After all the ramifications of the Teutonic system in America had been unearthed through the work of the Federal authorities, an order went forth to the spies to cease activities that were in violation of the laws. Meantime, the Chief Spy in Berlin began immediately to construct an entirely new system of espionage, for use in an emergency. The remnant of the old system, however, was kept at hand for the furthering of propaganda and such activities as could not arouse the objection of the Government, even though detected.
Count von Bernstorff, German Ambassador, took steps following the seizure of the von Igel papers, rather the papers showing the directorship of the system in America, to issue a warning to all Germans of the necessity of leading a purely and righteously neutral life. He sent forth a statement, which had been prepared by an attorney in New York, to all German consuls in the country, and took care to see that the State Department obtained a copy of this notice. The notice, dated some time in the early spring of 1916, said:
“In consequence of cases which have occurred of late, German Ambassador Bernstorff sent instructions to all German Consuls in the United States to strongly impress on German citizens living in their districts that it is their duty scrupulously to obey the laws of the states in which they reside.”
That notice, however, was simply a subterfuge employed by the Chief Spy in Berlin to throw Americans off his trail. In December, 1915, following the arrest of Paul Koenig and other German agents, a formal notice was sent forth from Berlin asserting that no citizen of Germany ever had been asked to disobey any laws. But that statement had proved merely a blind to cover other activities in the United States. With the seizure of the von Igel-von Papen papers, however, it had become necessary to make a strategic retreat, so to speak, and to rebuild the spy system.[[3]]
[3]. How a new system was devised, and how Americans were employed to gather information about the Allies is now coming to light. Still more startling revelations of plans for attacks upon the United States will shortly be unfolded.
The necessity of such a move is clear because of the fact that the papers, documents and other evidence developed by the Secret Service and other Federal agents proved that the warriors and statesmen of Germany had, at the outset of the war, decided upon a campaign in America to injure the Allies and to weaken the American Government. The General War Staff had at their disposal in America a vast army of German reservists and secret agents, and straightway set them to work upon plans in violation of American laws.
TWO AND A HALF YEARS OF HIGH TREASON
Go back over the events since 1914, and study them in the light of the moves made by Germany or by her secret agents here, and you will realize how, in America, Germany has had a hand in practically every domestic or foreign event of any importance. Her agents sought to control the Congress. They planned trouble between the United States and Mexico with the aim of stopping the shipment of war supplies to the Allies, and of getting this country so absorbed in other matters that we could not call Germany to account for her murderous submarine warfare. They fomented trouble among labouring men. They schemed to bring about seditious uprisings in Cuba, and in the dependencies of the Allies, using this country as a base of operations.