The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective LeagueHough, Emerson
History
The Web : $b The Authorized History of the American Protective League
Hough, Emerson
American Protective League; Propaganda, German; World War, 1914-1918 -- Secret service -- United States
Mr. Becker also went into many transactions of Ambassador von
Bernstorff, showing him to have been quite willing to buy the Paris
_Journal_ with German money if need be. He placed in the record
correspondence which showed that when Dr. Dernburg left Germany for
the United States in August, 1914, the German government deposited
25,000,000 marks with M. M. Warburg & Company of Hamburg, which Mr.
Becker stated was for propaganda purposes in the United States. Dr.
Dernburg brought to this country a power of attorney from the Imperial
Secretary of the Treasury, which gave him the distribution of the fund.
Of this fund, $400,000 was turned over to Dr. Albert, head of German
finances in New York, by Dr. Dernburg.
Mr. Becker gave a long list of banks which had participated in the
sale of German bonds in this country, these banks being located in
the principal cities of the east and west. He named as well the chain
of banks in which the German government opened accounts for certain
purposes. He showed the credentials brought from the German chancellor
by Dr. Dernburg to large financial institutions in New York, which were
made repositories of German funds. The letter to one such banking firm
in New York, from Warburg & Company of Hamburg, establishing the German
credit of 25,000,000 marks, was made a part of the record, also the
power of attorney enclosed by Dr. Dernburg to the New York repository.
Mr. Becker mentioned the underwriting of German bonds by a New York
concern to a total amount of $9,908,000. The proceeds were deposited
with a trust company in New York to the order of the Imperial German
Government, and were checked out by von Bernstorff and Albert for
deposit in the chain of banks above referred to. It was the intention
to make these banking institutions favorable to the German ideas, and
unfavorable to the American bond sales. An initial deposit was made
with the Equitable Trust Company of $3,350,000; the Columbia Trust
Company had an initial deposit of $750,000; the Chase National Bank was
alleged to have had an initial deposit of $125,000. As the proceeds
of the German war loan notes accumulated, the deposits in certain of
these New York financial institutions were increased. In order to
avoid any legal complications, the German government opened a blind
account so that Dr. Albert could go on with his operations without any
fear of detection by anyone desiring to bring legal action against
him. These figures will give the reader some idea of the extent of
the German finances. _All this money—and many times the amounts above
mentioned—was spent for the one and only purpose of German propaganda
and spy work in the United States._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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