JAMES J. F. ARCHIBALD AND HIS PRO-GERMAN ACTIVITIES
The case of James J. F. Archibald, war correspondent, is another
sample of the Germans’ fatal gift for trusting a weak link in an
otherwise ingenious and complete chain. Their “cleverness” was the
cleverness of the cocky boy who thinks he can outwit any one. The
sad ending of Archibald’s career, the ignominious exposure of his
character as a messenger for the Germans, was simplicity itself.
And the revelations contained in the messages he carried were most
discreditable to the honour and the wisdom of the plotters in the
Teutonic embassies.
The story begins on July 29, 1914, six days after Austria’s
ultimatum to Serbia and three days before the formal historical
date of the opening of the war. On that day an enterprising
American newspaper syndicate telegraphed Mr. Archibald as follows:
Please telegraph us your terms for going to the European war, so
that we can size up the syndicate field. As soon as received will
try for quick action.
THE WHEELER SYNDICATE, INC.
Archibald soon had his arrangements made, though his employers
were ignorant of the reason for the surprising ease with which he
obtained the highest possible _entrée_ to the best possible points
of observation within the German lines. It should be said at once
that their attitude was perfectly correct and that the moment they
discovered the true nature of his errand they discharged him by
cable, on October 27th. But that comes later in the story.
Archibald was a man of true grandiose German style. Writing to the
syndicate on September 4th he said:
You should not confound my efforts with more than five hundred
correspondents of every description who have attempted to get to
the English, French, and Belgian fronts, none of them with any
official recognition and most of them without even a passport.
At the hysterical beginning of the war, correspondents are very
much in the way but every cartoonist, humorist, and amateur
millionaire who wanted a little private excitement rushed to
the front and embarrassed the armies in their mobilization and
naturally they were not gladly received. I have been working
quietly, just as I did in the Russian War when I was the first,
and only, foreign correspondent to be accepted after four months’
waiting.
There is no necessity of coming into conflict with any censors
if one knows military censorship as I do, for all they require
is that you will not embarrass their present actual movements.
There is not one single foreign correspondent with either the
German or Austrian armies, and it will be a great achievement to
get dispatches out from there and I am positive, with the papers
that I now hold, that there will be no difficulty whatever. The
difficulty is merely in establishing one’s responsibility with
these armies, and my residence in Washington for the last ten
years has been for that purpose alone.
[Illustration: THE “LUSITANIA” WARNING
This letter, signed by Haniel, the Councillor of the German Embassy
in Washington, clears up the mystery of the advertisement printed
in leading newspapers in all parts of the country on May 1, 1915,
five days before the _Lusitania_ was sunk.]
[Illustration: The date on Haniel’s letter and the repetition of
it on the copy of the advertisement as supplied by him, clears
up the hitherto unexplained discrepancy between the date on the
advertisement and the date of its publication.]
Archibald was soon in Germany and began sending back cable
dispatches to a syndicate of papers, the principal ones of
which were the New York _Times_, _Tribune_, and _World_. His
dispatches, however, were so blatantly pro-German and had so
much more propaganda than news in them that these papers quickly
became dissatisfied. For example, the _Times_ cut out of one of
his dispatches a large section of fulsome eulogy of the German
Government. Imagine their astonishment the next morning to receive
a telephone call from Captain Boy-Ed, the Naval Attaché of the
German Embassy with offices in New York. Captain Boy-Ed demanded
the reason for the omission of these paragraphs. The _Times_
naturally demanded Captain Boy-Ed’s source of information that such
paragraphs existed. It soon developed that Boy-Ed was receiving
direct from Germany duplicates of all the material that Archibald
was cabling for publication. As soon as the American newspapers
understood this situation they declined to proceed further. In the
same spirit and simultaneously the Wheeler Syndicate “fired” Mr.
Archibald by cable and wrote him a stinging letter from which the
following two paragraphs may be quoted:
Perhaps because of the nature of your stuff, at any rate, we have
to face the veiled insinuation that you are in the pay of the
German and Austrian Governments. In this connection, we have been
told that the German and Austrian Ambassadors to this country
have received in skeleton form the several wireless dispatches
you sent to us addressed care the _Times_. We think you should
know this, and also know that, with the nature of your dispatches
such as they were, we dared not allow ourselves, by continuing
the service, to be laid open to the charge that we were in the
employ of the German and Austrian Governments. So we had to
terminate the service.
We have instructed the _Times_ not to accept any more wireless
dispatches from you, and the wireless company has been notified
that no dispatches will be accepted. We regret exceedingly the
situation, but it is one that has arisen solely from the fact
that you have sent over your personal pro-German opinions instead
of the battlefront news you assured us that you would furnish us.
Nothing daunted by these rebuffs, Archibald continued his exploits
as “war correspondent,” interspersing his labours at the front with
voyages back to the United States, ostensibly to deliver lectures.
The true character of his movements stands revealed in a letter
Archibald received from Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, a few
days before he embarked on the voyage from New York which was to be
his last. This letter was written from Bernstorff’s summer home at
Cedarhurst, Long Island, on the 19th of August, 1915, and reads as
follows:
DEAR MR. ARCHIBALD:
I send you herewith the two letters of recommendation asked for
and hope that they will be useful to you. I learn with pleasure
that you wish once again to return to Germany and Austria _as
you have interceded for our concerns here so courageously and
successfully_.
With best compliments,
Yours very sincerely,
BERNSTORFF.
One of these letters was as follows:
The German Frontier Custom Authorities are requested to kindly
give to the bearer of this letter, Mr James J. F. Archibald, from
New York, who is going to Germany with photographic apparatus,
etc., in order to collect material for lectures in the United
States _in the interests of Germany_, all possible facilities
compatible with regulations in the dispatching of his luggage.
Imperial Ambassador
BERNSTORFF.
The familiar story of what happened next is that Archibald carried
some secret documents for Bernstorff and Dumba in a hollow cane.
This could scarcely be, for the documents he carried were so
numerous and some of them so bulky that the cane would need to
have been a giant’s walking stick. In any event, the documents
themselves are of more interest than their vehicle. They were taken
from Archibald by the British authorities at Falmouth. The series
can be best introduced by a letter from Ambassador Dumba to his
chief, Baron Burian, Minister for Foreign Affairs in Vienna, which
reads:
MY LORD:
Yesterday evening Consul General von Nuber received the inclosed
_aide mémoire_ from the chief editor of the locally known
paper, _Szabodsog_, after a previous conference with him and
in pursuance of his proposals to arrange for strikes in the
Bethlehem Schwab steel and munitions war factory, and also in the
Middle West.
Dr. Archibald, who is well known to your lordship, leaves to-day
at 12 o’clock on board the _Rotterdam_, for Berlin and Vienna.
I take this rare and safe opportunity to warmly recommend the
proposal to your lordship’s favourable consideration.
It is my impression that we can disorganize and hold up for
months, if not entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions
in Bethlehem and the Middle West, which, in the opinion of
the German military attaché, is of great importance and amply
outweighs the expenditure of money involved.
But even if strikes do not come off, it is probable that
we should extort, under the pressure of the crisis, more
favourable conditions of labour for our poor, down-trodden fellow
countrymen. In Bethlehem these white slaves are now working
for twelve hours a day and seven days a week. All weak persons
succumb and become consumptives.
So far as German workmen are found among the skilled hands, a
means of leaving will be provided for them.
Besides this a private German registry office has been
established, which provided employment for persons who have
voluntarily given up their places, and is already working well.
They will also join, and the widest support is assured me.
I beg your excellency to be so good as to inform me with
reference to this letter by wireless telegraphy, replying whether
you agree.
DUMBA.
The consideration which “Doctor” Archibald received for his
complacency in giving his friends Dumba and Bernstorff “this rare
and safe opportunity” is indicated by his receipt of April 24,
1915, to the German Embassy in Washington for $5,000 for propaganda
work.
Further light upon “the enclosed _aide mémoire_ ... in pursuance of
his proposals to arrange for strikes in the Bethlehem Schwab steel
and munitions war factory,” is gained by the following quotations
from the enclosure mentioned by Dumba in his letter to Burian.
The enclosure was an outline of a scheme for fomenting strikes,
submitted to Dumba by William Warm, the Editor of _Szabodsog_ [in
English, _Freedom_.]
In my opinion we must start a very strong agitation on this
question in the _Freedom_ (_Szabodsog_) a leading organ, with
respect to the Bethlehem works and the conditions there. This
can be done in two ways, and both must be utilized. In the first
place, a regular daily section must be devoted to the conditions
obtaining there and a campaign must be regularly conducted
against those indescribably degrading conditions. The _Freedom_
has already done something similar in the recent past, when the
strike movement began at Bridgeport. It must naturally take the
form of strong, deliberate, decided, and courageous action.
Secondly, the writer of these lines would begin a labour novel in
that newspaper much on the lines of Upton Sinclair’s celebrated
story, and this might be published in other local Hungarian,
Slovak, and German newspapers also. Here we arrive at the point
that naturally we shall also require other newspapers. The
American _Magyar Nepszava_ (Word of the People) will undoubtedly
be compelled willingly or unwillingly to follow the movement
initiated by the _Freedom_ (_Szabodsog_), for it will be pleasing
to the entire Hungarian element in America, and an absolute
patriotic act to which that open journal (the _Nepszava_) could
not adopt a hostile attitude....
In the interest of successful action at Bethlehem and the
Middle West, besides the _Szabodsog_, the _Nepszava_, the new
daily paper of Pittsburg must be set in motion, and those of
Bridgeport, Youngtown District, etc., also two Slovak papers.
Under these circumstances, the first necessity is money. To
Bethlehem must be sent as many reliable Hungarian and German
workmen as I can lay my hands on who will join the factories
and begin their work in secret among their fellow workmen. For
this purpose, I have my men Turners in Steelwork. We must send
an organizer, who in the interests of the Union will begin the
business in his own way. We must also send so-called “soap-box”
orators who will know, and so to start a useful agitation. We
shall want money for popular meetings and possibly for organizing
picnics. In general, the same applies to the Middle West. I am
thinking of Pittsburg and Cleveland in the first instance, as to
which I could give details only if I were to return and spend at
least a few days there.
It is my opinion that for the special object of starting the
Bethlehem business and for the Bethlehem and Western newspaper
campaign, $15,000 to $20,000 must be able to be disposed of,
but it is not possible to reckon how much will ultimately be
required; when a beginning has been made it will be possible to
see how things develop, and where and how much it is worth while
to spend. The above-mentioned preliminary sum would suffice to
partially satisfy the demands of the necessary newspapers and to
a considerable extent those of the Bethlehem campaign.
These documents should be read in the light of their date, August
20, 1915, and of the fact that the United States was a neutral
nation, still harbouring the representatives of the “friendly”
German and Austro-Hungarian empires. They are conclusive enough,
in themselves, of the pernicious activities of these Embassies,
but they wall become doubly significant in a later article in
this series when they are read in the light of the activities of
“Labour’s National Peace Council.”
Another document which Dumba entrusted to Archibald was his report
to Burian on the then recent publication in the New York _World_ of
the papers taken from a satchel left in an elevated train by Dr.
Heinrich Albert, the financial adviser of the German Embassy in
America and the paymaster for a great deal of its work in plots and
propaganda. This dispatch of Dumba’s is worthy of reproduction in
full. It is:
A map and a number of documents--typed but unfinished copies or
statements of petitioners--were stolen from the financial adviser
of the German Embassy here, obviously by the English Secret
Service. These documents are now published in the current issue
of the _World_, which has gone over to the English “Yingolager”
(Jingo camp) as a great sensation, with cheap advertisement.
The paper makes the most violent accusations against the German
Embassy, mainly against Count Von Bernstorff, Military Attaché
Captain Von Papen, and Geheimrat Albert, who are said to have
conspired secretly against the safety of the United States, in
that they have bought arms and munition factories, have concluded
bogus contracts for delivery with France and Russia, have
purchased large quantities of explosive materials, have incited
strikes in the munition factories, have sought to corrupt the
press, and have spread far-reaching agitation for the effecting
of an embargo in the different American circles. The other
important New York papers second the _World_, although with less
violence, for, in their leading articles, by misrepresentation
of the facts, they accuse Germany of all possible and impossible
machinations--for instance, they, like the _World_, bring forward
the assertion that the German Government wished to stop the
supply of ammunition to the Allies, while itself secretly sending
quantities over.
Count Von Bernstorff took the view that these calumnies
were beneath reply, and by a happy inspiration, refused any
explanation. He is in no way compromised. On the contrary, it
appears from the published correspondence of various press agents
that he vetoed the purchase of a press agency.
On the other hand, Geheimrat Albert published in the newspapers
a very cleverly worded explanation, the tenor of which I venture
to submit to Your Excellency in an enclosure. It is especially
to the credit of the German Embassy that on July 15th last it
informed the State Department officially that it found itself
compelled to buy as many materials of war in this country as
it possibly could, and to control their production, with the
intention of preventing their being supplied to the enemy. These
materials, it stated, were at any time at the disposal of the
American Government at favourable prices, either as a whole or in
parts, and of course this could only further the readiness of the
United States for taking the field in war.
Here the absurd accusations of the conspiracy collapse. Also,
with regard to the accusations as to the incitement of strikes,
there is no proof of the empty statements made. Nevertheless,
everything German here is slandered and run down with emphasis
and consistency. An impartial individual can hardly escape the
feeling of appreciation with which the far-reaching activity
of Geheimrat Albert must inspire him. But there are very few
impartial persons in New York.
The torpedoing of the _Arabic_, in the event of its having been
done without warning, or its having caused American passengers to
lose their lives, will do more than any newspaper accusations to
prejudice Germany in the public opinion of the United States.
The Imperial and Royal Ambassador,
(Signed) C. DUMBA.
Archibald carried numerous other papers--for the Germans as well
as for the Austrians. The most interesting of these was a report
from Franz von Papen, military attaché of the German Embassy upon
the same _World_ exposure. The following are extracts from this
dispatch:
Military Report
The “Sensational Revelations” of the New York _World_
On July 31 important papers were abstracted from Herr Geheimrat
Dr. Albert in the elevated railway, apparently by an individual
in the employ of the English Secret Service. These papers were
sold to the _World_ and formed the basis of the revelations
(Enclosure 1) which gave to the New York press, friendly to the
Allies, a welcome opportunity to make a fresh outburst against
the Imperial Government and the Imperial representatives in this
country....
Apart from political results the consequences of the publications
for us show themselves in connection with business.
_Bridgeport Projectile Co._
The report of June 30 of the Treasurer of this Company which I
forwarded to the Royal Ministry of War on July 13, J. No. 1888,
was among the stolen papers.
The declaration, published in the papers, of the President of the
Ætna Explosive Co. that he intended to throw up powder contracts
with the Bridgeport Projectile Co. is of course only newspaper
gossip and was already much weakened yesterday through a fresh
explanation by the firm (Enclosure V).
In connection also with the delivery of presses, I do not believe
that the manufacturers will place difficulties in our way because
the careful drawing up of the contract excludes all attack on the
Projectile Co. under the well-known Sherman Law, and the claim
that the manufacturers had supposed the deliveries to be intended
for the Allies--in other words, that the contracts had been
obtained by us under false representations--offers a legal basis
too weak to enable the persons who undertake delivery to risk the
expense and results of a lawsuit.
The only actual damage consists in that the Russian and English
committee have at once broken off their negotiations with the
Bridgeport Projectile Co. and that thus our plans to cut off,
by the acceptance and nondelivery of a shrapnel contract, other
firms here from the possibility of beginning the furnishing of
war material have come to nothing.
The purchase of phenol by Dr. Schweitzer of the Edison Co.,
which has at the same time been disclosed, is disposed of by the
explanation published to the effect that this phenol is only to
be worked up into medicine.
Most of all have our efforts for the purchase of liquid chlorine
been interfered with, since the tying up through middlemen of the
Castner Chemical Company, which is friendly to England, appears
now to be out of the question.
I shall use the means placed at my disposal (information of Herr
Grothen) for the purpose of arriving at an agreement with the
Electro Bleaching Company. The published negotiations for the
acquisition of the Wright’s patent is without importance, since
on our behalf a judicial decision against the Curtiss Company so
far as one can see, would not have been obtained.
Part of the significance of Von Papen’s dispatch is his reference
to the Bridgeport Projectile Company. Other documents in the
possession of the United States Government demonstrate completely
the ownership of this corporation by the Teutonic Allies. Hans
Tauscher, the agent of Krupps and other German munition factories
in this country, was in the habit of reporting direct to the
War Ministry in Berlin as if he were its representative in this
country--as indeed he was though not ostensibly so. Among other
papers in the hands of the Government is a letter from the
President of the Bridgeport Projectile Company, informing him that
the company is being reorganized and that hereafter Mr. Tauscher
will hold as trustee _only 60 per cent._ of the capital stock.
Naturally Tauscher was not acting as trustee for anybody but his
employers.
Another document, of little importance, is a letter Von Papen
wrote to his wife and sent by Archibald. But two parts of it are
interesting. After speaking again of the _World_, exposure he, says:
The answer of Albert I am sending you herewith so you can see how
we defend ourselves. The document we drew up together yesterday.
But the bright spot for the Americans whose hospitality he was
abusing lies in this:
How splendid in the East! I always say to these idiotic Yankees
that they should shut their mouths and better still be full of
admiration for all that heroism. My friends from the Army are in
this respect quite different.
Papen’s “friends from the Army” have, with a good many of
“these idiotic Yankees,” organized an army and are looking for
Captain Franz again, this time over the top in France, with the
determination to settle the question with his government on the
battlefield.