AMERICA AND THE WAR.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 15894, 7 May 1917, Page 8

AMERICA AND THE WAR.

NEWSPAPER PLOTTERS SENTENCED. (r&oir A COBBISPONDEST.) SAN FRANCISCO, March. 28. Employees of that arch-Anglophobe, \yilliam Randolph Hearst, who owns a syndicate of American newspapers of the sensational type directed against England, more especially, have just received their deserts, although the prime mover of tho disgraceful plot, hatched almost under tho gaze of offiual America, has as yet escaped the clutches of justice by an artful trick perpetrated on tho courts. A bald announcement of the arrest of tho culprits has already reached tho Antipodes, but the recent revelations show tho extent to which enemies of England have strained themselves in America to .bolster up the causo of the darkestdyed Germans who, years ago, forsook their own land to seek homes in the United States. ' The men, who have been sentenced to terms in an American penitentiary, were AlbertO. Sander and Carl N. Wunnenberg, formerly Hearst newspapermen, who were charged by tho Unitfcd States Government with launching a military enterprise against Great Britain from the United States, and_ at tho last moment they adroitly withdrew their pleas of not guilty and pleaded guilty in tho United State® District Court in New York. The indictment of tho men came about through Goorgo Vanx Bacon, another American newspaperman, who wa» one of several sent to England as alleged spies. Bacon appeared before the Federal grand jury's investigation, and testified against the duo of German conspirators. AN ARTFUL SCHEME. j It was charged by tho Federal autho-" rities that Sander and Wunnenberg— both natives of Germany on "spccial work" in America —engaged Bacon of St. Louis, a recognised (?) American newspaperman, to go to England in thc role of a. spy, and that Bacon received money from Wunnenberg to pay his expenses. IV was alleged also that the conspirators furnished Bacon with quantities of jnvisiblo or "sympathetic"' ink for use in communication between them. Bacon, who was arrested in England j was permitted by London authorities to return to New York to testify against Sander and Wunnenberg before the grand jury. This ]jod to the two men pleading fyailtv. Secret service agents worked on the ease for months, and the plot was exposed after Bacon was arrested, and his photograph sent to New York, as the Federal "sleuths" were able to connect him with the operations of Sander and Wunnenberg. The activities of tho indicted men extended back to May, 191G, it was charged during which period Sander and Wunnenberg sent no less than fifteen so-called newspaper men to England _ and Ireland. Much valuable information, it was alleged, was received by Sander and Wunnenberg through the mails or carried to New York by one of the bogus newspaper incn travelling: as an American citizen. Sander is 35 years old, and had been connected with tho GermanAmerican Literary Defence Committee. He was a former employee of the "New Yorker Staats Zeitung," and latterly had been dramatic editor on the "Dentschcs Journal," which is owned by W, R. Hearst. The pleas of guilty came as a surprise to the Government prosecuting attorneys, who said they were of the opinion that tho accused took tho step in order to avert exposure of the conspiracy in a way which might have led to arrests of more commanding figures in the plot. SCATHING ARRAIGNMENT. When tho Court reassembled next day, Sander and Wunnenberg were sentenced to serve two years in tho Federal penitentiary and to pay fines of 2500d015. each for sending spies to England. In a scathing arraignment of the two men, Judge Van Fleet declared that the penalty was inadequate to meet such cases, and requested that tlio Public Proscutor's department bring "this I thing before the U.S. Department of I JustTcc and Congress." The maximum penalty was three years' imprisonment and 30b0dols. fine. "The sort of thing these men did," Judge Fleet said, "does not bespeak clemency for them. But we shall have to take into consideration the fact that they pleaded guilty. It is such acts as these that have" been the cause of involving America in war. The thing that strikes me most is the total inadequacy of this I .statute to meet thfc offence involved. 11 cannot help but believe these men i pleaded guilty simply to shield the names of others who would have come out in an investigation if the case had gone, to a thorough trial." Prosecutor Knox, in addressing the Court, brought out the fact that newspaper correspondents sent abroad to carry out the spy work carried invisible ink concealed in a pocket inside the tops of their socks. Knox declared the Department had definitely learned it was the purpose of the newspaper men as spies to locate anti-air- < -ait bases in London *ind other big British cities. Their most important task next was to procure a geographically correct notation of places where cables between the United States and England first touched British soil. * SERVED THE KAISER. "This is simply another line in a vast and mighty chain of wilful violation of

American to servo the German Empire," Mr Knox said. "These men never bettor served the German Empire than by pleading guilty and shielding the names of other men wished to question." In a short plea for clcmcncy tlio defence simply said Sander and Wunnenberg were pro-German, but not anti-American! Their attorney • asked Judge Fleet to disregard the present feeling between Germany and America, which ho feared might prejudice justice. When he declared tlio - prisoners had not actually taken any steps against the. United States, Judge Fleet interposed bluntly and said: "Tliese men jeopardised the peaco of the United States with another nation with which we were at peace." Bacon's / case was postponed.