New-York tribune., 1918-07-27
Copy Reader Testi6es to
Preparing of Lusitania
Speech Here
Booklets Prepared
In Germans Behalf
Director Of Propaganda
Urged Secrecy as to
His Position

William Bayard Hale edited and wired
TO DR.. Bernhard Dernburg the now
famous speech on the LGsitania which
the latter delivered in Cleveland on
May s, 1915, and which resulted in the
German spy master and propagandist
being expelled from the United States.
Afterward DR.. Hale went to Berlin to
represent the Hearst newspapers, and
remained there until this country
went to war with Germany.
Deputy State Attorney General Beck
er, who, in cooperation with Captain
Charles Lloyd, of the Military 1ntelli-
gencc Service, has been investigating
the purchase of "The Evening Mail" by
Germany and those connected with the
Teutonic propaganda in America, an
nounced yesterday that DR.. Hale's iden-
tity as the man who revised and edited
Dernburg's Lusitania speech was
established through the examination of
a man who formerly was employed by
Hale as copy reader. The name OF
When questioned by Mr.. Johnston, as
sistant to Mr.. Becker, regarding the
speech. the copy reader said:
"The speech passed through my
hands at 10 O'Clock on the morning of
May s, after being carefully edited
and sub b-headed by DR.. Hale in his own
handwriting The speech was sent to
the American Press Association. in
Fortieth Street, and the proofs came
back and we're put on the wires for
Cleveland at o'clock. 1t was the
~ nx
the Hollenden Hotel, in Cleveland, that
evening"
Did he write that after the declara-
ton of war;"
NO, after the severance of diplo-
matte relations"
Hale Edited All Publicity
The witness told in detail of the
routine through which the German
propaganda passed while he was as
sociated with DR.. Hale in the infor
nation service. He said that abso
lutely every word givep out by the
bureau from January to December,
1915, was personally edited by Hale.
After Hale left the office the work
was taken up by DR.. Karl A. Fuehr,
who came to this country from Japan,
where he was secretary Of the Ger
man Embassy.
operation of the propaganda bureau,
the witness said:
at was obvious to me from the very
start that the general trend was to
cause alarm in regard to the possibility
of a Japanese invasion and the alb
solute necessity of Mexican interven-
ton in some form or another"
At this point NJ. Johnson asked
about the personnel of the staff of the
Il b,t Ir Z II
Mechlenburg was assistant to DR.. Hale
and that he was aided in his work by a
person named Plagge. Professor Haro-
wtz and DR.. Oberfohren, both of whom
now are interned at Fort Oglethorpe,
Ga, acted as translator of the German
language newspapers for the bureau
When they had read the German papers
and marked certain articles for use as
propaganda the stories were rewritten
in English and presented to DR.. Hale
for his approval.
DR.. Harowitz was formerely lect-
urer in the University of Dublin and
the London University. and for con-
siderable period before the outbreak of
the war Professor Oberfohren was also
N England on a special mission for the
German government.
Continuing his story, the witness told
how DIR. Hale was extremely eager to
ploy of the German government Sc
cret. He had an office in the building
at 1923 Broadway, on the fifth floor.
which was two floors higher than the
general office When the service was
first started Hale sent the manuscripts
direct from his Office to the American
Press Association, but later, SO that
the matter could not be traced back to
him, he established a distributing
4 l
them from there.
Prepared Many Booklets
What other spheres of activities did
DR.. Hale engage in?" the witness was
asked.
$50 far as know, he was engaged in
tho publication of the. .semi-weeklv and
twice a week there wdre conferences in
the council chamber, which was the
Office of Dr. Fuehr, which office was on
the floor below DR.. Hale Then, in ad-
dition to his editorial work in connec-
tion with the sheet, as we called it, he
was engaged in the preparation of
many pamphlets and booklets.
Another of the witnesses, former
employe of the bureau, who was pres
ent, then volunteered the following in
formations:
"Viereck told me in the early part
of Janaruy, Just after Hale had seer
me and asked me to come in, that they
had hired Hale primarily because he
was so intimate with the President
and enjoyed the confidence of the
President, and in the course of sub
sequent conversations Hale was face
tiously referred TO as the kitchen en-
trance to the White House
ut should be remembered" contin-
ued the former employe, that DR.
Hale simply had an Office at 1923
Broadway. He had his own private
telephone and another telephone, the
latter being through the Office OF
Viereck's 'Fatherland'
Testimony is also in the hands of
the Attorney General that Hale said
that President Wilson's mind was
warped" because he had never studied
anything but English history, that he
had gone to Bermuda, a British colony,
t. rest after his first election as Presi-
dent. and that he had never drunk
deep at the wells of German culture. ."
The witness added:
Subsequent to the publication of
correspondence Hale prepared and pub
lished volume entitled "American
Rights and British Pretensions on the
High Seas" This was a volume which
embraced various alleged British ef-
forts to dominate the seas and the
hardships that Americans were suffer
He also pointed out the suffering due
TO the blacklist. He dwelt in consid-
cradle length upon the cotton situation