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

PLANNING WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES

Of Boy-Ed’s schemes to do his share in preparing, from a naval standpoint, for war between Germany and the United States, of the plots to create disorganization in the American seaports and to render the German merchantmen useless to Americans, much evidence has been gathered by Federal investigators. Of his methods in getting information secretly from the Navy Department and from battleships, of his placing spies, ready for any deed of daring, on the warships, a greater amount of information has been learned than ever will be made public by the Government. Suffice it to say precautions already have been taken against those schemes. All these formed the basis for the decision to hand Boy-Ed his passport. Summing up Boy-Ed’s work for the Kaiser in America, accordingly, we have his supervision of the shipment of supplies to the German raiders, his activities in fraudulent passports and his co-operation with Dr. Dumba. When President Wilson requested the Kaiser to recall his military and naval representatives, he made the announcement that his action was due to “their improper activities in military and naval affairs,” a double-barrelled assertion applying to both men.

Captain Boy-Ed, on his return home, received from the Kaiser the decoration of the Order of the Red Eagle, third class, with sword, in “recognition of his services in the United States.” He would undoubtedly, for “those services,” except for the immunity granted him as a member of a diplomat’s official family, be facing prison in the United States with Dr. Karl Buenz and other officials of the Kaiser’s own steamship line.

CHAPTER VI
CAPTAIN FRANZ VON RINTELEN, GERMAN ARCH-PLOTTER

When the German spy system was working smoothly and giving gleeful satisfaction to its builders, the War Staff in Berlin sent to America a masterly schemer who threw sand into the machinery. He was Franz von Rintelen, a finished product of the Prussian war-mould. He had been born with a supreme confidence in the conquering destiny of Germany. He had been trained for his work in that order of things and he had subordinated to the needs of the Empire, his business, wealth, brains, energy—yes, his very soul. He had been ordered here to undertake, with the aid of Germany’s agents, the enormous task of isolating commercial and financial America, as a base of war supplies, from Europe. In trying to accomplish his aim, he sought to wreck American institutions and to use the United States as a battlefield in a rear attack on the Allies.

Highly imaginative, keen of foresight, a master of detail, a superb organizer, and conscienceless in the execution of his plans, he seemed like a man so perfectly trained for the emergencies of war that under no circumstances would he lose his poise. And yet when put face to face with his own misjudgments and forced to take measures to retrieve himself, he lost the very quality which his training was meant to insure—a carefully calculating eye and a cool head. His strategic moves consequently proved to be ridiculous errors that led to his own confusion.

In a brief sojourn in America he moved in the shadows of mystery, employing the vast network of German spies, hiring Americans, using thugs and setting in motion manifold plans for gigantic enterprises that involved the entire governmental, industrial and financial organizations of the country. When he went away, his work unfinished, his aims unaccomplished and a large amount of money wasted, there remained a multitude of trails, isolated facts and incidents suggesting his activities. Seizing these clues, Federal agents under A. Bruce Bielaski and William M. Offley, began to dig up von Rintelen’s associates, to get their stories and to obtain proof of his doings—his letters and telegrams, his agents’ speeches and the instructions which they tried to carry out. Taking these facts, Raymond H. Sarfaty, then Assistant United States Attorney in New York, working with patience and skill, fitted the details together into a series of great mosaics—depicting conspiracy, fraud, purchases of strikes, bribery, perjury, forgery, sedition, almost treason. Those pictures show how hidden forces—Americans and Germans working in secret—during von Rintelen’s presence in this country, plotted to cause commotions in political, industrial and financial spheres, and all to aid Germany in derogation of our rights.