New-York tribune., 1918-04-21
speak English. He transported rub
ber, copper and reservists galore.
And he got away with it!

And he got away with it!
He would get the reservist en-
kployed as fireman or stoker, or at
some other heavy work where he
would more than earn his passage
home, and then collect from him for
his passage besides. In this way he
actually averaged at least $50 for
passage and passport from each of
them.
Just think of it: Whatever the
rights and wrongs of their cause,
these men thought themselves need.
ed at home. They thought, believed
they heard the call of country, so
that each was glad to buy a false
passport, work his way home at the
toughest, toughest work aboard ship
and at the same time pay an average
of $50!
At this time the British used to
take into custody all such ships
homeward bound and bring them
into Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, for
examination. But they rarely de-
tected returning reservist. The
picture on the passport matched all
right. The man also looked like the
name and when questioned usually
talked straight enough to be con-
vincing. And SO few reservists re-
turning in this manner were caught.
There was no law in the United
! States to get the man, as the
passports were not American pass
ports but those of neutral countries.
Laws have since been passed to put a
stop to such practices-if there are
any reservist "carriers" now to ap-
ply them to. Moreover, the United
States is now at war with Germany,
and things are different.
kept after this man very
industriously by my agents, so that
he finally sold his saloon and went
over to Hoboken to live. He is prob
ably living easily on the rewards Of
his industry-which either proves or
disproves some theories.
Gripping British
Ships at Sea
There was a man named Jensen,
also a contraband transporter, !"
and connected with the other
He, too, had his saloon in
Brooklyn, near the Morse dry
docks. His line of illicit and contra
band had to do with getting some
body aboard British ships to cripple
hem at sea.
You undoubtedly remember the
very many cases of explosions, fires
and other extraordinary happenings
to ships after they left these ports.
Well, this man Jensen knew lot
about such things. had always a
watch on this man and his saloon.
l went there myself and l had agents
there. But there was a limit to
what we could accomplish. We
could peither arrest nor punish. We
fcould only make our discoveries and
turn in our reports.
AS illustrating the situation, / will
cite the case of a British ship load
ed with arms and ammunition that
left this port early in 1916 and after
cnly few days limped back here
crippled by fire which had broken
out on board. It put into Morse dry
docks for repairs.
While the ship was laying up
Jenssen's saloon came in for much
patronage, and as l have told you,
l usually had man hanging around
on the lookout for evidence.
One day he heard the cook of the
snip brag in the saloon of having
set the ship on fire to cripple it and
delay delivery of the cargo. This
cook was a Russian-German from
1.ibau, and he boasted of his setting
fire to the ship, and Jensen heard
him and knew all about it.
Naturally l lost no time in secur-
ing corroborative evidence and re-
porting the matter fully to my chief
Captain Gaunt.
There were numbers ofplaces like
Jenssen's and the other mans in
Hoboken and all along the jersey
water front, in Chicago and, in fact
all over the country. And sailors
boarding houses that sold passport
and ran contraband. l had a com.
plete list of them.
These saloons We're all of about
the same description.
The boarding houses were also all
of about the same type, rather ILL.,
smelling and never very clean. Price
of board and lodging ranged from
81 a week. Beds brought from 50
per week up. Each lodging house