IN THE MAZE
This officer, it is charged, had dealings with Dr. Walter T. Scheele, the alleged manufacturer of fire bombs, and arranged with him to mix lubricating oil, so urgently needed in Germany, with fertilizer, and ship the oil as “commercial fertilizer.” The oil was to be extracted by a chemical process in Germany. Von Rintelen, through Steinberg, importuned Dr. Scheele to ship munitions as farming implements, giving him $20,000 for that purpose. Dr. Scheele did bill the shipment as requested, but he did not lie because he shipped farming machinery, taking a fat commission. Again von Rintelen was hoodwinked. The officer, von Igel and Dr. Scheele have been indicted on a charge of conspiring to defraud the United States by false manifests.
“The British blockade,” von Rintelen used to boast with purring pride, “is a myth. I can send to Germany all the goods that I wish.”
So skilfully did he plan—he was a master of detail and a consummate artist in concealing his movements—and so many different aliases did he employ, that at first he attracted no attention, and after a time his doings were credited to a German Red Cross lecturer. Because of the German method of switching agents to cause confusion to the enemy’s spies, it is probable that some Red Cross agents did figure in the purchases. The investigations of the Federal authorities, however, have laid to von Rintelen the schemes carried on from April to June, 1915.
Von Rintelen boasted that he bought provisions, amounting to $2,000,000 a week, for shipment to Germany through Denmark. More than $25,000,000 was consumed by von Rintelen in his blockade-running, many of the boats being seized by British warships.
Von Rintelen also took a flier at the most elusive and puzzling diversions of war-brokers, namely the purchase of the 350,000 Krag-Jorgensen rifles which the United States Government had condemned just prior to the outbreak of the war. Around those rifles was centred more intrigue and deceitful scheming than was incited by almost any other single article connected with the war. Even after the Government had announced emphatically that they were not for sale, and President Wilson had told one banker: “You will get those rifles only over my dead body,” every belligerent tried to get them.
Von Rintelen heard that by bribing Government officials he could obtain the guns. He was stirred; for if an official would accept money for one thing, he could be influenced to do other things to help Germany. Sending out agents, he offered to purchase the rifles. He encountered a man who put a price of $17,826,000 on them, part of the amount being intended, von Rintelen was told, as bribes of several millions of dollars for Government officials.
Things looked bright to von Rintelen. “So close am I to the President,” said the agent who promised to deliver them, “that two days after you deposit the money in the bank you can dangle his grandchild on your knee.” But von Rintelen apparently came to realize that he was dealing with the secret agent of another government, who was laying a trap for him, and he quickly withdrew.