I beg your excellency to be so good as to inform me with reference to this letter by wireless telegraphy, replying whether you agree.
Dumba.
The consideration which “Doctor” Archibald received for his complacency in giving his friends Dumba and Bernstorff “this rare and safe opportunity” is indicated by his receipt of April 24, 1915, to the German Embassy in Washington for $5,000 for propaganda work.
Further light upon “the enclosed aide mémoire ... in pursuance of his proposals to arrange for strikes in the Bethlehem Schwab steel and munitions war factory,” is gained by the following quotations from the enclosure mentioned by Dumba in his letter to Burian. The enclosure was an outline of a scheme for fomenting strikes, submitted to Dumba by William Warm, the Editor of Szabodsog [in English, Freedom.]
In my opinion we must start a very strong agitation on this question in the Freedom (Szabodsog) a leading organ, with respect to the Bethlehem works and the conditions there. This can be done in two ways, and both must be utilized. In the first place, a regular daily section must be devoted to the conditions obtaining there and a campaign must be regularly conducted against those indescribably degrading conditions. The Freedom has already done something similar in the recent past, when the strike movement began at Bridgeport. It must naturally take the form of strong, deliberate, decided, and courageous action. Secondly, the writer of these lines would begin a labour novel in that newspaper much on the lines of Upton Sinclair’s celebrated story, and this might be published in other local Hungarian, Slovak, and German newspapers also. Here we arrive at the point that naturally we shall also require other newspapers. The American Magyar Nepszava (Word of the People) will undoubtedly be compelled willingly or unwillingly to follow the movement initiated by the Freedom (Szabodsog), for it will be pleasing to the entire Hungarian element in America, and an absolute patriotic act to which that open journal (the Nepszava) could not adopt a hostile attitude....
In the interest of successful action at Bethlehem and the Middle West, besides the Szabodsog, the Nepszava, the new daily paper of Pittsburg must be set in motion, and those of Bridgeport, Youngtown District, etc., also two Slovak papers. Under these circumstances, the first necessity is money. To Bethlehem must be sent as many reliable Hungarian and German workmen as I can lay my hands on who will join the factories and begin their work in secret among their fellow workmen. For this purpose, I have my men Turners in Steelwork. We must send an organizer, who in the interests of the Union will begin the business in his own way. We must also send so-called “soap-box” orators who will know, and so to start a useful agitation. We shall want money for popular meetings and possibly for organizing picnics. In general, the same applies to the Middle West. I am thinking of Pittsburg and Cleveland in the first instance, as to which I could give details only if I were to return and spend at least a few days there.
It is my opinion that for the special object of starting the Bethlehem business and for the Bethlehem and Western newspaper campaign, $15,000 to $20,000 must be able to be disposed of, but it is not possible to reckon how much will ultimately be required; when a beginning has been made it will be possible to see how things develop, and where and how much it is worth while to spend. The above-mentioned preliminary sum would suffice to partially satisfy the demands of the necessary newspapers and to a considerable extent those of the Bethlehem campaign.
These documents should be read in the light of their date, August 20, 1915, and of the fact that the United States was a neutral nation, still harbouring the representatives of the “friendly” German and Austro-Hungarian empires. They are conclusive enough, in themselves, of the pernicious activities of these Embassies, but they wall become doubly significant in a later article in this series when they are read in the light of the activities of “Labour’s National Peace Council.”
Another document which Dumba entrusted to Archibald was his report to Burian on the then recent publication in the New York World of the papers taken from a satchel left in an elevated train by Dr. Heinrich Albert, the financial adviser of the German Embassy in America and the paymaster for a great deal of its work in plots and propaganda. This dispatch of Dumba’s is worthy of reproduction in full. It is:
A map and a number of documents—typed but unfinished copies or statements of petitioners—were stolen from the financial adviser of the German Embassy here, obviously by the English Secret Service. These documents are now published in the current issue of the World, which has gone over to the English “Yingolager” (Jingo camp) as a great sensation, with cheap advertisement. The paper makes the most violent accusations against the German Embassy, mainly against Count Von Bernstorff, Military Attaché Captain Von Papen, and Geheimrat Albert, who are said to have conspired secretly against the safety of the United States, in that they have bought arms and munition factories, have concluded bogus contracts for delivery with France and Russia, have purchased large quantities of explosive materials, have incited strikes in the munition factories, have sought to corrupt the press, and have spread far-reaching agitation for the effecting of an embargo in the different American circles. The other important New York papers second the World, although with less violence, for, in their leading articles, by misrepresentation of the facts, they accuse Germany of all possible and impossible machinations—for instance, they, like the World, bring forward the assertion that the German Government wished to stop the supply of ammunition to the Allies, while itself secretly sending quantities over.