New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-13
Amazing Revelations in
Plot Inquiry at Phila-
delphia Navy Yard
Warships' Secrets
Open to Suspects
Plan to Search Interned
Raiders-Mayor Urges
Their Removal
Ir,om san corrc,pond,nt OF IN, rribun. !

Philadelphia, March l2.-Adalbert
X. Fischer, arrested for completely
in the navy yard plots engineered in
connection with the German officers
on the two interned Teuton COM
merce raiders at League Island, it
was learned to-day is the president
of machinery manufacturing COM
pany which for years has executed
contracts for the American navy.
This company possessed confidential
drawings of United States warships
and its experts had had every oppor-
tunity to give information which
would be invaluable TO hostile
power.
1t was also revealed that the
] Schultz e. Koertin Company. found
ed here forty years ago, Of which
Fischer is president. is in reality
nothing more than a branch of the
great industries in Hamburg, Ger
many, dominated by Ad Koerting,
the German ironmaster, who is
Fischer's father-in-iaw. The Ger
man concern makes parts for the
Kaiser's battleships. Furthermore,
Fischer is an officer Of reserve in the
German army. He was sent here
from Hamburg four years ago.
Closing In on Plotters
This was the .crowning revelation Of
day of amazing disclosures which
have proceeded from the discover:
made several days ago that suficien
explosives had been smuggled sboar.
the Prinz Eitel FREDERICK and the
Kronprinz Wilhelm, at League Island,
to demolish the 100000 900 navy yard.
SO serious is the situation consid-
cred that Mayor Smith appealed to Sec
retary Daniels to-day TO have the raid
ers removed from the navy yard, as a
menace to the safety of the city.
Virtually every investigating agency
the government has at its command, in
cludng the Secret Service, the Depart
ment of Justice, the customs service
and the Postoffice Department, are CO.
operating with the Navy Department
and the police departments Of several
cities in closing in on what is said TO
be one of the deepest and most dan
gerous of all the conspiracies against
the laws of the United States which
have been uncovered since the war be-
gan.
The aims of the plotters appear two
fold-to obtain all available military or
naval information Of use to Germany,
and to render the United States help
less should this country declare war.
Headquarters of the cabal are said
to have been in Washington until the
departure of Count Won Bernstorff as
ambassador. Its agents are sought in
many cities, and the assertion was
made that more than one hundred ar
rests will be made. if all Of the con-
spirators are brought TO book
Warrant for Raider Captain
Several warrants were issued to-day
and arrests are expected at any
hour. One warrant is for a prominent
Philadeipniau OF German descent and
leanings. Another % .or Captain Max
Thierichens, commander of the Prinz
EiteL II is supposed that the new
prisoners will be charged technically
with smuggling articles to and from
the interned German ships, which was
the allegation made against Fischer,
his wife, and Henry Rohner, a wealthy
wholesale grocer. The only arrests
made to-day we're Of Fischer's and
Rohner's chauffeurs, both of whom are
said 70 have made interesting dis
closures. All are at liberty in $4,000
bail each.
A climax in the revelations is ex-
pected TO come when government
agents board and search the German
ships. which the Secret Service is de-
termined 70 do, precedent and sonse-
quences notwithstanding. The search
would have been made to-day had II
not been delayed on orders direct from
Washington. All day long a squad Of
Secret Service men waited about the
navy yard gate in the nope that the
Washington order might be reseinded,
but IL was not so.
That the visit of the searchers may
provoke new crisis in the relations
between this country and Germany is
recognized by everyone. The Prinz
Eitel Friedrich and the Kronprinz
Wilhelm are not merchant vessels which
sought these shores in the performance
of peaceful errands. At the beginning
of the war Germany rigged them out az
auxiliary cruisers and sent them out
with a message Of destruction 10 de
liver 10 any enemy merchantmsn they
might encounter. For a year they
roved from ocean to ocean on their de-
structive enterprise before they were
forced 10 flee into the harbor at New
port News, Va. with British and
French cruisers at their heels. The
guns were dismantled. and last October
they we're conveyed by American men,
of-war 10 League Island.
Status of Interned Ships
The status of the two interned raid
ers is the same in the eyes of interns-
krH