THE STORY OF NEWARK
Big Division of Northern New Jersey—Hot-Bed of Spydom and
Anarchy—Cases from the Files—Guarding the Gate to the Sea.
Northern New Jersey was recognized as one of the riskiest regions of
the United States. Time out of mind, American readers have noted, with
the short-lived American anger, the many newspaper tales of Paterson
and anarchy, of New Jersey and New Thought, of socialistic ranters
hailing from this or that semi-foreign community, in one of the oldest
states in the American union, whose battlefields in our first war for
freedom are spread on many glorious pages of our country’s history.
The battlefields of Jersey are different now, and are not so glorious.
Still, a few men, as patriotic as those in Revolutionary days, have
done their best during this war to keep their country safe. The work of
the Northern New Jersey Division, which has been in charge of Mr. W. D.
McDermid, as State Inspector, is reassuring.
It is proper to point out that the Northern New Jersey Division, being
one of the first of the A. P. L. to be organized, operated on lines
different from those of almost any other territory. Its district
covers one-half of the state, including the vitally important Port
of Embarkation. Under a single central office, it combined over one
hundred municipalities, most of which would ordinarily have had a
separate headquarters organization, but which for local reasons had all
been consolidated in one division.
There was abundance to do, and there were plenty to be watched. There
could, for example, be furnished several hundred instances of sabotage
in this manufacturing district of Northern New Jersey—sabotage either
detected in advance, or thoroughly investigated afterwards. This was so
common in the hundreds of plants in that District that it became for
the Northern Division, for the most part, a matter of routine. A great
deal of the work of this character ultimately was handled by the Plant
Protection Division of the War Department.
In upper New Jersey, as in the State of New York, the Governmental
departments reached out and rather overshadowed, in glory at least, the
patient and less known efforts of the A. P. L. Newark frankly complains
that quite often sufficiently vigorous action was not to be had by the
officers of the Department of Justice, even after full evidence had
been handed to it by the A. P. L. Some A. P. L. men even go so far as
to claim that D. J. would not only crab an act, but claim a glory! Our
State Inspector voices this in occasional comment:
In particular reference to two cases of ours, it is a source of
great disappointment and a great deal of harsh criticism that the
Department of Justice has seen fit to take the position toward our
evidence that it has. Their indifference has led us to secure a
number of clean-cut convictions in state courts under local laws.
These, of course, have not the scope of Federal laws, under which
these cases might very much better have been prosecuted. We feel
that in common justice to the work of the A. P. L., some such
comment as this should be made.
There was abundant fire behind some of these New Jersey smokes, be sure
of that, and many rumors of the class commonly pooh-poohed at by M. I.
D. and D. J. were made good. Three actual samples of powdered glass
in food were found; two actual cases of Red Cross bandages containing
deleterious substances also were found; there was one instance of
insidious printed propaganda distributed by means of knitted work; and
there was a very distinct trail of Sinn Feiners working in conjunction
with the enemy. To these may be added such instances of investigation
as are given below.
Mr. X, a minister of the gospel, was very offensive in his pacifism.
He refused permission for the display of an American flag in his
church, or even a service flag, and would not allow the church to be
used for Red Cross work. He was forced to resign, his particular brand
of piety not seeming to track with the creed of his congregation. The
quality of his pacifism may be judged from the fact that he excused the
Germans for their atrocities, saying that if France and Belgium had not
resisted, there never would have been any atrocities! This man applied
for a position to go to France in Government war work. His application
was refused.
It is, of course, well known that the U. S. troops in large part sailed
from the vicinity of the City of New York, or upper New Jersey. Of
course, also, all the preparations for this war, all of the expense
of it, all the time and trouble of it, focused exactly on the number
of troops we actually could get on the way. The utmost secrecy was
maintained by our Government as to the number of troops, the ships that
carried them, and the time and place of sailing. The mother of a boy on
his way to France did not know he had sailed until a curt card from the
other side of the water told her that he was in France. Practically all
the people of the United States, however, accepted this secrecy as a
necessary war measure—that being obviously and permanently necessary in
this war, where the risks of the sea included the danger of the German
submarine.
Naturally, also, the German spies on this side of the water would
do everything in their power to learn precisely the facts which our
Government sought to conceal—the number of troops going over, the
times of sailings of the transports, and so forth. Naturally also,
our system of espionage—the divisions of Military Intelligence, Naval
Intelligence, Department of Justice, and the auxiliary work of the
American Protective League—would do all they could to prevent German
espionage from attaining its own purpose in regard to this knowledge.
When the Government seized the Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, much
interest was shown in the former Hamburg-American and North German
Lloyd line steamers located there. There were numerous rumors that
these boats were to be blown up by the Germans. Of these, the largest
was the _Vaterland_, which was re-christened _Leviathan_.
All this section, along the Jersey Palisades, near Hoboken, is strong
in sympathy for Germany. Nearly all of the population is from Germany
or of German parentage and here was this steamer, the biggest of all
the boats, and long the pride of the Germans. It was not to be expected
that the New Jersey Germans would feel pleasant about its present
status. These local Germans boasted that they had been through these
boats after our Government took them over. They told stories of what
the Government was doing with them and what they were going to do
themselves so that the boats would never sail or never get across. The
history of other ships which took fire in mid-ocean, or were blown
up by concealed explosives is referred to elsewhere. It always was
sufficient to make the sailing of any transport a matter of great
uneasiness.
An A. P. L. operative wanted to know what these Germans were doing
regarding the _Leviathan_. Of course, the boat was supposed to be
absolutely guarded against entry by any stranger. This man, however,
went to the gate and asked for the Commandant by nickname. The guard
supposed he must be a friend of the Commandant, because of his
familiarity, and naïvely let him through. The operative walked up and
down the pier wondering how he could get on board, for he saw guards at
the gangway. There was a pile of mailbags on the dock, so the operative
stole over that way, picked up a mail sack and threw it over his
shoulder. Near the gangway there was a group of soldiers and sailors
engaged in an argument. As the operative approached, they separated,
and he went through. He was dressed in civilian clothes, and had on a
derby hat, but these did not seem to be suspicious facts. The operative
walked on up the gangplank unmolested, and roamed all over the boat
from top to bottom, still carrying the mailbag. Having done what any
German could have done in the same circumstances, he started out, but
near the gangway was stopped by a man who wore a watchman’s badge,
and who spoke with a noticeable German accent. This man stopped the
operative, who, upon being asked where he was going, replied that he
was going off the boat. The watchman told him to get off in a hurry.
He was still carrying his U. S. mail sack, which he replaced on the
pile where he had got it. After that, he strolled out to the street
again, satisfied that the guard around the _Leviathan_ might have been
a trifle more airtight.
As a matter of fact, while the sailing dates of the _Leviathan_ were
jealously guarded, bets were made by the Germans on her sailing time
out and back. Word came to an A. P. L. man that the _Leviathan_ was
going to sail at 12:15 the next day. As this came from German sources,
it seemed a useful thing to have the Government alter the sailing
hour. The operative in this case strolled around in the vicinity of
the _Leviathan_’s pier and talked with sailors, who freely told him
the sailing hour. Then, in order to mystify the Government officers,
the operative called up a certain Department and said over the ’phone
that he was an Intelligence official of the Imperial German Navy, and
wanted to know if it was true that the _Leviathan_ was to sail at 12:15
the next day. This caused some excitement. The operative then told whom
he was, explaining that he had got that knowledge himself the previous
evening. As a result, the sailing hour was changed several hours, and
the _Leviathan_ got off safely.
Again, there were a great many rumors regarding the numbers of troops
carried by this big transport. We did not want Germany to know how
many men we really were shipping, and we rather thought that no one
ever could know. An A. P. L. operative was able to make a very close
guess under rather singular circumstances. Since he could have done so,
perhaps a German spy might have done as much had he an equally sharp
wit.
This instance really started in a practical joke. The jokers suggested
to a certain young husband, who had to sit up late several nights with
a crying baby, that he might pass the time counting the cars of troop
trains which passed in front of his house. In all seriousness, the
young man did do this, checking each car by the bumps it made on the
railroad frogs. He really counted in this way with very fair accuracy
the number of cars carrying troops for the _Leviathan_’s sailing. As
everyone knew about how many troops were in each car, this operative
figured that there would be about 12,000 troops. This was reported to
the Government, but was never checked out, so that A. P. L. still wants
to know whether they were good detectives or not.
There was a member of the Division who sold automobile tires. A Naval
officer came to him to buy a tire, and wanted to know if the tire could
not get to the boat that afternoon. This salesman suggested the next
morning at noon. The officer innocently said that he would have sailed
by that time. He also named his boat, the _Leviathan_. This salesman
asked how it would do to have the tire ready when the ship came back,
and asked how long it would be. The officer said sixteen and a half
days—which tallied with the former _Leviathan_ record of seventeen
days. The salesman also learned that the stop at Bordeaux was from
forty to seventy-two hours. Incidentally, he also learned that the boat
carried 12,000 troops, had five hundred officers and a crew of fifteen
hundred.
This figure of 12,000 troops checks perfectly with the A. P. L.
estimate made by the baby-carrying member. This tire-hunting officer
of the boat also told a great many things which he ought not to have
told anyone. He told the means used to protect the _Leviathan_ against
U-boats, saying that the ship depended mostly on her speed. He said the
ship drew only forty-two feet of water, so it had not been necessary to
dredge the channel at Bordeaux. The operative then asked the officer
how late he could receive the tire, and was told about two hours before
sailing. “You can refer to your local newspapers and figure on fifteen
minutes after the tide begins to go out,” he said. This, of course, was
so that the boat could get the benefit of the ebb tide in warping out.
From these facts, both the Military and Naval Intelligence were able
to stop such leaks of information, and stiffened up the guarding of
ships and cargo, besides giving, in many ways, a far greater degree
of protection to the task of embarkation. It is thought that the
League investigations caused recommendation to be made regarding more
secrecy in regard to embarkation. The Armistice cut off these matters.
Sufficient has been shown here, however, to indicate how an enemy might
sometimes get information.
There did not seem to be much to start with in this case which
originated in Northern New Jersey, nor indeed was there much left of
the case by the time it was finished. Yet the case itself had the
makings of quite a big affair. A report came in that Otto B——, starter
for the X. Y. Z. Transit Company, was pro-German. Such reports came
in all the time, so that there were usually fifty or sixty cases in
the zone. Two days later came in more facts from operative C-123. He
had gotten pretty thick with Herr B—— by saying that Germany seemed to
be gaining, and that this news would please his wife, who was German
herself. Herr B—— was much pleased to learn this, and went on to
unbosom himself. Several such meetings enabled C-123 to learn pretty
much everything he desired.
Herr B—— wanted to do something for the Fatherland and the Kaiser. He
was sure he could do something if he had some help. The one danger was
that, in talking to almost anybody, Herr B—— might be talking not to a
representative of the Kaiser but to some one who would report him to
the United States Secret Service. Operative C-123 agreed with him as to
this, and gravely told him he ought to be very careful. But he said he
knew a man that could be trusted, and he would bring him around so that
they could talk it over, and perhaps the two of them could do something
for the Kaiser.
The name of this new man was Schultz. He had been in Mexico organizing
the United States Germans who had fled to Mexico. He had been a
member of the Dantzig Dragoons, and had traveled all through Germany,
and his experiences in the Army there had gotten him his place as
German propagandist of Mexico. He was a member of the Imperial German
Espionage System—and he had his Wilhelmstrasse card to show it. He
always carried it pinned to his underclothing. It was a great day for
Otto, the train dispatcher. At last he had some trusted fellow-Germans
in whom he could confide! He and Schultz talked bombs and that sort of
thing until midnight. Herr B—— told Schultz: “You can depend on me—I am
the real stuff—I can get a thousand men back of me since I know I have
got a man from the German Government here.”
Talks between these three gentlemen were going on in fine shape at
the time the Armistice was signed. As a matter of fact, Otto B—— is
still flagging trains at the old railroad crossing, and the League is
recommending his prosecution and the revocation of his citizenship,
because it certainly had proof of his unfitness to live in the United
States. It hardly seems necessary to add that “Schultz” was an A. P. L.
operative also. His “credentials” were made in the United States and
not in Germany, having been copied from those captured on a real agent
of the Kaiser.
There was another near-case, one which almost became a real one, in
Northern New Jersey Division, which, at the first, looked like scores
that had preceded it and scores that followed it. It had to do with
one K——, reported rabid against America, although employed in doing
essential Government work. This might have been a spite case, or a case
of remarks made before we went into the war, or still more possibly
something said before the amended Espionage Act was passed. However,
member C-891 went out on the case to see what he could find about K——.
The latter had a factory of his own, and when found, seemed to be
disposed to talk. The operative speaks a perfect German, and has a
German look. The two got on handsomely. The operative was surprised to
find that K—— talked so freely and to a stranger. Another member of
the League, C-1378, also of German parentage, went with C-891 a few
days later to visit K—— again. That gentleman was more bitter than
ever against America. He said, among other things, that if he heard
that President Wilson had been shot, he would be so glad that he would
celebrate it by getting too drunk to see. And there was very much more
talk of that nature.
A few days later, K—— had cause to regret his disposition to talk.
He was brought before a United States Commissioner on a warrant, and
spent a good night in jail before he could find bail. The next day, he
being a man of means, he engaged a lawyer. The Armistice ended these
activities, as it did so many others. The hearing was held on the
morning of November 7—the first news of the Armistice, later confirmed.
Since that time, A. P. L. of Northern New Jersey has heard nothing
about Mr. K——. With a couple million others, he has been allowed to
sink back to our citizenship—just as poisonous, just as unregenerate,
just as little fit to remain in this country. It was understood that D.
J. laid down a rule that testimony secured in conversations such as the
foregoing was not a basis of prosecution. Perhaps it would have been
better to wait until Mr. K—— had really shot somebody or blown up a
ship or so.
Of active sympathizers with the enemy, Northern New Jersey did not
lack. A thousand cases could be given. One will serve. In July, 1918,
the office learned of suspicious activities on the part of some of
these sympathizers. A Mr. E—— was told by Miss G——, a young woman of
foreign birth, that the people she lived with had active connections
with the enemy. Especially was this true in the case of one S——, who
had Central and South American relations. This latter man was found to
be of American birth and German parentage—which, in a good many cases,
would leave him German. He had been a traveler, and a son of his had
been born in Kingston, Jamaica, although this son was at present in
the U. S. Army. This Mr. S—— was found to be identified with a New
York concern which had sent him to Jamaica to get the release there
of a man jailed by the English authorities for alleged implication in
the coaling of German raiders at sea. That did not look any too good
for Mr. S—— of itself. He also had in his employ a stenographer whose
husband, a Mr. W——, had been employed in an alleged poisoning of the
reservoir at Kingston, Jamaica.
These things led up to the case of the subject, who will be called
P——. This man had lived with S—— for a time. P—— came to this country
from Germany in 1907, and applied for his first naturalization
papers—please note the date—August 1, 1914. He was thirty-five years
of age, well educated, unmarried, and without dependents. He had
served in the German Army, but was not a reservist. In his alien enemy
questionnaire, he left out the name of one of his previous employers,
which was found to have been an importing concern with a German name,
with connections in Kingston, Jamaica, doing business in Central and
South America. This German concern had many different names. Some of
its personnel were interned at Panama. A member of the concern had
been interned in the United States for alleged provisioning of German
raiders at sea. This made the stage set for a rather interesting
investigation. Operatives discovered that the principal men of this
concern were at large, and were doing business under yet another name.
They also discovered that this Mr. S—— was affiliated with the work in
a downtown office building in New York City.
During 1912, or earlier, Mr. S—— had introduced Mr. P—— to the
President of an iron and steel concern, who took him into employ as
Treasurer and gave him a block of shares. The alien enemy P—— seemed
to get along pretty well for a time, but got in wrong with the firm
through a transaction which they did not approve. The Secretary of
the firm was very friendly to the alien enemy P——. This Secretary was
found to be connected by marriage with one of the foremost electrical
inventors of the age, who had been very active in the development of
devices for our Army and Navy. Observe that this man was a particular
confidant of the unnaturalized German P——, formerly of the German Army.
The original Mr. S——, who had acted as a voucher for P——, had stated
that he could get money to the enemy, through the War Department. His
father had stock in a concern which was taken over by our Alien Enemy
Custodian. The not very mysterious Mr. P—— removed during June, 1918,
leaving New York without notifying the Chief of Police, as is required.
He was located doing business in an office in down-town New York
City as a broker, although his name was not listed in the telephone
directory. He was apparently trading under the name of L. P. & Company.
The A. P. L. has found that his mother is living in Germany and is
reported to be wealthy. P—— has pretended that he was a traveling
salesman, which he was not. He endeavored to avoid meeting people
whom he knew while residing in northern New Jersey. His residence was
located in another state.
This case also shows how much sometimes may be discovered by way of a
tangled skein, even if no one is shot at sunrise. Mr. S—— was visited
at his office by an A. P. L. man, who did not make himself known. He
was very much exercised over the fact that the place of his business
was known. He requested that his personal and business relations should
not be linked up together. Mr. P—— is still in business in New York, no
doubt waiting for the next war.
Northern New Jersey was the field for many reports of mysterious
signal lights along the seacoast. Most of these stories had small
foundation, but at least one of these would have come to something had
not the Armistice cut off the investigation. In this case, operators
were sometimes out for hours watching for the flashlights, and once a
squad of military reserves lay on watch practically all night around a
suspect’s house. They discovered night signaling with a search-light
and calcium-light at different places over the Northeastern part of
Bergen County, and there seemed to be evidence of a system of signaling
extending from the Hudson River in New Jersey, across Bergen County
up into the Ramapo Mountains and the Greenwood Lake district in New
York. The observers used surveying transits for spotting the lights,
and by means of this instrument, were able to obtain the angles of the
lights. These angles were then plotted, and the intersection points
gave approximately the location of the light. This work resulted in the
location of three individuals, but at about this time the Armistice
ended the signals and the apparent necessity for watching them. There
had been discovered, however, some real foundation for a signal light
scare in this district.
Ridgewood had another strange case—a German who claimed to be so sick
that he could not live long—who wanted to go back home in order to die
in the dear old Fatherland. Medical examination showed that he probably
would die sometime, but the A. P. L. examination led to the refusal
of his passports, it being believed that he might carry something to
Germany besides fatal disease.
Newark, the capital of Northern New Jersey Division, had a very
baffling pro-German case where it was difficult to find anything
on which a legal prosecution could be brought. The facts were such
as resulted in the social ostracism of the family, so that their
disloyalty, after all, had a certain punishment, although it did not
fit the crime. H—— and his wife were members of a Presbyterian Church,
and were so openly pro-German that everybody ceased to have anything
to do with them. At a luncheon given at the H—— household the favors
distributed to a dozen ladies consisted of nice pictures of Kaiser
Wilhelm. One of the guests then suggested that it would be a nice
thing to sing the Star Spangled Banner, which did not please Mrs.
H—— at all. The head of this household was educated in Germany, and
married a German woman whose relatives were high in the German army.
They had a daughter who was engaged to an American, but the latter
broke off the engagement on account of the pro-Germanism of the H——
family. The social ostracism really amounted to isolation, so that it
was impossible to hear of any disloyal utterances which would warrant
governmental action, nor indeed any utterances at all. The town was
through with them.
Northern New Jersey probably has the laziest slacker in the world.
His name is M——, and at one time he resided in New York. He had an
Emergency Fleet classification card, but only worked two or three days
out of the week and spent most of his time at home in bed. He thought
he would rather go South where the climate was better. He was rated
as so lazy that he was shifted from one government job to another—and
that certainly is going some, in view of what is sometimes done in
government service. He was so lazy that he used to go to bed with his
shoes on, and would leave his light burning all night because he was
too tired to put it out. This champion rester carried a registration
card, but he had been given limited service on account of calloused
feet. From the description of him, it is difficult to see how his feet
got calloused; but at least that is what the report says.
New Jersey had a very blood-curdling citizen who dwelt in Newark under
the name of H. B——. He carried an American name although he was born
in Italy about forty-two years ago. He came to America thirty years
ago, when he was a small boy, in order to escape punishment for having
killed a priest. He never dared to return to Italy, but remained an
alien in this country and an enemy to about everything going. He was
a very ardent I. W. W. man, and declared that there were enough I. W.
W. men in the Army and outside to blow up the country if they liked,—a
very good example of the flourishing Bolshevik element in America. Mr.
B—— claimed that he had stabbed a detective in Providence, R. I., a
year or so ago during an I. W. W. celebration; hence he did not like to
visit Providence either. He told how in another place he had cut out
a man’s intestines, and when asked if the man died, remarked: “What
in hell do you suppose I am here for?” This pleasant gentleman often
went to Paterson and New York to attend I. W. W. meetings there. He
hoped that “every —— —— soldier the U. S. sent over would be blown up
by submarines and drowned like rats, and that if any did get across,
he hoped the Germans would choke or shoot them to death.” He said he
would like to get his fingers on President Wilson’s throat. It was his
pleasant practice to tear American flags from the coats of persons
wearing them. His home was searched, and some clock-works were found
without any dials and hands, such as have been known to be used with
bombs. It seems that nothing was done with the bloodthirsty Mr. B——
after all, and he is still at large.
In so complex an office as that of the Northern New Jersey Division,
which much resembles that of New York City, Newark alone cleared over
9,013 cases, of which twenty-five per cent were for the War Department,
forty-five per cent for the Department of Justice, other divisions of
A. P. L. work fifteen per cent, and original cases with New Jersey A.
P. L. fifteen per cent. Most of this work was for D. J., but there was
much coöperation with officers from Naval and Military Intelligence,
not to mention the local boards. This great division has a tangible
record of 4,563 cases of the second class, those handled entirely in
local units, making a total of 13,576 cases sufficiently definite
in character to warrant a record. As to the actual investigations,
recorded and unrecorded, they would without question bring up the total
of northern New Jersey cases above 30,000. They were from every point
of the compass and of every color of the rainbow.