Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-03-10
FIRMS HERE AIDED
GERMANY IN WAR.
Blueprints and Other Mill
tary Secrets Revealed,
Palmer's Report Says
AGENTS NOW INTERNED
Adelbert Fischer Especially
Scored by Late Alien Prop
ierty Custodian
AGENTS NOW INTERNED

How Germany gathered business Sc
crets for military use during the years
prior to the entrance Of the United States
into the war is told in the report of A.
Mitchell Palmer alien property custo-
dian. just made public.
German-owned firms 1t says, supplied
many Of the most intimate objects in the
big American war industries and thus
were able to obtain inside information
of great value to be forwarded to Ger
many for whatever purpose was decided
upon there.
Some of the most important CT these
firms were located here. Among those
In Philadelphia, made public by Mr
Palmer. are the Schultz Koerting Com
pany the Ltosilo Company. with capi-
tai of 1000: Messer Manufacturing
Company. capital 100000. and Rohm &
Hass, exporters of chemicals, capital
$500, 900.
In describing the activities of the
Orenstein-Arthur Koppel Company. OF
Koppel, Pa, Nr. Palmer says:
This concern was a branch of Ger
man company with agencies in every
country in the wcrld. II manufactures
light inside railway equipment and was
a bidder for this class of work in every
big industrial plant in this country.
Biueprints Lent Germany
This company was thus enabled to
obtain much confidential information re-
garding these plants. which was quickly
forwarded to Germany in the form of
blueprnts. there to be held for whatever
use the German strategists could make
of It. This was the first German owned
plant sold by the alien property custo-
dian and is now in the hands of 100 per
cent Americans.
The company installed light railway
equipment in virtually all American
munition plants, steel plants and kindred
concerns II had contracts with the
westinghouse Company. with the United
States Steel Corporation, with the du
Pont works and with nearly half of the
big industrial plants operating in this
country.
Under these conditions II can readily
be seen how easy it was for this Ger
man-owned concern to supply informa-
ton of great military Importance to the
German Government regarding the big
industrial and muntion plants in this
country"
Adelbert A. Fischer. president of the
Schultz -Koerting Company. is now in
termed as a dangerous alien" OF that
concern. MI says.
ut furnishes an important example
of the frantic efforts made to save prop
crty for German owners. This concern
owns and controls the exclusive rights
to certain patents under which auto
matte ejector and injector boiler valves
are made of the type which are used in
most of the warships of the United
States. The real owner of this concern
Is Ernest Koerting. sometimes referred
to as the Carnegie of Germany
Camouhage Transfer
1.-The company owns real estate. fac
tory equipment and other assets valued
at approximately st700.0o0. The firm
was formed In 1904. with Adelbert A.
Fischer. son-in-law Of Koertlng. who
came to this country from Germany to
take charge of the business. On March
.. 1917. less than a month before Amer
lea entered the war. Fischer caused all
of the common stock of the company.
which was in the name of Ernest Koert-
ing to be transferred to Helen Fischer.
the daughter of Koerting and wife of
Adelbert A. Fischer.
Mrs. Fischer paid off this stock with
a note payable in twenty years. Inves-
tigation revealed that this transfer was
merely one OF camoufiage, and that it
had been made without valid power
of attorney. Efforts were made by
Koerting to get certain papers to Fischer
on the German submarine Deutschland,
but these efforts were blocked.
Fischer Is now interned at Fort Ogle-
thorpe. His name has been linked with
some of the most famous German propa-
gandists In this country. He and Cap
tain Thierichens. of the German steam
ship Prinz Eitel Friedrich, worked to-
I1s, he iinre
detained at Philadelphia into a powerful
German propaganda machine"
Under the management of the allen
property custodian, the report says, the
employees of the German n-owned mills
subscribed to more than $l0,000,o0O of
Liberty Bonds and contributed 100000
to the Red Cross