The exposures of German intrigue and the departure from this country of
the official representatives of Germany who had so grossly abused their
diplomatic privileges did not by any means put an end to pro-German
activities and expenditures. They were uninterrupted though necessarily
transferred to channels of less commanding importance. What was true
late in 1917, was practically true of the major part of 1918, before
the armistice. Societies as well as individuals continued to distribute
German money and carry on pro-German or anti-English propaganda. The
_New York Times_ said in October, 1917:
“The thing needs no proof. She is paying every man who will accept pay
for the same purpose for which, before the war began, she was paying
every man who would accept pay to handicap and weaken the arm of the
American government.
“How are we to recognize the trail of her money? Before the war she was
organizing strikes, blowing up factories, and purchasing the creation
of a false public opinion against trading with the Allies. The outbreak
of war somewhat altered her aims; there have been no purchased strikes
lately and no dynamiting of factories. Her aim, which is always the
same—the weakening of the government’s arm—can now be best attained by
creating a false public opinion in favor of laying down our arms and
consenting to peace before the objects of the war are attained. All her
own moves from Berlin are now directed to that end, and when we find a
movement in the United States which duplicates the moves from Berlin
it is safe to assume that Germany is backing it in the same way in
which she backed other movements, to quote von Bernstorff, ‘on former
occasions.’
“It makes no difference that some of the men who are engaged in this
movement may be merely foolish or deluded and not in receipt of money
from Wilhelmstrasse. There are others who are, and these dupes are
merely their tools. One and all they are doing the work for which
Germany pays those who get the pay and those who do not. The ignorant
zealot goes where the paid traitor sends him. That the ignorant zealot
does not know the paid traitor is paid does not alter in the slightest
the deadly effect of his action, the deadly effect calculated on and
purposed by the German paymaster.”
The _New York Tribune_, commenting on the facility of espionage and
propaganda by Germans, said:
“Conditions are incredible. These enemy aliens, acting as spies and
carriers of information, are everywhere.
“They are going freely to and fro.
“They are in the Army and Navy.
“They occupy hundreds of observation posts.
“They are in possession of hundreds of sources of information of
military value.
“They are in factories producing war-materials.
“They are in all the drug and chemical laboratories.
[Illustration:
© _Underwood and Underwood._