The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1919-05-01
GERMANS KEPT
TAB ON j. s.
ALIEN PROPERTY CUSTODIAN
DESCRIBES DIR. SCHWEIT-
ZER'S WORK

this country reported to Berlin by
code every detail of Americas busi-
ness life, kept from the Allies H.
100000 pounds of explosives and
sent overseas the formula for the
deadly mustard gas which laid low
thousands of American soldiers, ac-
cording to Francis p. Garvan, alien
property custodian in an address at
the annual banquet Of the National
Cotton Manufacturers Association
held in New York last week.
Mr.. Garvan declared he had for
nineteen months been making "a
study of German industrial life and
its manifestation in the United
States" As result, he said, he was
also able to reveal the far-reaching
Vaccinations Of DR.. Schweitzer,
former president Of the Bayer Com
pany, which was taken over and re-
organized by the alien property
custodian.
"True it is that the Hamburg
American line and the North Ger
man Lloyd kept faithful tab for
Berlin on a thousand details Of our
business life which came under
their observation; that not a ship
left our harbors, not a cargo was
loaded or unloaded but that some
member of it's organization watch
ed and reported every detail to be
sent by code to the German Govern
ment," said Mr.. Garvan.
"But greater than all and form
ing the foundation of her entire
espionage and propaganda system.
stood the dye machinery. AS long
as you were supplied by the "big
six" your business had no secret
unknown in Berlin. In Berlin you
will find a card index system which
recites every fact connected with
each one of your concerns that can
be of any possible value to your
rivals over there.
"The head of that system in this
country for years before the war
was DR.. Hugo Schweitzer, president
of the Bayer Company. He was Civ
en- his secret service number by the
imperial minister of war-963, 49,
637. He came to this country, be-
came a citizen on the instruction OF
the German Government, eventually
was made the head of the Bayer
Company, and led the espionage
and propagandist movements here
down to the day of his sudden death
in November, 1917. j..
"Schweitzer was the inventor OF
the idea of the purchase of the New
York Evening Mail. Schweitzer was
the inventor of the idea of the Ger
man publication society. Over thirty
trained chemists, his heutenants,
are now interned."
Asserting that DR.. H. F. Albert,
commercial attache of the German
embassy in Washington, had turned
over about s1,5O0,000 to Schweit-
ger, Mr.. Garvan said the latter had
formed the chemical exchange, by
which all available phenol supply
in America was turned away from
the manufacture of picric acid for
explosives for the Allies with a
profit out of Americas pocket, to
Germany of s1,650,00O.
In praising Schweitzers work,
Albert is quoted by Mr.. Garvan as
saying:
"Now one should picture to HIM
self what a military coup would be
accomplished by an army leader II
he should succeed in destroying
three railroad trains of forty cars,
containing four million five hundred
thousand pounds of explosives"
Mr.. Garvan added the Germans
chopped to corner" bromine, produc-
ed only here and in Germany, and
deadly in its effect when combined
with nitric gases.
"At Bogota, N. j., in the New
Jersey Agricultural Chemical Com
pany, DR.. Schweitzer employed DR..
Walter Scheele, who was the inven-
tor in that little town of New Jer-
sey, in 1913. of mustard gas, the
formula of which he transmitted
through Capt Won Papen to Ger
many as soon as the war broke
out" continued Mr.. Garvan: This
is the mustard gas which laid low
your brothers on the plains OF
France"