Checks signed by Adolf Pavenstedt 230 George Sylvester Viereck 234 Letter from Count von Bernstorff 236 Check from Count von Bernstorff 238 Letter-paper of "The Friends of Peace" 250 Dr. Chakravarty 284 Jeremiah A. O'Leary 302 Paul Bolo Pacha 310 THE GERMAN SECRET SERVICE IN AMERICA CHAPTER I THE ORGANIZATION The economic, diplomatic and military aspects of secret warfare in America--Germany's peace-time organization--von Bernstorff, the diplomat--Albert, the economist--von Papen and Boy-Ed, the men of war. When, in the summer of 1914, the loaded dice fell for war, Germany began a campaign overseas as thoughtfully forecasted as that first headlong flood which rolled to the Marne. World-domination was the Prussian objective. It is quite natural that the United States, whose influence affected a large part of the world, should have received swift attention from Berlin. America and Americans could serve Germany's purpose in numerous ways, and the possible assets of the United States had been searchingly assayed in Berlin long before the arrival of "Der Tag." The day dawned--and Germany found herself hemmed in by enemies. Her navy did not control the oceans upon which she had depended for a large percentage of her required food and raw materials, and upon which she must continue to depend if her output were to keep pace with her war needs. If surprise-attack should fail to bring the contest to a sudden and favorable conclusion, Germany was prepared to accept the more probable alternative of a contest of economic endurance. Therefore, she reasoned, supplies must continue to come from America. Of importance scarcely secondary to the economic phase of her warfare in the United States was the diplomatic problem. Here was a nation of infinite resources, a people of infinite resource. This nation must be enlisted on the side of the Central Powers; failing that, must be kept friendly; under no circumstances was she to be allowed to enlist with the Allies. One fundamental trait of Americans Germany held too lightly--their blood-kinship to Britons--and it is a grimly amusing commentary upon the confidence of the German in bonds Teutonic that he believed that the antidote to this racial "weakness" of ours lay in the large numbers of Germans who had settled here and become Americans of sorts. But the German was alarmingly if not absolutely correct in his estimate, for upon the conduct and zeal of Germans in America actually depended much of the success of Germany's diplomatic tactics in America. [Illustration: _Copyright, International Film Service_ The German Embassy in Washington, headquarters and clearing-house of German intrigue in the world outside Mittel-Europa, 1914-1917]