remember that these tasks were made both
complex and difficult by the lack of laws de-
fining espionage, disloyalty, and sedition as
punishable crimes. That ancient act of 1798
could be invoked for the internment of danger-
ous enemy aliens. But an American citizen,
native or naturalized, could spit treason and
plot trouble unchecked so long as he did not

207

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

run foul of the civil or the criminal code. That
is all changed now; the amended Espionage and
Sedition Law, signed by the President in June,
191 7, is so broad and has such a fine set of ser-
viceable teeth that no disloyal citizen or un-
friendly alien can escape the penalty if his guilt
can be proved.

P^or more than a year, however, the League
was compelled not only to prove a citizen*s
pro-German activities; it had also to find a way
to punish them, or at least to discourage them.
Every inquiry into such a case, therefore, had
to be supplemented by an effort to find evidence
of an oflfense against the civil or criminal statutes.
A.nd where this failed, a good old-fasliioned
** talking to" often had the desired effect.

Hatred of ''Prussian militarism" and pre-
tended allegiance to the United States were the
favourite pose of many propagandists whom the
League rounded up and secured billets for in
various internment camps. Most of these had
taken out their first naturalization papers;
except in a few middle and western states like
Nebraska, where ''first papers" and six months
of residence confer the right to vote, this was
no protection when evidence of disloyalty or pro-
German activity was adduced against them.

Typical of this class was the case of an Aus-
trian officer of reserves who was six months

208

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

under investigation before he was arrested.
Like so many other interned Teutons, his entry
into the United States had been by way of the
Argentine. Traced back, it was discovered that
he had reported to the Austrian Consul in
Buenos Aires as an officer of reserves at the
first mobiHzation call, July 27, 1914; and again
when he sailed for the United States with a
false Swedish passport in 191 5. Then, in suc-
cession, he had registered at the San Francisco,
St. Louis, and Chicago consulates — at the last
on September 30, 1915.

In less than six months, however, he had
applied for naturalization papers and was ar-
ranging to return to Buenos Aires as selling
agent for several American houses. When the
State Department denied him a passport, he
devised another means of keeping watch of
American efforts to supplant German houses
in the South American markets. This was an
export information bureau, but his information
was not live enough to hold his clients long.
Next he projected a $2,ooo,cxx) corporation to
take over and operate the German interned
steamships at New York. By turns also he
was advertising solicitor and automobile sales-
man.

The occupation he followed always allowed
him maximum freedom in moving about and a

209

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

plausible excuse for approaching almost any
one he wanted to reach. Very early in the
inquiry, his defenselessness appeared; he had
entered the country under a false passport and
could be arrested whenever the Department of
Justice chose to move. Because he had arrived
in San Francisco eighteen months before our
declaration of war, he was given the benefit
of the doubt. Not until his character as a
dangerous enemy alien had been established was
he interned. He will be deported at the end
of the war.

Different in detail, but similar in character
and outcome, was the Odyssey of a missionary
of German culture, whose earnings were as
nominal as his expenditures were excessive.
Arriving in New York in 19 12, also by way of
the Argentine, he had spent the intervening
time travelling about the country^ in various
roles which would bring him in contact with
rich Americans of German birth or blood. At
various times he was a dealer in pictures, in
stocks and bonds, and in subscription editions
of the German classics.

As a side line, he seems to have been check-
ing up American efforts to develop sources of
potash, Germany's one great monopoly in min-
erals. He even engaged himself as stock sales-
man for an Eastern company organized to

210

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

extract potash from the Pacific kelp fields and
made at least one trip to the coast to study that
new industry. Always his scale of living was
far in excess of his earnings from such sources
of income as could be traced. After a long and
patient inquiry — covering nearly eight months
from the time the man's pro-German utterances
were first reported — he was finally interned for
the duration of the war.

Enemy aliens have not been alone in keeping
League members up at night. Far more numer-
ous have been the investigations bearing upon
the character and loyalty of American citizens,
particularly candidates for commissions in the
Army and Navy and applicants for civilian
service in positions of trust. Still a third class
of inquiries which have lacked the thrill of
espionage cases have been the thousands of
investigations made of claims for exemption or
deferred classification under the selective service
law.

Anything like a divided allegiance, of course,
would destroy the usefulness of an army or
naval officer — if, indeed, it did not make him
a positive menace to his country. Every char-
acter and loyalty inquiry, therefore, has this
background of danger, especially when the sub-
ject is of German or of Austrian ancestry. And
sometimes the League operative must have a

211

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

keen scent for significant minor details to detect
the danger signal.

For instance, one of the candidates for a
recent special officers' training camp was a
young Cincinnati man with a German name.
Fie was a citizen, of draft age, of such intelli-
gence, experience, and physique that his ac-
ceptance was a foregone conclusion if his loyalty
were assured. Investigation showed him to have
been pro-German in his sympathies before our
declaration of war, and practically silent
on war subjects since. His attitude was correct;
and his application for training was a positive
count in his favour. But the League investigator,
digging around for information, learned that his
man had been a contributor to a fund raised
by a Gaelic newspaper for the defence of Sir
Roger Casement, when that famous Irish rebel
was on trial in London.

If the man had been of Irish blood, such a con-
tribution would have had little significance;
natural sympathy for a compatriot in trouble
might have prompted it. Such an act by a
German or an American, however, suggested
more than a passing interest in the violent pro-
German, anti-English propaganda which this
particular weekly exploited. Verifying the story
by reference to the files of the newspaper, the
investigator called attention to the fact in his

212

' THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

report, and gave it as his opinion that the candi-
date wanted a commission to escape the draft
and that he lacked the whole-hearted loyalty and
enthusiasm an Army officer must have to be suc-
cessful. And, as the final decision coincided with
the investigator's, the application was refused.

Another incident — double-barrelled in its effect
— has also its humorous side. One of the
Chicago League officials picked up two deserters
on Michigan Avenue early one evening last
December. Neither had an overcoat, one had
evidently '* hocked" his blouse to provide food
or drink. The League man knew he must
turn them over to the police, but the boys
were so cold and wretched that he determined
to give them a good dinner before surrendering
them.

At his club, his '* guests" created a certain
amount of stir — and seemed to enjoy it. They
*' didn't miss a station from soup to cigarettes,"
as one of them expressed it. They were finishing
up when a young man in a captain's uniform
came over and interjected himself into the feast.

''Excuse me," he began as the host arose,
"may I ask what your interest in these men is?"

His tone was a shade too crisp, even for so
young a captain.

"May I ask yours?" the League man count-
ered.

213

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

"rm in command of the provost guard in
Chicago," the other declared. *'It's my busi-
ness to look after deserters/'

It was a fatal bit of brag. The League man
knew the provost marshal — knew this fellow
was an imposter. But one job at a time.

"I know these chaps and Fm looking after
them," he answered. "Come along, boys."
And they departed in the olive splendour of a
taxicab. Then it pulled up a little later before
a red light, and a policeman opened the door.
The lads were crestfallen but game.

''It was bully while it lasted," they declared.
''Anyway, they'd have got us sooner or later."

Before noon next day the youthful pseudo-
captain was wiping his tears away and explain-
ing w^hy he had been impersonating an officer.
There was a group of musical comedy girls in
the foreground and a trail of forged checks and
unpaid club and hotel bills in the background.
He is learning in Leavenworth prison, now, that
the lion's skin is dangerous apparel and that
discretion is the better part of a masquerade.

The League files are crammed with reports
which have blacker themes — or the scarlet
motive which stands for constructive treason.
There are folders that deal with reported graft
in the purchase of materials for Army camps
and subsequent fires which covered up the

214

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

scanting of buildings. There are others on cases
of undue influence brought to bear on members
of exemption boards; and sickening instances of
"quacks" who have ruined strong but cow-
ardly young bodies for blood money. There
are tales of extortion by shyster lawyers for
filling out questionnaires — and other tales of
money paid by enemy aliens to disreputable
"fixers" for pretended protection against the
draft.

The mere classified index of the master file
at Washington intrigues the imagination. Just
a glance at the main "guides" will indicate
the range :

Enemy aliens
Unfriendly neutrals
"First-paper" aliens
Disloyal citizens
Pro-German "radicals"

Native-born

Naturalized
Disloyal Government employees
Possible spies or German agents
Pro-German applicants for Government positions
Citizens or aliens living in luxury without visible sources

of income
Suspicious foreigners
Enemy propaganda

(Twenty sub-heads here)
Enemy alien funds
Alien extortion cases

2IS

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

I. W. W. agitators

Check of jury panels to keep out pro-Germans

Incendiary fires in war-material plants

Wireless stations

Bomb and dynamite cases

Passport applicants

Seditious utterances

Seditious publications

Seditious meetings

Anti-military activities

Organizations to resist draft

Attempted draft evasions

False exemption claims

Physical disability

Dependent relatives
Desertion of wife to enlist in Army
Fraudulent claims of marriage
Army deserters
Impersonation of officers
Sale of liquor to soldiers and sailors
Sale of narcotics to men in service
Hotel surveillance of doubtful transients
Liberty Bond and Red Cross slackers
Theft of Red Cross supplies
Hoarding of foods
Destruction of foods
Character and loyalty of applicants for commissions

In making these investigations the League
has cooperated, not only with the Department
of Justice, but also with Army Intelligence,
Navy Intelligence, the Alien Property Custodian,
the Food Administration, the Shipping Board,

216

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A., and with various
other offices at Washington.

The number and variety of cases handled
have not constituted the major service of the
League, however. Rather, it has been the
character and intelligence of the membership —
the ability to enter and comb any social, pro-
fessional, or business circle for information
without betraying that an inquiry was afoot.
From this angle alone the original idea was
pretty close to an inspiration, since it impro-
vised in the hour of need such an organization
as not even a generation of effort and many
million dollars could have built up.

Just because it was improvised and Its per-
sonnel kept secret, the League could meet the
most dangerous German agents on their own
ground and paralyze their efforts by keeping
them guessing. Propaganda dies on the lips
of the man who can't be certain that his listener
is not making mental notes for an official re-
port of the conversation. And the most subtle
scheme of spying or sabotage is bound to drag
when the plot master is harassed by doubts
of the native-born or naturalized accomplices
he must enlist for its execution.

One instance to show how much a local or-
ganization must depend upon its specialists.
Last summer it became necessary to know be-

217

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

yond question whether or not a prominent
young German-American in a seaboard city
was supplying the funds for the local agitation
against the draft. Suspicion attached to him
because he spent many evenings aboard his
fast-racing schooner in the yacht club harbour,
and could not be induced, in any polite and
casual way, to invite any of the League's yacht-
ing members aboard. His crew, two Scandi-
navians, were as voluble as oysters.

The schooner was being tuned up for the
annual club cruise late in July. Two extra sail-
ors would be needed for the race. The League
provided one of them. An upstanding young
American, too young for the first officers' train-
ing camp but in line for the second, was taken
into the League, carefully coached, and turned
loose in the harbour with a loaned cat-boat to
impress the German-American skipper with his
sailing skill. The boy finessed his approach
successfully and was asked to train with the
crew. But he found nothing material to report
until the schooner had actually w^on the big
race.

That night after the victory had been cele-
brated in a flood of champagne, which he alone
avoided, he quietly went through all the private
papers in the owner's cabin, made notes, or
copied all that referred in any way to pro-

218

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

German activities and returned by rail to the
home port next morning. It turned out that
the owner had been guilty of no real disloyalty,
though he had skirted the edge more than once;
but his papers pointed straight to the real source
of the propaganda and the latter was speedily
apprehended.

Another interesting case was that of a noted
pro-German "pacifist" who for months was
kept under surveillance without evidence being
secured which would bring a conviction under
the existing law. He had declared again and
again that nine out of ten Americans were
opposed to the war; that thousands of armed
men in Arizona, New Mexico, and western
Texas were only waiting for the signal to rise
against the Government; that another thousand
in New York City were watching for the same
signal and a leader. He even intimated that
he had been asked to be that leader. And
though the League could account for every
hour of his time, knew every citizen and Con-
gressman he had conferred with and most of
the folk he had written to, it was December
before an indictment could be secured against
him.

That this man is still at liberty, on bail,
until the courts reach the hearing of his case
is only a detail. The compensating facts are

219

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

that he served the League for some time as a
stalking horse for other citizens and ahens of
doubtful loyalty — that ultimately the close
watch on him cut down his activities — and
that under the amended espionage law any
one of a hundred things he did or said would
land him quickly in a Federal prison.

In the application of the Selective Service
Act the League has taken off the shoulders of
the Government one of its heaviest and most
important tasks. The draft was and is a
favoured field of German agents, who have
played upon ignorance and prejudice, religious
and union labour fears, racial antipathies, and
the baser emotions of cupidity and cowardice.
They have utilized every device to persuade
men to avoid their military obligations to the
country. To the League is assigned the task
of checking up all claims for exemptions and
all failures to appear before exemption boards.
This work, especially in the cities, has entailed
enormous labour.

Space forbids a complete review of the League,
but at least a paragraph may be inserted about
its organization, which is a model of simplicity
and flexibility. The League creates and is re-
sponsible for its own organization in all of its
branches. Executive control of the organi-
zation is centred in a Board of National

220

THE AMERICAN PROTECTIVE LEAGUE

Directors operating from National Headquar-
ters at Washington, D. C, in cooperation with
the Attorney-General and the officials of the
Bureau of Investigation of the Department of
Justice, and through the latter with other de-
partments and agencies of the Government.

In each local office the chief is supreme. He
investigates his own men, invites them to join,
and directs their work. As already stated,
there is a double organization of the local
field — a classified organization of trades, pro-
fessions, industries, hotels, large individual es-
tablishments, and office buildings; and a Bureau
of Investigation whose organization is territorial.
Uniform blanks for reports and records are made
up after models supplied by national headquar-
ters, and uniform methods of making investi-
gations are adopted. This simple plan allows
each local organization to select the types of
men that best suit its needs and to adapt itself
entirely to local conditions, while maintaining
at the same time complete touch and coopera-
tion with other communities, with the national
organization, and with the Government.

The success of the League is attested by
Attorney-General Thomas W. Gregory himself.
In his annual report to the Congress of the
United States he said of the League: "It has
proved to be invaluable and constitutes a most

221

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

important auxiliary and reserve force for the
Bureau of Investigation. . . . This organ-
ization has been of the greatest possible aid in
thousands of cases. ... Its work has been
performed in a thoroughly commendable manner
with a minimum of friction and complaint and
with motives of the highest patriotism. It is a
self-supporting organization, and it would be
difficult to exaggerate the value of its service
to the United States Department of Justice."

222

CHAPTER X
The German-Hindu Conspiracy

THE German-Hindu plot to foment revo-
lution in India is an international drama
with touches of ** Treasure Island" adventure
in the South Seas. The characters include Zim-
mermann, many German agents in the United
States (among them Bernstorff), some venal
Americans, and a horde of Hindus — some of
them ardent fanatics and some plain grafters.
The climax produced several executions, one
suicide, two cases of insanity, and a murder.
The production cost the Germans more than a
million dollars, and the net receipts were a
deficit. The scenes were laid in Berlin, Con-
stantinople, Switzerland, New York, Washing-
ton, Chicago, San Francisco, Socorro Island,
Honolulu, Manila, Java, Japan, China, Siam,
and India. The last act was laid in a Federal
penitentiary.

Writing from San Francisco, on November 4,
1916, Wilhelm von Brincken, the military attache
of the German Consulate, addressed a letter to
his father to be ''transmitted through the sub-

223

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

marine DctUschland on its second voyage from
the United States." The letter was never de-
Hvered; its boastful first paragraph and its later
candid text were read only by agents of the
United States Government. Von Brincken be-
gan:

My Dear Father: At last an opportunity presents it-
self to send an uncensored letter to all of you. May the
carrier, Germany's pride, have a happy voyage and reach
the home shore unscathed.

He then launched into bitter criticism of his
treatment at the Consulate, complaining es-
pecially of its niggardly support of his work.
Then he wrote (the italics are mine):

As you know, I am the head and organizer of the Hindu
Nationalists on the Pacific, Revolutionary and propa-
ganda work costs money — much money. Berlin knows
that and does not economize. The Consul General [¥T<inz
Bopp] also is under instructions to support the movement to
the best of his ability and to further it financially. How-
ever, there is a shortcoming in this respect. Whenever
money Is urgently needed and I report to that effect, I
invariably meet with the same opposition. In ninety-nine
cases out of a hundred, the required amount is refused.
As a result, the work suffers, is delayed, good opportuni-
ties are missed, and my people — the Hindus — are fre-
quently exposed to danger of their lives. Just how many
fell Into the hands of the English and were hung, owing to
unnecessary lack of funds. Is, of course, wholly beyond
our calculation. The "old man" evidently dislikes this
type of work and, therefore, has no understanding for it.

224

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

The other day a Hindu was here, who came directly from
Switzerland, as messenger from Mr. Fon JVesendonck, of
the Foreign Office {who has charge of Hindu matters there).
This Hindu wondered why work in San Francisco dragged
in such a manner and I told him quite frankly that if the
Hindu work were not reorganized from the ground up, and
made independent of the Consulate, the work would not
only suffer but half of it would be harmful. -

Later in the letter he says:

My Hindu described Wesendonck as a particularly
pleasing and fine person.

These extracts were written in November of

1916. They illuminate an earlier cable from

Von Wesendonck's chief, Zimmermann (the

German Foreign Minister in Berlin) written in

February of 1916 to Bernstorff at Washington,

which was '* transmitted respectfully for your

information" to Von Papen in New York, and

which reads as follows:

Berlin, Feb. 4, 19 16.
The German Embassy,

Washington.

In future all Indian affairs are to be exclusively handled
by the Committee to be formed by Dr. Chakravarty.
Dhriendra Sarkar and Heramba Lai Gupta, which latter
person has meantime been expelled from Japan, thus
cease to be independent representatives of the Indian
Independence Committee existing here.

Zimmermann.

In other words, before February, 1916, the
German Government had been plotting with

225

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Hindus in the United States for the national
independence of India. Indeed, they had begun
the work before 1914, and they had become
active in it in July of that year — before they
started the World War, but after they had de-
cided to start it. By December, they were
directing Indian plots from Berlin with rami-
fications in nearly every neutral country in the
world. Two of these plots were hatched in the
United States — one in San Francisco and one
in Chicago. They were conspiracies to organize
military expeditions to India. Our Govern-
ment spoiled both of them, and the day after
we went into the war, or on April 7, 191 7, the
United States' authorities arrested thirty-four
German-Hindu plotters in half a dozen cities
and subsequently convicted them all but one
of conspiracy.

The story begins in San Francisco. In 191 1,
a fanatical Indian agitator named Har Dayal
came to this country. He worked among the
large colonies of turbaned Hindu labourers on the
Pacific Coast who had succeeded the Chinese
and Japanese coolies in the orchards and gardens
and on the railroad tracks in that region of
abundant climate and scarce labour. Dayal or-
ganized the Hindu Pacific Coast Association and
established its headquarters in San Francisco,
to which these men came looking for a job or a

226

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

night'*s lodging, and where they were fed on
rice and revolution. Dayal next established a
printing plant and began to publish a paper
called Ghadr, which means The Revolution. The
Ghadr was out for blood. It preached Hindu
uprising in terms of assassination and dynamite.
The first number of the Ghadr was published
in November, 191 3. At once it disclosed a Ger-
man influence. In the issue of November 15,

1913, it printed these sentences: ''The Germans
have great sympathy with our movement, be-
cause they and ourselves have a common enemy
(the English). In the future Germany can
draw assistance from us, and they can render
us great assistance also.''

As the World War approached, this German
influence became more manifest. On July 21,

1914, two days before Austria's ultimatum to
Serbia, the Ghadr said :

"All intelligent people know that Germany is
an enemy of England. We also are mortal
enemies of England. So the enemy of our
enemy is our friend."

A week later, the Ghadr welcomed the ap-
proach of war:

**If this war does not start to-day, it will
to-morrow. So welcome! India has got her
chance. . . . Hasten preparations for meet-
ing with the speed of wind and storm, and no

227

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

sooner the war starts in Europe, you start a
mutiny in India/'

And on August 4th it declared:

"O Warriors! The opportunity that you
have been searching for years has come . . .
there is hope that Germany will help you/'

In all this the United States had no interest.
We were neutral, and what Germany did to
England was (we thought) England's lookout.
Also, we were "the asylum of the oppressed"
and *'the home of free speech" — and if the
Hindus thought they ought to talk revolution
we were not concerned. It was not until the
Hindus and the Germans started "gun running"
from our West Coast that we took a hand.

Har Dayal, nevertheless, was too ferocious
even for the home of free speech. Early in
1914, he made speeches so villainously offensive
to common decency and order that he was
arrested and held. for deportation on the ground
of being an undesirable alien. He jumped bail
in March and fled — to Berlin. He arrived there
about the time the war clouds began to darken
the skies of Europe, and found a sympathetic
haven in the German Foreign Office. In com-
pany with other Hindu revolutionists, and under
the fostering care of Von Wesendonck, he or-
ganized that "Indian Independence Committee
existing here" of which Zimmermann spoke

228

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

affectionately in his cable to Bernstorff, already
quoted.

In Har DayaFs place in San Francisco arose
another Hindu revolutionary leader, one Ram
Chandra. He succeeded to the management of
the Hindu Pacific Coast Association, to the
editorship of the Ghadr, and to the sympathetic
understanding with the German agents in San
Francisco. These German agents were Bopp,
the consul-general, and his staff, of whom Von
Brincken, the military attache, was the agent
with whom all personal dealings were carried
on. Of the scores of Hindus with unpro-
nounceable names and of their noisy speeches
and noisome writings, there is no need to make
record. But the warlike activities of the Hindus
and their German friends were important, dan-
gerous, and interesting.

On January 9, 191 5, W. C. Hughes, of 103
Duane Street, New York, shipped ten carloads
of freight to San Diego, Cal. The freight bill
was heavy — $11,783.74 — and it was prepaid by
a check on the Guaranty Trust Company,
signed by a German named Hans Tauscher.
This German was the well-known American
agent of Krupps, and it later developed that
the ten carloads of freight were eight thousand
rifles and four million cartridges. They were
sent to '*Juan Bernardo Bowen," in care of

229

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

M. Martinez & Company, ship brokers of San
Diego.

This same "Bowen," whose home address was
given as Topolobampo, Mexico, acting through
the same Martinez & Company, on January 19th,
chartered a saihng vessel for a round trip from
San Diego to Topolobampo. This vessel was
the Annie Larsen, The charter price was
$19,000, and this money was paid by J. Clyde
Hizar, of San Diego, ''Bowen's" attorney.
Hizar got the money by wire from a bank in
San Francisco, which in turn got it from a
woman depositor, who in turn got it from Von
Brincken, who in turn got it from the German
Consulate's funds. This roundabout method
was, of course, designed to conceal the German
source of the money.

At about the same time, a company was or-
ganized in San Francisco to buy the oil tanker
Maverick from the Standard Oil Company.
Fred Jebsen, former lieutenant in the German
Navy, put up the money. The Maverick was
commanded by Captain H. C. Nelson, and her
movements were directed by a young American
adventurer, J. B. Starr-Hunt, whom Jebson
put aboard as super-cargo (''super-cargo" is an
agent put aboard ship by the owner of the mer-
chandise to have charge of the cargo). Parts of
a statement subsequently made by young Starr-

230

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

Hunt tell the rest of the story of the Maverick
and the Annie Larsen :

"I was born in San Antonio, Texas, in Novem-
ber, 1892. I went to a German school in Mexico
for nine years. Then I was at Dr. Holbrook's
school for four years at Ossining-on-Hudson,
New York. I was then for a year at the Uni-
versity of Virginia; three months at the Univer-
^sity of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. Besides
this I always had private tutors. After leaving
the last-named college I joined my father's law
office in Mexico City. This was in the latter
part of 1912. My father is one of the leading
foreign lawyers in Mexico. In December, 191 2,
I started for San Francisco to join F. Jebsen
& Co., a German firm of shipping agents. I
worked in Jebsen's office from February, 191 3,
to April, 191 5; that is, up to the time I joined
the Maverick. I was not actually in Jebsen's
office all this time; I made several trips to
various parts of the U. S. A. and Mexico.

*' About 1st April, 1915, while I was at Chihua-
hua, I got a telegram from Jebsen asking me to
proceed at once to Los Angeles. I met Jebsen
there. He asked me if I cared to proceed to
San Jose del Cabo on the Maverick and then
transfer to another ship, the Annie Larsen^
either at San Jose del Cabo or at any other point
on the Mexican coast. He told me that the

231

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Anjiie Larsens cargo consisted of war material,
which was to be transhipped to the Maverick
at whatever point they should meet in Mexican
or Central American waters; that a man named
Page (I do not remember his initials, but per-
haps they were A. W.) who would be on the
Annie Larsen, was to take charge of the Maverick,
and that I myself was to take over the Annie
Larsen and proceed to trade with her in whatever
manner I might wish to, for six months, between
Mexican or Central American ports, but I was
not to return to any American port until after
the expiration of six months. He did not tell
me why the Annie Larsen was not to return to
an American port for six months, but the
reason was quite clear to me. As a matter of
fact, I had heard while I was in Chihuahua
that the Annie Larsen had departed from San
Diego with a cargo of war material, presumably
for some belligerent faction in Mexico. She
had cleared from San Diego for Topolobampo.
This fact had given rise to considerable comment
and notoriety. American papers had taken the
matter up, and the several arrests of Americans
and Mexicans made by the Government in San
Diego at the time were popularly believed to
have been in connection with the Annie Larsen
and her cargo. Evidently Jebsen, therefore,
thought that, if the Annie Larsen returned im-

232

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

mediately to an American port, complications
might arise. Jebsen was not explicit as to either
the destination, or the purpose, of the cargo.
One thing I was, however, sure of was that it
was not intended for the Mexican rebels. All
that Jebsen told me was that the cargo was
intended for the Orient, and in the course of
conversation he once mentioned Borneo.

"On the (?) of April, the Maverick finally
sailed from Los Angeles. On the morning of
that day Jebsen gave me a sealed letter, ad-
dressed to nobody, with verbal instructions to
hand it over to Page on the Annie Larsen
immediately after I met him. Jebsen seemed
to be anxious regarding this letter, and warned
me to be careful and to see that it fell into no other
hands. He also handed me another unaddressed
letter to be given to the same man. This was an
open letter which I read isoon after leaving Los
Angeles. There were two enclosures which
were printed. One was a circular or memorandum
of instructions as to how to work the machine
gun or a small Hotchkiss, the diagram of which
was given on the second enclosure. I am not
quite certain of the type of weapon drawn on
that second enclosure, but I think it was one
of the two I have mentioned. The printed
circular was evidently from the makers of that
arm, but the manufacturer's name was care-

233

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

fully cut out from it. Jebscn also handed me
a third letter, without address, for Page, and
open. It contained typewritten instructions as
to how to stow the cargo to be transhipped from
the Annie Larsen. It was just a short note,
more in the nature of a suggestion than in-
structions. It said that the cases containing
rifles were to be stowed in one of the two empty
tanks of the Maverick and flooded with oil.
The ammunition cases were to be stowed in the
other empty tank, which was not to be flooded
except as a last resort. This note, too, was
intended for Page. There was a fourth open
note for myself which contained suggestions as
to what I should do in future with the Annie
Larsen. Jebsen, at the same time, made over
to m^e a bundle, consisting of about ten letters,
with instructions to hand it over to Page. All
these letters were addressed to Captain 0th-
mann. Although Jebsen did not tell me so,
I concluded that 'Page' and *Othmann' were one
and the same man, and that *Page' was an as-
sumed name.

*'The day before sailing Jebsen introduced me
to a man named B. Miller, who, he said, was a
Swedish mining engineer, and who was going
on the Maverick as far as San Jose del Cabo, to
proceed thence to the mines near La Paz.
Jebsen asked me to assist Miller in taking five

234

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

'Persians' from Los Angeles to San Pedro, and in
finding quarters for them there for the night
as they were to go on board the Maverick the
following day. Jebsen told me nothing about
these five Persians except that they were going
with the Maverick as passengers right through
to her destination, and were to be signed on the
articles as anything. Accordingly I met Miller
again the same evening at the Los Angeles
railway station. I found five black men with
him. On seeing me, he said: ^Here are my men.'
He purchased tickets for them, and we all left
by train for San Pedro, where I found lodgings
for them in a cheap boarding-house for the
night.

**The next morning I went on board the
Maverick at San Pedro, where I met the Port
Commissioner and the crew, who were already
on board signed on. Captain Nelson was
present. Miller signed on as 'store-keeper'
and the five Persians as 'waiters.'

''One of the five Persian waiters, named
Jehangir, was evidently the leader and generally
kept himself away from the rest. As far as I
remember, the names of the others were Khan,
Dutt, Deen, and Sham Sher. Later on I dis-
covered that all these were false names. Je-
hangir's real name, I believe, was Hari Singh;
he signed his accounts and receipts as Hari

235

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Singh. I have no idea of the real names of
the others.

"Five days after leaving Los Angeles we
arrived at San Jose del Cabo, 27th April, I
think. There Miller left us, and there, at
Nelson's instance, I applied for and got fresh
clearance for 'Anjer, Java, via Pacific Islands.'
This is the first time that any definite port
was mentioned to me as the Maverick's des-
tination. There were evidently two reasons
for not obtaining this clearance from the original
port of departure; first, they did not want the
American authorities to know the precise desti-
nation of the Maverick, which already had roused
a certain amount of suspicion; and, secondly,
because, I am sure, such a clearance as we
desired would not be granted by any American
port. According to it the Maverick could have
touched at every island in the Pacific before
arriving at Anjer. Jebsen had given me to
understand that we might meet the Annie
Larsen at San Jose del Cabo, but she was not
there; so we left that port on the 28th of April
and proceeded to Socorro Island where we
arrived at 9 p. m. on the 29th and anchored in
a bay some thirty yards oflF the shore. As we
anchored, Nelson informed the crew that he
was expecting to meet at that place the schooner
Annie Larsen and asked them to be on the look-.

236

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

out for her. Altogether we were twenty-nine
days at that island waiting for the schooner,
which did not turn up after all. By the time
we had anchored it was very dark and the
first sign of life on the island was as camp fire
close to the shore. Shortly after, a small boat
pulled alongside with two American sailors in it.
One of them came on the bridge and saw the
captain, and after putting the question 'Are
you the people who are looking for the Annie
Lars en?' and getting a reply in the aflSrmative,
he said that the Annie Larsen had been at the
island, and being short of water, had left some
thirteen days before. He delivered a note to
Nelson stating that it was left by the Annie
Larsen s super-cargo, Page. Nelson passed the
note over to me to read. It was a short note in
English, saying: 'This will be delivered to you by
a member of the crew of the schooner Emma,
who will explain his own position. I have been
waiting for you a month, and am now going to
the Mexican West Coast for supplies and water.
I will return as soon as possible. Please await
my return.' (Signed) Tage.'

"The sailor man then told the following story:
that he and his companion in the boat and two
Mexican customs-house ofiScials, who were in
camp ashore, had left San Jose del Cabo some
time before on the small American schooner

237

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

Evwia, with a cargo of bark for the Mexican
port of Loreto; that the captain had proven
himself incompetent, and they had lost their
bearings, and after sailing for many days had
eventually arrived at this island, which the
master declared was a point close to Man-
zanillo, but which they discovered to be an
island. The mate had died at sea; the master's
name was Clarke. These four men declined to
go any farther with the captain of that ship
and preferred to be left on the island on the
off chance of being picked up by a passing vessel.
The captain and the cook, the only other mem-
bers of the crew, had left some days earlier for
the Mexican coast. At the same time the
Emma touched the island the Annie Larsen
was there, and she provided the castaways
with three empty water tanks, a rifle, and a few
provisions. Since the departure of the Annie
Larsen they were hoping for assistance being
sent to them from the Mexican coast. We
subsequently discovered that these castaways
had rigged up a sort of condenser with the aid
of their tanks and some old piping.

**The castaway who came on the Maverick
at Socorro further told us that Page had told
him that he had left another letter buried
somewhere on the island close to the shore by
the bay, which could be easily found if we

238

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

would make a search for it. Assisted by some
of the castaways I made a search for the second
note left by Page and found it buried in a
bottle under a sign which read: Took Here/
The second note was a lengthy repetition of
the first. Page asked us to help the castaways
but cautioned us not to take them aboard our
ship. He said he would return as soon as he
could get water and that we were to wait for
him. I returned to the ship with the note
and read it out to Nelson. Disregarding Page's
warning not to take the castaways aboard, he
immediately asked them to come aboard, if they
cared, which they did. They remained on the
Maverick till the 6th of May when the American
collier (Government ship) Nanshan arrived and
took them off.

"The following Thursday, 13th May, H. M. S.
Kent arrived; two officers boarded us immedi-
ately and examined our papers. They returned
and came on again the next morning accom-
panied by several marines. They made a
thorough search of the vessel this time and
returned to their ship. Nelson returned the
call. On his return Nelson told me that the
Kent's commander had questioned him rather
closely as to what the Maverick was doing
there and that in reply he had told him
that he could not disclose his real purpose

239

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

but in a roundabout sort of way hinted
that she was there in connection with the
Mexican troubles. The Kent remained there for
about forty hours, during which I struck up
an acquaintance with several of the officers. I
directed them where good fishing and shooting
were to be had and provided them with a few
supplies. Although there was no water to be
had on that island there were plenty of wild
sheep. I am unable to say how they existed
without water outside the rainy season.

'*The Annie Larsen not turning up, we left
about the 26th of May. Just before we left
I went ashore and left there two notes in bottles
for the Annie Larseii addressed to Page in case
the ship should turn up after we had left. I
put one of the bottles in a conspicuous place
in the castaways' camp. This note read as
follows: 'Consult our Post Office.' by 'our
Post Office' I meant the place where Page him-
self had buried his note for us. The other
bottle I buried where I had found Page's, and put
up another signboard saying 'Look again.' This
note told Page all that had occurred during our
stay at the island and that we were going some-
where where we could get further instructions.

** Immediately after the first boarding party
from H. M. S. Ke7it had left the Maverick after
going through our papers, I was sent for by

240

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

Captain Nelson on the bridge. When I got up
there I found him in conversation with Jehangir.
I gathered from Nelson that Jehangir had aboard
two sacks and six suitcases full of literature
which he was very anxious to hide from the
Kent. We were expecting another visit from
the Kent for the purpose of searching the ship,
and Jehangir said he would not like the literature
to fall into the hands of the Kent party. Jehangir
did not like the idea of destroying the literature
and suggested that it should be quietly taken
ashore and buried there, pending the departure
of the Kent. Neither Nelson nor myself fell
in with the suggestion and were of opinion
that it should be destroyed straight away, if
it were dangerous to retain it. Jehangir event-
ually agreed to this and said he would just
keep a sample of the various papers and pam-
phlets he had. Nelson grumbled even at that.
I am not sure whether Jehangir did really pre-
serve any specimens, but I think he did. The
two sacks with their contents and the con-
tents of the six suitcases were immediately
burnt in the engine room. I personally saw
some of this literature. It was all printed
matter in a character unknown to me. Some
of it was in newspaper form, some in leaflets,
but most of it was in the form of pamphlets;
the outside cover being mostly pink. The six

241

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

empty suitcases were appropriated by various
members of the crew, I took one of them myself,
and it is with me at the present moment.
Later I learned from Jehangir that the literature
was printed in San Francisco and copies of it
'existed' in Constantinople and Berlin.

** After depositing the two notes on the shore,
we weighed anchor. Nelson informed me that
he intended proceeding to San Diego . . .

*' After about thirty hours' absence ashore at
San Diego the party returned to the Maverick,
bringing with them a few supplies. Nelson in-
formed me that he was now going to Hilo,
Hawaii, and when we were well under way he
told me that from the Brewster Hotel, San
Diego, he had rung up Jebsen at San Francisco
on the long distance telephone and was told
in reply to wait at the hotel until he heard from
him (Jebsen) further. The following morning
he got a wire from Jebsen instructing Nelson
to proceed to Hilo, Hawaii, where he would
receive further orders. Nelson said he had no
word of the Annie Larsen.

*' We left for Coronados Island on or about the
2d of June and arrived at Hilo on or about the
14th. Port officials came alongside and de-
manded who we were and what out business was.
The captain told them what sort of clearance
we had and that we had entered Hilo to commu-

242

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

nicate with his owners. At about 8 p. m., when
it was dark, Captain Elbo, of the war-bound
German merchantman Ahlers, came alongside in
a small dinghy rowed by one German sailor and
asked to be allowed aboard to speak to the
captain. Nelson spoke to him over the rail,
declining to take the German captain aboard as
the health officer had not cleared the ship, but
offered to see him the following morning. Be-
fore Elbo left, however, he passed a note up to
Nelson, who showed it to me later on in his
cabin. It read as follows: ^Maverick is to
proceed to Johnson Island and then await the
arrival of the schooner Annie Larsen and the
rest of the ship's programme is to be just as
settled before,' namely, that after transferring
the cargo to the Maverick, the Maverick was to
proceed on her original voyage.

"Later Captain Elbo took us to the office of
Hackfield & Company. There we met a young
German named Schroeder who, Elbo gave us to
understand, was the chief representative of the
Maverick Company at Honolulu and had spe-
cially come down to Hilo to meet Nelson about
Maverick's future plans. It appeared that while
we were still at the Collector's office a war-
telegrams slip had been out, and among other
items of interest was mentioned the arrival in
Hilo of the mysterious ship Maverick^ whose

243

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

captain had made a statement that he had been
trading in the South Sea Islands and he intended
leaving for Anjer, Java, stopping at Johnson
Island on the way. Schroeder had seen this
slip just before we called on him and was
apparently highly indignant that Nelson should
have disclosed the future movements of the
Maverick to the press representative. Schroeder
told Nelson that it would be impossible for him
to permit him, Nelson, to go on to Johnson
Island after the news had been made public and
that he, Schroeder, would have now to recast
his plans. He asked Nelson to wait at Hilo
till he should hear from him from Honolulu,
where he, Schroeder, must return to arrange
for fresh plans. At Nelson's request Schroeder
authorized Hackfield to pay all bills 'O. K'd'
by Nelson and to give him such money as he
might require.

*'Thus we were at Hilo close on two weeks,
during which time I personally attended to all
the ship's needs. I was assisted by Captain
Elbo.

** A couple of days before we sailed from Hilo,
Nelson and I met Elbo and another captain of a
war-bound German merchantman in Honolulu,
who, we were told, had specially come down to
give Nelson final instructions. The Honolulu
captain told us that the original plans of the

244

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

Maverick were now finally abandoned, as it was
impossible to use the Maverick any more for the
purpose she was intended for, in view of the
notoriety she had obtained. The Maverick was
now to proceed to Anjer-Java, calling at Johnson
Island; that on arrival at Anjer she was to clear
for Batavia and report herself to Behn Meyers,
the Maverick Company's agents. Elbo and the
Honolulu captain came aboard the Maverick.
The Honolulu captain had a private talk with
me alone in my cabin. He handed me a sealed
packet which evidently contained a plate of
something heavy. The letter was unaddressed.
I was instructed to hand this over to Helfferich
at Behn Meyers upon arrival in Batavia. I did
not know then who this Helfferich was, nor did
I ask who he was. I was merely told that
he was the manager of Behn Meyers. I was
asked to be careful of that letter, and I was not
to give it to anybody else. Shortly after, the
Honolulu captain and Elbo left, and we put
to sea.

**When we were a couple or three days out of
Hilo, Hari Singh, during a conversation, referred
once more to the literature we had destroyed at
Socorro, and said that it was the product of many
of his countrymen who were in America and that
he himself had contributed to it. He claimed to
have the whole of it by heart and could repeat it

245

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

without mistake. He was evidently an exile,
for he said that 'during the many years of his
exile from India' he had at various times written
a good deal against the British rule in India.
He gave me to understand that formerly he
belonged to the Indian Army. He said his
home was in the far interior of the country
inhabited by ignorant classes, and that if he
could only succeed in getting to them, he would
easily incite them to revolt against the British
Government by promising to provide them with
arms and ammunition. He was still under the
impression that we were on our way to India, and
said that he knew the place we were bound for
very well, and so did the other four, and that
he could be of great assistance after we got
there.

"We got to Johnson Island five days after our
departure from Hilo. There was no Annie Lar-
sen there. I went ashore together with the mate
and left a bottle with a message as follows:
The American steamer Maverick entered and
cleared here to-day.' We left there the same
afternoon and made for Anjer, Java. After over
three weeks' voyage we arrived at Anjer about
the 20th of July. After examination we asked for
and obtained permission to proceed to Batavia,
and we set sail the same afternoon accompanied
by a Dutch torpedo boat. Early next morning

246

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

we arrived outside Batavia, and later we were
taken into port by the harbour master.

"Two or three days outside Anjer I read the
letter made over to me by Jebsen at Los Angeles
for Page. Owing to Jebsen's warning to be care-
ful about it, I had always carried this letter on
my person so as not to lose it. The result was
that the envelope had almost fallen to bits;
now and again I put the letter, together with the
old cover, into a new envelope, but toward the
end they, too, got broken up. So I had not to
open it to read it. The contents were type-
written in German, and were a sheet and a half
of the ordinary square business paper. As far
as I am able to recollect, the letter read as
follows : *Upon the meeting of the Annie Larsen
with the Maverick at . . . (blank) the
transhipment of the cargo must be commenced
at once. The official reason to be given out
was that the Maverick is going to Batavia or
some other Oriental port to be sold or chartered.
It may be suggested that she is good for oil
trade on the China Coast. The cases con-
taining rifles should be stowed in one of the two
empty tanks and flooded, and the cases of
ammunition should be placed in the other, but
need not be flooded unless as a last resort.
Maverick should then proceed to Anjer, Java.
No attempt is to be made to escape from British

247

FIGHTING GERMANY^S SPIES

warships, if encountered at sea, nor should she
try to avoid meeting merchantmen or warships
of other nationaHties. In case of her meeting
a warship she should act in a manner abso-
lutely open and above suspicion. In case of her
being boarded by enemy officers all cordiality
should be shown to them, and, in fact, an in-
spection should actually be offered, to put them
off their suspicion. Under no condition is the
steamer or the cargo to be permitted to fall
into their hands. Should the cargo be dis-
covered, and should there be no escape from
capture, the Captain is ordered not to hesitate
to have recourse to the last resort, namely, to
sink the ship. Upon arriving at Anjer the
Maverick will be met in the Sunda Strait by
a small friendly boat which will instruct you
regarding further details. Should you not be
met at Anjer you are to proceed to Bangkok,
where you are to arrive toward dusk. Here
you will be met by a German pilot who will
give you further instructions; should you not
be met here, also, you are to proceed to Karachi.
Outside Karachi the Maverick is to be met by
numerous small friendly fishing craft. The
fishing craft, together with the five blacks
aboard, will attend to the unloading and landing
of the cargo. Two of the blacks should go
ashore immediately on arrival and proceed in-

248

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

land to notify your arrival to *'the people."
The remaining three blacks and the friendly
natives will assist in burying the cargo. Should
no friendly fishing boats meet you, two of the
blacks should go ashore and do the notifying
of the people.'

"After the mission was over, that is whether
the Maverick was successful or not, she was to go
to Batavia and report to Behn Meyers & Com-
pany. The last instruction in the letter was
that all undelivered papers were to be handed
over to Behn Meyers. In accordance with this
I made over the letter to Helfferich on our
arrival.

'* After we had been iathe harbour (Batavia)
for about an hour or so a German came aboard
and introduced himself as Kolbe, 2d Officer of
the war-bound merchantman Silesia, Nelson
signed me to leave them alone, which I did.
After they had conversed for about twenty
minutes, Kolbe, Nelson, and myself went ashore
together and motored down to Helfferich's
residence at Konigsplein W. 8. On the way
we stopped at the American Consulate; Nelson
went in alone. While waiting for him outside
in the car I had a talk with Kolbe. He knew
all about the Maverick and her mission. When
I told him that I should like to interview the
manager of Behn Meyers to deliver the letter

249

FIGHTING GERMANY^S SPIES

given to mc by Dinart at Hilo, Kolbe replied
that Helfferich, the man we were on our way
to, was the manager and I could make the
letter over to him. Dinart had not mentioned
Helfferich by name at the time of handing
the letter to me. He asked me just to de-
liver it to Behn Meyers. When Nelson joined
us again we proceeded to Helfferich's place
where I met for the first time the brothers
Theodore and Emile Helfferich. Kolbe and I
retired to another part of the house while
Nelson and the brothers held a conversation
for half an hour or so. After Nelson had done,
he left with Kolbe, leaving me with the brothers.
I spent about an hour with them. I gave
Theodore Helfferich Dinart's letter which he
opened in my presence. It was a typewritten
sheet in code. Helfferich said it would take
him some time to decode it. The ^weight' inside
the letter I have spoken of was what looked like
a thin slab of lead enclosed in another cover.
Helfferich opened this cover and on seeing that
it was a thin slab, threw it aside without taking
the trouble of examining it closely. I have no
idea what it was for, but I imagine that in
case it had to be suddenly thrown overboard
the weight inside the cover would sink the
letter at once. I told them all about our trip,
and showed them the letters I had brought with

250

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

me. Helfferich read the letter intended for
Page, and remarked that the arrangements
made at this end were substantially the same
as those indicated in the letter. He said the
signals were the same, and password was the
same, and the code was the same. Emile
spoke up and said that he had waited for the
Maverick for three weeks in the Sunda Strait.
They deeply regretted the failure of the Maverick
in not bringing the arms and said that their
arrangements on this side were excellent and
they were only waiting the arrival of the cargo
when they could have easily put their whole
scheme through. They observed that 'the
people' in India were all ready and prepared
and had only been waiting for the arms to turn
up. They did not discuss their own scheme
with me. Theodore Helfferich expressed his dis-
gust at the Maverick being thrust upon him
and could not understand the object of her
being sent to Batavia when she was not carrying
the cargo, and when she could have as easily
returned to America. It was then arranged
that I should take up my lodging in a hotel
ashore and in the meantime Helfferich would
decipher the code letter. Things were to be
left alone until he had read that.

"A couple of days after, I was rung up by
Helfferich and I went and saw him at his place

251

FIGHTING GERMANY^S SPIES

in the evening. He had deciphered the letter
which had ^originated' from San Francisco.
Helfferich said that the letter directed the
abandonment of the Maverick, which was either
to be sold or chartered to anybody or that she
could be used for any regular purpose if Helf-
ferich so desired. She was, if not sold, to be
retained in this part of the world and on no
account to be returned to America."

So fizzled the German-Hindu gun-running
expedition to India. The Maverick had arrived,
with five "Persians" and no guns, at a Dutch port
in the Indies — not India. The Hindus and the
crew scattered to the winds; Starr-Hunt started
to return to Los Angeles but was detained by
the British authorities at Singapore, and ulti-
mately appeared in the Federal court-room at
San Francisco as the chief witness for the
Government in its case against the German
consul and his staff, the complacent Americans,
and the Hindu conspirators. The Annie Larsen
wandered up and down the Pacific Coast, and
finally put in at Hoquiam, Wash., where she
was promptly seized and her cargo of arms
and ammunition locked up by the United
States Government.

Von Brincken bore bitter testimony to the fail-
ure of the Maverick expedition, in the course of a
"Report Concerning My Activities at the Im-

252

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

perial Consulate in San Francisco, California" —
a report written November lo, 1916, and in-
tended for the eyes of the German Foreign
Office. He said :

"I complied with that instruction and met
Ram Chandra and other leaders of the Hindu
Nationalists, and there laid the foundation for
the entire Hindu work which has since then been
carried out here on the Pacific. ... Up to
the present date, I have fulfilled this assignment
absolutely alone ... Mr. Von Schack has
seen Ram Chandra only a few times during the
entire period — ^while Consul-General Bopp saw
the man only once. I had nothing to do with
the ship-matters in connection with the Hindu
affair. Therefore, I am not responsible for the
failure of the 'Maverick Expedition.' I had only
planned the point of landing at Karachi. Besides,
through messengers, I had prepared the populace
of the Punjab for the arrival of the Maverick''

At the time of the Maverick enterprise, and
after its failure, the Germans engineered a half
dozen plots with the Hindus, looking toward
revolution in India. Von Papen in New York
directed a scheme for an incursion into north-
western India through Afghanistan. The Ger-
man Consul-General in Chicago shipped two
German officers and two Hindu agitators to
the Orient to train Hindu soldiers in upper Siam

253

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

for an invasion of Burma. Wcsendonck sent
Har Dayal from Berlin to Constantinople to
act as chairman of a committee of Moham-
medans who were to incite the Mussulman
population of India to revolt. Ram Chandra,
at the instigation of Von Brincken, sent Hindu
emissaries from San Francisco to organize revo-
lutionary movements among the Indians in Ma-
nila, Tokyo, Shanghai — even in Seoul and Peking.
Other emissaries, gathering men and money or
transmitting messages, worked in Panama, in
Switzerland, in the Sinai Peninsula, in Sweden —
scarcely a country in the world but was touched
by a filament of this spider's web of German
intrigue.

And, like gossamer, it all came to airy nothing-
ness. A few dacoities [robberies accompanied
by violence], a few vain attempts to suborn
loyal native troops in India, were the net results
of enormous labours, lengthy journeys, and huge
expenditures of money.

By December, 1915, the German Govern-
ment tecame impatient of this much ado about
nothing. But it did not abandon hope. Zim-
mermann summoned a little, nervous, excitable
Hindu from New York to Berlin. Dr. Chak-
ravarty left America on a false passport, and in
February, 1916, was appointed in Berlin to head
the Indian intrigues in America. Zimmermann's

254

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

cable to Bernstorff, quoted in the first part of
this article, notified the German authorities here
of his appointment. By August, Dr. Chakrav-
arty was in San Francisco, consulting with Ram
Chandra and the Germans there.

Chakravarty and Ram Chandra had one thing
in common — both knew the value of real estate.
Out of their joint operations in the insubstantial
pursuit of Indian liberty, each emerged with
some perfectly sound investments in mundane
property, paid for with money subtracted from
the German gold that passed through their hands
for the '* freeing of the oppressed." Chakrav-
arty put about forty thousand dollars into New
York apartments, and Ram Chandra several
thousands into residence and business property
in San Francisco.

Ram Chandra's real-estate ventures got him
into trouble. They gave the needed opportunity
to his rival for control of the Hindu organization
in California. This rival was Bhagwan Singh,
the poet and orator of the "Movement.'' Late
in 1916, he accused Ram Chandra of stealing
Hindu funds. The directors of the Hindu
Pacific Coast Association investigated the charge,
and threw Ram Chandra out. Bhagwan Singh
became president of the association and editor
of the Ghadr. A few months later, when the
United States entered the war, the whole crew

255

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

was arrested, along with the German agents
in San Francisco and Honolulu and with the
Americans and German-Americans implicated in
the Maverick enterprise.

The trial of these men was one of the most
picturesque scenes ever enacted in an American
court. In the prisoner's dock aggressive blond
German officers sat beside anaemic, swarthy,
turbaned Hindus and plain American business
men. To make the evidence intelligible to the
jury, a map of half the world was painted on one
wall of the court-room, showing America and
Asia and the Pacific Ocean, splotched with red
dots and routes of travel. Beside the map were
printed the names of the defendants, so that
their strangeness might be somewhat simplified.
Among the polyglot evidence were Hindu publi-
cations in six Oriental languages, including Per-
sian; cipher messages which, when deciphered,
proved to be an Indian revolutionist's letters
which had to be translated by reference to page
and line of an American's book about '* Germany
and the Germans"; enciphered code, written
in Berlin by the German Foreign Minister,
transmitted to Stockholm and thence by the
Swedish Government to Buenos Aires and thence
by Count Luxburg to Bernstorff in Washington,
telling him to pay an East Indian in New York
money for use in San Francisco to send arms to

256

THE GERMAN-HINDU CONSPIRACY

revolutionists near Calcutta — besides other
oddities of men and places and documents too
numerous to mention.

The episode of the Maverick and the Annie
Lars en occupied a large place in the trial. One
of the humours of that fiasco was the proof that
"Juan Bernardo Bowen," of Topolobampo,
Mexico, was a romantic imagining to conceal
plain Bernard Manning of San Diego. There
was no Juan Bernardo. The man who got
Tauscher's shipment of arms for the Annie
Larsen was Manning.

The prosecution proved that the funds for
the purchase of the Maverick and for the charter
of the Annie Larsen were got from the German
Consulate's bank accounts in San Francisco, and
were concealed by an elaborate jugglery through
a chain of American lawyers and shipping agents
in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

The end of the story is briefly told in the
following despatch to the New York Sun^ dated
San Francisco, April 24, 1918:

Twenty-nine men, charged with conspiring on Ameri-
can soil to start a revolution against British rule in India,
were found guilty by a jury in Federal Court early to-day.

Just as court adjourned for the noon recess yesterday,
the last day of the trial, Ram Singh, a defendant, shot
and killed Ram Chandra, another defendant. United
States Marshal James Holohan shot Ram Singh dead in his
tracks.

257

CHAPTER XI

Dr. Scheele, Chemical Spy

ONE day the Department of Justice in
Washington received a brief code message,
dated from Havana, saying that *'Dr. Scheele"
was coming home. The War Department also
had received a code message; these started
a little hum of activity. The messages gave
a key to the possession of certain papers.
Hurriedly a special agent of the Department
of Justice was provided with a letter written in
the cipher designated. The agent spoke Ger-
man, looked German, and hastened to the home
of an unsuspecting custodian of some of the
Fatherland's most damaging records, and there
arranged with the guardian for a safer place
for such papers. But the duly-accredited
messenger wasn't German at all, and the
papers handed over widened out the trail of
one big German plot.

Who was this Dr. Scheele? He was a quiet
German chemist who sometimes aided the
police in detecting traces of crime. Didn't
his neighbours know him? Of course; he was

258

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

that genial and entertaining German-American
who owned a drug store in Brooklyn, one of
the desirable kind of citizens, the law-abiding
kind of foreigner whom we welcomed in our
midst. Did the business world know him?
Yes; he was president of the New Jersey Agri-
cultural Chemical Company, a concern which
kept its contracts and paid its debts. America
was satisfied with this president, the adopted
son, who had married an American wife and
resided peacefully among us for twenty-four
years. Why not ^

When the French liner La Lorraine caught
fire at sea with hospital nurses and supplies
of mercy on board, what could this have to do
with an inconspicuous druggist in Brooklyn.^ —
or when numerous ships sailed loaded with sugar
or supplies for the needy neutrals abroad, and
never after were heard oU

Finally a British cruiser with an inquisitive
captain overhauled the steamship Rize which
was carrying a cargo of fertilizer badly needed
for the fields in Denmark. There was nothing
particularly suspicious about a cargo packed
in sacks, just ordinary brown powdered fer-
tilizer of the most common variety and shipped
by the New Jersey Agricultural Chemical Co.
But for some reason the papers didn't entirely
satisfy. The cargo was confiscated, analyzed,

259

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

and an astonished chemist reported that the
*' fertilizer" was composed of highest grade
lubricating oil, mixed with a certain chemical
which had reduced the oil to a solid but when
the mixture was treated with a little acid
the sacks yielded oil fit for the Kaiser's best
Unterseeboten,

The Department of Justice paid an official
call on the New Jersey company — the "Pres-
ident" was away; he remained away during
two years of very painstaking search by the
officials of the Department's secret service,
which had an ever-increasing desire to make
the acquaintance of the inconspicuous chemist
who seemed to possess some of the mythical
powers of the ancient alchemists.

There seemed also to be an unusual bank
account connected with this gentleman, engaged
in such magnificent business enterprises, that
yielded such meagre profits, as were evidenced
by the President's home life and general cir-
cumstances. Who is he, and where is he.?
were questions that vexed the bureau in Wash-
ington. Two years rolled by; numbers of
Germans connected with "the Doctor" were
sent to jail, but only rumours were got of trails
of the chemist.

Fate, however, transferred our story to the
shadowy neighbourhood of Morro Castle; there,

260

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

an excited and still unidentified German who
was trying to board a vessel at Matanzas,
Cuba, for a port in Mexico, was brought into
Havana in front of the bayonets of a not-too-
careful Rural Guard. Then a newly arrived
representative of the Department of Justice
undertook some negotiations with the Cuban
Government for a safe passage back for a
certain Dr. Walter T. Scheele and his pay-
master.

An ancient fort, which is the military prison
in Havana and a part of the old fortified wall
which follows the water front of the picturesque
harbour, was shrouded in darkness when the
hour of departure arrived. Between the old
fort and the grim outline of "the Morro"
lay a Cuban gunboat with black smoke pouring
out of her funnels; a tropical storm blowing
in over the Gulf Stream alternately darkened
the sky a deeper tone and lit it up with vivid
lightning flashes. Presently a little group ap-
peared on the sea walls and a flash of lightning
showed an American in plain clothes, the regalia
of the agents of Justice and a colonel of the
regular army who were signing a receipt for
two quiet figures in alpine hats. A courteous
Cuban officer saluted and shook hands with
the departing guests, handcuffs were silently
slipped on to thick German wrists, and the little

261

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

steam pinnace of the warship sped off through
the darkness alongside its gangway.

An interview none the less sombre and creepy
occurred on the other side of the Gulf Stream
within the walls of Fort Taylor. Two automobiles
had driven up in the darkness to an emplace-
ment beneath the shadow of a heavy gun. The
party which had left Havana descended in a
dimly lighted courtyard where a squad of non-
commissioned officers was waiting. One figure
in an alpine hat had to be lifted from the
automobile while the other stood erect.

Here is the story of Dr. Scheele, the more im-
portant of these two agents of the Kaiser:

Twenty-five years ago a German youth (one
of the favourite pupils of the great chemist,
Professor Keukle) graduated at Bonn. He
came of an illustrious family; his grandfather,
the Swedish professor, Scheele, discovered
chlorine gas. His father, born in Germany,
died in the discovery of ''prussic acid," the
most quickly fatal drug known. The youth,
with sixteen deep scars on his head and face
from duelling under the vicious German code,
was a man of proved valour. Who was better
to send to the great developing home of liberty
and freedom and study its industry, and pre-
pare for a day which was already dazzling the
newly enthroned Kaiser?

262

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

Dr. Hugo Schweitzer was chosen to go with
him and collaborate. He, as the head of the
Bayer Chemical Company — a German concern
that practically monopolized the trade in syn-
thetic drugs in the United States — was to report
on, to model, or undermine our development of
industrial chemistry. Dr. Scheele was to re-
port on and develop the plan and chemistry
of warfare, explosives, incendiaries, poison gas,
and the products Germany should import and
accumulate to make her sure and independent
on the day she should strike the world. Did
these young men faithfully accomplish their
tasks ?

Dye making was almost an unknown art in
America when the war broke out; chlorine gas was
a laboratory curiosity; potash was a German
salt — we had been led to believe our millions of
tons of the mineral were insoluble. Where neces-
sary, those of our chemists who had learned the
secrets were retained and paid. The list of our
chemical houses reads Hke the telephone di-
rectory of Unter den Linden, and the Alien
Property Custodian has since spent many nights
over their affairs.

While the German plenipotentiaries were
busy at The Hague agreeing to the elimination
of poison gas and incendiaries from warfare,
their chemists in the United States, paid

263

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

regularly but meagrely through the Embassy
at Washington, exchanged views in writing
and by cable with the chemists of the Father-
land over the most fatal methods for the use
of the gas which had just been developed for
the purpose.

Mustard gas was used against the Allies
in 1917, a new and atrocious device, *'only
discovered and recently used by the Germans
because of the brutality of their enemies/'
A few formulae for this product were in Dr.
Scheele's laboratory in New York about five
years before the war, and tactics of the uses
discussed in the trips which he made home every
two years "to keep up to date."

Two methods of stifling American production
have not yet been mentioned. The first was
this : When a man began to make a reputation
as a chemist in an American-owned concern,
he was hired away to work for a German-
owned factory. Salary was no consideration;
they simply bid the price required to get him.
The second method was: when an American
chemist invented a new product or a new
process, and patented it, it was bought from
him before it could be commercially developed.
Again price was no consideration. The only
instructions were: "Pay as little as you can,
but get it."

264

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

The operation of this system was the duty
of Dr. Scheele and Dr. Schweitzer. Report-
ing to them was at least one loyal German
chemist in every chemical factory in the United
States; dozens of them in the larger ones. At
their disposal were the resources of the Imperial
German Government. These, too, were made
accessible through Dr. Heinrich Albert in
German-American banking and brokerage con-
cerns, chiefly G. Amsinck & Company, the
Trans-Atlantic Trust Company, and Knauth,
Nochode & Kuhne, of New York, every one of
them in reality a local American agency of one
or another of the imperially controlled banks of
Germany and Austria — such as the Reichsbank,
the Disconto Gesellschaft, or the Deutsche Bank.

The chief of these American branches was
G. Amsinck & Company, operating as commis-
sion merchants and private bankers. The head
of this concern was Adolf Pavenstedt, an
accomplished man of the world, a shrewd
banker, and under the iron discipline of the
Kaiser's military organization. Pavenstedt
lived at the German Club in Central Park
South, in New York, took his vacations in
Cuba in the winter and the Berkshires in the
summer, was received in the best society in
New York, passed easily in Wall Street as a
man of large personal fortune and of sound

265

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

business judgment — altogether a characteristic
German hypocrite and government agent acting
under Dr. Albert and Bernstorff. He was a
paymaster of Germany's nation-wide organi-
zation to control our industrial life, to spy
out our military plans, and to keep us power-
less against the day when Prussia should be
ready to sweep the world. He was also the finan-
cial go-between in the Bolo Pasha case. Fortu-
nately, he has now long been a resident of an
Army internment camp.

Two years ago the Government indicted
Dr. Scheele for his part in the incendiary
bomb plot. The details of this fiendish device
will be given later in the story. Dr. Scheele
was forewarned of probable detection on the
31st of March, 1916, by a special-delivery
letter telling him to see Wolf von Igel immedi-
ately at 60 Wall Street in New York. Von
Igel told him to start for Cuba by the next train.
Dr. Scheele feared that such a precipitate
flight would expose him to certain arrest.
Hence, he violated his instruction and went
south to Jacksonville by easy stages. There
he called upon one Sperber, the editor of the
Florida Deutsche Staatszeittcng, who warned
him not to sail from Key West, as that port
was being watched both by our ofiScers and
by the British cruisers outside the three-mile

266

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

limit. Sperber gave Dr. Scheele letters of
introduction and credentials under the name
of W. T. Rheinfelder, to act as a correspondent
for his paper. He supplied him also with
fake calling cards and other forged documents,
establishing him in his role. Still fearing to
leave for Cuba, he waited.

His superiors again instructed him to go
to Cuba. He landed in Cuba on April i6th.
There he reported to the German Minister,
Count Verdy du Vernois, who passed him on
to an attache of the Legation with this strange
result: that Dr. Scheele next found himself
installed as a ^'guest" in the house of one Juan
Pozas, under the name of James G. Williams,
and in the character of a visiting American.

His strange and unexpected host appeared
at first to be simply a wealthy Cuban merchant.
His manner of life strengthened this impression.
Dr. Scheele found himself comfortably installed
in a large room in a magnificent house, sur-
rounded by grounds of a city block square,
in the suburb Guana Bacca of Havana. In
reality, Pozas was the king of the Cuban
smugglers. His splendid establishment and his
social prestige rested upon a picturesque founda-
tion of the work of silent men in little boats
working in the dark of the moon along the
tropical Cuban shore.

267

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

To Dr. Scheele, Pozas soon appeared to be
not only host but jailer. Though he was
treated with every courtesy and as a member
of the family, he was not allowed outside the
house for six months after his arrival. The
confinement so told upon his health that he
was finally permitted the freedom of the garden,
and, to while away the time, he worked among
the flowers, making at length a beauty spot
of the whole place. At the same time, he was
devoting other spare hours to covering the
walls of the Pozas mansion with beautiful
mural paintings. Again it may be noted that
Dr. Scheele is a remarkable man.

In this strange retreat the doctor spent
two years. Then suddenly, without warning,
he was hurried hither and yon about the island,
travelling under guard by automobile by night,
and lying hidden by day in the houses of trusted
German agents. He finally arrived at Man-
tanzas. Here, the man in whose house
he was to stay hidden became fearful that he
would be discovered there and the man him-
self get into desperate trouble. He, therefore,
directed Dr. Scheele to a neighbouring hotel,
but the doctor was unable to obtain accommo-
dation, so that he spent the night sitting in a
railroad station.

Simultaneously another German of Havana
268

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

was taken into custody. He was implicated
in the Scheele affair by reason of his payments
to the doctor, besides being involved in numer-
ous violations of the neutrality of Cuba, for
which the Cuban Government meant to hold
him responsible.

The close investigation of this man revealed
much valuable data. A collection of papers
had been buried by Dr. Scheele in the tropical
garden he had built about the Pozas mansion.
There they were unearthed by the agent of
the Department of Justice of the United States
who had gone to Cuba to bring him back.
Taking a pick and shovel and digging among
the flowers cherished by the doctor, he found
these damning documents from Potsdam, con-
taining their secret instructions for the working
out of the industrial conquest of Vereinigten
Staaten — These United States.

Another set of documents was obtained by
a very clever piece of work by agents of the
Department of Justice. These were papers
left behind by Wolf von Igel when he left
the United States — papers that he dared not
risk having seized and read by the British
authorities on his way to Germany. They
were packed in a suitcase and were committed
to the care of a German in Englewood, New
Jersey. On instructions from the head office

269

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

of the Department of Justice in Washington,
agents in the New York office of the Depart-
ment wrote out in German, on a typewriter,
the letter telHng this German to dehver the
suitcase to the bearer and including in its mes-
sage the magic password. This letter was
entrusted to an agent who spoke German
perfectly.

He executed the commission without a hitch.
He called upon the German and introduced
himself in low tones as a loyal subject of the
Kaiser and asked to be taken into the house.
There he presented his letter. When the Ger-
man read it, he broke into a hearty laugh and
said the password no longer really applied,
because it referred to the coal pile. He had
found, on account of the coal shortage, that
at times he could not keep enough coal in
the cellar to keep the suitcase covered, and
that consequently he had had to conceal it
elsewhere in the house. The caller joined
him in laughter at this piece of humour, and the
German excused himself and soon returned
with the suitcase. It was not till several
days later that he had the slightest inkling
that the man he had entertained was an oper-
ative of the American Government.

The plot for which Dr. Scheele was brought
to earth was only a detail in the vast scheme

270

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

of Germany's treachery, but it was one of the
most dastardly and most dramatic of those
details, and its detection and unravelling re-
vealed the men at the head of the German
system in this country and their mutual rela-
tionships. In a previous chapter I have told
something of the career of Franz von Rintelen.
At this point he appears as an agent of Ger-
many seeking to destroy the ships bearing
American supplies to the Allies. One day
Dr. Scheele received a caller, Eno Bode,
a captain in the service of the North Ger-
man Lloyd Steamship Company. Bode bore
a card from Von Papen, ordering Scheele to
execute any orders which Bode gave. Von
Papen's orders, in their turn, had come through
Rintelen.

Bode now disclosed to Dr. Scheele a most
infernal plan. He was instructed to invent a
bomb of simple mechanism, which could be placed
in a ship's cargo or its coal and which would
not explode, but set fire to anything inflammable
with which it came in contact. It must be
devised to operate at any predetermined time
after it was placed on board.

To Dr. Scheele, a great chemist himself and
possessed of every secret of the greatest nation
of chemists in the world, this was a simple
order. In his instructions he was forbidden

271

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

to apply for his materials to any American
concern through which the purchase might
ever be traced. Consequently, he asked for
technical assistance and was referred to Captain
Carl Schmidt, the chief engineer of the Fried-
rich der Grosse, one of the great German
liners interned at Hoboken. Schmidt placed
at his disposal Charles Becker, the electrician
of the Friedrich der Grosse. From him he
obtained sections of lead pipe and thin sheets
of lead and tin. The chemicals were easily
obtained from strictly German sources.

Dr. Scheele now made a few experiments
and quickly evolved a bomb that was as simple
as it was efficient. It consisted merely of a
section of lead pipe, about two and a half
inches in diameter and three or four inches
long. This cylinder was separated into two
water-tight compartments by a thin disk of
the sheet tin. In one of the two compartments
was placed a chemical, and in the other a
corrosive acid. The ends were then sealed
and the bomb was complete. The acid slowly
ate its way through the tin partition, and when
at length a tiny hole was made, the acid and
the chemical mingled and their action was to
produce, without noise, a heat so intense
that it melted the lead in the cylinder and the
whole bomb flowed down into a molten mass

272

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

so fervent that it would ignite any ordinary
substance, such as coal or wood. No timing
mechanism was necessary. The thickness of
the tin partition determined the time at which
the bomb would act. By careful experiment.
Dr. Scheele was able to manufacture bombs
that would become effective in two days, four
days, six days, eight days — at will. For ex-
ample, if the tin partition was made one
sixtieth of an inch in thickness, the bomb
would operate in forty-eight hours. The thick-
ness necessary for the longer periods was es-
tablished by actual test.

As soon as the bomb was perfected, its
manufacture was undertaken on a big scale.
Soon the workroom aboard the Friedrich der
Grosse was turning out thirty-five of these
"cigars," as the Germans called them, every
day. Altogether, before the game became too
dangerous and Dr. Scheele was forced to flee,
nearly five hundred bombs were manufactured.

Next came the necessity for an organization
to place these bombs upon the ships. First,
the ships themselves must be known — their
sailing dates, their names, their berths and
cargoes. Through German sources of informa-
tion, the data about merchant ships were
gathered and by Dr. Carl Schimmel, another
German agent in New York City, were listed and

273

FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES

classified. These records were placed at the
disposal of the bomb-placing squad.

Captain Carl Wolpert was in charge of this
work. He was the superintendent of the Atlas
Line, a subsidiary of the Hamburg-American
Steamship Company, and an officer of the
German Naval Reserve. Armed by Scheele
with the '* cigars," by Schimmel with the
list of ships, and by Von Rintelen with un-
limited money, Wolpert chose a group of trusted
lieutenants from among the Germans in New
York. These men frequented the water-front
and the neighbouring saloons, where they sought
out stevedores, who could be bribed to place
the bombs where they were directed. For-
tunately for the lives of seamen and for the
property of the Allies, many of these men
took the German money but threw the bombs
into the bay. Enough, however, earned their
blood money so that many ships were set afire
on their voyage across the Atlantic, some of
them burning to the water's edge, most of
them being greatly damaged, the total loss
figuring well up in the millions of dollars. Many
a captain in mid-ocean fought the flames on
his vessel, from the second or third day of his
voyage, all the way into port. A fire would
break out in his bunker coal; it might be
quenched, only to break out in the cargo two

274

DR. SCHEELE, CHEMICAL SPY

days later, and perhaps a day after that start up
again in the coal.

This fiendish work was done in cold blood,
do not forget, at the command of the Imperial
German Government, at its expense, under the
direction of one of its most highly placed
aristocrats, by one of Germany's greatest chem-
ists, with the cooperation of officers of the
German Navy and with the cognizance of the
German Ambassador to our friendly Govern-
ment. Here was no passion of battle, no
extemporized savagery of revenge. It was a
calculated atrocity, perpetrated by the highest
authorities of one of the most "civilized" of
the "Christian" nations, using the most tech-
nical processes of one of the most complex
arts of modern life. The magic by which the
slimy refuse of burning coal is transmuted into
dyes which give to paints and fabrics the
splendour of the dawn and the beauty of the
rose, was here debased to the infamous uses
of treachery and murder.

THE END

275

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

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nd if not ^''

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

0043360785

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APR 3 0 1929

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