The Project Gutenberg eBook, The German Spy in America, by John Price Jones

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The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

The German Spy in America
:: The Secret Plotting of German Spies in the United States and the Inside Story of the Sinking of the Lusitania ::
By John Price Jones

With a Foreword by

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

and an Introduction by

ROGER B. WOOD

Former U.S. Assistant Attorney in New York

LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO.

PATERNOSTER ROW :: :: 1917

Copyright 1917

by

John Price Jones

Agnes C. Laut

432, Fourth Avenue, New York.

Office of

Theodore Roosevelt.

February 27, 1917.

My dear Mr. Jones,

I have read the galley proofs of your book, and I wish to say, with all emphasis and heartiness, that you are doing this country a great service in publishing it.

Your statements are evidently for the most part based on official Government records, happening in the course of prosecuting the various criminals, who by the direct instigation of the German Government, have for the last two and one-half years been using this country as a base for war against the Allies, and more than this, have in effect been waging war on us within our own boundaries, no less than on the high seas. Our people need to know certain of the facts that you set forth. They need to understand that Germany has waged war upon us, and has waged war against our property, and has waged war against the lives of non-combatants, including women and children, and therefore a far more evil war than one waged openly. Our people also need to understand what you so clearly set forth that very much of the pacifist movement has been directly instigated by German intrigues, and paid for by German money, and that the entire pacifist movement in this country, during the past two and a half years, has really been in the interest of German militarism against the rights of small nations, and against our own honour and vital national interests.

You have done a capital work, and I wish it could be put in the hands of all good Americans.

Sincerely yours,

Theodore Roosevelt.

Mr. John Price Jones,

The Sun, New York.

FOREWORD

There have been two kinds of German propaganda. One, devoted to setting before the American people Germany’s side of the war, may be classed as legitimate. The other has been illegal and criminal. While both are set forth in this narrative, the greater space has been devoted to illegal activities.

The author claims for this book no other distinction than a plain unvarnished statement of facts—vital, dramatic, absorbing facts of the manner in which secret agents of the Teutonic governments, acting under orders of authorized directors, have attacked the very integrity of our national life, commercial, social and politic. It contains facts arranged from an American viewpoint by an American who considers it his duty to present them to his fellow Americans.

These facts were obtained by the writer as a reporter on the New York Sun who devoted a year to no other work. They were derived by a painstaking investigation and where flat statements are made they are based on knowledge obtained by the author from various authorities and from the examination of documents some of which have never been published. They show how German agents sought to subvert the aims of our government to the advantage of the Central Powers. They furnish a glimpse of the manner in which these men and women sought to make America the hinterland for the European War; how they planned and executed bribery, arson, felonious assaults; how they plotted destruction of property and even murder on American territory.

These facts emphasize the need of a new kind of preparedness. They prove that not only does the nation need preparedness in arms on both land and sea against a foreign foe but also defence against those within our bounds, who are eager to betray us. No true American, whether he be pro-Ally, pro-German, or strictly neutral, can read this book without realizing the thoroughness and the perfection of the German espionage system and being convinced of the way in which Germany’s spies have overrun the entire country, nor can anyone doubt the necessity for preparedness to cope with these men and this system in a different guise in the event of still graver issues.

John Price Jones.

INTRODUCTION

When the German note announcing that the Imperial German Government intended to resume with greater vigour its ruthless submarine warfare was handed to the Secretary of State of the United States, a crisis in the affairs of this nation was abruptly precipitated. The President met that crisis with courage, with promptness and in a way that merits, and has, the unqualified support of every American who is proud of his citizenship.

After the receipt of such an insulting note it was unthinkable that the United States could longer remain on friendly terms with a nation that deliberately returned to wanton murder of innocent non-combatants, including women and helpless children.

The conduct of the Imperial German Government in striving to win a war by means (which barbarians would hesitate to use) begun by that Government without just cause and pursued by riding rough-shod over a much smaller and much weaker nation, has been condemned by every civilized country, and it will be many years before the German people recover from the shame and degradation into which they have been plunged.

Germany will have to repent in sackcloth and ashes for a long, long time before it is received again into the Family of Nations.

In prosecuting the war, Germany and her allies have proceeded from the beginning upon the theory that “the end justifies the means” and acting upon that theory have held in supreme contempt the rights of neutral nations.

From the beginning of the war, subjects of Germany, resident in the United States, have continuously violated our laws in the most outrageous and flagrant manner.

At the very threshold, they sought to use the United States as a base from which to supply the German raiders in the South Atlantic, and to that end, by fraud, obtained from the collectors at various ports of the United States legal clearances, thus subjecting every ship which lawfully cleared from any United States port to seizure by the Allies.

Next, they sought and obtained, by fraud, and false swearing, passports to be used by German reservists in returning to Germany, travelling under the guise of American citizens; thus placing in danger the lives and liberty of honest Americans travelling with legitimate passports and entitled to the protection of this Government.

Because the Allies were able to purchase in the United States munitions of war, foodstuffs and all other supplies they might need, and were able to transport them, and because the United States did not at the behest of the Imperial German Government, stop the sale and transportation of the supplies, which its citizens had a perfect right to sell and transport, German residents devised the inhuman scheme of making chemical fire bombs and infernal machines to be placed on ships carrying passengers and supplies, with the deliberate intent and purpose that the ships should be crippled or sunk in mid-ocean—it mattered not to them that all on board might find a watery grave.

Numerous attempts have been made to equip men of the most desperate character with necessary explosives and other implements of death and destruction and have them go from the United States into Canada, our friendly and respected neighbour, to destroy railroads, canals, ships, warehouses and factories without regard to human life.

Agents have been sent to the United States with unlimited money at their command to engage gunmen and thugs to blow up our munition plants and factories—many explosions have occurred—many lives have been lost—much damage has been done—I cannot say who caused such wholesale murder to be committed, but I have the right as you have, to suspect.

It is a matter of record that the German Military Attaché, Captain Franz von Papen, and the German Naval Attaché, Captain Boy-Ed, knew of and sanctioned some of the conspiracies above referred to—perhaps the German Ambassador did not know of them; but it will be hard to convince a hard-headed, common-sense American citizen that he did not know what his right hand and his left hand were doing in such a crucial period.

Murder has followed murder on the high seas, one crime came fast upon another in the United States, and now we are told that this Government must do as the Imperial German Government directs; or murder on a more colossal scale will be the result. The people of the United States have not taken orders from any Government since 1776, and the German murderers ought to have known we would take none now, least of all from a Government that had forfeited its right to the respect of any civilized nation.

“The German Spy in America” will give you some small conception of what the Germans in the United States have been doing since August 1, 1914. Its author has followed their nefarious plots very closely and he has an intimate knowledge of his subject.

Its purpose is to let the American people know the danger that lurks within; to sound the alarm so that every man may be on his guard; to show the grave necessity for preparedness against a foreign foe, and particularly numerous alien enemies within our borders.

If it serves in a small measure to accomplish its high aim, its author will be amply repaid because he will have rendered a great service to humanity, and above all to our country, which we love more than all else, save God.

Roger B. Wood.

CONTENTS

THE GERMAN SPY IN AMERICA

CHAPTER I
AMERICA: THE BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

America has been the great background of the European War. Though far removed from the trenches with the play of artillery and the heroic charges, this country has been the scene of an equally dramatic, though silent struggle—a battle not visible to the eye. It has been a conflict of wits, of statesman pitted against statesman, of secret agent striving to outdo his opponent of a belligerent nation; for in America, agents of Germany have been striving for a two-fold aim. They have sought to enmesh the United States in an international conspiracy and to use this country as the means of a rear attack on the Entente Allies.

And New York has been the centre of it all. In several of the huge office buildings that make the thoroughfares of the city seem like canyons, Germany had, and still has, the headquarters of a vast nerve-like system radiating throughout the country. The nerve coils are composed of thousands of secret agents located in every city and town. These men have worked under orders from Berlin in the execution of a series of campaigns designed to be of service to the Teutonic Allies. Against these men have been pitted agents of the American government, all aiming to detect the schemes and frustrate any plans for the violation of our neutrality laws.

A diplomat, famed for his finesse and grace of manner, was at a reception given to distinguished statesmen, talented business men and attractive women. The conversation was turned to the topic of spies. One woman wished to know if the diplomat had encountered any spies.

“Well,” remarked the diplomat, “I used to stop at the Hotel Grandeur, but Count ——” (mentioning the name of a diplomat of a nation with which his country was at war) “persisted in having my baggage searched every day. So I moved to the Hotel Excellency; but I found things no better there.”

“Didn’t you complain to the management?”

“Ah, no,” answered he gravely, “but every time the Count stops at the Hotel Elaborate, I have his baggage searched, too.”

Perhaps the diplomat was not serious, but in days when the destiny of nations was at stake, it was likely that he was speaking none too lightly of a game that had doubtless cost him many an hour of the keenest anxiety.

Of all the secret service systems, the German is the most elaborate and machine-like. It has been organized not merely to gather information, but to trample upon the laws of the United States, in order to hinder any project of the Entente Allies. Constructed in the hours of peace with the utmost care and foresight, it was easily expanded in the United States at the outbreak of the war into such a vast network that if a representative of the Allies suddenly retraced his steps or halted suddenly when around a corner, he was almost sure to bump the shins of a German spy. Germany, always methodical and thorough, possessing a genius for moulding a multitude of details into an effective whole, had prepared her secret service system with the same efficiency with which through scores of years she had equipped her military forces for battle; indeed, her secret service was a part of her military forces.

The system is based on the principle of “Lass die linke Hand nicht wissen was die rechte tut”—“let not the left hand know what the right is doing.” So thoroughly is this maxim followed that two German spies may be working side by side and not be aware of the fact. Though groups of Germans may engage in some activity with a thorough understanding of the aims of another, still the order of silence is rigorously enforced. The agents hand their information to a superior, who in turn transmits it to somebody higher up. One spy knows only the person or group of persons with whom he directly deals, sending information along devious and hidden routes up to the final assembling point.

Germany’s spy system has been the sword hand of her statesmen and her diplomats. When this war is over and the world learns of the moves, counter-moves, and Machiavellian methods of German diplomats, with their intrigues, secret understandings, and their daring attempts to force this country into dangerous situations, people will realize more clearly than to-day what a marvellous system has been behind many seemingly casual developments in this country. It will be shown how German agents have violated our laws in order to gain secret information for the benefit of Germany; how her secret agents have committed crimes in order to coerce diplomatic negotiations.

RAMIFICATIONS OF UNDERGROUND PLOTS

So perfectly organized and so responsive to the slightest suggestion from Berlin is the American branch of the Kaiser’s secret service that vast undertakings—some legitimate, many in violation of American laws—were carried out.

The magician, who invented the wireless, enabled the German General War Staff to move to New York. The splash and splutter of electricity over oceans and continents virtually transported Germany’s leading statesmen, tacticians, and scientists at will to hold sessions in Manhattan on matters arising in America and bearing on the battle-front in the many theatres of actual warfare. For instance, how many people know that the secretary to one of the generals on the Western Line was a brother to one of the most notorious woman plotters in America? Germany had foreseen the possibilities of the wireless in war and had developed secret methods of sending code messages by radiogram, when apparently only ordinary messages were being transmitted, and she had also, some way or other, got possession of the code ciphers of other nations. Every night messages have been sent out from Germany, apparently blindly, addressed to no one and have been picked up by hidden receiving stations in America and other countries.

While Germany calls her spy system “a bureau of intelligence,” its purpose is confined not merely to the gathering of information, but to the carrying out of any campaign that will be harmful to her enemies. In the United States, Germans—reservists, army officers, representatives of the German Government—have been indicted for crimes against Federal laws. These violations were committed without doubt in a self-sacrificing spirit with the aim of helping the Fatherland. Germans, or German influences, have been behind schemes in violation of neutrality laws and restraint of trade. They have attempted arson, bribery, forgery, engaged in military enterprises, caused explosions in ships and factories, resulting in many deaths, and have set fires in ships and factories.

They have participated in plots against Canada, Ireland and India, all developed in the United States under the supervision of the German representatives of Berlin, though often ostensibly carried out by anarchist tools. The activities of the German agents, multitudinous in detail and variety, all have been designed to hinder the Allies in their prosecution of the war, to cause a breach between the Allies and the United States, to embroil this country in a war and to accomplish other secret aims of the General War Staff. In all the propaganda, German secret agents and official representatives of the German Government have not only worked with utter disregard to American laws, but have endeavoured to place the United States in a position of being secretly unneutral.

But the German Government has officially denied that she ordered any of her subjects to undertake any act in violation of American laws. Shortly after President Wilson in his message to Congress bitterly attacked the activities of Germans and German-Americans in America, accusing the latter of treason, the German Government authorized the statement that it:

“Naturally has never knowingly accepted the support of any person, group of persons, society or organization seeking to promote the cause of Germany in the United States by illegal acts, by counsels of violence, by contravention of law, or by any means whatever that could offend the American people in the pride of their own authority. If it should be alleged that improper acts have been committed by representatives of the German Government they could be easily dealt with. To any complaints upon proof as may be submitted by the American Government suitable response will be duly made.... Apparently the enemies of Germany have succeeded in creating the impression that the German Government is in some way, morally or otherwise, responsible for what Mr. Wilson has characterized as anti-American activities, comprehending attacks upon property in violation of the rules which the American Government has seen fit to impose upon the course of neutral trade. This the German Government absolutely denies. It cannot specifically repudiate acts committed by individuals over whom it has no control, and of whose movements and intentions it is neither officially or unofficially informed.”[^[1]]

[1]. Berlin despatch in the New York Sun, Dec. 19, 1915.

To this official disavowal of German propaganda in America, there are two answers that stand out with dramatic force. First, the extent to which the subjects of Germany are expected to go in war time is shown by excerpts from Germany’s War Book of instructions to officers, which says in part:

“Bribery of the enemy’s subjects with the object of obtaining military advantages, acceptances of offers of treachery, reception of deserters, utilization of the discontented elements in the population, support of the pretenders and the like are permissible; indeed, international law is in no way opposed to the exploitation of the crimes of third parties (assassination, incendiarism, robbery and the like) to the prejudice of the enemy. Considerations of chivalry, generosity and honour may denounce in such cases a hasty and unsparing exploitation of such advantages as indecent and dishonourable, but law, which is less touchy, allows it. The ugly and inherently immoral aspect of such methods cannot affect the recognition of their lawfulness. The necessary aims of war give the belligerent the right and imposes upon him, according to circumstances, the duty not to let slip the important, it may be decisive, advantages to be gained by such means.”[^[2]]

[2]. The War Book of the German General Staff, translated by J. H. Morgan, M.A., pp. 113–114.

Secondly, since Germany sent out that semi-official proclamation from Berlin concerning propagandists, many steps have been taken by the American Government, both administrative and judicial. Captains von Papen and Boy-Ed, military and naval attachés respectively, have been dismissed from this country for “improper activities in military and naval affairs.”

There was no favouritism in the German secret service. Every German, high or low, was open to assignment, disagreeable and dishonourable, in getting information, and to orders to commit crimes—for Germany stops at no crime—that may be necessary to circumvent the enemy.

Captain von Papen showed his feeling keenly one night at a dinner of a few men where the wine flowed freely.

“My God, I would give everything in the world,” he exclaimed, “to be in the trenches where I could do the work of a gentleman.” In his work, there was no public reward for work well performed according to the war code. That man’s sentiments were echoed by von Rintelen, who, when among friends, fairly shook with emotion at the thought of the work in which he was engaged.

“How loathsome I feel,” he said. “How this dirty work sticks to me! When this war ends, I shall take a bath in carbolic acid.”

THREE EXECUTIVES IN THE UNITED STATES

Over all the thousands of reservists, trained agents, and other spies were the men in charge of the centres of information to whom they made their report; and the three or four chief lieutenants in charge of the various and distinct line of activities into which these matters of war, finance and commerce automatically were divided. There were practically, outside of the Chief Spy, three important executives in this country, supervising respectively the commercial, military and naval lines of information and activity. Each one of these men was surrounded by a group of experts who had charge of a sub-division of the work. All had their legal advisers, their bankers, and every sort of an expert that their special work required. Upon them fell the task of sifting and analysing the mass of facts gathered by the spies and making reports to Berlin. Upon each one of them also fell the duty of carrying out any orders that might come from the General War Staff in Germany.

First and foremost of the three lieutenants was Dr. Heinrich F. Albert, Privy Councillor to the German Embassy in America and Fiscal Agent of the German Empire. He directed the gathering of a huge mass of information of value to Germany concerning the financial, industrial and commercial activities of this country, and was the chief instrument through whom money reached the army of spies. Though he was the director of many activities, nothing criminal, it must be asserted in justice to him, has been traced to him.

The military agent was Captain Franz von Papen, the attaché of the German Embassy. His work was confined specifically to the procuring of information that would be of aid to the Imperial German army and to the military tasks that might be peculiarly helpful to the army.

The naval expert was Captain Karl Boy-Ed, another attaché of the German Embassy. He had under him experts who made a speciality of various lines of naval matters, fortifications, coast defences and explosives.

The headquarters of the entire system were and are yet in New York. Dr. Albert had his offices in the Hamburg-American Steamship Company’s building, and he utilized at times a good part of the Hamburg-American Company’s staff—a concern in which the Kaiser himself owns a large percentage of the stock. In the same building was the office of Paul Koenig, the business manager of part of Germany’s spy system in America, though nominally the Superintendent of Police for the Hamburg-American line. Captain Boy-Ed had his headquarters in Room 801 of 11, Broadway, and Captain von Papen had his on the twenty-fifth floor of 60, Wall Street.

This narrative seeks to show as definitely as possible the work of these three agents of Germany in America and of others co-operating with them. It sets forth the enterprises that they plotted and the ramifications of their organization. It reveals how countless agents, unaware that they were parts of a vast system and often innocent of any intentional wrongdoing, acted their parts. It shows how that part of the machinery engaged in legitimate propaganda was linked at places with the machinery executing illegal acts.

While the conspiracy has been manipulated, the American Government has been very active. To the skill of the United States secret service, headed by Chief William J. Flynn, always alert and apparently unruffled in the most trying crises, and to A. Bruce Bielaski, head of the special agents of the Department of Justice, and William M. Offley, Superintendent of the New York Bureau of the special agents, has fallen the task of seeing that the representatives of the different countries followed the American maxim, “Play fair; play according to the rules of international law and the laws of this country.” Upon Police Commissioner Woods, his deputy, Guy Scull, of New York, and his enthusiastic and clever aid, Police Captain Thomas J. Tunney, has devolved also the hazardous and difficult task of combating the schemes of those spies. Those men, by courageous and skilful detective work have unearthed and foiled some of the most daring bomb plots of the Germans.

To Messrs. Flynn and Bielaski, at times, have come secrets of intrigue and conspiracy that must have made them, even as it has the President, almost tremble with the import of impending events that had to be forestalled.

CHAPTER II
CAPTAIN FRANZ VON PAPEN, DIRECTOR OF GERMANY’S MILITARY ENTERPRISES ON THE AMERICAN FRONT

“I always say to these idiotic Yankees they had better hold their tongues.”

So wrote Captain Franz von Papen, German military attaché in America, to his wife in Germany—a letter which he entrusted to Captain James F. J. Archibald, American newspaper correspondent and bearer of secret and confidential messages from Teutonic representatives. The German word which the Captain used was “bloedsinnig,” meaning silly, stupid, idiotic. It has a sneering ring, truly typical of the Prussian warrior’s contempt for Americans. It suggests the disdainful feeling which the military attaché had for the loyalty of Americans. One can imagine his sly laugh as he handed to an American that letter and code messages to the War Staff. With a similar feeling of contempt for the British, when dismissed from this country and assured of safe conduct as to person, he carried on board the steamer Noordam a portfolio of papers from friends reflecting the same disgust for America and outlining his own unlawful and criminal acts in America. But in both instances his arrogant self-confidence brought exposure.

This attitude of arrogance was Captain von Papen’s chief characteristic. Joined to it was the brother trait, bluntness. He believed that the American people were not only stupid but also weak-sighted and that he could do anything he wanted without detection. So he put his heart and soul into military and criminal enterprises upon American soil. The Captain apparently thought that the American authorities would not suspect his machinations, for, unlike Captain Boy-Ed, he made comparatively few efforts to cover up the trails of his activities. That carelessness proved his scorn for American detective methods, for with all his haughtiness and bravado he had been trained in a school of craft. He had been drilled under instructors who placed a prize on cunning, deceit, intrigue, reckless disregard of the rights of others, and the destiny of Prussia as a conqueror. The Captain presumably believed that craft and cunning were not necessary in America.

CONTEMPT FOR DEMOCRACY

Confident that he was eluding the watchful eye of the United States authorities with more skill than his associates, he sent a telegram one day to Captain Boy-Ed, warning him to be more careful. Whereupon the latter, smiling cheerfully to himself, wrote this letter: “Dear Papen: A secret agent who returned from Washington this evening, made the following statement: ‘The Washington people are very much excited about von Papen and are having a constant watch kept on him. They are in possession of a whole heap of incriminating evidence against him. They have no evidence against Count B. and Captain B.-E. (!)’” Boy-Ed, a little too optimistically, added: “In this connection I would suggest with due diffidence that perhaps the first part of your telegram is worded rather too emphatically.”

Wrapped in that sense of contempt the military attaché began immediately upon the outbreak of war, even as he had planned before it, to make the United States “the hinterland” of the European battlefield. In the Embassy at Washington, the German consulate in New York, the Hamburg-American Building, an office in 60, Wall Street—which he secretly leased—and on board German merchantmen tied up in New York Harbour, he gathered about him German officials and German reservists, outlining plots in violation of American law, all designed to injure the Allies and help the cause of Germany. In those conferences, his arrogant disregard of America and his determination overruled the hesitating dissenters. His was the Prussian spirit of aggression. In those gatherings, he was both the dominating and the domineering factor: tall and broad-shouldered, with a commanding attitude, energetic in speech, and lightning-like in the development of bold plans. He has the strong forehead, the long, firm nose, and the heavy underjaw of a commander, but the large ears that denote recklessness and eyes blue and hard as steel.

UNDER ORDERS FROM BERLIN

He had been selected in his youth for secret work because of an aptness which he early displayed. He had been trained especially for the work which he undertook in other countries under direction of the German General Staff and for the tasks that devolved upon him in America both before and after the war. As a young officer he was sent out from Germany, travelling as a civilian, making special studies of the sentiment of the people, the topography of the country, and getting in touch with other secret workers. One of the countries which he studied with remarkable care was Ireland. He tramped and rode every foot of the land and knew it thoroughly. He displayed something of the knowledge he had acquired when riding in Central Park, one day after the war started, he stopped to chat with an acquaintance who had bought a mare. Waxing enthusiastic over the animal he quickly showed his acquaintance with Ireland by giving the breed of the mare and telling exactly the counties in Ireland where that breed could be found.

How well he disguised himself in those various expeditions when he rode horseback simply as a sightseer, is indicated by his horsemanship. Though he was trained in a riding school at Hanover, where ostensibly they teach the French method, nevertheless in Central Park, where many a morning he could be observed, he displayed perfect English form. They say that when one learns the French style, one invariably clings to it above all others. Naturally, a horseman travelling through Ireland revealing every characteristic of the French school would attract attention.

As the military attaché of the German Embassy, Captain von Papen was under orders, not of Count von Bernstorff, but of the military head in Germany. Appointed personally by the Kaiser as the representative of the German Army in America and Mexico, he had the commission that falls to every military attaché of a foreign government, namely, to make a study of the army of the nation to which he is accredited.

Captain von Papen, always striving for praise and preferment from the Kaiser, was a most enthusiastic gatherer of military information. Knowing that no phase of military activity throughout the world escapes the watchful eye of the Chief Spy or the German General Staff, von Papen was always on the alert for any invention, new method of warfare, or germ of an idea that might be developed into an important advantage for Germany; just as the War Staff got their suggestion for the modern trench warfare from the Indians and later from the Civil War. For instance, shortly before the great war started, Captain von Papen, addressed as “Royal Prussian Captain on the General Staff of the Army,” was directed by R. von Wild, of the Ministry of War’s office, to proceed to Mexico and there investigate the attacks on railroad trains by means of mines and explosives. He made a thorough investigation and though he reported: “I consider it out of the question that explosions prepared in this way would have to be reckoned with in a European war,” he nevertheless sought to utilize that method in blowing up tunnels and railroads in Canada.

AT WORK IN MEXICO

How well von Papen, as an organizer and military investigator, acquitted himself in the interest of the Kaiser is set forth in Rear Admiral von Hintze’s own language in a report which he made from Mexico to the Imperial Chancellor recommending von Papen for a decoration. That letter is striking; for it suggests the work which von Papen afterwards did in America, if he had not already made the arrangements for it prior to the outbreak of the European conflict. The admiral wrote that von Papen “showed special industry in organizing the German colony for purposes of self-defence and out of this shy and factious material, unwilling to undertake any military activity, he obtained what there was to be got.”

While von Papen had a staff of experts and of secret agents prior to the war, he did not then have the perfectly developed system at his command which he used afterwards. That he had his plans well mapped out for any contingency and that he knew the situation thoroughly is vividly illustrated in a draft of a cable message which he sent to Captain Boy-Ed from Mexico City on July 29, 1914, saying:

“If necessary, arrange business for me too with Pavenstedt. Then inform Lersner. The Russian attaché ordered back to Washington by telegraph. On outbreak of war have intermediaries located by detective where Russian and French intelligence office.” The latter part of the message, referring to intermediaries, is open to two interpretations: first, that Boy-Ed was to have detectives locate the Russian and French intelligence offices; second, Boy-Ed was to place spies in the Russian and French intelligence bureaus.

Hurrying to Washington, the military attaché immediately took charge of the military part of Germany’s spy system. He began to weld together into a vast organization scientists, experts, secret agents and German reservists who would gather information for him and who would be ready at the command of the General War Staff, to undertake any military enterprise. The entire organization of German consuls and representatives in America work in unity in war as in peace. How quickly von Papen got his staff together is shown in a statement made by Franz Wachendorf, alias Horst von der Goltz, alias Bridgeman Taylor, who became one of Papen’s aids in spy work and military enterprises. Wachendorf, who was a major in the Mexican army at the outbreak of war, said under oath: “The 3rd of August, 1914; licence was given me by my commanding officer to separate myself from the service of the brigade for the term of six months. I left directly for El Paso, Texas, where I was told by Mr. Kuck, German consul at Chihuahua, Mexico, who stayed there, to put myself at the disposition of Captain von Papen.”

CALLING RESERVISTS

The military attaché also had help from Germany and from German reservists coming from other countries. The War Office in Berlin sent him men. Captain Hans Tauscher, the husband of Mme. Gadski, was in Germany when war was declared. A reserve officer of the German Army, he immediately offered himself for duty. His order was to return to America at once and report to Captain von Papen. Likewise, soldiers and secret agents with special equipment, who were in different parts of the world and who had no definite work, were ordered by wireless or through secret channels to hasten to Captain von Papen’s assistance. After a time, the Chief Spy in Germany detailed some of his aids to America to help in the upbuilding of a still more effective system of espionage.

Though remarkably skilled and trained to a high degree in a number of different lines, Captain von Papen made it his business to gather around him experts on every phase of military affairs, giving definite assignments to each and thus dividing the work so that greater speed and efficiency were obtained. He chose Captain Tauscher, agent of the Krupps and other big and small gun manufacturers in Germany and Austria, as one of his aids in gathering information. Captain Tauscher is an expert on ordnance and as such he was of invaluable assistance to Captain von Papen in obtaining facts regarding the manufacture of heavy ordnance and explosives for the Allies. Tauscher was on most friendly terms with U.S. Ordnance officers.

Von Papen selected George von Skal, a German journalist and former Commissioner of Accounts of New York, as a paid assistant in his office; and as a matter of fact every one of the big German agents in America had on his staff at least one trained newspaper man. He took as his secretary Wolf von Igel, a young man of distinguished appearance, and through him secretly rented a suite of offices in Wall Street “for advertising purposes.”

Another man upon whom he could call for help was Paul Koenig, lent by the Hamburg-American Steamship Company. Through Koenig, von Papen could reach out to countless Germans and select men for any sort of task. Sometimes, however, von Papen met with a refusal. He asked Captain Tauscher to perform a certain piece of work of questionable character and received in substance this answer: “I am ready to do anything within the law but I will not attempt this task.” Experts in the chemistry of explosives, scientists of various sorts, lawyers and other advisers were on the military attaché’s staff, all having special tasks and all working for the Kaiser with or without pay.

FOREIGN ARMY ON U.S. SOIL

Von Papen sought to protect his Wall Street suite of offices from public investigation by installing therein a safe bearing the seal of the Imperial German Government. That safe, protected by time-locks and by electrical devices against the curiosity of other secret agents or the prying eyes of policemen, is said to have contained the plans of the military phases of German propaganda. When the Federal agents suddenly descended upon the office one day to arrest von Igel, they found the safe open and the documents neatly laid out on the table preparatory to shipment to Washington. From those papers the State Department and the Attorney-General have learned much of the history of von Papen’s activities—the inner workings of the German spy system. In that office von Papen kept the full list of his various secret agents, German and American, working for him, their addresses and telephone numbers; various code books for the deciphering of messages sent to him and for sending word to agents in this country or making reports.

Accordingly, when von Papen’s plan for espionage was perfected, he had not only a staff of experts at his elbow, but thousands of reservists and the help of German and Austro-Hungarian consuls and channels of information. He had men at his disposal for dangerous and delicate missions to other countries. The ramifications of the system, the collecting agency and activities which he supervised for the good of the Fatherland were so finely organized and so comprehensive that von Papen in reality was the head of the military division of the German spy system of the entire world, outside of the countries belted by the Allies with a ring of steel.

Facts to prove the details of von Papen’s organization and deeds were obtained from the von Igel papers, from the letters and secret documents taken from Captain Archibald; from documents and check stubs found in von Papen’s possession when searched at Falmouth, England; from von der Goltz’s confession; from scores of witnesses and from facts dug up by the Secret Service and the Department of Justice. The trials of various offenders against neutrality laws have given the public more evidence. United States District-Attorney H. Snowden Marshall, in New York, his assistants, Roger B. Wood, in charge of the criminal division; Raymond H. Sarfaty, John C. Knox, and Harold A. Content, all set forth before the public many phases of the ingenious underground methods of spying and violating the law. Upon the evidence found by those officials and by United States District-Attorney Preston, of San Francisco, the following facts are presented:

Once the spies were selected and assigned to their duties, von Papen sought first, to glean information bearing on the great war. He was interested, naturally, in the amount of shrapnel shells and high explosives which the Allies were purchasing. He was eager to ascertain what American Army officers were learning about the military operations on the Continent and what the American Government was doing to develop its army to cope with the new problems arising from the war. He was watching the officers of the Allies in this country. He was seeking lines of communication with the racial elements in America that were allied with the insurrection forces in the colonies of the Entente Powers. The varied results of his investigations are shown by extracts from reports which he sent to Berlin by Captain Archibald. One letter told, for instance, that the Norwegian and Dutch governments were in the market for war materials. Von Papen asked if there were any objection by Germany to the sale to those governments of war products purchased by him in America, adding:

“I could probably dump on the Norwegian Government a great part of the Lehigh Coke Company’s toluol which is lying around useless.”

In a cipher despatch to the chief of the General Staff in Berlin, he noted a conversation overheard in Philadelphia between two Englishmen. One British army officer, he said, was explaining a method for conveying military information by photographs. Likewise he gathered news of the Spanish Government seeking supplies, and sifted the facts assembled from factories, banking houses, diplomatic sources and transportation offices about the Allied war orders.

SECRET AGENTS BLOCK OUT AMERICA

Captain von Papen’s cheque counterfoils are a veritable diary of some of his criminal—or if you please, military—activities in America. They give the names and the aliases of his secret agents; and day after day are recorded therein the payments made by von Papen to the persons working for or with him. The counterfoils tell the story of the purpose of the payment and by means of the endorsements on the cheques one can gather in skeleton form the story of a part—but not all—of the propaganda which the military attaché supervised. The stubs show the receipt of money, almost immediately after the beginning of the war marked for “War Intelligence Office.” The interesting thing is that money for war intelligence work came from von Bernstorff and that funds for salary and expenses came from Dr. Fr. Adler, the Ambassador’s secretary. To the fact that Captain von Papen kept such an accurate diary—an instance of German efficiency—is due in part the exposure of his varied activities in this country.

To Anton Kuepferle, another German spy captured in England and suspected after a confession to have shot himself, he gave $100. To Wachendorf he gave funds that the latter might go both to Berlin and England in the service of the Kaiser. To Paul Koenig, he handed many accounts for secret service work, paying also the expenses of Koenig’s agents on trips to Montreal and Quebec in hunting information about enlistments of soldiers in Canada and the shipments of supplies from Canadian ports. The stub book also shows that he sent agents to investigate ammunition factories in different parts of the country, and that he paid the expenses of von Skal in getting “photographs for the War Intelligence Office.” He constantly was sending cheques to consuls in various parts of the country to pay the expenses of reservists and agents.

TO INVADE CANADA

The diary, too, tells us of Captain von Papen’s plan to invade Canada. Scarcely had he arrived in this country from Mexico, a few days after the Germans had invaded Belgium, than, as general-in-chief of the German reservists, he began to mobilize his forces for a military enterprise in Canada. If you look at the Captain’s diary you see these entries: “September 1, 1914, Mr. Bridgeman Taylor, $200;” “September 16, for Buffalo, Taylor, Ryan, $200;” “September 22, for Ryan, Buffalo, $200;” “October 14, for Fritzen and Busse, Buffalo, $40,00.”

These are the earmarks of an unsuccessful military enterprise; for just as soon as Captain von Papen saw reservists gather in New York and assembling in other points he laid his plans for a concerted move on Canada. He discussed the details with his majors, captains and lieutenants assembling in New York. He met them in secret at night in the German Club and with maps and other detailed plans he set forth his mode of attack.

Captain von Papen’s scheme—as they talked it over at the German Club—was to create such a reign of terror among Canadians that the provincial governments would deem it absolutely necessary to keep all the troops in Canada for defence rather than hurry them to the European battle-front. The plan, while it entailed explosions and fighting, was largely for psychological effect. One part of the scheme was to send an expedition to blow up the Welland Canal, a waterway that runs around Niagara Falls on the Canadian side and is a most important avenue of transportation for freight and passengers. The second part was to have an invasion by German reservists upon various parts of the Canadian border.

Captain von Papen aimed to create a panic among the Canadians, to put such fear into them that they would say to England, “We need our troops for self-protection against the Germans in the United States”—thereby putting the United States in a position of being unable to preserve its neutrality. The destruction of the canal by a tremendous explosion, or the detonation of a carload of dynamite on some railroad, or any sort of explosion in the Dominion, believed to have been supervised by Germans, would have had a tremendous effect upon the people. Doubtless this was what Captain von Papen sought; for that was the way he outlined the scheme to his assistants.

It has been stated that Wachendorf was one of the men whom von Papen gathered for secret conference in the German Club. “Von der Goltz” in a confession made to the Federal authorities said that he was asked to give his opinion about a proposal made to the German Embassy, the writer of which, a certain Schumacher, had asked for financial support in order to carry out a scheme by which he would be able to make raids on towns situated on the coast of the Great Lakes. He proposed to use motor-boats armed with machine-guns. Though the proposal was rejected on account of the Embassy receiving unfavourable information about the writer, “von der Goltz” next was requested to aid in a scheme of invasion of Canada with a small armed force recruited from the reservists in the United States. The scheme, which was proposed by von Papen and Boy-Ed, was abandoned as objections to it were made by Count von Bernstorff. “Von der Goltz” says he was told so by Captain von Papen.

BLOWING UP CANALS

Captain von Papen next asked “von der Goltz” to see at his hotel two Irishmen, prominent members of Irish associations, both of whom had fought in the Irish rebellion and who had proposed to Captain von Papen to blow up the locks of the canals connecting the Great Lakes, main railway junctions and grain elevators. “Von der Goltz” says he received the gentlemen at his hotel, the men bringing with them a letter of introduction written by Captain von Papen. After having taken them to his room he got further details of the matter, maps and diagrams evidently cut out of books.

“Von der Goltz” also tells of going to Baltimore to enlist a number of German reservists who were staying on a German vessel there. In that scheme, he says, he had the aid of Karl A. Luederitz, German consul. He brought them to New York, but believing that his movements were being watched by Federal agents, he sent them back. Continuing his story of the conspiracy, von der Goltz writes:

“I saw Mr. Tauscher and he gave me a letter of introduction to the Dupont Powder Company, recommending B. H. Taylor, and the company supplied me with an order to the bargeman in charge of the dynamite barges lying on the New Jersey side near the Statue of Liberty. Captain Tauscher told me he would send the automatic pistols by messenger to Hoboken, to be delivered there to one of my agents at a certain restaurant, as he would be liable to punishment if he delivered them in New York without having seen my permit. The reasons why I did not apply to the police for a permit are obvious.”

SCATTERING DYNAMITE

“In order to get the dynamite it was necessary for me to hire a motor-boat at a place near 146th Street, Harlem, and to put the dynamite on board in suit-cases. After returning to the dock, where I had hired the boat, I went in a taxicab, having two suit-cases with me, to the German Club to see von Papen, who told me to call for the generators and then wire again at the club. I took the dynamite to my rooms, where I kept also a portion of the arms packed in small portmanteaus ready to be moved, the rest of the dynamite and arms being in the keeping of two of my agents, one of whom was Mr. Fritzen, discharged from a Russian steamer, where he had acted in the capacity of purser; the other one being Mr. Busse, a commercial agent, who had lived for some time in England. The only other agent I employed was C. Covani, who attended to me personally, Tucker not being entrusted with any of those things.”

Going to Buffalo with his men and equipment, “von der Goltz” was unable for some reason to receive definite instructions from von Papen, who was supposed to communicate with him under the name of “Steffens.” He says:

“Being thrown on my own discretion, I determined to reconnoitre the terrain where I wanted to act first, but to do nothing further till I should receive orders.

“On 25th September received notice from Ryan to come to Buffalo. Having meantime received private information that the 1st Canadian Contingent had left Valcartier Camp, I knew that I should be recalled, the object of the enterprise being removed. I received from Ryan the telegram agreed upon in that case, but as I had spent most of the money furnished to me I asked whether Ryan had not received money to enable me to pay off the men. Ryan said he had not, but gave me some of his own initiative, and said he would wire ‘Steffens.’ On the 26th September I received telegram from ‘Steffens’ telling me to do what I thought best, and asking whether I had received the $200. Thinking it best to return to New York, all the more as funds were insufficient, I discharged Busse and Fritzen, who went to Buffalo, left dynamite and other materials in the keeping of an aviator who was manager of a restaurant at Niagara Falls, to be used again when necessary, and left with Covani for New York by way of Buffalo.”

The trial of Captain Tauscher on the indictment charging him with conspiring with von Papen, von Igel and others to blow up the Welland Canal resulted in the acquittal of the German reservist; but it was admitted that von Papen and von der Goltz had developed a plot to destroy the Canal.

The evidence presented by Prosecutor Wood made a case, corroborated by details of testimony and documents, that delighted legal experts. The jurors, several of whom were of foreign birth, acquitted the captain apparently on the theory that, though he had furnished the dynamite, fuses and automatic revolvers to von der Goltz, he knew nothing about the plot, but simply had followed the orders given him by his superior officer, Captain von Papen.

OBEDIENCE IN AMERICA EXACTED

Captain Tauscher, in the witness-box, testified that he was in Germany at the outbreak of the war; that he had proffered his services as a reservist officer and that he had been directed to return to America and report to Captain von Papen. He said he knew von Papen as the head of the German secret service and that he was compelled to obey him. He protested, however, that he had exacted a promise from von Papen to the effect that he would not be asked to do anything contrary to American laws. He said he was an ordnance expert under von Papen.

Many documents, revealing the manner in which von Papen and his assistants worked, had been taken from von Igel’s office, formerly von Papen’s New York headquarters, and were presented as evidence by Prosecutor Wood. One document was a piece of paper in von Papen’s own handwriting directing that a cheque in payment of the ammunition, pistols and dynamite, be drawn in favour of Captain Tauscher and that the same be charged to the account of William G. Sichols. Still another document was a copy of a letter written to a preacher in March, 1916, saying that Tucker, one of the witnesses in the Canal expedition, must be sent away for a time and remain quiet. The amount, $100, was enclosed for that purpose. Tucker was arrested in Texas. Although Captain Tauscher was freed, practically every charge of the prosecution was admitted except that Captain Tauscher had any knowledge of von Papen’s criminal intentions.

RECKLESS ADVENTURERS HIRED

Without doubt, according to facts gathered by the Federal authorities and developed in Canada, Captain von Papen and reservist German army officers in the country did plan a mobilization of German reservists to attack Canadian points. Hundreds of thousands of rifles and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition that were to be available for German reservists were stored in New York, in Chicago, and different places along the border. While the Canadian and the American officials developed evidence concerning this plan of invasion, Max Lynar Louden, known to the Federal authorities as “Count Louden,” a man of nondescript reputation, who had secret communications with the Germans in the early part of the war, has confessed that he was party to the scheme for quick mobilization and equipment of an army of German reservists. Many persons insist that Louden is a fabricator, nevertheless his secret activities were of such a character that he was under suspicion by the Federal authorities. At one time, he succeeded in getting himself invited to a Government House Ball, when the Duke of Connaught was the host. His bizarre costume attracted attention. The moment it was rumoured that he was supposed to have two or three wives, a State investigation was commenced, which resulted in the imprisonment of Louden. His story, therefore, is interesting.

Through German-American interests the plans were made in 1914, he said, and a fund of $10,000,000 was subscribed to carry out the details. Secret meetings were held in New York, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, and other large cities, and at these meetings, Louden asserted, it was agreed that a force of 150,000 men, German reservists, was available to seize and hold the Welland Canal, other strategic points and munitions centres.

“We had it arranged,” said Louden, “to send our men from large cities following announcements of feasts and conventions; and I think we could have obtained enough to carry out our plans had it not been for my arrest on the charge of bigamy. The troops were to have been divided into four divisions, with six sections. The first two sections were to have assembled at Silvercreek, Michigan. The first was to have seized the Welland Canal. The second was to have taken Wind Mill Point. The third was to have gone from Wilson, N.Y., to Port Hope, Canada. The fourth was to have proceeded from Watertown, N.Y., to Kingston, Canada. The fifth was to have assembled near Detroit and land near Windsor. The sixth section was to leave Cornwall and take possession of Ottawa.”

After the enterprise on the Welland Canal failed and Count von Bernstorff, according to von der Goltz, disapproved of the Canadian invasion, there was a lull in any concerted move upon Canada.

By referring again to Captain von Papen’s diary it is evident that he had other matters to absorb his attention. The counterfoils of the cheque-book record payments such as the following payment dated July 10, 1915, “H. Tauscher (Preleuther’s bill for ‘Res. Picric Acid’) $68.” The busy attaché, fighting here in the interests of the Fatherland had other plans.

BUYS UP EXPLOSIVES

Captain von Papen was keenly alive to the production of explosives in America for sale to the Allies. He was watching closely the product of the different ammunition factories. He was locating the source of the ingredients for such explosives, and he was naturally concerned in any method for preventing the export of arms and ammunition to the Allies. He possessed an unusual mind for economic data—a quality which aroused the admiration of Dr. Albert. The two men were much in conference over industrial matters that might be managed in the interest of the Teutonic Allies. Under Dr Albert’s guidance he took up the project of acquiring a monopoly in toluol, a constituent of the deadly explosive T. N. T., and for buying picric acid, and liquid chlorine.

How he made recommendations on these things to Dr. Albert was shown in connection with the fiscal agent’s activities. Other secret letters and reports prove that he and his associates had control of the Lehigh Coke Company, which turned out a large amount of toluol, and that he was studying to control the supply of picric acid in this country. Still further, he devoted much time to the Bridgeport Projectile Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut. This company was organized shortly after the outbreak of the war, and its promoters were prevailed upon to sell out to German buyers who, after an exposé of their activities, disposed of their holdings to still another group. Carl Heynen, an able German organizer and expert in Mexican affairs, had charge of the plant and supervised construction work and the placing of contracts for steel, ammunition and presses. The money was furnished by Hugo Schmidt and Dr. Albert.

Von Papen, Heynen, Dr. Albert, frequently in conference, planned, as excerpts from memorandum prepared by them prove, to utilize the company in several ways: (1) to turn out supplies that could be used by Germany and her Allies, or by countries planning to make trouble for the United States; (2) to take the Allies’ orders and fail to fill them; (3) to use the company as a means of getting information from the War Department.

One of Captain von Papen’s own letters reveals the importance of these enterprises. Writing to his wife about the so-called Albert papers, he says:

“Unfortunately they stole a fat portfolio from our good friend, Dr. Albert, in the elevated. The English secret service, of course. Unfortunately, there were some very important things from my report, among them such as buying up liquid chlorine and about the Bridgeport Projectile Company, as well as documents regarding the buying up of phenol and the acquisition of Wright’s aeroplane patent. But things like that must occur. I send you Albert’s reply, for you to see how we protect ourselves. We composed the document to-day.”

STOPPING SHIPMENTS FROM AMERICA

This search for information of military value and these plans for acquiring monopolies on certain ingredients for high explosives, carried on during the winter and spring of 1914–15, were but preliminary to a much more extensive campaign in which, as will be shown later on, Dr. C. T. Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, assisted by von Papen and Boy-Ed, worked with the idea, first, of controlling the arms and ammunition factories in this country, and next, of preventing the shipment of such products from America.

Naturally, during the winter and spring, Captain von Papen, Captain Boy-Ed, Dr. Albert and Count von Bernstorff, all along various lines, had been struggling to help the Fatherland, each eagerly hoping for success and some preferment extended by the Kaiser as a reward for tasks well performed.

Attacks were planned upon the Canadian Pacific Railway in the east, the Welland Canal, the St. Clair tunnel, running under the Detroit River from Port Huron, Michigan, to Sarnia, Ontario, and tunnels of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the Selkirk mountains. It is also stated in indictments handed down by a Federal Grand Jury in San Francisco that the conspirators in the West planned also to blow up trains carrying munitions of war, horses, arms and the like, and also to attack trains carrying soldiers. By a study on the map of the points thus mentioned it will be observed that these enterprises were planned with the utmost care to break into sections of the Canadian transcontinental railway system and to paralyse it absolutely. It can be seen at a glance that such plots, if carried out, would have prevented soldiers and munitions of war from travelling East to ship for the Western front, or from going West to cross the Pacific, thence through Siberia to the Eastern front. To this land scheme was added the additional plots of destroying docks by incendiarism, ships by explosions and fire. Furthermore, agents on land under the direction of other men were studying the munition factories in the western part of the United States preparatory to causing explosions and fires.

For the execution of these campaigns against munition industries and railroads in the West and North-west, Captain von Papen had special lieutenants. The persons who have been convicted in San Francisco on the charge of conspiring to blow up railroads and to wreck the transcontinental railway system in Canada are: Franz Bopp, German consul in San Francisco; Baron Eckhart H. von Schack, German vice-consul; Lieutenant Wilhelm von Brincken, attaché of German consulate; Charles C. Crowley, detective for German consul; and Mrs. Margaret W. Cornell, secretary to Crowley. They were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment each.

The question may justly be asked: “Why is it asserted that von Papen was behind and directed all these enterprises?” The Federal authorities have established a connection between von Papen’s headquarters in 60, Wall Street, and the German Consulate in San Francisco, whence, according to United States District-Attorney Preston of that city, ramifications led out to the different angles of the conspiracy in the West. So strong is the evidence that the San Francisco officials have accused the defendants of using the mails to incite murder, arson and assassination. It is stated that the defendants planned to destroy munition works at Aenta, Indiana, at Ishpeming, Michigan, and at Gary and other places in the West. Among the evidence is one letter among several which has to do with the question of the price which would be paid for the destruction of a powder plant at Pinole, California, and in it reference was made to “P.” The letter follows:

“Dear S.,—Your last letter with clipping to-day, and note what you have to say. I have taken it up with them and ‘B.’ (which the Federal officials say stands for Franz Bopp, German Consul) is awaiting decision of ‘P.’ in New York, so cannot advise you yet, and will do so as soon as I get word from you. You might size up the situation in the meantime.”

While this and other letters show, in the opinion of the Government officials, that von Papen was concerned with the defendants mentioned in the western indictment, still other facts have been gathered against von Papen. He has been traced from Washington and New York to a number of points in the United States, his visits coinciding with remarkable closeness to the time that meetings of the alleged conspirators were being held. Captain von Papen sauntered from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York one afternoon about 3.30, down Madison Avenue to 42nd Street, where he wavered for a moment as if deciding whether he would turn over for a jaunt on Fifth Avenue or drop into the Grand Central Station to buy a magazine.

After a moment he walked slowly into the station, glancing casually at his watch, and moving just before the gate closed toward the entrance to the track where stood the Twentieth Century Limited, was soon safely on board. The next day he was observed in Chicago, where he announced that he was on his way to Yellowstone National Park—and he disappeared. For several weeks he was lost to the sight of the zealous agents who were hunting him; but one day he was observed sauntering through the lobby of the Palace Hotel, San Francisco. In the course of his absence, he is said to have swung down along the Mexican border, where he caught up with Captain Boy-Ed, conferred with a number of secret agents from Mexico, with spies scattered throughout the country, and then hurried up to San Francisco, where he was busy before the agents of the Department of Justice picked him up again.

CONSPIRACIES ON LAND AND SEA

One indictment against the five defendants, phrased in legal terms, is vivid and forcible though barren of details. It accuses the German representatives and their hirelings of plotting to blow up railway tunnels, railroads, railroad trains, and bridges, already mentioned. Over this vast system of transportation, the indictment explains, supplies were being shipped westward for transportation on the ships Talthybius and Hazel Dollar. The defendants, it is stated, hired Smith to help them gain information about the sailings and the cargoes of ships leaving Tacoma bound for Vladivostok; that after Smith went to Tacoma, Crowley sent him money. Crowley and Smith came to New York, where they had conference with Germans who were in touch with von Papen. They next went to Detroit, where they were working out plans for the blowing up of the tunnel when they were arrested. Smith, who was working on the shipping and the tunnel end of the scheme, confessed, while van Koolbergen also has made a statement to the authorities which is of great interest, showing the workings of the defendants.

“On different occasions in his room,” says van Koolbergen, “von Brincken showed me maps and information about Canada, and pointed out to me where he wanted the act to be done. This was to be between Revelstoke and Vancouver on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and I was to get $3,000 in case of a successful blowing up of a military train, or bridge, or tunnel.

“There are many tunnels and bridges there, and military trains pass every three or four days; he also knew when a cargo of dynamite would pass. He then informed me how I could get hold of dynamite, and explained to me that on the other side of the river on which the Canadian Pacific ran (I believe it was the Fraser River) the Canadian Northern Railway was in course of construction, and they had at intervals powder and dynamite magazines and that it would be very easy to steal some of the dynamite.”

Several ships were blown up on the Pacific; others were disabled under circumstances that suggested conspiracies. There were schemes also to destroy docks on the Pacific coast. In view of these plots, it is striking to observe in von Papen’s cheque counterfoils this entry: “May 11, 1915, German Consulate, Seattle (for Schulenberg), $500.” An explosion in Seattle Harbour occurred on May 30, 1915.

Another excerpt from the counterfoil is dated February 2nd, 1915, recording the payment of $1,300 to the Seattle, Washington, German Consulate marked “C. Angelegenheit,” a very vague word for “affair.” He also paid to A. Kalschmidt, of Detroit, who is accused by the Canadian authorities of plotting to blow up armouries and factories in Canada, $1,000 on March 27, 1915, and $1,976 on July 10, 1915.

While this enterprise was being mapped out in the West, a second project against the Welland Canal was in the making in New York. Paul Koenig, the intermediary between von Papen and reservists and others, had charge, it is alleged, of selecting assistants who would carry dynamite, fuses, and other equipment to the Canadian waterway. Koenig selected as his assistants Richard Emil Leyendecker, retailer of art woods, a naturalized German-American, Fred Metzler, Koenig’s stenographer, George Fuchs, a German, who after a quarrel with Koenig turned State’s evidence; as also did Metzler, and one or two other men. The party went to Buffalo and to Niagara Falls, being trailed all the time by agents under direction by William M. Offley, chief of the Federal investigators of New York.

EXPLOSIONS IN FACTORIES

While these plots in the West were developed in vain and some of the culprits have been convicted, still other enterprises were conceived and set in motion in the East. A great number of explosions and fires have occurred in factories in the eastern part of the country. Though many of them were due to natural causes, yet suspicions seem to show that bombs were manufactured and placed in various plants and that incendiary bombs were hidden in other factories. The men believed to have committed the crime have been traced. They invariably proved to be Germans who, under assumed names, had obtained work in the factory; and then, shortly after the fire or explosion, had disappeared. But Federal agents following them learned that they had hurried back to Germany or skipped away to Mexico or South America. Bombs for their purposes were manufactured in various places in New York and Brooklyn; and in fact the authorities have obtained statements from men who made the bombs, but thus far they have not located the chief man. A German officer skilled in the manufacture of explosives spent a number of months in New York, living on board one of the German merchantmen and conferring frequently with Germans. He disappeared one day and was not heard of until a wireless message announced his arrival in Berlin.

Into this general scheme for preventing supplies from going to the Allies fits the conspiracy of Robert Fay and his associates. Fay, a tall, military-looking man, who has told many stories, some of which are true, some of which are lies, fought in the trenches for Germany and then obtained leave of absence and a passport to come to America. He had an inventive bent, and he conceived the idea of manufacturing high explosive mines which could be attached to the rudder posts of ships, and which would be so regulated by a detonating device that explosions would occur far out at sea. Fay says that he sought to blow off the rudder, disable the ship, but not to sink the vessel or injure her passengers.

His aim was to frighten steamship owners, and insurance underwriters, so that the insurance on munition ships would be raised to an almost prohibitive rate. Experts, however, have testified that so great was the amount of high explosive in the mines, that it would have blown off the stern of the ship, and detonated the cargo of explosives. In other words, had Fay’s scheme worked, nothing of the cargo and ship would have remained but a few chips floating upon the waves. But through the vigilance of Chief Flynn, of the secret service, and Captain Tunney, of the bomb squad of the New York Police Department, Fay’s plan was detected and John C. Knox, Assistant United States District Attorney, presented the evidence so thoroughly that Fay and his brother-in-law, Walter Scholz, and Paul Daeche, a German reservist, were found guilty. They were sentenced respectively to eight, four and two years in the penitentiary. Fay admitted on the witness stand that he laid his plan before Captain von Papen and Captain Boy-Ed, that he had more than one conference with Captain von Papen; but he asserted that both men warned him not to undertake the scheme. It will be remembered that Fay escaped from the Atlanta Penitentiary within a short time after his sentence, and he is believed to be either in Mexico or back in the trenches. He undoubtedly secured aid from German sympathizers.

FIRE BOMBS

Another part of this vast conspiracy against the export of arms and ammunition was the scheme to manufacture the so-called fire bombs, which could be placed in the holds of ships and which, exploding after a certain time, would set fire to the cargoes. By this means, thirty-three ships were stealthily attacked, with New York as a basis of operation, and damage of $10,000,000 was done. Vessels sailing not only from New York, but from Boston, Galveston, and even from Pacific ports, carried these bombs stowed away in their holds. Sugar ships especially were an object of attack, for sugar forms an ingredient of a certain explosive. These ships especially were adapted to this method, because once a fire started, the bomb itself would be destroyed, and as water had to be poured into the hold, the sugar would be destroyed.

Several bombs would be placed in the same hold, as has been shown by the fact that one fire was started in a vessel before she had left port. The fire was extinguished and more sugar loaded on the boat. Scarcely had the boat got out of port when another fire started. Among the ships attacked by bombs were La Touraine, of the French line, the Minnehaha, of the Atlantic Transport Line, the Rochambeau, the Euterpe, Strathtay, Devon City, Lord Erne, Lord Ormonde, Tennyson and many others.

The man accused of having charge of these bombs is a chemist, named Dr. Walter T. Scheele, formerly of Brooklyn, later of Hoboken, and still later a resident of some foreign country, whither he fled. He developed—or it was suggested to him by German officers—a scheme for taking a small metal container divided into two parts. Into one part would be put sulphuric acid; into another part, chlorate of potash. The sulphuric acid eating through the partition between the two sections made of aluminium, would unite with the chlorate of potash, causing combustion. Thus started, a fire so intense would be created that the container made of lead would be destroyed, and the cargo would be set on fire. Dr. Scheele, it is charged, made hundreds of these bombs, and received a large amount of money from German sources. One story is that von Rintelen paid him $10,000. Another story is that Wolf von Igel, von Papen’s assistant, paid him money after von Papen left the country. Still further, Captain Otto Wolpert, Pier Superintendent of the Atlas Line, is charged with having received some of these bombs. The metal containers were manufactured on board the steamship Friedrich der Grosse, tied up in the North German Lloyd pier in Hoboken. The chief engineer, Carl Schmidt, who spent some time in collecting money for a monument to commemorate the part Germans have taken in the present war, is said to have been directed by a German officer to turn over the workshop of the ship as a bomb factory. At any rate, Ernst Becker, chief electrician, who has turned State’s evidence, and three assistant engineers have been arrested as co-conspirators in this ship plot. Dr. Scheele’s assistant, Captain Charles von Kleist, also has been arrested. It was through information unwittingly supplied by him that Captain Tunney and Detective George Barnitz, assisted by extremely keen members of the bomb squad, unearthed the whole conspiracy.

Captain von Papen, as an organizer of a part of Germany’s secret service in America, as the schemer who sought to control a monopoly in certain high explosives and as a director of military enterprises—has been revealed by the Federal authorities as an extremely able servant of the Kaiser. These activities, however, were only a part of the task assigned to him by the German General Staff. He had still other plans which will be set forth in the following chapter.

CHAPTER III
CAPTAIN VON PAPEN, BUYER OF PASSPORTS AND PROMOTER OF SEDITION

Three other phases of Captain von Papen’s campaigns against the Allies upon American territory as a base of operations remain to be set forth. They are his supervision of a bureau for obtaining fraudulent passports for German reservists ordered home to fight for the Fatherland, the fomentation of insurrections in the colonies of the Allies and of war between Mexico and the United States.

PASSPORT FORGERIES

The passport bureau is a striking instance of Germany’s disregard of the rights and laws in a neutral country. With the sending of Great Britain’s ultimatum to Germany, the cable between Germany and the United States had been cut. The United States forbade the use of wireless for the transmission of messages in code to Germany, or the use of the cable for cipher dispatches to the warring countries. The Allies’ war vessels began at once to search all passenger ships for German citizens, taking them off and sending them to concentration camps. Meantime, von Papen, Boy-Ed and the other German officials realized the utmost necessity of transmitting to their respective home offices information concerning the developments in America. They knew also the vital necessity of sending back to Berlin, army and naval officers who had been selected and trained for special commissions in the event of war.

But they had been taught in their early days the value of fraudulent passports, and to these they turned at once. The Germans had at first no regular passport bureau for the aid of German reservists. Every German, left to his own resources, did the best he could under the circumstances. Carl A. Luederitz, German consul in Baltimore, has been indicted on a charge of conspiracy in connection with obtaining a fraudulent passport for Horst von der Goltz under the name of Bridgeman Taylor. The young German has confessed that with the aid of Herr Luederitz he applied for a passport and on August 31, 1914, obtained one bearing the signature of William J. Bryan, then Secretary of State. To get that document von der Goltz took an oath that he was born in San Francisco.

But this method was rather loose, and upon Captain von Papen devolved the necessity of establishing a regular system. The military attaché, always resourceful and daring, selected for the work Lieutenant Hans von Wedell. Von Wedell had been a newspaper reporter in New York, later a lawyer; but when he received orders from Captain von Papen, he gladly undertook the work in New York, bureaus being started in other cities. He opened an office in Bridge Street, New York, and began to send out emissaries to Germans in Hoboken, directing them to apply for passports. He sent others to the haunts of hoboes on the Bowery, to the cheap hotels, and other gathering places of the downs-and-outs, offering ten, fifteen and twenty dollars to men who would apply for passports. He spent much time at the Deutscher Verein, at the Elks clubhouse, where he would meet his agents, give them instructions and receive passports. His bills were paid by Captain von Papen, as revealed by the attaché’s cheques and counterfoils. These show that on November 24, 1914, von Papen paid him $500; that on December 5, he gave him $500 and then $300, the latter being for journey money; that he paid von Wedell’s bills at the Deutscher Verein, amounting in November, 1914, to $38.05. Meantime, he was using Mrs. von Wedell as a courier, sending her with messages to Germany. On December 22, 1914, he paid Mrs. von Wedell, by his own account, $800.

BUYING PASSPORTS WHOLESALE

The passports which von Wedell, and later on his successor Carl Ruroede, Sr., obtained, were used for the benefit of German officers whom the General Staff had ordered back to Berlin. American passports, then Mexican, Swiss, Norwegian and the passports of South American countries, were seized eagerly by various reservists bound for the front. Stories were told in New York of Germans and Austrians, who had been captured by the Russians, sent to Siberia as prisoners of war, escaping therefrom, and making their way by caravan through China, embarking on vessels bound for America, arriving in New York and thence shipping for neutral countries. Among them was an Austrian officer, an expert observer in aeroplane reconnaissance, who lost both his feet in Siberia, but who escaped to this country. He was ordered home because of his extreme value in reconnoitring. The British learned of him, however, and took him off a ship at Falmouth to spend the remainder of the war in a prison camp.

Captain von Papen used the passport bureau to obtain passports for spies whom he wished to send to England, France, Italy and Russia. Among these men were Kuepferle and von Breechow, both of whom were captured in England, having in their possession fraudulent passports. Kuepferle and von Breechow both confessed.

But so reckless was von Wedell’s and Ruroede’s work that the authorities soon discovered the practice. Two hangers-on at the Mills Hotel called upon the writer one day and told him of von Wedell’s practices, related how they had blackmailed him out of $50, gave his private telephone numbers and set forth his haunts. As a result of this and other information reaching the Department of Justice, Albert G. Adams, a clever agent, started out one day, got into the confidence of Ruroede and offered to get passports for him for $50 each. Meantime, von Wedell had gone on a trip to Cuba, apparently on passport matters, and Adams, posing as a pro-German, got into the inner ring of the passport-buyers. He was informed by Ruroede as to what was wanted.

CHANGING OFFICIAL STAMPS

Though in the early days of the war it had not been necessary for the applicant to give to the Federal authorities anything more than a general description of himself, the reports of German spies in the Allies’ countries became so insistent that the Government directed that the document, bearing the United States seal, must have the picture of the person to whom it was issued. The Germans, however, were not worried. It was a simple matter to give a general description of a man’s eyes, colour of hair, age and so forth, that would fit the man who was actually to use the document and then forward the picture of the applicant, who, getting the passport, would sell it. Even though the official stamp was placed on the picture, the Germans were not dismayed. Federal Agent Adams rushed into Ruroede’s office one day waving five passports which had been issued to him in a batch by Uncle Sam. Adams seemed proud of his work. Ruroede was delighted.

“I knew I could get these passports easily,” boasted Ruroede. “Why, if Lieutenant Hans von Wedell had kept on here, he never could have done this. He always was getting into a muddle.”

“But how can you use these passports with these pictures on them?” asked the agent, curiously.

“Oh, that’s easy,” answered Ruroede. “Come into the back room and I’ll show you.” The agent followed the German, who immediately soaked one of the passports with a damp cloth and with adhesive paste fastened a photograph of another man over the original upon which the imprint of the United States seal had been made.

“We wet the photograph,” said Ruroede, “and then we affix the picture of the man who is to use it. The new photograph also is dampened, but when it is fastened to the passport, there still remains a sort of vacuum in spots between the new picture and the old, because of ridges made by the seal. Well, turn the passport upside down, place it on a soft ground made with a silk handkerchief, and then, taking a paper cutter with a dull point, just trace the letters on the seal. The result is that the new photograph looks exactly as if it had been stamped by Uncle Sam. You can’t tell the difference.”

Through the work of Adams, four Germans, one of them an officer of the German reserves, were arrested on the Norwegian-America liner Bergensfjord, outward bound to Bergen, Norway. They had passports issued to them through Ruroede’s bureau under the American names of Howard Paul Wright, Herbert S. Wilson, Peter Hansen and Stanley F. Martin. Their real names were Arthur Sachse, Pelham Heights, N.Y., who was returning to Germany to become a lieutenant in the German Army; Walter Miller, August R. Meyer, and Herman Wegener, who had come to New York from Chile, on their way to the Fatherland. Ruroede pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in Atlanta, Ga., prison. The four Germans, also pleading guilty, protested they had taken the passports out of patriotism and were fined $200 each.

Von Wedell, himself, was a passenger on the steamer Bergensfjord, but when he was lined up with the other passengers, the Federal agents, who did not have a description of him, were deceived, and let the vessel proceed. He was taken off the ship by the British and placed in prison.

The arrest of Ruroede exposed the New York bureau, and made it necessary for the Germans to shift their base of operations; but it did not put an end to the fraudulent passport conspiracies, as will be shown. In the face of the exposures, so daring were the German agents that they continued to commit fraud upon the United States, and to put in danger every honest American travelling in Europe with an American passport.

FOMENTING REVOLTS

Captain von Papen was a supervisor and a promoter of sedition. His headquarters in Wall Street were the centre of lines running out to British and French colonies, where Germany planned at critical moments to start revolutions, if it would help her interests.

One of the enterprises which Captain von Papen, acting under orders from Berlin, supervised in the United States, was a revolt against British rule in India. Preparations for this insurrection had been in the making for years, and, in the course of all of them, German agents were working with the Hindus and also with the German-Irish in America, the latter organization being really headquarters for many Hindus travelling from Germany to England, then to United States, on their way back to India. There has been for years a sort of understanding between pro-German Irish and certain members of an American society interested in India. In this organization, prior to the war, were men who were plotting a revolution in India, who were in touch with German agents and who received German money.

Immediately after the outbreak of the war, von Papen and his agents poured more money into Hindu pockets, and made arrangements to supply arms and ammunition to Hindus. For the promotion of this German-Hindu conspiracy, two other centres were established. One was fathered by Germans in San Francisco, and another was at Shanghai, China. Confessions by men, who were active in the enterprise, tell how Hindus in sympathy with the sedition plots conferred with certain German officials in Berlin, that they came to New York—this in the course of the war—where they met certain pro-German-Irishmen and were aided financially. From New York they journeyed to Chicago, where more money was handed to them, and then to San Francisco, where they had talks with Hindu revolutionists—whose openly avowed aim is in rousing the people of India to celebrate the year 1917, “the diamond jubilee of the mutiny of 1857,” by a general and universal rising against British rule in India.

HINDUS LAUNCH BOMB CAMPAIGN

Many Hindus, who were assembled in the West, also had an opportunity to study the fine art of explosive and bomb making at a bomb factory up in the state of Washington. On several occasions groups of Hindus equipped with money and carrying secretly arms with them sailed from San Francisco for the Philippines, planning thence to go to India. Furthermore, ships were chartered by German agencies to carry arms and ammunition to India and Ceylon. The American schooner Annie Larsen and the ship Maverick, both owned by a man named Fred Jebsen, a German naval officer, were chartered on the Pacific coast to sail for India in June, 1915. The Annie Larsen was seized by the United States officials at Hoquiam, Washington, and on board was found a cargo of rifles and ammunition. The Maverick, however, got away also equipped with rifles and cartridges, carrying a number of Hindus. The good ship had a most eventful voyage, the sailors and the passengers suffering many hardships, and finally reached Batavia, where she was seized by the Dutch authorities.

In the early stages of his plans, Captain von Papen had an opportunity to send a rather detailed report of events in India to the secret office in Berlin. The chance came through Captain Archibald, who was about to sail from this country, and Captain von Papen, accordingly, prepared in code a long message. This document, which has been translated, is illuminating. Here it is:

“Since October, 1914, there have been various local mutinies of Mohammedan native troops, one practically succeeding the other. From the last reports, it appears that the Hindu troops are going to join the mutineers.

“The Afghan army is ready to attack India. The army holds the position on one side of the Utak River. The British army is reported to hold the other side of the said river. The three bridges connecting both sides have been blown up by the British.

“In the garrison located on the Kathiawar Peninsula, Indian mutineers stormed the arsenal. Railroad and wireless station have been destroyed. The Sikh troops have been removed from Beluchistan; only English, Mohammedans and Hindu troops remain there.

“The Twenty-third Cavalry Regiment at Lahore revolted; the police station and Town House were stormed. The Indian troops in Somaliland in Labakoran are trying to effect a junction with the Senussi. All Burmah is ready to revolt.

“In Calcutta, unrest is reported with street fighting; in Lahore, a bank was robbed; every week at least two Englishmen are killed; in the north-western district many Englishmen killed, munitions and other material taken, railroads destroyed; a relief train was repulsed.

“Everywhere great unrest, in Benares a bank has been stormed.

“Revolts in Chitral very serious; barracks and Government buildings destroyed. The Hurti Mardin Brigade, under General Sir E. Wood, has been ordered there. Deputy Commissioner of Lahore wounded by a bomb in the Anakali Bazaar.

“Mohammedan squadron of the cavalry regiment in Nowschera deserted over Chang, south-west Peshawar. Soldiers threw bombs against the family of the Maharajah of Mysore. One child and two servants killed, his wife mortally wounded.

“In Ceylon a state of war has been declared.”

THE REVOLT IN IRELAND

The extensive conspiracy on the part of Germany to start a revolt in Ireland has been thoroughly set forth in the public prints in connection with the arrest and trial of Sir Roger Casement as a rebel. Sir Roger worked openly among the Irish prisoners in Germany, travelling backwards and forwards between Ireland and Germany by means of a German submarine. Nevertheless, a very large and important American phase of this whole revolution occupied von Papen’s attention prior to his recall. German agents here were in touch with the Irishmen in America, who were actively co-operating with Patrick H. Pearse.

German funds were poured into Irish hands in America, the money being used for the purchase of arms and the printing of seditious papers and leaflets. More than $100,000 was collected in America for Ireland between September, 1914, and April, 1915. Plans also were worked out with the aid of Germans in America to ship arms and supplies to the Irish rebels.

There also have been vague reports of dramatic schemes in America to arm the Arabs in northern Africa and start an uprising against British rule. There have been signs of dramatic plottings to stir up trouble in Afghanistan and in Egypt. It is a fact that various attempts have been made to ship rifles and cartridges from the United States to South America and then from South America to Africa. Some of these have proved successful. In other cases, the shipments have been stopped.

FORCING WAR IN THE UNITED STATES

Throughout all the crises arising between the United States and Germany over the submarine campaign, German agents constantly kept in view the possibility of a war between their country and this nation. They prepared for it.

“Before I left New York,” confesses von der Goltz, “I had some conversation with Captain von Papen about the war, and while speaking of the end of the war Captain von Papen said: ‘Should things start to look bad for us, there will be something happen over here.’ In connection with other statements of his, he speculated on America joining Germany, or on a possible uprising.” The significance of that remark was shown two years and a half later when on January 31, 1917, three days before the break between the United States and Germany, an order went forth from the German Embassy in Washington. Immediately the machinery of every German merchantman interned in American ports was wrecked. The damage was $30,000,000.

Here again Captain von Papen’s and Captain Boy-Ed’s advice and orders were involved. It devolved upon Captain von Papen not only to keep in thorough touch with the development of American military affairs, but also to study constantly the topography of the United States, the plan of cities and their surroundings from a military viewpoint. Upon him fell the task of stationing German reservists in the various cities and towns where, in case of hostilities, they would be valuable to the German cause. German efficiency and foresight came to the front in connection with these plans. There were under consideration at one time when the crisis between the United States and Germany was acute, military plans to start a reign of terror in America.

First of all, Captain von Papen and Captain Boy-Ed supervised the purchase of ground near New York and Boston, which was to be used for the construction of concrete bases for big guns in the same manner in which the Germans prepared in Belgium, England and France prior to the war. There is absolute proof that German representatives spent money for this purpose, and that they caused to be built foundations that could be used for big guns for the purpose of making an attack upon New York City, for instance. But that was only a part of the scheme.

When von Papen and his colleague Boy-Ed were recalled, it was announced by the State Department that the reason was “improper activities in military and naval affairs.” A brief summary of Captain von Papen’s activities shows that he violated the courtesies extended to him as a diplomatic agent in secretly sending code messages by couriers; that he handed out money for fraudulent passports; that he schemed in military enterprises against Canada; that he plotted with Ambassador Dumba to start strikes in American factories; that he plotted in connection with other criminal activities in this country, such as blowing up factories; that he was a promoter of seditious enterprises; and that he and his associates schemed to start war between the United States and Mexico.

When he set foot upon the gangway of the steamship Noordam, homeward bound, he said: “I leave my post without any feeling of bitterness, because I know full well that when history is once written it will establish our clean record, despite all the misrepresentations spread broadcast.” But at the moment he handed out that statement he was carrying under his arm a portfolio which was a veritable diary of his payments to law-breakers. Again he gave proof of his expression about “stupid Americans,” because he thought he could make those “stupid Americans” believe him, and that he could sneak the proofs of his law-breaking past the British at Falmouth. Again the stupidity was on his side.

CHAPTER IV
VON IGEL AND KOENIG, TWO OF THE KAISER’S FAITHFUL WORKERS

Wolf von Igel, von Papen’s Man Friday and custodian of his secret documents, was hustling about his private office on the twenty-fifth floor of 60, Wall Street, on the morning of April 19, 1916. He was hurried. His full, grey eyes glistened with excitement and he curled his stubby moustache as he glanced upon heaps of papers carefully arranged on the long council table and on the floor. Then squaring his stocky shoulders, he turned again to the big safe, bearing the seal of the Imperial German Government, and swinging back the heavy doors, extracted another bundle of papers which he ranged among the other sheets with military precision.

“It’s eleven o’clock and Koenig should be here now,” he said in German to another employé of von Papen’s who was with him. “These papers must be packed up at once.”

He paused and then began a mental inventory of each stack of papers to make sure none was missing. All these documents—there were hundreds of them, and their weight, as revealed by a government agent, was seventy pounds—had belonged to von Papen. They revealed the inner workings of the German spy system in America and a great part of the world. They told many of the details. Those papers, connecting the German Government with violators of law in America, were a vast responsibility for any officer of von Igel’s age. Naturally, the young man was keyed to a high pitch of excitement; for hitherto they had come from the safe only piecemeal, and to permit daylight to reach so many at one time was almost a little more than von Igel’s nerve could stand.

Perhaps he had a presentiment. In fact, secret agencies had been at work to instil in him a feeling of uneasiness. Von Igel, stopping again and again to twirl his moustache, knew that von Papen and Captain Tauscher had been indicted on a charge of plotting to blow up Welland Canal. Word also had come to him that still more ominous events were portending and the idea—by stealthy prearrangement—had been given to him to ship all the documents to Washington, where they would be absolutely safe. Therefore von Igel was both busy with his packing and intensely perturbed.

“A man to see you, Herr von Igel,” announced a stout German attendant. “He refuses to tell his business except that it is important.”

Von Igel was gruffly directing his agent to make the stranger specify his name and mission when the door was flung open. In dashed Joseph A. Baker, of the Department of Justice, in charge of Federal Agents Storck, Underhill and Grgurevich.

“I have a warrant for your arrest!” shouted Baker, who had a warrant charging the German with complicity in the Welland Canal enterprise. Von Igel eyed the intruders for the fraction of a second. With one spring he reached the safe, and swinging the doors shut, was turning the combination when Baker leaped upon him bearing him to the floor. Then followed a battle of four Americans against two Germans, the attendant having been quieted by the flash of revolvers.

“This means war,” yelled von Igel. “This is a part of the German Embassy and is German territory. You’ve no right here.”

“You’re under arrest,” said Baker soothingly, as he pulled a revolver.

“You shoot and there’ll be war,” answered von Igel, while Storck and Underhill grappled with a third. “I’m connected with the Embassy and you can’t arrest me.” The first skirmish was quickly ended by von Igel, realizing the importance of the documents entrusted to his care and straining every resource to outwit his captors, he fought again and again, facing revolvers and braving fists to reach the telephone to call for the help of the German Ambassador and prevent the officers from gathering up the documents. But he was unsuccessful. As the agents led him from the office, they met Koenig, von Igel’s associate, and von Papen’s agent in many enterprises just entering. Koenig, who was already facing three charges growing out of his activities, was rendered speechless by the sight of von Igel in custody and some of his documents in possession of the government.

The mass of documents—it makes no difference whether the Secretary of State, for reasons of State or of law, orders their return—not only set forth the secrets of Germany’s activities in this country; but they also told what part von Igel and Koenig played in the invisible war in America. They show how both men were errand boys, carriers of cash and of messages for von Papen and Boy-Ed.

WHO WAS VON IGEL?

Concerning young von Igel there is much mystery. At the outbreak of the war he was reported to be wandering around looking for a job, willing to work for any wages. Then von Papen picked him up, paying him a salary of $238 a month. There is a rumour, too, that he is a grandson of Graf von Waldersee, one time Germany’s Chief of Staff. That he is a man of importance is indicated by the manner in which he was trusted by von Papen, Boy-Ed, and Dr. Albert. When in an automobile ride from Captain Tauscher’s home on Long Island with von Papen and Dr. Albert, he met with an injury, he was hurried secretly to a hospital. Every effort was made to hide his identity; but Dr. Albert and von Papen visited him frequently. Von Papen paid the hospital bills and charged them up to “War Intelligence.”

Almost immediately upon beginning service under von Papen, he leased the offices in Wall Street, putting down in the contract “advertising” as the purpose to which the rooms were to be devoted and never making any statement as to his connection with the German Embassy. He quickly gave von Papen every reason to trust him fully and won the respect of the reckless attaché. Though he did not begin work for von Papen until September, 1914, he had, it is charged, a hand in the first Welland Canal enterprise.

HANDLING MONEY FOR EVIL ENDS

Von Igel also handled money for von Papen. For instance, on March 27, 1915, the latter gave to his secretary a cheque payable to his order for $1,000 and on the counterfoil of his cheque-book he wrote “for A. Kaltschmidt, Detroit,” who since has been accused by the Canadian authorities as an accomplice in the project against Canadian armouries and munition factories. It was von Igel, furthermore, who cashed many cheques for von Papen, the proceeds of which were to go to secret agents starting on missions to the enemy’s country. He carried confidential messages which von Papen would not put in writing. He handled the code books in compiling and deciphering messages. He carried orders to Koenig, conferring with him and directing him when to meet von Papen.

When von Papen was preparing to leave the country at the request of President Wilson, he began to turn over his documents to von Igel for safe keeping. He gave him instructions as to the custody of the papers and the cleaning up of work left undone. In his regard, he undoubtedly followed Dr. Albert’s instructions put in a letter from San Francisco: “If you should leave New York before my return, we must try to come to some agreement about pending questions by writing. Please instruct Mr. Amanuensis Igel as precisely as possible. You will then receive in Germany the long-intended report of the expenses paid through my account on your behalf.”

So von Igel, as a trusted clerk, took unto himself the duties of confidential man for von Papen and for other big Germans who began but were obliged to leave unfinished certain projects in this country. There were many lines of information and activities converging to von Papen, afterwards to von Igel. After von Rintelen left this country, part of his schemes were entrusted to von Igel, who saw men with whom von Rintelen or his assistants had dealt. For instance, he has been indicted jointly with Dr. Scheele, Captain Gustave Steinberg, von Rintelen’s aid, for complicity in a plan to ship articles abroad under fraudulent manifests and thus deceive the Allies. One of these schemes was to export lubricating oil, much needed in Germany, to Sweden as fertilizer. Some of the payments for this purpose were made after von Rintelen sailed for home.

With von Papen gone and Koenig arrested, von Igel became a somewhat important person, taking upon himself the attaché’s prestige and a lot of Koenig’s work after the latter’s arrest. Many, many cheques were cashed by von Igel in the four months intervening between the attaché’s departure and the former’s arrest. He carried on von Papen’s work in a miniature way, conferring with many secret agents, giving orders and preparing reports in code for despatching to Germany.

While von Igel, in point of family, education and confidential association with the big German agents in America, is an important link in the Teutonic spy chain, Paul Koenig (“P. K.”), is more striking because of his rough activities, his underground connections and his associations with law-breakers. He was a sort of business manager of Germany’s secret service in the eastern part of America.

“P.K.”

“P. K.,” as his hirelings called him, was a sort of boss, an unmerciful autocrat in the lower world, physically fearless, trusting no man and driving every man to work by the use of violent abusive language, boastful of his skill, physical prowess and his craft. In appearance, he gives this impression. A tall, broad-shouldered man, he has bony fingers and arms long and powerful reaching almost to his knees. His dark, sharp eyes dart suspiciously at you from beneath black, arching eyebrows, showing defiance and yet a certain caution. A truly typical person he is for the work for which he was selected, and though perhaps a little too boastful, such supreme confidence undoubtedly is a necessary attribute of any man who would acquire any degree of success in such undertakings.

Koenig is another product of the Hamburg-American Steamship Line—the Kaiser’s very own. Prior to the war he was superintendent of the company’s police, having a half-score men under him and keeping watch on the pier workers or investigating complaints received by the management. He had grown to that task from similar training in the Atlas Service, a subsidiary corporation. He had spent years among longshoremen, bossing them and cursing them. He knew wharf rats, water-front crooks, and was thoroughly acquainted with their schemes—as naturally such a man would be. He understood thoroughly how to handle men of the rough type.

When the war started and von Papen was searching for an assistant organizer, he found in Koenig’s little police force a splendid nucleus of just what he needed. At his request the Hamburg-American Line quickly put Koenig at von Papen’s disposal and straightway von Papen began to link up to Koenig’s police a number of channels of information, to supply him with reservists for special assignments, to suggest to him how to spread out and instal spies in various places to gather important facts. Koenig accordingly became the business manager of a part of Germany’s secret service, not only gathering information, but acting as a link in the labyrinth system employed by von Papen in communicating with the reservist or agent selected to do certain work in behalf of the Fatherland.

How varied and steady was his work for von Papen is revealed by the latter’s cheques. Here are a few excerpts: “March 29, 1915, Paul Koenig (Secret Service bill), $509.11; ... April 18, Paul Koenig (Secret Service bill), $90.94; ... May 11, Paul Koenig (Secret Service), $66.71; ... July 16, Paul Koenig (compensation for F. J. Busse), $150; ... August 4, Paul Koenig (5 bills Secret Service), $118.92,” and so on. Remember also that von Papen only paid from his cheque account for a part of Koenig’s expenses, other German officials who employed him receiving a bill for the special work.

KEEPING WATCH ON SPIES

“P. K.” also kept a most carefully prepared note-book of his spies and of persons in New York, Boston and other cities who were useful in furnishing him information. In another book he kept a complete record of the assignments on which he sent his men, the purpose and the cost. In this book of names were several hundred persons—German reservists, German-Americans and American clerks, scientists and city and Federal employés—showing that his district was very large and that his range for picking facts and for supervising other pro-German propaganda was broad. For his own hirelings or reservists, over whom he domineered, he had specially worked out a system of numbers and initials to be used in communicating with them. These numbers were changed at regular intervals and a system of progression was devised by which the agent would know when his number changed. He also employed suitable aliases for his workers. These men likewise had codes for writing letters and for telephone communication, and they knew that on fixed days these codes changed.

Always alert for a listening ear or a watchful eye—because playing the eavesdropper was his job—he looked for spies on himself. He believed that his telephone wire was tapped and that he was overheard when he spoke over the telephone. Accordingly, he instructed his men in various code words. For instance, if he told an agent to meet him at five o’clock at South Ferry that meant: “Meet me at seven o’clock at Forty-second Street and Broadway.”

His wire was not tapped, but P. K. kept the men who were spying on him exceeding busy and worried. He would receive a call on the telephone and would direct the man at the other end of the wire to meet him in fifteen minutes at Pabst’s, Harlem. Now from Koenig’s office in the Hamburg-American Building to 125th Street, it is practically impossible to make the journey in a quarter of an hour; but his watchers learned that Pabst’s, Harlem, meant Borough Hall, Brooklyn. Just as he eluded espionage for days and months, this man, skilled in shadowing others and in doing the vanishing act whenever necessary, boasted that the Federal authorities or the police never would get him. “They did get Dr. Albert’s portfolio,” he said one day, “but they never will get mine, for I won’t carry one.”

SHADOWS FOLLOWING SHADOWS

He sought likewise to elude Americans trailing him. He never went out in the daytime that he did not have one or two of his agents trailing him to see whether he was being shadowed. He used to turn a corner suddenly and stand still so that a detective following came unexpectedly face to face with him and betrayed his identity. Koenig would laugh heartily and pass on. He loved to jibe the American authorities and ofttimes he would dodge around a corner and then reappear to confront the detective with a merry jest and pass on. By that means he came to know many agents of the Department of Justice and many New York detectives. When he started out at night he used to have three of his own men follow him, and by a prearranged system of signals inform him if any strangers were following him.

The task, consequently, of keeping watch of Koenig’s movements was most difficult and required clever guessing and keen-headed work on the part of the New York police. So elusive did Koenig become that it was necessary for Captain Tunney to evolve a new system for shadowing Koenig and yet not betray to him the fact that he was under surveillance. One detective, accordingly, would be stationed several blocks away and would start out ahead of Koenig. The “front shadow” was kept informed by a series of signals whenever Koenig turned a corner so that the man in front might dart down the street beyond and by a series of manœuvres again get ahead of him. If Koenig boarded a street car, the man ahead would hail the car several blocks beyond, thus avoiding any suspicion from Koenig. In other instances, detectives, guessing that he was about to take a car would board it several blocks before it got abreast of Koenig. Because of his alertness, he kept Detectives Barnitz, Coy, Terra and Corell always on the edge; but they finally ran him down.

It was never possible to overhear any conversation between Koenig and any man to whom he was giving instructions. Koenig always made it a point to meet his agents—some of his workers he never permitted to meet him at all—in the open, in parks in broad daylight, in the Pennsylvania Station, or the Grand Central Station. There, as he talked to them, he could make sure that nobody was eavesdropping. In the open he met many a man for the first time, talked with him and then said:

“Be at Third Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street at 2.30 to-morrow afternoon beside a public telephone booth there. When the telephone rings, you answer it.”

The man would obey the request. Promptly at the minute named, the telephone rang and the man answered the telephone. A strange voice spoke to him and told him to do certain things, perhaps to be at a similar place on the following day and receive a message, or he would receive instructions as to what he should do and where he should go to meet another man, who would give him money and instructions as to what he should do. The voice at the other end of the wire was speaking from a public telephone booth and was thus reasonably sure also that the wire was not tapped.

Koenig trusted no man. He never sent an agent out on a job without detailing another man to follow that man and report back to him the movements of the agent and the person whom that man met. He was severe with his men when they made their reports to him, and always insisted that they do exactly what he told them and never permitted them to use their own initiative. So stubborn was he in sticking to his own ideas that some of his men used to call him “the Westphalian, bull-headed Dutchman.”

As to the outline of Koenig’s activities, his book of spies, the great mass of information gained by trailing him, and by study of the documents seized in his office, show that he had spies along the water front on every big steamship pier. He had eavesdroppers in hotels, telephone switchboards, among porters, window-cleaners, among bank clerks, corporation employés and in the Police Department.

To Roger B. Wood, formerly assistant United States District-Attorney in New York, is due the credit for the unfolding of the intricate and varied schemes charged against Koenig. He studied the evidence for months as it was developed by Federal agents under Superintendent Offley of the New York office and Captain Tunney, and prepared for trial the cases against the German agent.

One of Koenig’s spies was listed in his book as “Special Agent A. S.,” namely Otto F. Mottola, a detective in the warrant squad of the New York police force whom he paid for special work. The note-book revealed Mottola as Antonio Marino, afterwards changed to Antonio Salvatore. Evidence was produced at Mottola’s trial at Police Headquarters that Koenig paid him for investigating a passenger who sailed on the Bergensfjord; that he often called up Mottola, asked questions and received answers which Koenig’s stenographer took down in shorthand. In other words, Koenig sought to keep closely informed as to the developments at Police Headquarters, and to be advised, perhaps, of the inquiry being made by the police into the activities of the Germans. Mottola was dismissed from the force because of false statements made to his superiors when asked about Koenig.

STARTING TROUBLE IN CANADA

“P. K.” also despatched men to Canada to gain information concerning the Canadian preparations for war, and facts that could be used by the Germans here in planning attacks upon munition factories, railroads and transportation facilities in the Dominion. An Irish employé of the Atlas Line has been arrested on a charge of planning with Koenig to start a “military enterprise” against the Dominion. The employé, named Justice, is accused of going to Quebec to ascertain the number of troops which were being transported by the Dominion of Canada to ports in France and Great Britain; the names of the steamships on which said troops were being transported; the kind and quantity of supplies which were being shipped from the Dominion to France and Great Britain, and other information which would or might be of value to the German Government, and which would assist the military operations of the German Government.

The complaint stated that the undertaking was one of hazard, and came within the purview of the statute forbidding the undertaking of any military venture with this country as a basis of operation. It says, further, that Justice and Metzler, Koenig’s secretary, left New York on September 15, 1914, and went to Quebec; that Koenig left New York on September 18 and met Metzler in Portland, Me., and that he went to Burlington, Vt., where on September 25 he conferred with Justice. The authorities also say that Metzler and Justice gained a varied assortment of information in Quebec; that they inspected the fortifications there, went to the training camps, observed the number of men, the condition of the men and estimated the time when they would be sent to the front.

VARIOUS ALIASES

In his meetings with various persons who had been picked for some daring enterprise, Koenig is accused of having employed various names. The Federal authorities give him at least thirteen, among which are Wegenkamp, Wegener, Kelly, Winter, Perkins, Stemler, Rectorberg, Boehm, Kennedy, James, Smith, Murphy and W. T. Munday.

After indictments had been returned against some of the Hamburg-American officials for conspiring to defraud the United States of legal clearance papers, Koenig, assisted by a private detective in the pay of Captain Boy-Ed, developed a scheme to get affidavits from tugboat captains to the effect that they had supplied English war vessels patrolling off Sandy Hook with provisions.

The plan was to turn sentiment against the British by proving that the British were doing the same thing that had been charged to the Germans. Accordingly, Koenig called a number of tugboat captains to a room in the Great Eastern Hotel, New York, and offered them a contract to haul provisions to the English cruisers. He told them that the captains were extremely suspicious of boats approaching the war vessels, and the affidavits were necessary to allay their fears that the tugboats might have a few Germans with bombs on board. So, in return for sworn statements from them to the effect that they already had been carrying supplies out to other English cruisers, he, Koenig, was to give them a monthly contract to do the work. Many of the tugboat captains signed the affidavits; but the scheme was exposed before the Germans really made any use of the documents. So carefully did Koenig work that he made the stenographers who took the statements transcribe the notes in his presence, give him the shorthand notes and he immediately destroyed them.

SPIES IN BANKS

Through the arrest of Koenig and the facts obtained thereby, one of the mysteries concerning the Germans’ method of getting information about the shipment of munitions of war to the Allies was cleared. They knew the number of the freight car rushing to the Atlantic seaboard and its exact contents. They knew the ship’s hold into which that product was to be placed; but how they got this data was a mystery until Koenig was caught. Then Metzler, Koenig’s secretary, made a confession that cleared the mystery. Agent Adams got the confession.

Besides having spies in some of the factories throughout the country, the Germans had one great fountain of information in the foreign department of the National City Bank, an institution that has carried hundreds of millions of dollars in financing the purchase of supplies for the Entente Powers. That source was Frederick Schleindl, a German who has since been convicted of selling stolen information and sentenced to three years in a New York State prison.

Schleindl, only twenty-three years old, came to this country from Germany several years ago, obtained work with a private banking firm, and after the war started was shifted to the National City Bank. He had influence to get the position, and, incidentally, it may be said, that for years prior to the war German agents, trained financiers, have been stationed in New York, making friends and learning conditions, so that at the critical time they could, by underground means, succeed in getting positions for such men as Schleindl who would betray their trust.

SECRET INFORMATION ON BANKS

When the war started Schleindl registered with the German Consul, giving his address and his place of business. One day word reached him that a German wished to see him, and going to the Hotel Manhattan he was approached by a man who introduced himself as Koenig. The latter sounded him thoroughly as to his sentiments on the war, and then outlined the scheme by which Schleindl was to help Germany and make $25 a week. Schleindl was to keep his eyes open for all letters and cable messages bearing on the deposits of the Allies with the bank, the payments of orders and other facts bearing on the war.

The bank clerk succumbed, either through patriotism or love of money. And Koenig had placed his finger on exactly the right spot; so accurate was he that there seems no doubt that he received guidance from a master spy higher up, who knew banking operations thoroughly, and where to go for information. It quickly developed that Schleindl could obtain information of two very important kinds.

First, he received in his department cable messages bearing on war orders and deposits by the Allies. The day he was arrested he had in his pocket certain messages and letters addressed to the National City Bank. One had come from the Banque Belge pour Etrangers in regard to a shipment of two million rifles that was being handled through the Hudson Trust Company. Another message that he picked up and handed over to Koenig had come from the Russian Government, directing the bank to place at the disposal of Colonel Golejewski, a Russian naval attaché, a large amount of money for the purchase of war materials.

Secondly, the bank paid for orders of goods as soon as they had been inspected and delivered on board ships at the seaboard. The manufacturers sent their bills of lading to the bank, showing the carload shipments and the vessel to which they were consigned. Thus accurate information was obtained as to every item, the railroad route of shipment and the name of the vessel. All this information was turned over to Koenig, who passed it along for dissemination to the proper persons. Consequently, the Germans knew exactly what ships to attack; in what vessels to place their fire bombs or other explosives.

Schleindl was accustomed to meet Koenig almost every night and hand him papers. Sometimes he would go to Koenig’s office, where “P. K.,” Metzler and Schleindl would spend many hours copying the documents. Other times Schleindl would give the papers to Koenig and receive them on his way to work, so that they would be in their proper place the moment any bank official desired them. Koenig pleaded guilty in the Court of Special Sessions to an information charging him with having corrupted the boy to sell such information. Koenig was set free on a suspended sentence.

The National City Bank leak is only one of a hundred channels through which Koenig and his agents received information. Koenig compiled it with the aid of his secretary, conferred with von Papen or Boy-Ed. He would spend a few weeks gathering facts, and then he would pack hundreds of papers into a trunk and run down to Washington. Arriving there, he would take a taxi to a rooming house, where he would unpack his trunk, and put the contents into another trunk in an adjoining room.

As weeks went by and Koenig believed he was escaping police and Federal espionage, he grew bolder, more defiant of the authorities, and louder in his talk. He treated his employés with less consideration. He always followed a principle of never hiring the same reservist for a second job. Then he quarrelled with George Fuchs, a relative whom he had employed to go to Buffalo with him. The police heard of that quarrel, and quickly got into the confidence of Fuchs, obtained his confession, and enough information on which to arrest Koenig. He has been indicted by the Federal authorities twice on charges that may get him six years, if convicted.

The two men were active workers for a time. Koenig continues in New York, but von Igel sailed with Count Bernstorff when the latter was dismissed from this country.

CHAPTER V
CAPTAIN KARL BOY-ED, THE EMPEROR’S SOCIAL DANDY AND VON TIRPITZ’S TOOL

In the days before the Kaiser booted his spur through the treaties of Europe, you could observe, almost any afternoon, a faultlessly-attired man—well built, his big round head resting firmly on a powerful neck—sauntering down Connecticut Avenue, the Rotten Row or Fifth Avenue of Washington. Jauntily swinging his cane and puffing at his inevitable cigarette, he would bow gracefully in greeting the members of the capital’s smart set. He could be seen later at tea at the Chevy Chase Club, then among government officials and diplomats at the Metropolitan Club, or a guest at the Army and Navy Club. He was much desired at the most brilliant functions in New York in the winter, or at the resorts where, in the summer, the wealthiest and most exclusive Manhattanites gathered. One always found him graceful, suave, clever at repartee, effervescing natural humour—the object of admiration on the part of matchmaking mothers, and the reported seeker after an American heiress—but always mingling with the persons in official, diplomatic and navy circles who knew the innermost government secrets.

He was Germany’s Beau Brummel, Captain Karl Boy-Ed, the Kaiser’s naval attaché, seemingly more interested in the frills, foibles and gaieties of society than in the supremacy of the German Navy. Very much like an American in appearance, Oriental in his sense of luxury, and possessing the French quality of subtlety in rapid-fire wit, he lacked apparently every vestige of the much vaunted Teutonic efficiency. He would occasionally, however, drop out of the scenes of beauty and charm, travelling about the country, visiting warships, tramping over coast country, scrutinizing fortifications, or places where Uncle Sam would have coast defences, until finally it began to be whispered that Captain Boy-Ed knew as much about the American Navy and coast forts as did the naval officers themselves. Under the veneer of lightness and graceful ease, the naval attaché hid with the craft to which that Turkish part of his ancestry made him heir, the persistent methodical thoroughness of his German ancestry.

And, when the Kaiser set the dogs of war loose, Boy-Ed shunted aside the cloak of frivolity, disappeared almost entirely from festive gatherings, settled down by day to room 801, No. 11, Broadway, New York, receiving code messages as “Nordmann,” and by night to his suite in the German Club, where he delved into records, conferred with associates and elaborated plans for activities on the seven seas. From a hale, jolly fellow he became—as if by the shift of the magic wand of a Turkish sorcerer—a veritable machine, mind and body, working for the Kaiser. A man of great brain power, erudite, fertile in schemes, for long an aid to Admiral von Tirpitz, he assumed charge in America of all enterprises dealing with the naval phases of the Teutonic warfare in this country and in or near American waters. These were activities which, despite his boast: “They haven’t got any evidence against B. E.,” caused his dismissal from America by President Wilson.

BOY-ED’S CAREER