The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-06
SPEECHMAKER IN
 l.. & N. STATION IS
 PUT UNDER ARREST
German Agents Also Arrested at the Station By Federal Officers. Pose as Bible
 Statesmen

SCl CCd CAOOu0 OI 1lCSl OOO III
 the Birmingham district to Mexico, has been uncovered
 by the local federal author ities.
 Agents of Germany, pos ing as Bible salesmen and
 ministers of the gospel, have visited the industrial settle
 ments of the negroes and
 have advised them to move
 away from the United States into Mexico.
 Declaring that Germany will crush
 the United States within a short pe-
 riod and that, because they have a high regard for the negroes and do not want to kill them, these agents have agitated the negroes, but have failed.
 The effect of this agitation was evil denced yesterday when the federal au- thorities arrested a German agent at the Louisville and Nashville railroad station. TALKING IN WAITING ROOM
 One hour later negro who was mak- ing an address to about 20 negroes in the colored waiting room, urging them to go to Mexico and otherwise arraigning the government of the United States. was taken into custody. He was an employe of the American Steel and Wire company at Fairfield. He denied the charges when arrested, but statements charged to him were verified by Nose Allen, chief janitor at the station.
 Furthermore, evidence has been ob- tained showing that German agents have honeycombed Mississippi and Alabama. The negroes were told that special train would be run to Mexico on April 15. and if they didn't want to get killed when the Germans came that they should arrange to catch it. Furthermore, the negroes were advised that the agents. three men selling Bibles and quoting the scriptures, had 600 men from Mississippi on their lists.
 But despite their efforts the agents have failed to arouse the negroes to the point of action. Some of them have been convinced that they will be conscripted and put in the front ranks of the battle lines when war comes and others have been scared half to death by the reports that the Germans are coming.
 FEDERAL AGENTS SILENT
 As to what the German agent was charged with who he was or anything about the arrest the federal authorities have refused to comment. Mark Hanna of the department of justice refused to deny or confirm anything relative to the activities of the federal authorities.
 "The negro that was arrested in the cclored waiting room wanted all the ne- groes to go to Mexico" said Nose AL len, the janitor at the Louisville and Nashville 'He said that the negroes had come from Africa, that they were not getting justice here, and that if war broke out they would be put up in the front and killed. He said that the Ger mans were our friends and that the Ger mans were going to whip the world.
 When he told about how the police would kill negro without anybody doing anything about it, some of the negroes in there listening to him would chip in and say, Oats right, dat's rightH I told him that he ought not to talk that way but he kept on. He said that the negroes ought to go to Mexico, so that they wouldn't get killed when the Germans came over here. If they made the ne- groes fight, he said, they ought to get guns and fight with the Germans.
 '4e shore was fool, and I told him so"
 ACTIVE IN SOUTH ALABAMA
 That Germans had been in south Ala bama was confirmed by negro named Greene. He said that he lived in the black belt, and that last Thursday he had been approached by three Germans who were selling Bibles.
 Just between the depot and the post office, where the negro quarters was, three men who said they were ministers, held a meeting about sundown. They said that the Germans loved the negroes and that they didn't want to hurt them. Pretty soon they said that the Germans were going to come over here and kill all the Americans, and that if the negroes didn't want to get hurt, they had better get out of this country.
 Now we have just been over in Mis- sissppi,' they said to us. The negroes over there are with us. We have 600 on our lists and are going to take them to Mexico on April 15 on a special train. You had better come. You know the white people here don't like you. They will put you up in front of them when the war comes and you know that you all will be killed first They went on that way and got the negroes nearly scared to death They told me that I had tO gO. and that I had better get ready. q was so scared that I went to the mayor and asked him if I had to go to Mexico He told me that didn't have to and that could stay. shore was glad to know it. The way they pictured how the Germans was going to clean up the United States made it look like we wouldn't have chance to live" The negro described the agent who was doing the talking as a man with coal black hair, dark eyes. long nose. thick lips and foreign dialect. He was about 5 feet II inches tall and well built. He said that the police looked for the agents the next day, but that they had left. Those Germans know everything about that country down there I bet they
 know where every pig track is.'' he avowed.
 SWEEPING SEARCH MADE While the federal authorities are mak- | ing no announcements, 1t is understood 1 that a sweeping search of the Birming- ham district will be made for the sup posed agents of the imperial German government in this section. The corpora tions report that there is no doubt but ! that the agents have been among their men, At Ensley. Fairfield and in the in ! dustrial camps, the negroes have admit