Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-09-15
GERMANS ATTEMPT
To STOP PROPOSED
LOAN FOR ALLIES
Teutons Understood to Have
Agents in U. S. Working
Against FlOtation
WORKED FOR DR.. DERNBURG
Plan Is to Have Persons With Ger
man Sympathies Withdraw
Money From Banks
WORKED FOR DR.. DERNBURG
By .Assoeiatcd Prcss


New York, Sept. 15.-Thc proGcr.
man campaign against the flotation
of billion dollar credit loan in the
United States to Great Britain and
France appeared to-day to assume the
proportions OF country wide plot
threatening even the personal safety
of the six members of the anglo
French financial commission.
Members of this committee, OF
which Lord Reading, Lord Chief JUS
tfce of England, is chairman, have
doubled their body guards, it became
known to-day. They have been re-
quested by the police of New York not
to announce in advance their plans
for any day and in no instance appear
In the streets without detectives guard
ing them.
More than fifty threatening letters
have been received by the commission.
Their contents run the scale from
abuse TO threats against the lives OF
the commission. Some of the most
threatening of these letters have been
turned over to the police for investi-
cation, 1t is said, and New York City
detectives are reported to be seeking
the writers.
According to information which
came to the commissioners attention
the German attack on the proposed
loan was launched from the cover of
American citizens of German parent
age, nativity or sympathies, although
in reality these citizens were not the
prime movers in the campaign. The
attack included not only the negative
stand in refusing to participate which
the agitators hope will be taken by
banks with large lists of German Am
ertcan depositors it was reported, but
. embraced extreme measures against
any banks with German American de-
positors helping in any way to finance
the loan.
Reports Are Reliable
This campaign according to reports
from sources regarded as reliable con-
templated heavy Withdrawals, whole
sale in extent, from banks partici-
pating in the loan as an expression of
the displeasure of pro-German de-
positors.
Another method which was reported
to be in favor with those opposing the
f1otation of the loan was the proposal
to float a similar loan for Germany.
The amount of the proposed German
loan, the commission heard, was to
be half a billion dollars. 1t was de-
signed, according to their informa-
ton, not as a bonifide move to place
that great sum at the disposal of the
German empire here for Germany, un-
able to import Afercan products,
could not spend it but purely as an
embarrassment to the Anglo-French
commission.
Know All Bank Affairs
A less drastic method of attack it
was reported to the commission was
the apparent intention of the pro-Ger-
man element to induce by persuasion
or otherwise, every bank officer in
the U. S. with German blood in his
veins to oppose the participation of
his bank in the flotation of the loan.
This feature of the campaign it was
reported had been systematized to a
remarkable degree so that the name
of every such officer was said to be
in the possession of those directing
the agitation.
The movement from what the COM
mission heard, had its origin in the
East and it's greatest activity in the
Middle West, especially in the large
cities where the pro-German element
is considerable in numbers. AL
though not so manifest here in New
York as elsewhere it was said, the
plan is by no means inactive in this
city.