GERMAN BOMB CONSPIRACY TRIAL

Evening Star, Issue 16351, 17 February 1917, Page 8

GERMAN BOMB CONSPIRACY TRIAL

(Continued from yesterday’s issue.)

ALL GERM AN. PLOTS FAILED. On the ninth day of the trial Smith enumerated a long series of bomb plots, which, ho said, did-not materialise. Vice-Consul Baron Schack haggled with him over bills submitted by himself and Crowley for supposed dynamite jobs in Canada and Seattle. Tile money settlements were made at the Palace Hotel in Ran Francisco'by Lieutenant Brincken. Schack remarked that the sums asked by the witness and Crowley seemed altogether too high in view of the comparatively small amount of destruction accomplished. Smith described Baron Brincken as an amiable, debonair representative of the Kaiser, who shook bands after paying over the money, and expressed the hope that be would have the pleasure of making other payments in the near future for successful dynamite pints against property of the Allies.

Recounting his rovings as a confidential agent of the German Consulate, Smith said lie at one time stopped at Cedarhurst, Long Island, where (bunt Von Bernstorlf, the German Ambassador, has a country home. Smith also frequently referred to Captain_ Von Papen. Although most of the testimony of Smith on direct examination concerned itself with dynamite,! spying, and other exciting details, it was occasionally relieved by the, comic spirit. Tile packed court room of men and women rippled in laughter when Smith told about the unsuccessful efforts of himself and Crowley in manufacture dynamite in a gia\ e.yard on Grosso. Isle. Lake Huron. Smith thought he had expert knowledge on the making of dynamite, and while in Canada with Crowley bought glycerine, niter, acids, and other ingredients to coinpound explosives. Crowley and himself, Smith testified, went to a deserted graveyard on the island to experiment. They mixed the ingredients under Smith’s directions, but when they tried to explode the home-made dynamite with fuse and percussion caps it refused to detonate, and "as as innocuous as so much congealed custard ! Smith went on to tell that after this failure to manufacture dynamite Crowley sent him from Detroit to I olodo to purchase some. Smith became frightened as soon as he had talked to a quarry superintendent, he said, thinkmg the man bad gone to a telephone to summon a sheriff. He finally left the quarry without purchasing the dvnamitc, although the superintendent was willing to let him have it.

.. Among the filings planned, according to .Smith, were; ( 1) I’he dynamiting of the L nion Stockyards in Chicago to stotp the shipment of horses to Great Britain. (2) ihe dynamiting of the St. Clair tunnel, running under the river between Port Huron. Michigan, mid Sarnia, Canada. '■'! The dynamiting of cars loaded with munitions at St. Thomas, Canada. (4) The dynamiting of the Hercules Powder Company's plant at Pinole, California. (5) '1 lie dynamiting of the plant of the Dupont Powder Company at Dupont, outside liicoiuig. Washington. All these jobs either fell through or were abandoned, he said, but it was the original intention of himself and C rmvlev to 1];om out.

A major scared the conspirators away wbon the army man was inspecting hoi-.es consigned to the Allies in Chicago! t, rmvley left Chicago hurriedly, leaving iMnitli in lim lurch. Smith traced Growloy to Jiclroit. and the twain then w.mt to Csnuch, whore they wore unable to carry out -mv nf their dynamite plots to destroy railway-, tunnels, bridges, or trains used in eaii’ynu’ war munitions. Iliov finally rc* turned to \ew V ork. Smith said, where an unsuccessful effort was marie to get financial help from Captain Von Papen. The two later returned tn San Francisco, and a squabble ensued at (he German Consulate wneu Smith and C.vowlev presented “heir lull.. Crowley had shown Smith how to pad the bills bv putting in many iiel i! unis itemo lilimaiciy Briiicken paid Smith I.2.iLSodc>l. and Crowley received lOOdfl " as leesr f<>r work done in ( aiiada and the. United Slates." Smith, under a gvuejling _ cross-examination by Attorney H'-elie, did not. waver in his senPafional Ho admitted that he had net actually perperrated any dynamite jobs, hut !m persisted that he had" actually tri<vj to place, bond as aboard vessels and freight U ;! iu' ; ,_ being trust rated only because of the vigilance of guards. Smith nndev-W'-ut further severe cro*?-exnmination during the wlii'lc of the tenth day of the. trial, but Attorney Iteehe tiulrd to shake the v linens in his st.ni v. - - 'l’h'.' bomb trial was featured hy a bitter ami prolonged battle between Mr Preston aim .Mi Locne on the eleventh da.v over the continued attempts of the latter to brand Smith, the infm mer. and the Government's star witness, as a white siaver. Judge Hunt was i (impelled to bait Hie acrimonious dispute on several occasions, and to caution the combatants to get, hack t‘> the eaec. Ruche twii e wn.s severely “dressed down' - by the Judge for t-iilling a.’.vav the tune of the court, and P to omit, irrelevant qmvtions. Mr Boche fought hard to dilate on Smiths alleged escapade with a. young woman, wiicm the iv;l,'K‘:s had previously admitted having ae.enjnpanied him across the continent. niter ho liad hemi paid ] ,254d0l by lirmeken for dynamiting jobs he had dune lor t-he Herman Vousuhite. Poeho wauled to get before the jury tlie insinuation that i'-nigJih motive m turning informer against t.Uc do feudal its. was prompted bv his <leeire to he rendered immune from prose,mtion mi while slave charges. As Roche nred the first question touching the alleged white slavery episode. Pre.-lmi jumped from his chair and shouted ; “ \Ve are '■rilling to admit, that Smith was, having' a j high and lorn-some time with a woman I oi the underworld : but what in the name [of Heaven nas that to do with the guilt lor innocence- .u' ‘hose defendants?" Before Mr Rocha ccu'kl retort. Preston continued : “ V hy dent you get down to brass; tact:;, ami ask the witness almet dynamite, fuses.

bombs, chip ■. tunnels, t ruins, and hrvi Alter a series oj verbal bombs had been hurled Kick aid lorth, .bulge Ib-iit ended t !"■ battle and iiilcci against Roche. After ‘T.rh-ng Ibxlie fur flittering awav the tMuc o> the erii.nl. romioculuur mi l!ic local wrangle, the Judge said : "It aeoms to rno that tiierc ;s a lot- ol Km co-nver£;al.io!i going into the record that i s not testiinony.'’

Following up, t’vdr att-Miipt to impeach Finit-h, tha ntto.rno\B for (ho defmvo intn, <l l lord in evidence a letter bv which tli.v sought to p-nwc that the confessed cov and bcmh-planter had tried Idaotniaii Viee- (' itsoj Schack. ’i his letter, written bv Smith from Detroit. September 22. 1915. wars addro.'ffd to You Selmck at tl;c f ■nan Consulate in Sau Francisco, ft was interesting chiefly for these facts:—< 1) Smith, tiftar the, payment of ],25dd0l l>v Brinoken for euppesed dynamite jobs against the. Allies’, refused to" he discharged os a German spy. (2) After going to Detroit end, n.s he said, communicating with Crowley. Smith, it would appear, tried to < ontinr.o on the pay roll of (’no Kaiser’s representative by threatening to engage a. lawyer and me their for breach of c<m-tr-'-'-t. ("1 Smith believed that Ids ii'r. was in dancer, but he boasted that he was ns well informed a? the consul.v staff.

and did not propose to bo treated like a lad who was supposed to have been marked for destruction fc-r accepting employment from the Germans and thou turning -pv for the Rritwb. Smith was under tevere croffi-examine.t ion for several hours on the eleventh day of the trial, but stood up well under the. ordeal of the defence lawyers. He denied that the letter was intended to blackmail Popp and his associates. “ T meant that I intended tn have iny agreement with the Consulate lived up to. replied Smith. “ Crowley had previously told me to threaten to hi r e a lawyer if they refused to make a sett-D----mc.nt, addrnrr that the Cion.-ad a to would never run the, risk of a lawsuit." ECHO OF THE SACRAMENTO. Prosecutor Preston, on re-direct examination. had Smith make several explanations concerning the letter. “ What did you mean,'’ a.-ked Preston, “ by your reference to the .lew on the Sacramento?" “That bad reference to a lad who was employed on the Sacramento when they were load'ing it with supplies for the German warships Leipzig and Nnrnberg,” answered Smith “This lad was supposed to Lave doublo-

crossed the Germans, and to have tol3 fb* British agents everything he knew. Grow* ley had told me that for doing this the ladf should be put out of the way, and wanieef me to take the job of doing so. Ho said it was this person who had put the .British agents on my trail when I was with Crow* ley in Tacoma.” Smith said it was after he had sent the letter to Von Schack that ho was followed around Detroit by three men, and feared for the lives of himself and his wife. Two of the men looked like Germans, he said, and he reached the con- i elusion that' they were after him. It was ' after the house he occupied with bis wife had been broken into, he said, that he called on United States District Attorney Clyde Webster in Detroit, and made the ; disclosures of his activities as a German , spy to J. Herbert Cole, agent of the Bureau of Investigation of the United States Department of Justice. Bopp and all his associates were convicted, but appeal against the sentences imposed by Judge Hunt has been lodged. AN EXPENSIVE TRIAL. The trial of German Consul Franz Bopp and Ins aides on charges of violating Aim.lican neutrality from their headquarters in San Francisco constitutes a tournament of law that promised to bo one of the most expensive ever staged in a Federal court ou the Pacific Coast. The trial at the time of writing is expected to last another month or even longer, and more than a year lias been spent in preparation for it b\ the L nitod States District Attorney’s office in San Francisco and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. More than 200 witnesses have been subpoenaed for the trial from different parts of the United States and Canada by the attorneys for the American Government and by the defence. The per diem witness ‘'fees and mileage for those were by no means a small item, but that was only a drop in ths bucket compared with the thousands of dollars that had already been spent before . the trial opened. Bopp and the other consular officers . were charged with conspiring to set on foot a military expedition in Canada for the purpose of destroying munitions of war in transit for the Allies, and with conspiring to violate the Sherman law by similar act* in the United States. The prosecution grew out of an investigation that started . when a barge laden with dynamite in transit to the Russian Government at Vladivostok was destroyed in the harbor of Seattle on Mav 50, 1915.

Louis J. Smith, confessed spy and bomb planter, was then employed as an agent of the (german Consulate. He was subsequently indicted, and became a witness for the. Government, and the. outcome of tho trial depended largely on the effect of his testimony before the jury. It was alleged disclosures made to L nited States District Attorney John W. Preston by Smith about the activities of himself and .other German agents in America and Canada that set on toot the investigation and trial which have since led to such enormous expenditures. Counsel fees for Bopp and tho other defendants constituted one of the big items of expense at the trial. Bopp. Vice-Consul Lcknart Von Schack, and Lieutenant Wilhelm \ on Bnncken, military attache, were represented by Sullivan, Roche, and Sullivan, and George A. M'Gowan. Charles Crowley, private detective of the German Consulate, and Mrs Margaret Cornell, his secretary, were represented by Judge J. P. G Brien and Samuel Platt, former Public Prosecutor for the State of Nevada. These attorneys were paid retainers by the GernJioyen,n“ nt aggregating, close to IUUXOOdoI, and further sums they have spent in investigation will brine the total amount well over that figure. It cost the Bureau of Investigation, together with its agents on the Pacific Coast, in Canada, and elsewhere, more than 50.000d0l to obtain the inmrnintion used during the trial. An additional IO.OOOdoI was expended in connection with the inquiry set on foot by the Federal grand jury that led to the indictment of Bopp and the other defendants. This sum, of course, includes mileage for witnesses, telegrams, and cablegrams, transcripts of testimony, and other incidentals. Hie salaries of the Government officials, including Federal Judges, United States District Attorney, deputies, and court officials during the lime of the investigation preceding the trial, brought the total Government outlay up to at least IOO.OOOdoI. With 200 witnesses at sdol each, the trial cost Uncle Sam 600dol daily for this item alone. This does not include mileage for. witnesses during the trial, which itself was a very considerable figure. For a month alone this came to 18,000dol. Grouped, the expenditures of the Government and the defence before and during the trial reached at least 250,0C0d01. .San Francisco. January 2.