After his departure Baron Zwiedinek, his chargé d'affaires, and Consul von Nuber advertised widely in Hungarian newspapers calling on Austrians and Hungarians at work in munitions plants to leave. If they wrote the Embassy on the subject, the reply they received read:
"It is demanded that patriotism, no less than fear of punishment, should cause every one to quit his work immediately."
But neither threats, nor walking delegates, nor German spies could check the output of shells and guns. An attempt made by Dr. Albert to buy, for $50,000, a strike in Detroit motor factories failed. The factories were making money as they had never made money before, and labor was buying luxuries. To the American munitions-worker a comfortable supply of money meant much more than the shrill bleat of the Central Powers. And what was more, he was not entirely satisfied that the right was all on Germany's side. (Our space does not permit, nor is definite information at present available, to discuss the anarchist, socialist, and I. W. W. elements of labor, and their relations to Germany. These three factors, especially the last named, effected in the years 1914-1918 a sufficient amount of industrial unrest to qualify them as allies, if not actual servants, of the Kaiser. Whether they were employed by Germany will be brought out in a trial which began in Chicago in April, 1918.)
FOOTNOTE:
[3] McGarrity, Keating, and O'Leary, upon the publication of this despatch, uttered vigorous denials of any connection with or knowledge of the despatch or the affairs mentioned.
CHAPTER XIII THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA
The mistress of the seas—Plotting in New York—The Lusitania's escape in February, 1915—The advertised warning—The plot—May 7, 1915—Diplomatic correspondence—Gustave Stahl—The results.
In the eyes of the German Admiralty the Lusitania was the symbol of British supremacy on the seas. There were larger ships flying the Prussian flag, but one of them lay in her German harbor, the other at her Little-German pier in Hoboken, while the Lusitania swept gracefully over the Western Ocean as she regally saw fit, leaving only a thin trail of smoke for the sluggish undersea enemy to follow. Time and again during the early months of war the plotters in Berlin had attempted her destruction, and every time she had slipped away—until the last, when the plot was developed on American soil.