The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-07-24
GERMAN DUPLICITY SHOWN IN STORY
 BY MORGENTHAU
The Kaiser's War Council.

The story which MT, Morgenthau, the American Ambassador at Con- sta arytinople, has told in the June .nu1n- ber of the ''w Worlds work" Oe the German War Council at Potsdam on July 5, 1914, as he received 1t rom Baron wangenheim, the German | Ambassador at Constantinople, agrees with the LIchnowsky story of which | an abstract was given in these col | urnns recently, and other accounts of the preparations for war with which Germany was busy while the rest of the world was ignorant of the impend- ing calamity.
 It is very important that the civ ilized world shah fully understand the complete hollowness of the Ger man plea of self-defense, and the du- plicity with which the Emperor af- ter preparing the mine with time fuse, went off for a trip on ha&Vacht, to be taken by surprise when the ex- plosion occurred.
 Baron Wangenheim disappeared from ConstantInople soon after the assassination of the Gre0d Duke and Duchess at Sarajevo, and later the declaration of war told AnbassadoP Morgenthau of the momentous con- ference which he had attended. MT. Morgenthau says:
 '"This meeting took place at Pots- dam on July 9th. The Kaiser pre- sided; nearly all tho ambassadors at tended; Wangenheim came to tell of Turkey and enlighten his associates on the situation in Constantinople. Moltke, then Chief of Staff, was there, representing the army and Admiral von Tirpitz spoke for the navy. The great bankers, railroad directors, and the captains of German industry, all of whom were as necessary to Ger man war preparations as the army it. self, also attended
 '"Wengenheim now told me that the Kaiser solemnly put the question to each man in turn. Was he ready for war? All replied yes except the fi- nanciers. They said that they must have two weeks to sell their foreign securities and to make loans. At that time few people had looked up- on the Sarajevo tragedy as something that was likely to cause war. This conference took all precautions that no such suspicion should be aroused. It decided to give the bankers time to readiust their finances for the com ing var, and then the several mem bers went quietly back to their work or started on vacations. The Kaiser went to Norway on his yacht, von Bethmann-H -HoIlweg left for a rest and Wangenheim returned to Constanti- nople.
 "In telling me about this confer ence, Wangenheim, of course, ad- mitted that Germany had precipitat- ed the war. think that he was rath- CT proud of the whole performance; proud that Germany had gone about the matter in 80 methodical and far seeing a way; especially proud that he himself had been invited to par ticipate in 50 momentous 8 gather ing. The several blue, red, and yell low books which flooded Europe the few months following the outbreak, and the hundreds of, documents which were issued by German propaganda attempting to establish Germany $ Innocence, never made any impress sion on me. For my conclusions as to the responsibility are not based on
 
 circumstantiaI data do not have to reason or argue about the matter know. The conspiracy that has caused this greatest ef human tra- gedies was matched by the Kaiser and his imperail crew at this Potsdam conference of July s, 1914. One ot the chief participants, flushed with his triumph at the apparent success of the plot, told me the details witt his own mouth. Whenever hear people arguing about the responsibil ity for this war or read the clumsy and lying excuses put forth by Ger many, I simply recall the burly fig ure of Wangenheim as he appeared that August afternoon, puffing ava! at a huge black cigar, and giving me his account of this historic meet ing. Why waste any time discussinl the matter after that?
 This Imperial Conference tool place July 9th; the Serbian ultima tum was sent on July 22nd This i ust about two weeks interval whicl the financiers had demanded to com p1ete their plans. All the great stocl exchanges of the world show that tn German bankers profitably used thi interval. Their records disclose tha stocks were being sold in large quanti ties and that prices declined rapidly At that time the markets were some what puzzled at this movement; Wan genheim's explanation clears up an doubts tkat may still renairA Ger many was changing her secur aas int cash, for war purposes If any on wishes to verify Wangenheim, woul suggest that he examine the quota tions of the New York stock narke for these two historic weeks H wifi find that there were astonishin slumps in quotations, especially on tn stocks that had an international mar ket. Between July 9th and July 22 Union Pacific dropped from 155h { 12SH, Baltimore and Ohio from 91 to S1. United States Steel from 61 { 5eh, Canadian Pacific from 194 1854 and Northern Pacific frol 111A to 108"