The Project Gutenberg eBook ofFighting Germany's SpiesThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: Fighting Germany's SpiesAuthor: French StrotherRelease date: June 11, 2018 [eBook #57307]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by deaurider, John Campbell and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Fighting Germany's SpiesAuthor: French StrotherRelease date: June 11, 2018 [eBook #57307]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by deaurider, John Campbell and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)
Title: Fighting Germany's Spies
Author: French Strother
Author: French Strother
Release date: June 11, 2018 [eBook #57307]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by deaurider, John Campbell and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING GERMANY'S SPIES ***
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESome minor changes to the text are noted at theend of the book.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Some minor changes to the text are noted at theend of the book.
© Harris & EwingATTORNEY-GENERAL THOMAS W. GREGORYWho directed the nation-wide work of arresting and prosecuting German plotters and of interning dangerous enemy aliens
© Harris & EwingATTORNEY-GENERAL THOMAS W. GREGORYWho directed the nation-wide work of arresting and prosecuting German plotters and of interning dangerous enemy aliens
© Harris & Ewing
ByFRENCH STROTHER
Illustrated
Garden City New YorkDOUBLEDAY PAGE & COMPANY1918
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BYDOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANYALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OFTRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES,INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
“Fighting Germany’s Spies” is published to bring home to the public in a detailed and convincing manner the character of the German activities in the United States. By courtesy of the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice the facts and documents of this narrative have been verified.
PAGEForewordvIntroductionxiCHAPTERI.The inside story of the passport frauds and the first glimpse of Werner Horn3II.The inside story of Werner Horn and the first glimpse of the ship bombs37III.Robert Fay and the ship bombs60IV.The inside story of the Captain of theEitel Friedrich83V.James J. F. Archibald and his pro-German activities92VI.A tale told in telegrams109VII.German codes and ciphers134VIII.The Tiger of Berlin meets the Wolf of Wall Street158IX.The American Protective League192X.The German-Hindu conspiracy223XI.Dr. Scheele, chemical spy258
Attorney-General Thomas W. GregoryFrontispieceFACING PAGEGerman agents who dealt in fraudulent passports16The official German plotters at Washington32Captain Thierichens and scenes on theEitel Friedrich88“When the water gets to the boilers”112Mr. A. Bruce Bielaski152Rintelen and his confederates184Officers of the American Protective League200LINE CUTS IN THE TEXTPAGEA German attaché reminds Bernstorff of Wedell6The successful use of a fraudulent passport18Von Papen and Albert appear as unneutral plotters28,29The card “of the guileless stranger from Tokyo”31Von Papen becomes accessory to a crime33Two of Ruroede’s visitors’ credentials34Horn’s application for a furlough39Werner Horn’s plan of escape41Werner Horn’s commission in the German army48,49Werner Horn’s confession56,57TheLusitaniawarning94,95Code message transmitting money to Sir Roger Casement137A letter from John Devoy, an Irish-American, exposing his hand in a plot with the Germans140Extracts from a German code expert’s blotter147Bolo’s handwriting148A tale told in cablegrams150,151The Cohalan-Irish Revolution message154,155
Espionage has always been to Americans one of the hateful relics of an outworn political system of Europe from which America was fortunately free. We lived in an atmosphere not tainted with dynastic ambitions or internal oppression. We had no secret agents spying and plotting in other countries and were slow to suspect other countries of doing such things here.
The war, however, disillusioned us. We found our soil to be infested with representatives of an unscrupulous Power which did not hesitate to violate our hospitality and break its most sacred pledges in using this country as a base for unneutral plots against France and Great Britain. We soon learned that these plots were directed against us as well. They were only another manifestation of the spirit which led to the open hostility of Germany which forced us into war.
For a time we were at a great disadvantage in meeting the situation. We had no secret police; we had no laws adequate to deal with these novel offenses.
The Department of Justice met the situation, so far as it could under existing law, by a great enlargement of its Bureau of Investigation, and by the creation of a legal division devoted entirely to problems arising out of the war. Congress substantially supplied the deficiency in the laws by the passage of appropriate statutes. Under the powers obtained in these two directions the Department proceeded vigorously to the suppression of sedition, the internment of enemy aliens, and the prosecution of German agents. Its success is, I feel, attested by the absence of disorder in this country under war-time conditions. Open German activities have long since ceased here and the more subtle operations have been driven so far under cover as to be ineffective. In this work the Department of Justice has had the efficient and loyal aid of private citizens, who have responded generously to a patriotic impulse, through the agency of the American Protective League and similar organizations.
Mr. Strother’s narrative covers some of the more outstanding cases of the period when German plotting was at its height. The failure of these plots and the retribution visited upon the evil-doers are evidences, not merely of governmental efficiency, but of that of old, age-old, substantive laws of morality, whichGermany as a nation has undertaken to flout—as we now know, in vain—both here and elsewhere.
T. W. GregoryAttorney-General.
Washington, D. C.August 14, 1918.
FIGHTING GERMANY’S SPIES