The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-17

1--WE shall dog the footsteps of I'm
Gle Sam" is the statement in CORES
pondence of DR.. Karl o. Bert1ing,
suspected of being an agent of Ger
many, published today in the New
York World.
Startling insights into the methods
of persons engaged in propaganda
work and their attitude toward the
United States are disclosed in today's
revelations.
DR.. Karl Oskar Bertling, assistant,
director of the Amerika Institute, of
Berlin. who has been in this COIN
try since Aug. 20, 1914, called at the
State Department yesterday and ask
ed assistance in locating the person
or persons responsible for the theft
of his papers from No. 100 East
Twenty-fourth street, New York,
three weeks ago.
Some of the papers, which indicate
a. close connection between. the Ger
man Embassy and DR.. Bertling,|were
published this morning. While En-
bassy officials refused to comment
upon the story, they admitted a
knowledge of the activities of DR.
Bert1ing in this country. Dr. BertIin5
left for New York Immediately after
his call at the State department.
From a. reliable German source it
was ascertained that officials of the
German government in this country
take the ground that DR.. Bertling's
activities here have been legitimate
and proper. They hold that none of
the documents taken from his house,
which he declares was destroyed by
fire with all his personal property,
contains anything which he need
deny.
In German circles the declaration
is made that British secret agents
were responsible for the destruction
of DR.. Behring'S house. At the out
set Dr. Bertling thought that his pa
pers had been destroyed along with
other property.
DR.. Bertling some days ago placed
the matter in the hands of lawyers in
New York with a view to prosecuting.
DR.. Bertling, who was sent to the
United States Immediately after the
war broke out, to establish a pro-
German cable news service to South
America and China and to conduct a
pro- German propaganda in this coun-
try, kept up a correspondence with R.
Walther of the German-American
: chamber of commerce in Berlin, in
which the latter, besides recording the
keen disappointment of the German
foreign ONCE at DR.. Bertling's failure
to fulfill his special mission to their
satisfaction, discussed the pro-German
propaganda with the utmost frank
ness, as the following excerpts from
Mr.. Wa1ther's letters show:
':Do write often and try all available
ways-give things to travellers. Vie
reck has sent me a letter and Harpers
some printed matter by way of Italy.
Keller is on his way to the
United States. Atwood is going as
an emissary from us. See to it that
he does his work well. Brauna is
also on his way; and Ulrich and
Grossman are probably already there.
Please write more often than you do.
The foreign office and the war de-
partment urgently want more reports
sent here. If cables through neutral
countries are not feasible, could not
Americans travelling be called upon
More steam please. The ex-
change professors should get busy.
One is quite surprised here that, with
the exception of Burgess and possibly
Sloan, nobody seems to be doing any
thing. Nasmith's article, The
Case for Germany in the Outlook is
very good-inspired by me. The same
of Mead's in Everybody's''
In another letter Mr.. Walther says:
what you are doing among the
Americans is splendid. We are watch
ing all Of it very closely. The tide'i
already beginning to turn. The Out
look Of Oct. has reached me with
a very noteworthy change in the atti-
tude of the war correspondents. Senti-
ment here is getting stronger and
stronger to refrain from excuses and
explanations. Those who are not per-
suaded by our deeds and who will not
believe us may stay away, even if they
are such all powerful people as Presi-
dent Eliot and that preaching Lyman
Abbott"
Doggfng Uncle Sam
Mr. WaIther gives vent to his feel
ings in another letter in which he
says:
1--WE will dog Uncle Sans footsteps
with painful accuracy-his sloppy, OBJ
stinate pro-English neutrality non
sense we utterly repudiate. When
God wishes to punish a county, he
gives it a w. J. B. as secretary of
state. This man is crucifed to a
cross Of gold said an American re-
Gently speaking of him. ooh, hell.
But the expression Of anti-American
feeling in DIR. BertTng's Berlin CORE
some Americans who wrote to him. G.
w Ernst of Boston. who although born /!
in Germany, has lived in the United |
States for So years and was secretary
to the mayor of Boston in 1889 and |
again from 1900 to 1904 and has been
active in Republican politics in Massa- |
chusetts, wrote as follows under date
of Dec. 20, 1914, a letter marked "con- |
fidential:''
my Dear and Honored Friend: 1t Is
charming and soothing to hear from |
YOU at last. That is German love.
lis it prudent to defend the German
cause against the injustice of such |
people an C. w. Elliot and other Am