The German Spy in America " Will Give You Some Small Conception of What the Germans in the United
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Ah.-, /'- THE UNIVERSITY .•^^ ' Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. U. of I. Library DEC 15 -31; •J L- ! A. j., i o S t 3 26 ">r-? #av 2 - m ^9'ra APR i ^ APR ^f^ "5 JIJN 21)09 9324-S The German Spy in t/ImefiCa .-.• ne Secret Plotting of German Spies in the United States and the Inside Story of the Sinking of the Lusitania :: By John Price Jones '^u'v ^ With a Foreword by THEODORE ROOSEVELT and an Introduction by ROGER B. WOOD Former U.S. Assistant Attorney in New York LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO. PATERNOSTER ROW :: :: 1917 Copyright 1917 BY John Price Jones Agnes C. Laut 482, Fourth Avenue, New York. Office of Theodore Roosevelt. February 27, 1917. My dear Mr. Jones, I have read the galley proofs of your book, and I wish to say, with all emphasis and heartiness, that you are doing this country a great service in pub- lishing it. Your statements are evidently for the most part based on official Government records, happening in the course of prosecuting the various criminals, who by the direct instigation of the German Government, have for the last two and one-half years been using this country as a base for war against the Allies, and more than this, have in effect been waging war on us within our own boundaries, no less than on the high seas. Our people need to know certain of the facts that you set forth. They need to understand that Germany has waged war upon us, and has waged war against our property, and has waged war against the lives of non-combatants, including women and children, and therefore a far more evil war than one waged openly. Our people also need to understand what you so clearly set forth that very much of the 822738 4 Theodore Roosevelt's Foreword pacifist movement has been directly instigated by German intrigues, and paid for by German money, and that the entire pacifist movement in this country, during the past two and a half years, has really been in the interest of German militarism against the rights of small nations, and against our own honour and vital national interests. You have done a capital work, and I wish it could be put in the hands of all good Americans. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. John Price Jones, The Sun, New York. FOREWORD There have been two kinds of German propaganda. One, devoted to setting before the American people Germany's side of the war, may be classed as legiti- mate. The other has been illegal and criminal. While both are set forth in this narrative, the greater space has been devoted to illegal activities. The author claims for this book no other distinction than a plain unvarnished statement of facts—vital, dramatic, absorbing facts of the manner in which secret agents of the Teutonic governments, acting under orders of authorized directors, have attacked the very integrity of our national life, commercial, social and politic. It contains facts arranged from an American viewpoint by an American who considers it his duty to present them to his fellow Americans. /These facts were obtained by the writer as a reporter on the New York Sun who devoted a year to no other work. They were derived by a painstaking investigation and where flat statements are made they are based on knowledge obtained by the author from various authorities and from the examination of documents some of which have never been published. They show how German agents sought to subvert the aims of our government to the advantage of the Central Powers. They furnish a glimpse of the manner in which these men and women sought to make America the hinterland for the European War ; how they planned and executed 6 Foreword briber},', arson, felonious assaults ; how they plotted destruction of property and even murder on American territory'. Th^se facts emphasize the need of a new kind of preparedness. Thej' prove that not only does the nation need preparedness in arms on both land and sea against a foreign foe but also defence against those within our bounds, who are eager to betray us. No true American, whether he be pro-Allj'^, pro-German, or strictly neutral, can read this book without realizing the thoroughness and the perfection of the German espionage system and being con\'inced of the way in which Germany's spies have overrun the entire country, nor can anyone doubt the necessity for pre- paredness to cope with these men and this system in a different guise in the event of still graver issues. JoHx Price Joxes. INTRODUCTION When the German note announcing that the Imperial German Government intended to resume with greater vigour its ruthless submarine warfare was handed to the Secretary' of State of the United States, a crisis in the affairs of this nation was abruptly precipitated. The President met that crisis ^\-ith courage, vrith promptness and in a way that merits, and has, the unquahfied support of every American who is proud of his citizenship. After the receipt of such an insulting note it was unthinkable that the United States could longer remain on friendly terms with a nation that deliberately returned to wanton murder of innocent non-com- batants, including women and helpless children. ^he conduct of the Imperial German Government in striving to win a war by means (which barbarians would hesitate to use) begun by that Government without just cause and pursued by riding rough-shod over a much smaller and much weaker nation, has been condemned by ever}- civihzed country-, and it will be many years before the German people recover from the shame and degradation into which they have been plunged. Germany will have to repent in sackcloth and ashes for a long, long time before it is received again into the Family of Nations. In prosecuting the war, Germany and her aUies 8 Introduction 'have proceeded from the beginning upon the theory that " the end justifies the means " and acting upon that theory have held in supreme contempt the rights of neutral nations. From the beginning of the war, subjects of Germany, resident in the United States, have continuously violated our laws in the most outrageous and flagrant manner. At the very threshold, they sought to use the United States as a base from which to supply the German raiders in the South Atlantic, and to that end, by fraud, obtained from the collectors at various ports of the United States legal clearances, thus sub- jecting every ship which lawfully cleared from any United States port to seizure by the Allies. Next, they sought and obtained, by fraud, and false swearing, passports to be used by German reservists in returning to Germany, travelling under the guise of American citizens ; thus placing in danger the lives and liberty of honest Americans travelling with legiti- mate passports and entitled to the protection of this Government. Because the Allies were able to purchase in the United States munitions of war, foodstuffs and all other supplies they might need, and were able to transport them, and because the United States did not at the behest of the Imperial German Government, stop the sale and transportation of the supplies, which its citizens had a perfect right to sell and transport, German residents devised the inhuman scheme of making chemical fire bombs and infernal machines to be placed on ships carrying passengers and supplies, with the deliberate intent and purpose that the ships — Introduction 9 should be crippled or sunk in mid-ocean—it mattered not to them that all on board might find a watery grave. Numerous attempts have been made to equip men of the most desperate character with necessary explo- sives and other implements of death and destruction and have them go from the United States into Canada, our friendly and respected neighbour, to destroy rail- roads, canals, ships, warehouses and factories without regard to human life. Agents have been sent to the United States with unlimited money at their command to engage gunmen and thugs to blow up our munition plants and fac- tories—many explosions have occurred—many lives have been lost—much damage has been done—I cannot say who caused such wholesale murder to be com- mitted, but I have the right as you have, to suspect. It is a matter of record that the German Military Attache, Captain Franz von Papen, and the German Naval Attache, Captain Boy-Ed, knew of and sanc- tioned some of the conspiracies above referred to perhaps the German Ambassador did not know of them ; but it will be hard to convince a hard-headed, common-sense American citizen that he did not know what his right hand and his left hand were doing in such a crucial period. Murder has followed murder on the high seas, one crime came fast upon another in the United States, and now we are told that this Government must do as the Imperial German Government directs ; or murder on a more colossal scale will be the result. The people of the United States have not taken orders from any Government since 1776, and the German 10 Introduction murderers ought to have known we would take none now, least of all from a Government that had for- feited its right to the respect of any civilized nation. " The German Spy in America " will give you some small conception of what the Germans in the United States have been doing since August 1, 1914.