EXIT DUMBA
Following the receipt of those documents by the State Department, Dr. Dumba and Secretary Lansing were in conference. The Ambassador admitted he had written the letter, and had consigned it to the care of Captain Archibald. He defended his course on the ground that he was under orders from his home government, and that he wished to prevent Austro-Hungarian workmen from committing high treason by helping turn out munitions for the Allies. President Wilson, however, insisted on the Ambassador’s recall, and Secretary Lansing, in his note to Austro-Hungary, made these charges against Dr. Dumba:
“By reason of the admitted purpose and intent of Mr. Dumba to conspire to cripple legitimate industries of the United States and to interrupt their legitimate trade, and by reason of the flagrant violation of diplomatic propriety in employing an American citizen, protected by an American passport, as a secret bearer of official despatches through the lines of the enemy of Austria-Hungary, the President directs us to inform your Excellency that Mr. Dumba is no longer acceptable to the Government of the United States as the Ambassador of his Imperial Majesty at Washington.”
After the departure of Dr. Dumba, Baron Zwiedinek and von Nuber began a series of advertisements in racial newspapers, calling the subjects of Austria-Hungary out of the munition factories. If any workman wrote him regarding the matter, he sent a reply, in which he said: “It is demanded that patriotism, no less than the fear of punishment, should cause every one to quit his work immediately.”
CHAPTER XI
GERMANY’S LOBBY IN CONGRESS
President Wilson said in part of his Flag Day address in June, 1916:
“There is disloyalty in the United States, and it must be absolutely crushed. It proceeds from a minority, a very small minority, but a very active and subtle minority.... If you could have gone with me through the space of the last two years and could have felt the subtle impact of intrigue and sedition, and have realized with me that those to whom you have entrusted authority are trustees not only of the power, but also of the very spirit and purpose of the United States, you would realize with me the solemnity with which I look upon the sublime symbol of our unity and power.”
The President in those few words summed up the conspiracies of the Teutonic Powers aimed at the integrity of the United States. When he made his charge, he had behind him a vast amount of evidence which never has been and never will be made public. He had as proof the details of Germany’s scheme to control the Congress of this nation and to manipulate it in a manner that would have rendered not only the legislative bodies an absolute check to the administrative functions of the Government, but would have dictated the course of the Republic in international affairs just as if the United States were a dependency of the Fatherland.