THE HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA
While Germany was professing her friendship for the United States in
every note written following the sinking of the _Lusitania_, the
government was secretly preparing the nation for a break in diplomatic
relations, or for war, in the event of a rupture. German officials
realised that unless the people were made to suspect Mr. Wilson and his
motives, unless they were made to resent the shipment of arms and
ammunition to the Allies, there would be a division in public opinion
and the government would not be able to count upon the united support
of the people. Because the government does the thinking for the people
it has to tell them what to think before they have reached the point of
debating an issue themselves. A war with America or a break in
diplomatic relations in 1915 would not have been an easy matter to
explain, if the people had not been encouraged to hate Wilson. So
while Germany maintained a propaganda bureau in America to interpret
Germany and to maintain good relations, she started in Germany an
extensive propaganda against Wilson, the American press, the United
States Ambassador and Americans in general.
This step was not necessary in the army because among army officers the
bitterness and hatred of the United States were deeper and more
extensive than the hatred of any other belligerent. It was hardly ever
possible for the American correspondents to go to the front without
being insulted. Even the American military attaches, when they went to
the front, had to submit to the insults of army officers. After the
sinking of the _Arabic_ the six military observers attached to the
American Embassy were invited by the General Staff to go to Russia to
study the military operations of Field Marshal von Mackensen. They
were escorted by Baron von Maltzahn, former attache of the German
Embassy in Paris. At Lodz, one of the largest cities in Poland, they
were taken to headquarters. Von Maltzahn, who knew Mackensen
personally, called at the Field Marshal's offices, reported that he had
escorted six American army officers under orders of the General Staff,
whom he desired to present to the Commander-in-Chief. Von Mackensen
replied that he did not care to meet the Americans and told von
Maltzahn that the best thing he could do would be to escort the
observers back to Berlin.
As soon as the military attaches reached Berlin and reported this to
Washington they were recalled.
* * * * * * * *
BLOOD-TRAFFICKERS
Cowards, who kill three thousand miles away,
See the long lines of shrouded forms increase!
Yours is this work, disguise it as you may;
But for your greed the world were now at peace.
Month after month your countless chimneys roar,--
Slaughter your object, and your motive gain;
Look at your money,--it is wet with gore
Nothing can cleanse it from the loathsome stain.
You, who prolong this hideous hell on earth,
Making a by-word of your native land,
Stripped of your wealth, how paltry is your worth!
See how men shrink from contact with your hand!
There is pollution in your blood-smeared gold,
There is corruption in your pact with Death,
There is dishonor in the lie, oft-told,
Of your "Humanity"! 'Tis empty breath.
What shall it profit you to heap on high,
Makers of orphans! a few millions more,
When you must face them--those you caused to die,
And God demands of you to pay your score?
He is not mocked; His vengeance doth not sleep;
His cup of wrath He lets you slowly fill;
What you have sown, that also shall you reap;
God's law is adamant,--"Thou shalt not kill"!
Think not to plead:--"I did not act alone,"
"Custom allows it," and "My dead were few";
Each hath his quota; yonder are your own!
See how their fleshless fingers point at you, at you!
You, to whose vaults this wholesale murder yields
Mere needless increments of ghoulish gain,
Count up your corpses on these blood-soaked fields!
Hear . . . till your death . . . your victims' moans of pain!
Then, when at night you, sleepless, fear to pray,
Watch the thick, crimson stream draw near your bed,
And shriek with horror, till the dawn of day
Shall find you raving at your heaps of dead!
JOHN L. STODDARD.
The League of Truth
Head Offices for Germany:
Berlin W
40 Potsdamer Str.
July 4th, 1916. Printed by Barthe & Co., Berlin W.
* * * * * * * *
But this was not the only time von Mackensen, or other army officers,
showed their contempt for the United States. After the fall of Warsaw
a group of American correspondents were asked to go to the headquarters
of General von Besseler, afterward named Governor General of Poland.
The general received them in the gardens of the Polish castle which he
had seized as his headquarters; shook hands with the Dutch, Danish,
Swedish, Swiss and South American newspaper men, and then, before
turning on his heels to go back to his Polish palace, turned to the
Americans and said:
"As for you gentlemen, the best thing you can do is to tell your
country to stop shipping arms and ammunition."
During General Brusiloff's offensive I was invited together with other
correspondents to go to the Wohlynian battlefields to see how the
Germans had reorganised the Austrian front. In a little town near the
Stochod River we were invited to dinner by Colonel von Luck. I sat
opposite the colonel, who was in charge of the reorganisation here.
Throughout the meal he made so many insulting remarks that the officer
who was our escort had to change the trend of the conversation. Before
he did so the colonel said:
"Tell me, do they insult you in Berlin like this?"
I replied that I seldom encountered such antagonism in Berlin; that it
was chiefly the army which was anti-American.
"Well, that's the difference between the diplomats and the army. If
the army was running the government we would probably have had war with
America a long time ago," he concluded, smiling sarcastically.
Shortly after the sinking of the _Lusitania_ the naval propaganda
bureau had bronze medals cast and placed on sale at souvenir shops
throughout Germany. Ambassador Gerard received one day, in exchanging
some money, a fifty mark bill, with the words stamped in purple ink
across the face:
"God punish England and America." For some weeks this rubber stamp was
used very effectively.
The Navy Department realised, too, that another way to attack America
and especially Americans in Berlin, was to arouse the suspicion that
every one who spoke English was an enemy. The result was that most
Americans had to be exceedingly careful not to talk aloud in public
places. The American correspondents were even warned at the General
Staff not to speak English at the front. Some of the correspondents
who did not speak German were not taken to the battle areas because the
Foreign Office desired to avoid insults.
The year and a half between the sinking of the _Lusitania_ and the
severance of diplomatic relations was a period of terror for most
Americans in Germany. Only those who were so sympathetic with Germany
that they were anti-American found it pleasant to live there. One day
one of the American girls employed in the confidential file room of the
American Embassy was slapped in the face until she cried, by a German
in civilian clothes, because she was speaking English in the subway.
At another time the wife of a prominent American business man was spit
upon and chased out of a public bus because she was speaking English.
Then a group of women chased her down the street. Another American
woman was stabbed by a soldier when she was walking on Friedrichstrasse
with a friend because she was speaking English. When the State
Department instructed Ambassador Gerard to bring the matter to the
attention of the Foreign Office and to demand an apology Wilhelmstrasse
referred the matter to the General Staff for investigation. The
soldier was arrested and secretly examined. After many weeks had
elapsed the Foreign Office explained that the man who had stabbed the
woman was really not a soldier but a red cross worker. It was
explained that he had been wounded and was not responsible for what he
did. The testimony of the woman, however, and of other witnesses,
showed that the man at the time he attacked the American was dressed in
a soldier's uniform, which is grey, and which could not he mistaken for
the black uniform of a red cross worker.
It was often said in Berlin, "Germany hates England, fights France,
fears Russia but loathes America." No one, not even American
officials, questioned it.
The hate campaign was bearing fruit.
In January, 1916, there appeared in Berlin a publication called _Light
and Truth_. It was a twelve-page circular in English and German
attacking President Wilson and the United States. Copies were sent by
mail to all Americans and to hundreds of thousands of Germans. It was
edited and distributed by "The League of Truth." It was the most
sensational document printed in Germany since the beginning of the war
against a power with which Germany was supposed to be at peace. Page 6
contained two illustrations under the legend:
WILSON AND HIS PRESS IS NOT AMERICA
Underneath was this paragraph:
"An American Demonstration--On the 27th of January, the birthday of the
German Emperor, an immense laurel wreath decorated with the German and
American flags was placed by Americans at the foot of the monument to
Frederick the Great (in Berlin). The American flag was enshrouded in
black crape. Frederick the Great was the first to recognise the
independence of the young Republic, after it had won its freedom from
the yoke of England, at the price of its very heart's blood through
years of struggle. His successor, Wilhelm II, receives the gratitude
of America in the form of hypocritical phrases and war supplies to his
mortal enemy."
[Illustration: First page of the magazine "Light and Truth"]
One photograph was of the wreath itself. The other showed a group of
thirty-six people, mostly boys, standing in front of the statue after
the wreath had been placed.
When Ambassador Gerard learned about the "demonstration" he went to the
statue and from there immediately to the Foreign Office, where he saw
Secretary of State von Jagow. Gerard demanded instantaneous removal of
the wreath. Von Jagow promised an "investigation." Gerard meanwhile
began a personal investigation of the _League of Truth_, which had
purchased and placed the insult there.
Days, weeks, even months passed. Von Jagow still refused to have the
wreath removed. Finally Gerard went to the Foreign Office and told von
Jagow that unless it was taken away that day he would get it himself
and send it by courier to Washington. That evening Gerard walked to
the statue. The wreath had disappeared.
Week by week the league continued its propaganda. Gerard continued his
investigation.
July 4, 1916, another circular was scattered broadcast. On page 1 was
a large black cross. Pages 2 and 3, the inside, contained a reprint of
the "Declaration of Independence," with the imprint across the face of
a bloody hand. Enclosed in a heavy black border on page 4 were nine
verses by John L. Stoddard, the lecturer, entitled "Blood-Traffickers."
(Printed in the beginning of this chapter.)
The league made an especial appeal to the "German-Americans." Germany,
as was pointed out in a previous article, counts upon some
German-Americans as her allies. One day Ambassador Gerard received a
circular entitled "An Appeal to All Friends of Truth." The same was
sent in German and English to a mailing list of many hundred thousands.
Excerpts from this read:
"If any one is called upon to raise his voice in foreign lands for the
cause of truth, it is the foreigner who was able to witness the
unanimous rising of the German people at the outbreak of war, and their
attitude during its continuance. _This applies especially to the
German-American_.
"_As a citizen of two continents, in proportion as his character has
remained true to German principles, he finds both here and there the
right word to say. . . ._
"Numberless millions of men are forced to look upon a loathsome
spectacle. _It is that of certain individuals in America; to whom a
great nation has temporarily intrusted its weal and woe_, supporting a
few multi-millionaires and their dependents, setting at
naught--unpunished--the revered document of the Fourth of July, 1776,
and daring to _barter away the birthright of the white race_. . . . We
want to see whether the united voices of Germans and foreigners have
not more weight than the hired writers of editorials in the newspapers;
and whether the words of men who are independent will not render it
impossible for a subsidised press to continue its destructive work."
Gerard's investigation showed that a group of German-Americans in
Berlin were financing the _League of Truth_; that a man named William
F. Marten, who posed as an American, was the head, and that the editors
and writers of the publication _Light and Truth_ were being assisted by
the Foreign Office Press Bureau and protected by the General Staff. An
American dentist in Berlin, Dr. Charles Mueller, was chairman of the
league. Mrs. Annie Neumann-Hofer, the American-born wife of
Neumann-Hofer, of the Reichstag, was secretary. Gerard reported other
names to the State Department, and asked authority to take away the
passports of Americans who were assisting the German government in this
propaganda.
The "league" heard about the Ambassador's efforts, and announced that a
"Big Bertha" issue would be published exposing Gerard. For several
months the propagandists worked to collect data. One day Gerard
decided to go to the league's offices and look at the people who were
directing it. In the course of his remarks the Ambassador said that if
the Foreign Office didn't do something to suppress the league
immediately, he would burn down the place. The next day Marten and his
co-workers went to the Royal Administration of the Superior Court,
No. 1, in Berlin, and through his attorney lodged a criminal charge of
"threat of arson" against the Ambassador.
The next day Germany was flooded with letters from "The League of
Truth," saying:
"The undersigned committee of the League of Truth to their deepest
regret felt compelled to inform the members that Ambassador Gerard had
become involved in a criminal charge involving threat of arson. . . .
All American citizens are now asked whether an Ambassador who acts so
undignified at the moment of a formal threat of a wholly unnecessary
war, is to be considered worthy further to represent a country like the
United States."
Were it not for the fact that at this time President Wilson was trying
to impress upon Germany the seriousness of her continued disregard of
American and neutral lives on the high seas, the whole thing would have
been too absurd to notice. But Germany wanted to create the impression
among her people that President Wilson was not speaking for America,
and that the Ambassador was too insignificant to notice.
After this incident Gerard called upon von Jagow again and demanded the
immediate suppression of the third number of _Light and Truth_. Before
von Jagow consented Mrs. Neumann-Hofer turned upon her former
propagandists and confessed. I believe her confession is in the State
Department, but this is what she told me:
"Marten is a German and has never been called to the army because the
General Staff has delegated him to direct this anti-American
propaganda. [We were talking at the Embassy the day before the
Ambassador left.] Marten is supported by some very high officials. He
has letters of congratulations from the Chancellor, General von
Falkenhayn, Count Zeppelin and others for one of his propaganda books
entitled 'German Barbarians.' I think the Crown Prince is one of his
backers, but I have never been able to prove it."
On July 4th, 1915, the League of Truth issued what it called "A New
Declaration of Independence." This was circulated in German and
English throughout the country. It was as follows:
* * * * * * * *
A NEW DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Seven score years have elapsed since those great words were forged that
welded us into a nation upon many fiery battlefields.
In that day the strong voices of strong men rang across the world,
their molten words flamed with light and their arms broke the visible
chains of an intolerable bondage.
But now in the red reflex of the glare cast from the battlefields of
Europe, the invisible manacles that have been cunningly laid upon our
freedom have become shamefully apparent. They rattle in the ears of
the world.
Our liberty has vanished once again. Yet our ancient enemy remains
enthroned in high places within our land and in insolent ships before
our gates. We have not only become Colonials once again, but
subjects,--for true subjects are known by the measure of their willing
subjection.
We Americans in the heart of this heroic nation now struggling for all
that we ourselves hold dear, but against odds such as we were never
forced to face, perceive this truth with a disheartening but unclouded
vision.
Far from home we would to-day celebrate, as usual, the birthday of our
land. But with heavy hearts we see that this would now seem like a
hollow mockery of something solemn and immemorial. It were more in
keeping with reality that we burnt incense upon the altars of the
British Baal.
Independence Day without Independence! The liberty of the seas denied
us for the peaceful Commerce of our entire land and granted us only for
the murderous trafficking of a few men!
Independence Day has dawned for us in alien yet friendly land. It has
brought to us at least the independence of our minds.
Free from the abominations of the most dastardly campaign of falsehood
that ever disgraced those who began and those who believe it, we have
stripped ourselves of the rags of many perilous illusions. We see
America as a whole, and we see it with a fatal and terrible clarity.
We see that once again our liberties of thought, of speech, of
intercourse, of trade, are threatened, nay, already seized by the one
ancient enemy that can never be our friend.
With humiliation we behold our principles, our sense of justice trodden
underfoot. We see the wild straining of the felon arms that would drag
our land into the abyss of the giant Conspiracy and Crime.
We see the foul alliance of gold, murderous iron and debauched paper to
which we have been sold.
We know that our pretenses and ambitions as heralds of peace are
monstrous, so long as we profit through war and human agony.
We see these rivers of blood that have their source in our mills of
slaughter.
The Day of Independence has dawned.
It is a solemn and momentous hour for America,
It is a day on which our people must speak with clear and inexorable
voice, or sit silent in shame.
It is the great hour in which we dare not celebrate our first
Declaration of Independence, because the time has come when we must
proclaim a new one over the corpse of that which has perished.
Berlin, July 4th, 1915.
AN ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA DOCUMENT
* * * * * * * *
The League of Truth, however, was but one branch of the intricate
propaganda system. While it was financed almost entirely by
German-Americans living in Germany who retained their American
passports to keep themselves, or their children, out of the army, all
publications for this bureau were approved by the Foreign Office
censors. Germans, connected with the organisation, were under
direction of the General Staff or Navy.
In order to have the propaganda really successful some seeds of
discontent had to be sown in the United States, in South America and
Mexico as well as in Spain and other European neutral countries. For
this outside propaganda, money and an organisation were needed. The
Krupp ammunition interests supplied the money and the Foreign Office
the organisation.
For nearly two years the American press regularly printed despatches
from the Overseas News Agency. Some believed they were "official."
This was only half true. The Krupps had been financing this news
association. The government had given its support and the two wireless
towers at Sayville, Long Island, and Tuckerton, N. J., were used as
"footholds" on American soil. These stations were just as much a part
of the Krupp works as the factories at Essen or the shipyards of Kiel.
They were to disseminate the Krupp-fed, Krupp-owned, Krupp-controlled
news, of the Overseas News Agency.
When the Overseas despatches first reached the United States the
newspapers printed them in a spirit of fairness. They gave the other
side, and in the beginning they were more or less accurate. But when
international relations between the two countries became critical the
news began to be distorted in Berlin. At each crisis, as at the time
of the sinking of the _Arabic_, the _Ancona_, the _Sussex_ and other
ships, the German censorship prevented the American correspondents from
sending the news as they gathered it in Germany and substituted "news"
which the Krupp interests and the Imperial Foreign Office desired the
American people to believe. December, 1916, when the German General
Staff began to plan for an unrestricted submarine warfare, especial use
was made of the "Overseas News Agency" to work up sentiment here
against President Wilson. Desperate efforts were made to keep the
United States from breaking diplomatic relations. In December and
January last records of the news despatches in the American newspapers
from Berlin show that the Overseas agency was more active than all
American correspondents in Berlin. Secretary of State Zimmermann,
Under-secretaries von dem Busche and von Stumm gave frequent interviews
to the so-called "representatives of the Overseas News Agency." It was
all part of a specific Krupp plan, supported by the Hamburg-American
and the North German Lloyd steamship companies, to divide opinion in
the United States so that President Wilson would not be supported if he
broke diplomatic relations.
Germany, as I have pointed out, has been conducting a two-faced
propaganda. While working in the United States through her agents and
reservists to create the impression that Germany was friendly, the
Government laboured to prepare the German people for war. The policy
was to make the American people believe Germany would never do anything
to bring the United States into the war, but to convince the German
public that America was not neutral and that President Wilson was
scheming against the German race. Germany was Janus-headed. Head
No. 1 said:
"America, you are a great nation. We want your friendship and
neutrality. We have close business and blood relations, and these
should not be broken. Germany is not the barbaric nation her enemies
picture her."
Head No. 2, turned toward the German people, said:
"Germans, President Wilson is anti-German. He wants to prevent us from
starting an unlimited submarine war. America has never been neutral,
because Washington permits the ammunition factories to supply the
Allies. These factories are killing your relatives. We have millions
of German-Americans who will support us. It will not be long until
Mexico will declare war on the United States, and our reservists will
fight for Mexico. Don't be afraid if Wilson breaks diplomatic
relations."
The German press invasion of America began at the beginning of the war.
Dr. Dernburg was the first envoy. He was sent to New York by the same
Foreign Office officials and the same Krupp interests which control the
Overseas agency. Having failed here, he returned to Berlin. There was
only one thing to save German propaganda in America. That was to
mobolise the Sayville and Tuckerton wireless stations, and Germany did
it immediately.
At the beginning of the war, when the British censors refused the
American correspondents in Germany the right of telegraphing to the
United States via England, the Berlin Government granted permission to
the United Press, The Associated Press and the _Chicago Daily News_ to
send wireless news via Sayville. At first this news was edited by the
correspondents of these associations and newspapers in Berlin. Later,
when the individual correspondents began to demand more space on the
wireless, the news sent jointly to these papers was cut down. This
unofficial league of American papers was called the "War-Union." The
news which this union sent was German, but it was written by trained
American writers. When the Government saw the value of this service to
the United States it began to send wireless news of its own. Then the
Krupp interests appeared, and the Overseas News Agency was organised.
At that moment the Krupp invasion of the United States began and
contributed 800,000 marks annually to this branch of propaganda alone.
Dr. Hammann, for ten years chief of the Berlin Foreign Office
propaganda department, was selected as president of the Overseas News
Agency. The Krupp interests, which had been subscribing 400,000 marks
annually to this agency, subscribed the same amount to the reorganised
company. Then, believing that another agency could be organised,
subscribed 400,000 marks more to the Transocean News Agency. Because
there was so much bitterness and rivalry between the officials of the
two concerns, the Government stepped in and informed the Overseas News
Agency that it could send only "political news," while the Trans-ocean
was authorised to send "economic and social news" via Sayville and
Tuckerton.
This news, however, was not solely for the United States. Krupp's eyes
were on Mexico and South America, so agents were appointed in
Washington and New York to send the Krupp-bred wireless news from New
York by cable to South America and Mexico. Obviously the same news
which was sent to the United States could not be telegraphed to Mexico
and South America, because Germany had a different policy toward these
countries. The United States was on record against an unlimited
submarine warfare. Mexico and South America were not. Brazil, which
has a big German population, was considered an un-annexed German
colony. News to Brazil, therefore, had to be coloured differently than
news to New York. Some of the colouring was done in Berlin; some in
New York by Krupp's agents here. As a result of Germany's anti-United
States propaganda in South America and Mexico, these countries did not
follow President Wilson when he broke diplomatic relations with Berlin.
While public sentiment might have been against Germany, it was, to a
certain degree, antagonistic to the United States.
Obviously, Germany had to have friends in this country to assist her,
or what was being done would be traced too directly to the German
Government. So Germany financed willing German-Americans in their
propaganda schemes. And because no German could cross the ocean except
with a falsified neutral passport, Germany had to depend upon
German-Americans with American passports to bring information over.
These German-Americans, co-operating with some of the Americans in
Berlin, kept informing the Foreign Office, the army and navy as well as
influential Reichstag members that the real power behind the government
over here was not the press and public opinion but the nine million
Americans who were directly or indirectly related to Germany. During
this time the Government felt so sure that it could rely upon the
so-called German-Americans that the Government considered them as a
German asset whenever there was a submarine crisis.
When Henry Morgenthau, former American Ambassador to Turkey, passed
through Berlin, en route to the United States, he conferred with
Zimmermann, who was then Under Secretary of State. During the course
of one of their conversations Zimmermann said the United States would
never go to war with Germany, "because the German-Americans would
revolt." That was one of Zimmermann's hobbies. Zimmermann told other
American officials and foreign correspondents that President Wilson
would not be able to bring the United States to the brink of war,
because the "German-Americans were too powerful."
But Zimmermann was not making these statements upon his own authority.
He was being kept minutely advised about conditions here through the
German spy system and by German-American envoys, who came to Berlin to
report on progress the German-Americans were making here in politics
and in Congress.
Zimmermann was so "dead sure" he was right in expecting a large portion
of Americans to be disloyal that one time during a conversation with
Ambassador Gerard he said that he believed Wilson was only bluffing in
his submarine notes. When Zimmermann was Under Secretary of State I
used to see him very often. His conversation would contain questions
like these:
"Well, how is your English President? Why doesn't your President do
something against England?"
Zimmermann was always in close touch with the work of Captains von
Papen and Boy-Ed when they were in this country. He was one of the
chief supports of the little group of intriguers in Berlin who directed
German propaganda here. Zimmermann was the man who kept Baron Mumm von
Schwarzenstein, former Ambassador to Tokyo, in the Foreign Office in
Berlin as chief of foreign propaganda and intrigue in America and
China. Mumm had been here as Minister Extra-ordinary several years ago
and knew how Germany's methods could be used to the best purpose,
namely, to divide American sentiment. Then, when Zimmermann succeeded
Jagow he ousted Mumm because Mumm had become unpopular with higher
Government authorities.
One day in Berlin, just before the recall of the former German military
and naval attaches in Washington, I asked Zimmermann whether Germany
sanctioned what these men had been doing. He replied that Germany
approved everything they had done "because they had done nothing more
than try to keep America out of the war; to prevent American goods
reaching the Allies and to persuade Germans and those of German descent
not to work in ammunition factories." The same week I overheard in a
Berlin cafe two reserve naval officers discuss plans for destroying
Allied ships sailing from American ports. One of these men was an
escaped officer of an interned liner at Newport News. He had escaped
to Germany by way of Italy. That afternoon when I saw Ambassador
Gerard I told him of the conversation of these two men, and also what
Zimmermann had said. The Ambassador had just received instructions
from Washington about Boy-Ed and von Papen.
Gerard was furious.
"Go tell Zimmermann," he said, "for God's sake to leave America alone.
If he keeps this up he'll drag us into the war. The United States
won't stand this sort of thing indefinitely."
That evening I went back to the Foreign Office and saw Zimmermann for a
few minutes. I asked him why it was that Germany, which was at peace
with the United States, was doing everything within her power to make
war.
"Why, Germany is not doing anything to make you go to war," he replied.
"Your President seems to want war. Germany is not responsible for what
the German-Americans are doing. They are your citizens, not ours.
Germany must not be held responsible for what those people do."
Had it not been for the fact that the American Government was fully
advised about Zimmermann's intrigues in the United States this remark
might be accepted on its face. The United States knew that Germany was
having direct negotiations with German-Americans in the United States.
Men came to Germany with letters of introduction from leading
German-Americans here, with the expressed purpose of trying to get
Germany to stop its propaganda here. What they did do was to assure
Germany that the German-Americans would never permit the United States
to be drawn into the war. Because of their high recommendations from
Germans here some of them had audiences with the Kaiser.
Germany had been supporting financially some Americans, as the State
Department has proof of checks which have been given to American
citizens for propaganda and spy work.
I know personally of one instance where General Director Heinicken, of
the North German-Lloyd, gave an American in Berlin $1,000 for his
reports on American conditions. The name cannot be mentioned because
there are no records to prove the transaction, although the man
receiving this money came to me and asked me to transmit $250 to his
mother through the United Press office. I refused.
When Zimmermann began to realise that Germany's threatening propaganda
in the United States and Germany's plots against American property were
not succeeding in frightening the United States away from war, he began
to look forward to the event of war. He saw, as most Germans did, that
it would be a long time before the United States could get forces to
Europe in a sufficient number to have a decisive effect upon the war.
He began to plan with the General Staff and the Navy to league Mexico
against America for two purposes. One, Germany figured that a war with
Mexico would keep the United States army and navy busy over here.
Further, Zimmermann often said to callers that if the United States
went to war with Mexico it would not be possible for American factories
to send so much ammunition and so many supplies to the Allies.
German eyes turned to Mexico. As soon as President Wilson recognised
Carranza as President, Germany followed with a formal recognition.
Zubaran Capmany, who had been Mexican representative in Washington, was
sent to Berlin as Carranza's Minister. Immediately upon his arrival
Zimmermann began negotiations with him. Reports of the negotiations
were sent to Washington. The State Department was warned that unless
the United States solved the "Mexican problem" immediately Germany
would prepare to attack us through Mexico. German reservists were
tipped off to be ready to go to Mexico upon a moment's notice. Count
von Bernstorff and the German Consuls in the United States were
instructed, and Bernstorff, who was acting as the general director of
German interests in North and South America, was told to inform the
German officials in the Latin-American countries. At the same time
German financial interests began to purchase banks, farms and mines in
Mexico.