Of necessity our Secret Service work is carried on in silence and
without blare of trumpets. The achievements of the Department of Justice
cannot be proclaimed from the housetops. Everybody knows something about
the crimes committed by the German agents. These spies, loyal with their
lips, have in their hearts plotted innumerable crimes against our
Government. They have dynamited our factories and warehouses; they have
burned shops and planted bombs on ships; they have thrown trains from
the track; they have poisoned the horses and mules upon the transports
en route to France; they have fouled the springs of knowledge through
their hired reporters; with all the cunning developed by long practice,
they have spread their insidious and perilous influences into the
remotest regions of the land. But over against these spies and secret
agents have stood the United States Secret Service men, and with
everything in favour of the German plotter, our defenders have beaten
the German at his own game.
War was declared against Germany on April 6, 1917. One Sunday night two
or three weeks later a large company of German-Americans belonging to
the secret German league met in their accustomed place of assembly.
There were several hundred Germans present, but among them were three
Secret Service men. The German lawyer who opened the meeting was very
bitter. Having made certain that only German sympathizers were present,
he went on to say that the occasion of this war could be traced to Wall
Street. Certain rich bankers and American plutocrats had loaned perhaps
a billion dollars to England. Since the war was going against England,
these rich men were afraid that they would lose their investment. In
their emergency they forced war upon Congress. The speech was clever,
specious, cunning, shrewdly calculated to stir up passion. And the
speech was applauded to the echo. The second speaker made a no less
skillful appeal to the prejudices of the members of the secret
German-American league. Since the war was a money war, originated by
Wall Street, the Government could be defeated as to its plans only by
money. Therefore, every member of the league must make his contribution;
no one present but must give at least ten dollars. And, he added, in
view of the fact that it was Sunday night and that some might be without
money, and since no checks could be accepted, there were several German
bankers present, who would be glad to advance money to the members who
wished to make cash contributions. The Germans had provided in advance
against every possible emergency.
Then came the opportunity for the Secret Service men. The first one
arose and began with an apology for a German brogue that in reality he
was assuming. He spared no words in praising the first two speakers.
"What a wonderful man was the Kaiser! What victories von Hindenburg had
achieved! The Fatherland was standing with back against the wall. How
wicked a nation was France, and Poland! What a black heart England had!"
He pictured Germany as a lamb with fleece as white as snow, and a huge
Belgian wolf jumping at the lamb's tender throat. "What an ambitious man
was President Wilson. How eagerly had Congress waited until Germany was
weak, and then rushed in to grab the fruits of war!" When this man sat
down his hearers were in a state of rapturous upheaval. But scarcely had
his voice ceased echoing in the air when the second Secret Service man
arose. Having complimented the first two speeches by the German
plotters, he said that he thought he represented the members in
expressing the judgment that the third speaker had made a speech that
was unrivalled in its statement as to the duty of the members toward the
Kaiser and the beloved Fatherland. The second Secret Service man,
therefore, moved that it be the sense of the meeting that the member who
had just spoken be made secretary of the meeting, be custodian of the
funds just contributed. In five minutes he had all the secrets of the
meeting safely lodged in the hands of the first Secret Service man. At
this point the third representative of the Government arose and
nominated the second Secret Service speaker, who had just taken his
seat, as teller to count the funds, and in recognition of this man's
gifts the teller immediately afterwards appointed the third Secret
Service man assistant teller. During the next three hours, in the
secrecy of their own meeting, over twenty prosperous and influential
Germans committed themselves against this Government.
About midnight the secretary and the two tellers turned over to the two
Germans who had made the two big speeches at the opening of the meeting
the entire collection, which amounted to thousands of dollars. But at
half-past twelve, as these two Germans were entering their hotel, four
Secret Service men tapped them on the shoulder and promptly relieved
them of the aforementioned thousands. One of these men is now working
out his sentence in a Southern penitentiary and the other in a Western
penitentiary. Their sentences were for twenty-eight years. The other men
who defended Germany and attacked the United States are serving
terms--some long and some short. It is a proverb that the wicked flee
when no man pursueth. But Dr. Parkhurst coined a striking sentence when
he added: "The wicked man makes better time in fleeing when the
righteous Secret Service man pursues him with a sharp stick."
_Printed in the United States of America_
* * * * *
Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.