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

STIRRING UP MEXICO

He seized, therefore, upon President Wilson’s opposition to General Huerta, and he planned to start a revolution in Mexico with the aim of returning Huerta to power and thus placing the United States in a position where it would be compelled to go into Mexico and restore order. The United States would not be in a position then to dictate terms for the settlement of the Lusitania controversy, would seize the war supplies going to the Allies, and, incidentally, would be hampered for the remainder of the European war.

Ensconced in Meloy’s office, von Rintelen had as his daily associate a man of his own age and of much the same appearance, tall, slender, splendidly dressed, namely, a Mexican of German ancestry and a banker of Parral. These two, who had known each other for years, met in New York. The banker was versed in Mexican affairs, and the young German-Mexican knew some of von Rintelen’s plans which had been set in operation before the latter’s arrival in America.

German agents had been sent to Barcelona, Spain, to confer with General Victoriano Huerta, former dictator of Mexico, and dazzle him with the prospect of returning to power. Von Rintelen appreciated keenly the fact that Huerta in Mexico virtually meant a declaration of war by the United States, and, therefore, he wanted to put him there.

Having coaxed the old warrior to the United States, von Rintelen got Boy-Ed and von Papen to map out Huerta’s plans. The two attachés, with von Rintelen standing, invisible, far in the background and pulling the strings, had many secret conferences in New York hotels, overheard by Federal agents. They developed the plans for Huerta’s dash into Mexico, and the uprising of Mexicans to support him. Von Rintelen, Boy-Ed and von Papen made trips along the Mexican border, arranged for the mobilization of Mexicans, for the storing of supplies and ammunition and for furnishing funds. Von Rintelen deposited in Cuban banks and in banks in Mexico City more than $800,000 for Huerta’s use. When the aged general, stealing away from New York, reached Texas, he was nipped, while attempting to jump the international border.

While the Huertista faction was amply financed, it was only one of seven groups, five of which were in Mexico, to which von Rintelen passed out money. Striving to stir up trouble and still more trouble for the United States, he poured gold upon gold into Mexico, hoping that President Wilson, nervous and harassed, would raise a big army for a march.

Next, as an English banker making a special study of Mexican railway securities, he called one day upon Villa’s representative in New York, and discussed the Mexican situation with him, and afterwards he sent money to Villa. He gave support to Carranza. He financed Zapata, and he started two other small revolutions in Mexico. He gave $350,000 to one agent who hurriedly left the country carrying the cash with him. He sent $400,000 travelling through devious channels to help one of the revolutionary parties; but that money was recovered by von Rintelen’s superiors after a most exciting scramble. The reckless agent is reported to have expended $10,000,000 in his Mexican enterprises, and airily he said he would spend $50,000,000 if necessary.

CHAPTER VII
CAPTAIN FRANZ VON RINTELEN, GERMAN ARCH-PLOTTER

But von Rintelen had still bigger projects afoot. While his precise, swiftly moving mind supervised the Mexican conspiracy, and carefully watched over shipments of supplies to the Fatherland, he was launching a series of concerted conspiracies designed to cut off this country almost entirely from Europe. His vivid imagination had led him to picture a Utopian fantasy wherein Americans who believed so absolutely in universal peace—despite the war raging abroad—that the labourers would refuse to make munitions of war, the farmers would decline to sell food to warring nations, and the Government would take over all the war factories. Von Rintelen, accordingly, determined to bring such a dream into real life, not for altruistic purposes, but to help Germany conquer the Allies.

He had made his plans before he left Germany, and he had sent ahead for information concerning Americans as his aids, who were skilled in finesse and underground work. He wanted men who, while men of brains, might be led by lust for gold or hatred of England to espouse the criminal schemes which he had originated. He sought leaders whose logic and oratory could sway the rank and file. The man of whom he had heard while in Berlin as a likely assistant was David Lamar, now serving a term of imprisonment for having impersonated a Congressman, whose craftiness and ingenious methods in using politicians in his stock operations had won him the title of “The Wolf of Wall Street.” The two men were brought together.

One can see von Rintelen, enthusiastically speaking in millions of dollars, as he outlined his schemes to Lamar, his equal in grace of manner and deceit, and Lamar cloaking his avarice with smiles and sophistry.