many and Argentina. The telegrams mentioned in the American statement were written in code; Baron Lowen, the Swedish Minister to Argentina, did not know their contents; had acted in good faith in forwarding them, and would not be recalled.

But it was not only in Buenos Aires that representatives of Sweden had aided the cause of Germany. Her Minister in Mexico had been so helpful that the German Minister urged that he be rewarded. His letter, dated March 8, 1916, was now made public by Secretary Lansing and reads as follows:

Herr Folke Cronholm, the Swedish chargé d'affaires here, since his arrival here has not disguised his sympathy for Germany and has entered into close relations with this legation. He is the only diplomat through whom information from a hostile camp can be obtained. Moreover, he acts as intermediary for official diplomatic intercourse between this legation and your Excellency. In the course of this he is obliged to go personally each time to the telegraph office, not seldom quite late at night, in order to hand in the telegrams. Herr Cronholm was formerly at Pekin and at Tokio, and was responsible for the preliminary arrangements which had to be made for the representation of his country in each case. Before he came out here he had been in charge of the consulate at Hamburg. Herr Cronholm has not got a Swedish, but only a Chinese order at present. I venture to submit to your Excellency the advisability of laying before his Majesty the Emperor the name of Herr Cronholm, with a view to the crown order of the second class being bestowed upon him. It would perhaps be desirable, in order not to excite the enemy's suspicion, to treat with secrecy the matter of the issue of the patents until the end of the war, should the decision be favorable to my suggestion. This would mean that the matter would be communicated to no one but the recipient and his Government, and even to them only under the seal of secrecy, while the publication of the bestowal of the decoration would be postponed until the end of the war. I should be particularly grateful to your Excellency, if I could be furnished with telegraphic news of the bestowal of the decoration, which I strongly recommend, in view of the circumstances detailed above.

VON ECKHARDT.

And now Secretary Lansing made further disclosures of German intrigue in our country by no less a personage than Count Johann von Bernstorff.

"The Secretary of State," so reads the public statement, “issues the following message from Ambassador von Bernstorff to the Berlin Foreign Office, dated January 23, 1917:

"I request authority to pay out up to $50,000 in order, as on former occasions, to influence Congress through the organizations you know of, which can, perhaps, prevent war. I am beginning in the meantime to act accordingly. In the above circumstances a public official German declaration in favor of Ireland is highly desirable in order to gain the support of Irish influence here."

That the Ambassador would attempt to bribe Congress with so small a sum of money as $50,000, indeed, that he would try to purchase any member of Congress, was not to be supposed. Nevertheless, both Senate and House were thrown into violent excitement. Demands were made for a prompt investigation of the method of German propaganda and a member from Alabama declared that he could name "thirteen or fourteen men" in Congress who, in his opinion, had "acted in a suspicious fashion." After the excitement had gone down a little the feeling grew that no investigation was needed; that the influence on Congress to which von Bernstorff alluded was the letters and telegrams sent by thousands to members at every serious crisis before the declaration of war.

While the question was still under debate the Committee on Public Information put out a bulletin exposing certain German plotters and plots and the part certain Americans took therein before the United States entered the war. When Government agents one morning in April, 1916, entered the office of Wolf von Igel in Wall Street, New York, and seized the papers there found they came into possession of a mass of letters, telegrams, ledgers, checks, receipts, cipher codes, lists of spies all going to prove that the German Imperial Government, while at peace with our country, through its representatives was deliberately engaged in violating the neutrality laws of the United States; was planning the destruction of merchant ships on the high seas; was aiding Irish revolutionary plots against Great Britain; was supporting a spy system disguised as a "bureau of investigation" and a bureau to foment labor troubles. in munition plants; was paying Americans to write and lecture in behalf of Germany and in short was financing a country-wide propaganda. Much of the evidence produced in support of these facts had been used in the prosecution of those concerned and had already been made public. Some had never before been

published. All was of great interest because of the official denial of the German Government transmitted by wireless and published in the New York Times in December, 1915.

The German Government has, naturally, never knowingly accepted the support of any person, group of persons, or organization seeking to promote the cause of Germany in the United States by illegal acts, by counsel of violence, by contravention of law, or by any means whatever that could offend the American people in the pride of their own authority.

Among the documents was a letter taken from the papers of Mr. James J. F. Archibald, when seized by the British in August, 1915. It was written by the Austro-Hungarian Minister at Washington, and makes known the workings of a certain pretended labor information and relief bureau. Disguised as the Liebau Employment Agency with a head office in New York City and branches in Bridgeport, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago, and appearing to have no other purpose than securing employment for German, Austrian and Hungarian workmen, the real object of the Agency was to prevent the manufacture of munitions. The letter reads;

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 importance and amply outweighs the comparatively small expenditure of money involved; but even if the strikes do not come off it is probable that we should extort, under pressure of circumstances, more favorable conditions of labor for our poor downtrodden fellow-countrymen.

So far as German workmen are found in the skilled hands, means of leaving will be provided immediately for them. Besides this a private German employment office has been established which provides employment for persons who have voluntarily given up their places, and it is already working well. We shall also join in and the widest support is assured us.

How well this Agency succeeded in its work is told in a letter of March 24, 1916, to Ambassador von Bernstorff.

"Engineers and persons in the better class of positions, and who had means of their own, were persuaded by the propaganda of the bureau to leave war-material factories."

"The commercial employment bureaus of the country have no supply of unemployed technicians. . . . Many disturbances and suspensions which war material factories have had to suffer and which it was not always possible to remove quickly, but which, on the contrary, often lead to long strikes, may be attributed to the energetic propaganda of the employment bureau."

Nearly a score of men are mentioned in the bulletin as having been engaged in violating the neutrality of the United States. One, in a letter to Ambassador von Bernstorff, expressed his desire to rent rooms 'near munition plants and blow them up; another offered a shell of his own design; another de scribes new methods of blowing up trenches and planting mines for the destruction of ships.

The collection of letters in the possession of the Secretary of State was not yet exhausted, and October 10 he made public three messages which revealed the fact that the German Ambassador as far back as January, 1916, had been a party to acts of war against the United States.

"January 3: Secret: General staff desires energetic action in regard to proposed destruction of Canadian Pacific Railway at several points with a view to complete and protracted interruption of traffic. Captain Boehm, who is known on our side and is shortly returning, has been given instructions. Inform the military attaché and provide the necessary funds.

"ZIMMERMANN."

"January 26: For military attaché. You can obtain particulars as to persons suitable for carrying on sabotage in the United States and Canada from the following persons: 1, Joseph MacGarrity, Philadelphia, Pa.; 2, John P. Keating, Michigan Avenue, Chicago; 3, Jeremiah O'Leary, 16 Park Row, New York.

"One and two are absolutely reliable and discreet. Number three is reliable, but not always discreet. These persons were indicated by Sir Roger Casement. In the United States sabotage can be carried out in every kind of factory for supplying munitions of war. Railway embankments and bridges must not be touched. Embassy must in no circumstances be compromised. Similar precautions must be taken in regard to Irish pro-German propaganda.

The following telegram from Count von Bernstorff to the Foreign Office in Berlin was sent in September, 1916:

"September 15: With reference to report A.N. two hundred and sixty-six of May 10, 1916. The embargo conference, in regard to whose earlier fruitful coöperation Doctor Hale can give information, is just about to enter a vigorous campaign to secure a majority in both houses of Congress favorable to Germany and requests further support. There is no possibility of our being compromised. Request telegraphic reply."

The publication of these letters in September and October, making known the activity of German agents in our country, was most timely, for on October 1 the great drive for the Second Liberty Loan of $3,000,000,000 began. Again every means the wit of man could devise was used to arouse the people. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, boy scouts and school children took part in the sale. Subscriptions could be made at the office of any financial institution, broker, insurance company, department store, at booths in the streets, at home, in the hotels, in the clubs, in the training camps. In the cities the fences and shop windows were gay with posters; automobiles, taxicabs, trucks and wagons bore little placards urging every one to "Buy a Bond." The postage stamp on every letter was canceled with the words, "Buy Now, U. S. Government Bonds, 2nd Liberty Loan." Former President Taft, Secretary McAdoo, former Secretary of State Bryan, members of the Cabinet, men prominent in public life traversed the country in a nation-wide speaking campaign to impress on the people the necessity of buying a bond at once. A laundry company inserted in each bundle before it was sent home a printed slip which read, "Buy Liberty Bonds to-day, because if the Kaiser wins, good night shirt." In New York a German U-boat, captured by the British and sent over, was placed in Central Park, named "U-Buy a Bond" and became an office for the receipt of subscriptions.

The bonds were to bear an annual interest of four per cent., were to mature at the end of twenty-five years, or in 1942, but might be redeemed at any time after ten years. There were three ways of subscribing. They might be paid for in full at the time of subscription, in which case, if the subscription was not large, the bonds were delivered. They might be bought on the Government plan: two per cent. when the subscription was