The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-09-21
VON BERNSTORFF
WAS A PLOTTER
Wanted Authority to Pay
$4,000 to Influence United
States Congress
MONEY TO GO TO
AN ORGANIZATION
Intimation That Previous Payments Had
Been Made - Object Was to Prevent
Support of Irish influence.


WASHINGTON, Sept. 21.-The state
department made public today a mes
sage sent by Count Won Bernstorf in |
January, this year, while he was am
bassador here. to the Berlin foreign |
office, requesting authority to pay 500 |
00O to influence congress, to a certain
organization. The message, dated Jan.
-, 1917, follows:
+" / request authority to pay up to $50,-
coo, in order, as on former occasions,
to influence congress through the or
ganization YOU know of, which can per
haIs prevent war. | am beginning in
the meantime to act accordingly.
''In the above circumstances a pub
lished official German declaration in ia
vor of Ireland is highly desirable in
order to gain the support Of Irish in
/ tluence here.
The text of the message was given out
without comment, in the same manner
I as were the messages Of Count Lux
\ burg, German minister to Argentina,
which has disrupted relations between
Argentina and Germany. and the letter
1 of German Minister Eckhardt in Mex
4 leo City.
Whether the state department Is IN
/ possession of other evidence indicating
| the ambassador 5 activities has not yet
been revealed, but the extraordinary
disclosures already made have fixed the
belief that agents of the United States
government have collected and com
piled the entire story Of German du-
plicitv and intrigue and that additional
chapters will be added. The reference
to avoiding war is taken as an indica
tion that Ambassador Bernstorff had
Sprior knowledge of his government s in-
tention to proclaim mercilesS wide
spread submarine warfare and that he
was equally confident that the United
States government could not be east
~ placated by mere promises.
The German announcement of inten-
tion to expand its submarine activities
was not made public until January 81
some DAYS after Won BernstoriT S mes
sage to his government.
It has not been assumed that the am
: bassadOr actually attempted to bribe
: or personally influence any membe. Of
congress and doubt that such was his
s purpose is supported to some extent by
the comparatively small amount OF
money he asked. Fifty thousand dollars
it was pointed out, would 90 but short
way toward buying the influence of any
congressman. Judiciouslv expended
o however il might do much in compensat
ING paid agents, such as are known t
have belonged to the elaborate machine
!, Bernstorff had SO carefully built up 70
: the production of propaganda and 70
! the purposes of espionage
Information in possession of the gov
Il ernment, but not vet revealed, is sal
, to show conclusivelv a more direct con
nection of the German machine i
America with the Irish question tha
that indicated in Count Won Bernstorff
message The records at the departmen
,r of Justice are said to contain the name
of men implicated in that phase of Ge1
man intrigue, well known in Americ;
le The name of the organization throug
ID which the German government ha
ir sought TO influence congress, the mannC
in which the money used for this purpos
lie was expended, the previous instanc,
. propaganda. although not disclosed, al
. the subjects Of well defined suspicion
Records OF the department of justi,
are overlooking with reports from hu
1 drcds of agents concerning German i
l trigues here. many of which lead to Il
| German embassy and some of which r
l suited in the recall at President w
son 5 request of Captains Boy Ed al
Won Papen, the German naval and m
itarv aides.
Up to this time Boy Ed and Won Pap
had appeared as the master spirits
German propaganda here. Intimatio
that German plots and intrigues we
directed, not by them, but by Count V
Bernstorff, with the full approval
Berlin, heretofore had been met by
fcials with silence. For months pa
however. there have been many in,
cations that the American governme
had established Bernstorff S direct &C
nection with much of the German seer
work conducted here and that there "
ample basis for request for his rec
months before the diplomatic break w
Germany.