The West News (West, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, October 27, 1939 Page: 2 of 8
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THE WEST YEW'S
World War Turned U. S.
Into Saboteur’s l topia;
W ill It Happen Again?
By PARKER ELDRIDGE
• Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
VEW YORK.— There are
1 ’I many good arguments for
repeal of the embargo against
arms shipments to belligerents
in the European war. Maybe
this is an argument to retain
the embargo:
Should the United States
try selling munitions abroad
as in the World war, would
another plague of terrorism
raise havoc with our industrial pro-
duction’
Searching newspaper files from
the 1914-16 period, history students
find that America 8 attempt to aid
Great Britain and France in their
last war brought a rash of general
sabotage, the responsibility for
which was usually placed on the Cen-
tral Powers' doorstep.
Reads Like Fiction.
In the 32 months while America
tried with one hand to remain neu-
tral and with the other to help her
European friends, there were scores
of munition plant explosions, at-
tempts were made to dynamite
trains and bridges, spy plots were
uncovered almost daily (often snar-
ing folks in high places), assassi-
nations were attempted and at least
Dl'.MB A—Constantin T. Dumba,
■ 4? (ia-H ungarv's ambassador to
she i nited States, whose recall uas
demanded by President U ilson
after seizure of a letter he wrote,
disclosing, plans to ‘'disorganize
. , . manufacture of munitions . , .
which, in opinion of the German
attache, is of great importance and
amply outweighs expenditure of
money involved.”
I one effort was made to get the Unit-
I ed States involved in a war with
Mexico.
One chap, a Chicago school teach-
er named Frank Holt, alias Erich
Muenter. tried on July 2, 1915, to
blow up the capitol building at
Washington The next day he tried
to kill J. Pierpont Morgan at his
home in Glen Cove, Long Island.
Dumba Sent Home.
Many of the plots were strange
; as fiction -and were traced to the
highest diplomatic representatives
of Austria and Germany. On Au-
gust 30, 1915, a sensation was cre-
ated by seizure and publication of
EON IGEl—On April 19, 1916,
the l nited States government
seizes! papers of Wolf ton I gel,
j former secretary to von Pafien.
j The state department later said the
papers disclosed a spy system
financing a bureau to stir up labor
troubles in munitions plants and to
finance propaganda.
an official letter from Constantin
Dumba, ambassador from Austria-
Hungary The letter disclosed he
I planned "to disorganize and hold up
’ for months, if not entirely prevent,
| manufacture of munitions in Beth-
; lehem, Pa., and the Middle West,
j which, in opinion of the German at-
: tache, is of great importance and
: amply outweighs expenditure of
money involved.”
A few days later Ambassador
j Dumba was recalled and the gov-
ernment began investigating the un-
named "German attache.” In De-
cember Germany was asked to re-
call Capt. Franz von Papen (now
a high Nazi and ambassador to Rus-
sia) and Captain Boy-Ed, for “im-
proper activities in military and na-
val matters.”
Within a few months some inter-
esting data was collected concern-
ing Captain von Papen. The gov-
ernment seized papers of Wolf von
Igel, former secretary to von Papen
in a New York “advertising office.”
Later the state department said
; these papers disclosed maintenance
j of a spy system and the financing of
a spy system to stir up labor trou-
1 bles in munitions plants, “the bomb
VO.Y PAPE.Y—You' German am-
bassador to Turkey, Capt. Franz
von Papen was recalled by the
Reich on December 3, 1914, upon
the l nited States' request for "im-
proper activities in military and
naval matters.”
industry and other related activi-
ties." Propaganda and subornation
of American writers and lecturers
was also financed by the “agency,”
it was alleged.
Recall ‘Black Tom' Case.
In 1917, while pro-war sentiment
was mounting swiftly in the face of
repeated bombings, two west coast
German consulate officials were
convicted of conspiring to injure
American shipping, railroad traina,
bridges and munitions.
That same year, on January 12,
occurred two history-making explo-
sions. At Kingsland, N. J., a mu-
nitions plant of the Canadian Car
4 Foundry company was destroyed
at a loss of $16,000,000. Nearby, at
Haskell, N. J., an explosion of 400,-
000 pounds of powder in a duPont
plant was felt in four states.
The Kingsland explosion and de-
struction of ammunition trains at
Black Tom, N. J., on July 30, 1916,
are still in the news. The latter
sabotage killed four men and re-
sulted in a loss of $45,000,000. Only
this year a special United States
tribunal placed responsibility -for
these explosions on Germany’s
shoulders and demanded payment
Mexican Aid Sought.
In February, 1917, the United
States published a note from Ger-
man Foreign Secretary Zimmer-
mann proposing a German-Mexican
alliance for which Mexico would be
paid by annexation of southwestern
American states. It was later re-
vealed that many German spies
headquartered in Mexico and that
both the Black Tom and Kingsland
explosions may have been plotted
there.
The year 1915 was a banner one
for the saboteurs. Explosions were
almost a daily event. At least 21
were recorded during the year. In
a period of three months the duPont
plant at Carney’s Point, N. J., suf-
fered three explosions which de-
stroyed a mixing house, stillhouse
and two other buildings.
EVERYBODY'S WOE
Food Goes Up, but Not Farm Prices;
Here's Why, Says One Market Boss
^EW YORK —It’s not the
It greedy middleman nor the
selfish consumer who forces
the American farmer to accept
a pauper’s profit on the prod-
uce from his land.
Blame it on the "dead end"
of agriculture, the typical
metropolitan market place
where swift-moving fruits
and vegetables run against a stone-
wall of waste, confusion and spoil-
age
That, at least, is the opinion of
William Fellowes Morgan Jr., New
York city’s commissioner of mar-
. bets, who’s trying to "forge an al-
liance between the man with the
plow and the woman with the mar-
ket basket.’’
Writing in the current issue of
Country Home magazine, Morgan
places the hot poker of distribution
waste firmly against metropolitan
markets. It’s not a deliberate plot
that causes the farmer to get back
as little as 15 cents from the con-
turner's grocery dollar, he says. It s
simply that city markets through-
out the country are "illy equipped,
clogged up and handicapped with
wasteful practices which cost mil-
lions of dollars yearly.”
New York Guides Food Prices.
Discussing New York, which an-
nually buys a billion dollars’ worth
of fresh food, enough milk to keep
t|e navy afloat and enough fruits
and vegetables to sink it, Morgan
points out that market quotation?
throughout the nation are affected
directly or indirectly by the daily
Manhattan quotations. New York
prices in turn, will remain exor.
bitsnt until the bottleneck of ineffi-
cient handling is transformed into a
Smooth-working market system.
"I have wandered amidst the mid-
night uproar on our Hudson river
st. watching the goods ar-
I have followed crates, boxes
srreN from beats, trucks and j
,v X0
f
■w Wt
■ m
COSGESTIOS—Yew 1 ork produce being trundled through bu
ness streets while the city sleeps. Better distribution methods wou
speed the process, cutting costs at a profit to both farmer and consume
freight cars until they rolled into
the thunderous traffic snarls of West
street. I have watched buyers and
sellers, truckmen and wagon driv-
ers, and freight handlers of every
kind running over one another, like
folks trying to get out of a burning
grandstand at a county fair. I have
seen men lug crates on their backs
for blocks . . . because they could
find no room to park their vehicles
at the places where the goods were
unloaded.’'
Manhattan Refarms.
New York has made a start in
solving the problem with its new
Bronx terminal, a model market
which other cities may aoon be
copying because Manhattan's con-
fusion is duplicated in most other
large population centers. New York
has also taken market peddlers off
the streets and placed “ ‘ ‘
gangsters, like the famous “ar
choke king” who once control!
New York sale of thia vegetal
and made a handsome profit, a
being eliminated.
The city also has Mrs. Franc
Foley Gannon, who goes on the i
dio every morning to tell heui
wives about market conditions. 11
certain item is plentiful, yet t
price stays high, she tells thei
Within a few hours grocers are i
ing asked embarrassing question!
Mr. Morgan is trying to start
nation-wide campaign against in
ficient metropolitan markets ]
wants both the fanner and consul
er to howl.
"Lower retail prices are a ce
summation devoutly to be wished I
both,” he says "They would me
** More
Finland to Safeguard Hold on Aaland Islands
Thousands of tiny islands, some of them no more than reefs, make up the Baltic archipelago that shows
on the map as the Finnish-controlled Aaland islands. Though Russia has not formally voiced demands that
it be allowed to establish a naval base on the islands, it is expected the request, when it comes, will be re-
jected flatly by Finland. Rulers of the other three Nordic powers, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, met in
Sweden recently to study mutual war problems.
Anti-Gas Chemicals Help Safeguard Russian Sailors
Soviet Russia is busy whipping its fleet into the best possible shape, preparing for any eventuality-
Here hooded Russian sailors are pictured spreading anti-gas chemicals on the ship's deck as they de-con-
taminate the vessel. Wearing gas-resistant uniforms, the men spread powdered nentralixers on the deck while
others spray objects overhead with liquid nentralixers.
No Death Ray?
As Germany Faces Self-Encirclement
Only if the United States were at-
tacked would Dr. Antonio Longoria
of Cleveland, Ohio, recreate his
“death ray” machine which be in-
vented in 1934 and which he de-
stroyed for humanitarian reasons.
He claims the ray killed by changing
red blood corpuscles to white.
Fooey to Herman
Edward Gets ring si Roekterd, m„
int watte, German Field Marshal
i Goer ing, Ne. 2 Ktd. Hers
views the held marshal’s
te his family album and ex
(j "€s4
'STOWS
IULGARIA
suit V
Fear of encirclement by foes self-avowedly led Adolf Hitler to his
policy of aggression. Now he himself has completed an iron ring around
the Reich. Figures I, 2 and 3 show the new sphere of Soviet influence;
(4) Jugoslavia friendly to allies and close to Italy; (5) Italy has chilled
toward Berlin; (6) Switzerland is ready to fight to maintain neutrality;
<7, t, 9 and 19) the western front, with Belgium and the Netherlands
rigidly nentral; (11) North sea blockade by Britain; (12) Scandinavian
countries neutral but friendly te allies.
Cell Mates Pray for Doomed Convict
Twenty-two convicts made history te Chicago's Cock county jail when
they refused lunch and dinner as n last gesture to Steve Cygaa, stead-
tag te rear, doomed convict, whs died a few hows later te the electric
attitude.
chair. Instead ef eating, tee men prayed far teete fellow ecurict.
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Webb, Leonard. The West News (West, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 22, Ed. 1 Friday, October 27, 1939, newspaper, October 27, 1939; West, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth590399/m1/2/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting West Public Library.