The crippled newsboy ate in a certain restaurant, and there by chance he overheard a conversation between some Mexicans. He got a mass of information and turned it into the office, where a report was made to the Navy Department, which later ferreted out a plot that was laid in Mexico. With no more than this passing mention of the A. P. L. operative who, like so many others, gets small glory beyond the reward of his own conscience, some mention may be made of this plot, which really involved the extensive machinations of Germans in Mexico against the United States. It ended in the capture by the United States vessels of the Hun raider Alexander Agassiz.
A young woman owned the Agassiz, but had not been able to make much money out of it, and so sold it to one Fritz B——, once a German naval reservist and for a time chief officer on a German ship interned at Santa Rosalia. At another period in his career he had been interned at Angel Island as an alien enemy. At any rate, he made his way to Santa Rosalia, and thence to Matzatlan, where he got in touch with the German Consul. B—— was sent to Mexico City for a conference with the German Ambassador there. There were Germans from all parts of Mexico who appeared at that meeting. When B—— came back, he sought out the acquaintance of the young woman who owned the boat and induced her to sell it to him. The boat then was hauled out and thoroughly overhauled by German sailors who had arrived from the fleet of German ships at Santa Rosalia. The hull was calked, new sails were bent on, the machinery was overhauled, and in general the boat was made ready for her career as a raider.
In the meantime B—— obtained full armament and instruments for his ship. He had some of his arms on an island seven miles northwest of Matzatlan, but the rest of the equipment was taken aboard the Agassiz. This was carried on openly and the news got out to the American Patrol Fleet. A cruiser put in an appearance off the mouth of Matzatlan Harbor. Hence, instead of sailing out with a crew of twenty Germans, only five Germans were put aboard the Agassiz, with two American women and six Mexicans. B—— figured that the boat would be taken as a harmless trader and allowed to go out. He guessed wrong. The Agassiz made a dash for the open sea. But by this time wireless had brought up two other American warships. They closed in on the incipient raider and signaled her to heave to. Not being obeyed, they planted a shell in front of the raider’s bow, which brought her up.
Before the naval men could get aboard the Agassiz, her crew worked as hard as they could to throw overboard everything of an incriminating nature. They also tried to wreck the engine and destroy the bearings in the magneto. The blue-jackets found some rifles and revolvers, some German flags and a secret cipher. From the papers it was learned that B—— was in hiding at Venados Island. This was on Mexican soil, so he could not be seized.
It was learned that the German Consul at Matzatlan had forced all the crew to take the oath of allegiance to the Kaiser. He had instructed B—— to capture speedier boats, and after raiding Pacific shipping to work the Southern Pacific, thence to go by the west coast of Africa and north on a dash for some German port, so that he might send to Wilhelmstrasse—Germany’s Scotland Yard—the package of papers entrusted to him by the Mexican German ambassador.
Had this raider gotten into the open seas and taken captive a faster and better equipped ship, it might have done a very considerable damage to shipping, just as did the several German raiders which for a time harrassed the Allied commerce. That her career was stopped at the outset was due to the keenness of a legless newsboy, anxious to do his bit for the country whose uniform he once had worn. There is enough, let us repeat, in this very story to give hope to every crippled soldier coming back from France—for this, taken in all its bearings, was about as important a piece of work as this busy division had, and is one of the biggest of all the A. P. L. cases.
The A. P. L. did not disband at the signing of the Armistice, and it is well that it did not. San Diego, like many another city, has had more than its share of bootlegging and vice investigations to carry on, owing to the fact that the growing feeling of license, which had developed since the Armistice, had spread among our troops. Among those quartered near San Diego, there were, of course, some not above reproach, and the bootlegger was known here as elsewhere. This pleasant and peaceful town in the sun-kissed South also had its share of the German-born. It would take a Luther Burbank, perhaps, to change them, and even Luther “would need time.”
There was one man of great wealth naturalized in California in 1898, who held a prominent position in San Diego business life. He was known to have been in close touch with all the famous Germans, and had a pretty good insight into affairs American and Mexican. When we went into the war, this suspect became distinctly pro-German and was one of the most active propagandists along the border, apparently entirely forgetful of the fact that he owed allegiance to the United States. Being well acquainted with the German population in Mexico, he and others are alleged to have aided in the establishment of a wireless plant in Mexico, and to have financed people who ought not to have been financed, in view of their past records. It was charged against him by fellow-citizens that he worked to some extent with German money; that he was connected, at least indirectly, with the Hindu plot case, and that he knew more than he should about the illicit shipment of arms in the Annie Larson steamship case. In fact, he was charged rather openly with having been interested in the German efforts to give aid to the ship Maverick in the Pacific Ocean. The wireless plant in Mexico was located and wrecked, which spoiled the attempts of an enemy clique to establish wireless communication between Mexico and German ships in Honolulu.
This same man was linked with the scheme of buying arms in New York and shipping them via San Diego into Mexico. British Military Intelligence also charged this man with being head and front of the most complete pro-German organization in that part of the world. He was charged with delivering coal from San Diego to a German steamship. The British Government and that of the United States joined hands in following out this pro-German citizen of America. He was traced to Europe and found to have gone to Berlin instead of to Paris. He was alleged to be guilty of fraudulent transactions at an Army post, and a man connected with him in his operations has been convicted. He succeeded in getting his son and son-in-law exempted from the draft, and attempted to get his son a commission in the Quartermaster Department. For months United States agents from various departments have been after this man, recording every move he made. Finally a joint meeting of the several agents of the United States, gathered in San Diego, decided that the time was ripe to get out a search warrant and go through his place of business, his safety deposit box, and his residence. Just then there came a change in the personnel of D. J.—and after this adjustment the Armistice ended it all! The investigation, therefore, is not closed at this writing, and the Department of Justice is still on the trail of this disloyal “American.” He is one of a great many of his type claiming citizenship in this country.
It would seem that after a native of Germany had passed forty-two years in the United States, he would learn to feel a certain pride and appreciation of the benefits he had enjoyed here. That was not always the case—certainly it was not true in the instance of the gentleman who is filed away as Case No. 392. This worthy had abused the Allies in language too foul to print, and seemed to think that no one in this country would resent anything he said. When called down by a loyal citizen, he dared anybody to make him stop talking. He said that England started the war and had an agreement with Belgium whereby England could go through Belgium in order to strike at Germany. He said England sunk a great many boats and then blamed it on the German submarines. He said that England sent one hundred and fifty newspaper men here to write up stories against the Germans; that he hoped the submarines would blow up every damned American boat on the ocean, and sink all the transports and ships carrying munitions; that the men the Yankees had in France in March, 1918, did not amount to anything; that the United States couldn’t make him fight; that this —— —— Government was rotten to the core. He made other remarks of like violent nature, and his remarks against the President of the United States were coupled with such language that swift hanging would really have been about the only just punishment for him. He was arrested and undertook to deny the remarks reported against him. The jury found him guilty. He was sent to prison for three years. He ought by all means to be deported when he gets out of jail, and so ought any German in this country who has been found at any time to be guilty of any such talk. We do not need that sort of “citizens” in America, and we are not going to have them here.