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

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.