For months past the German Ambassador has been in possession of a list of factories all over the country engaged in turning out munitions of war for the Allies. Last Saturday a concerted movement was begun toward securing a majority control of many of these plants.
When one of the bankers at the conference in Washington asked the Ambassador if he had any conception of the magnitude of the financial problems involved in the scheme he replied that his Government was fully prepared to pay everything necessary, and repeated that the fate of the empire might rest on the success or failure of the plan. He then added these words:
"There is no limit, gentlemen, to the amount of money available."
The activities of the representatives of Count von Bernstorff in this matter have already brought them up to the point of negotiation, or attempted negotiation, with the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, the Remington Arms Company, the Bethlehem Steel Company, and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company.
Government officials, when notified of this new propaganda yesterday, were a unit in declaring it was impossible to believe that such a scheme could be carried through successfully. In the first place, they pointed out that activity of this kind would be a direct violation of the Sherman act, and, secondly, a case of conspiracy would lie against individuals attempting such a movement for wholesale violation of contracts, which would become necessary in order to carry the plan to its successful conclusion.
The moment the German agents in New York began to disclose their purpose, several cunning individuals who have had some slight connection with the contracts for supplying the Allies with various materials have deliberately put themselves in the path of these agents under the pretext that they already had contracts, or were about to be given contracts, and have already mulcted the German Government of many thousands of dollars.
In two specific cases men have talked of having contracts for picric acid—the manufacture of which necessitates the most skilled training, with most expensive and complicated machinery, and which is only being attempted in four places in this country, and were promptly paid off, on their pledge that they would violate these alleged agreements. One of these deals was made in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last Saturday.
Another case, which is fully authenticated, is that of a Western dealer in horses, who delivered 1,500 horses to the port of New Orleans for the British Government last January. As soon as he ascertained what the German agents were doing, he produced his receipt for delivery of his first and only order, and declared he was now searching for 5,000 horses, in addition, for the British Government. On his pledge to abandon this search, he was given $2,500 by German agents.
The keen anxiety of the German Government, acting through the embassy in Washington, to deprive the Allies of any shipments of war materials that they can possibly stop is based on the result of calculations made in Berlin and forwarded to this country two weeks ago, which profess to show that the Allies cannot possibly arm their increasing forces or secure ammunition for their great numbers of large guns from their own resources, and that they must have the help of this country in order to accomplish their purpose. The German representatives also thoroughly believe that without this assistance the Allies cannot continue and complete an aggressive campaign, driving the Kaiser's armies out of Belgium and France.
In The New York Times of June 9, 1915, appeared the following statement of counter-negotiations to checkmate the German operators in America: