ment regarding the European war to a recognition
of the German view of American neutrality obviously lay a stimulus and
incitement for resorting to sterner measures, since mild measures were
vain. Events already narrated show the extent to which German zealots
pursued a defiant criminal course in making their "protests," but
there was no certainty--though suspicions and allegations were not
wanting--that their activities had official German inspiration and
sanction. But as the summer of 1915 wore on, the Administration became
satisfied--through an accumulation of evidence--that this was the
case. For reasons of state, in view of the delicate stages of the
_Lusitania_ and _Arabic_ issues with Germany, the Government forbore
to take cognizance of the undoubted participation of German diplomats
and secret-service agents in plots hatched and pursued on American
soil against the country's neutrality, and provoking unrest and
disorder. The Government's tolerance of such a situation did not long
endure.

The first revelation that these activities were organized on an
extended scale came through the columns of the New York "World" in
August, 1915. The country was not unprepared for the disclosure. They
had had forerunners in repeated rumors and accusations that German
Embassy officials were involved in the passport frauds and were using
American territory as a base for an espionage system, whose coils were
wound about this country and Canada, as well as in the charge that
German money had been freely spent in a way inconsistent with
international friendship. The newspaper named unreservedly charged
that "The German propaganda in the United States has became a
political conspiracy against the Government and people of the United
States." To substantiate that sweeping indictment the "World"
reproduced the text of a series of letters it had obtained, addressed
to Dr. Heinrich F. Albert, a German Privy Councilor, who acted as the
fiscal agent of the Kaiser's Government in the United States.

The correspondence, as printed, linked Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, the
German Imperial Chancellor, and Count von Bernstorff, the German
Ambassador, with a vast project for spreading German propaganda. The
disclosures of the correspondence, the authenticity of which was not
contested, were described as showing that the German propaganda had
for its purpose "the involving of the United States in the
complications of the European war," and that the