The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-08-07
REPORTERS UPSET
BERNSTOFF'S PLOTS
Revelation of How Paper Got I'm
side" knowledge of Teuton Con-
>piracieS i'll United StateS-l.ike a
Detective Novel.

Almost from the beginning of the
European war, a newspaper of ProVl
| dence. r. l.. the Journal, was con-
| spicuous for its revelations Of Ger
man and Austrian cOnspiracies in
| this country.
Some of the inside stuff" printed
| by the Journal was so positive in de
/ tail and intimate knowledge, that 1t
seemed incredible. for to the average
| man the tales published by the pa
| per appeared impossible to have been
! known by anyone outside the inmost
| circle of the German and Austrian
! embassies, and especially to a paper
! so pronouncedly pro-Ally as the Jour
nal. Now, however, the way in which
| the information was secured has
| been made public, and narrative
| rivalling any secret service novel
in sensationalism is the revelation it
/ makes.
The detective work done Dy the
Journal was related by the paper S
| editor, John r. Rathom, in the form
of an address at the convention of
| the Canadian Press Association, re
| Gently held at Toronto. The report
of Mr.. Rathom's address which fol
lows, was taken from the Toronto
Star by the Editor and Publisher of
New York:
The Journal happened upon its
| course of exposure through having
| had for ten years before the war
what other papers described as i
| bug" on wireless telegraphy. The
paper had maintained two powerful
wireless plants at Point Judith and
| at Block Island. When war broke
out they had decided to listen mon
| the messages crossing the Atlantic.
! For five months they kept record of
| these meSsag ges, and then they set
| out tc find the codes and make reye-
! lations. OF the material they secur-
| ed they used only fractional part.
| One of his women stenOgraphers
| was sent and secured an appointment
| in the Austrian Consulate i'll New
! York. Others of his workers were
| constantly engaged in shadowing
Capt. Boy-Ed, Capt. Won Papen, the
| German Ambassador Bernstorff, for
mer Austrian Ambassador Dumba,
and other German and Austrian Of
| fcials. The two wireless plants un-
! ceasingly listened in. two shifts oil
| operators at work day and night, on
: Sayville and Nantucket the two wire
| less stations which We're being useo
mostly by the Germans to keep in
| touch with Berlin, from where they
received instructions for every de-
tail of their plotting policy.
For the United States Government
the Brooklyn Navy Yard had had in
structions to keep a close watch on
the Sayyille and Nantucket station,
but nothing suspicious was ever re-
ported until Mr.. Rathom took some
of the messages which he had receiy-
ed from his operators, to the State
Department. 1t was then learned
that the navy-yard operators had
been in the pay of the German agz
ents in America, and had bue:, tofS
not to hear too much.
The codes used by the Germans
We're of the most ingenious nature.
Many of them pretended to be stock
quotations, and some We're even done
up as funeral directions. In some
cases, however, the codes showed
evidence of the green blubber, referr-
ed to by the speakers, as on one oc-
casion when Mr.. Rathom was able to
go to President Wilson and show him
copies of eight separate messages
sent by the wireless plant within 9
days, all relating that little Emily
had died of such and such an illness,
in a certain part Of ia room, had
been buried in a certain cemetery be-
side such and such a previously de-
ceased relative. In every one OF
these messages the illness, the part