New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-14
Chamber of Commerce
Adds Its Protest to That
of the Mayor
City Has Spy Fever
Photographers Now Barred
from Big Town in the
City Hall
,r.,- s,,- co1,.pona.n, Of The 1,4bunsl

Prom A
Philadelphia. March 13.-The demand
of Philadelphia that the German raid
ers which ar, interned at the League
Island Navy Yard be removed was held
IN to-day pending orders from Wash
ington.
The sensation of the day was re-
port that Captain Boyd, the dis
missed naval attache Of the German
Embassy, had been in the city.
This was denied by Secret Service
men. and later. when members Of for
mer Ambassador Gerard's party re-
ported that thew had seen him in Ber-
lin a day or two before their departure,
was completely discredted.
1.-THE raiders are not entirely removed
the city will insist that the vessels,
with their crews aboard, be towed out
into the middle Of the Delaware River
and kept there. The Board Of Trade to-
dav adopted resolutions and forwarded
them with more than one hundred prl-
waite protests against the presence Of
the Germans in the navy yard to the
Navy Department in Washington.
The German ships will not be moved
in any event until they have been
searched thoroughly and the rlverbcd
about them has been searched for MD
den bombs.
One theory is that the raiders might
have sent the nineteen chronometets
ashore to have them fitted with wires.
Chronometers are both air and water
tight clocks. If they were dropped
overheard they would keep on running,
not "a accurately as otherwise, pc
cause they are 80 finely adjusted that
they are sensitive TO a change m tenn
perature, but accurately enough 70
serve as time clocks on mine, for IN
stance.
At night mines could have beer
placed all around informed raiders by
their crews and sunk into the river
mud under the bottom OF the vessels
with only two copper wires leading up
70 q noint lust below the water. where
they could easily be reached II war
came then, il would be a simple matter
10 connect the mines with the wires on
the thermometer. fixed 50 that when
the big hand passed over the little
hand the circuit would be completed
and EXPLODE the submerged mines.
In that case il would be necessary to
have the chronometers ready and SET
so that an hour would intervene be-
tween the time the chronometer was
dropped overheard attached TO the
wires Of the submerged mines and the
time when the explosion would occur.
The raiders then could be safely sur
rendered and the crews marched off TO
an internment camp. An American
guard would man the raiders, and on
the hour the ships would be blown out
of the water.
As examples Of German duplicity ac-
cumulate the government inyestlga-
tors are shutting down sources OF pos
siblc information TO guard against the
publication of facts which might TIP
the plotters to what is i'm store for
them. When The Tribune correspondent
called at the Office of the Cramp Shlp-
yards. he was informed that nothing
could be given out. The Cramps ne
Guently sublet naval construction work
TO Schultz e Koerting, Of which Fischer,
the German under arrest, was the ptesl-
dent. G. =. Taylor, managing director
Of the Cramp yards, said he had been
asked not to talk. and added that he
was doing all in his power TO aid the
government in its endeavors.
Apparently no such instructions have
been imposed upon the New York Ship
building Company, at Camden, y. j. An
official of the company gave list or
the United States warships on which
Fischer's experts have worked.
On this trip the correspondent
learned that since the recent exposures
great precautions have been taken to
guard the government secrets in the
construction of the new dreadnoughts
Idaho which is now on the ways. The
regular guards have been reinforced by
a company Of $50 marines and the tor
pedo boat destroyer Jewett, with full
crew aboard.
Many Ships Open TO Espionage
According to the New York Ship
building Company official, Shuttle &
Koerting have had their experts on sew
eral United States warships on their
trial trips. Fischer frequently visited
the yards. and his company has had
contracts on the following vessels: The
battleships Oklahoma. Arkansas. Michi-
gan. New Hampshire and Kansas. the
cruiser Washington and the new tor
pedo boat destroyers Preston, Mccall.
Burrows, Ammen. Jarvis, Downer,
Ericsson. Jacob Jones and Wainwright.
Another circumstance unexplained
for the moment is that the Schultz &
Koerting plant, while having machinery
for the making of munitions, has never
made any that the public knows Of The
Investigators also are interested in the
periodical trips out into the Atlantic
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