Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-05-01
Intended T0B[OW
Up MORGAN OFFICE
Hirsch Also Confesses to Plot
to Circulate Report of Pres
ident's Assassination.
PLANNED TO PLAY MARKET

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, May 1.-Confession was
made in court today by Wolf Hirsch,
arrested last night. with George Mey-
ringer, both Germans. that they were
on their way to blow up the offices OF
]. P. Morgan & Co. with a bomb When
intercepted by. the police.
Hirsch supplemented before the court
an alleged confession he had made
earlier to the police that the explosion
part of a scheme to create a stock mar
ket reversal from which he and
Meyringer could profit financially. He
told the court he had made the bomb
under the direction Of Meyringer and
another man in a laboratory at the
Roosevelt Hospital, where they were
employed.
He did not know anything about the
construction of bombs himself. he de-
clared. He said that Meyringer had in
duced him to speculate in Wall street
and had suggested as quicker way OF
getting profits a scheme to frighten the
stock market. The plan included blow
ing up the Morgan Office, and the send
ing out over tapped telegraph wires Of
false news that President Wilson had
in $4,000 bail each.
Intention to tap telegraph trunk lines
between Chicago, Washington and New
York, send out false reports of Presi-
dent Wilson's assassination and U-boat
raids on the Atlantic coast, and then
disrupt the wires to prevent denial. all
to affect the stock market for specula-
tive benefit, was also part of the am
bilious plot, the police declare. The
men were employed at Roosevelt Hos
pita1
Formerly in German Secret Service.
.Hirsch. the police assert. besides being
a chemist. is a former German secret
service officer and a reserve petty officer
in the submarine division of the German
navy. while Meyringer, who was a
kitchen man in the hospital. is an ex-
pert telegrapher and student of finance.
4 The Germans expected, the police say,
to make a fortune in Wall street on
short" investments by instructing their
brokers to buy just as the expected tum-
BILE in the market developed from the
bomb explosion and the false news. Per
sons familiar with the market conditions
mans either were misled about the prob
able outcome of such an occurrence in
Wall street or that they are putting this
story forward to hide their real inten-
tions.
shadowed Since War Began.
Hirsch and Meyringer have been shad-
owed since the war began. Even in the
hospital laboratory where they expert
mented they were watched. the police
say. orders having been given to the de-
tectives to shoot either one on the first
attempt to make use Of bombs.
The police assert the two men visited
Wall street often and inspected closely
institutions in the country in the vi
cinity of Broad and Wall streets" j.
F. Morgan & Co.'S Offices and the sub
treasury are at Wall and Broad. AL
though heavily guarded. the Germans
found a side door not SO carefully
watched as the other entrances, the
police say the prisoners admitted, and
arranged to set of the bomb there at
night. One was to stop and tie shoe
lace while the other lighted the fuse
and placed the bomb. 1t had a thirty
minute fuse. This would have given
them time to be far uptown when the
explosion occurred.
With the newspapers next morning
telling of the destruction. a main tele-
graph wire outside the city. was to be
bulletin of extensive submarine depre-
dations along the coast The trunk line
wires would then be cut after the
country had heard of the Presidents
death and other sensational rumors, and
before denials could be published the
financial deals were expected to be put
through.