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Uncle Sam weighs the lives lost in the German sinking of the Lusitania (and other ships, as seen on the horizon) to his cash flow from selling weapons and other supplies to the combatants, particularly the allies. The moneybags have tipped the scales. A 1916 postcard by Em. Dupuis.

Uncle Sam weighs the lives lost in the German sinking of the Lusitania (and other ships, as seen on the horizon) to his cash flow from selling weapons and other supplies to the combatants, particularly the allies. The moneybags have tipped the scales. A 1916 postcard by Em. Dupuis.

Image text

A l'ombre, de la Liberté



In the Shadow of Liverty



On the coffin and the ship in the distance, 'Lusitania'

Other views: Larger, Larger, Back

Saturday, July 24, 1915

"The train ground to a stop at the Fiftieth Street Station, jerking Albert from his nap. Abruptly awake, he saw that the doors were open and this was his stop. He hurried from the train. In his groggy haste, he left the bulging briefcase on the adjacent seat.

Burke stared at it. He had no intimation that it contained anything of consequence. For all Burke knew, it held the man's lunch. He simply saw the briefcase lying there and, in an instant, made up his mind. He took it because he could. With the briefcase tucked under his arm like a football, he started to make his way to the rear door of the train."

Quotation Context

Dr. Heinrich Albert was the German commercial attaché and paymaster to the network of German agents in the United States. Frank Burke was an agent in the Secret Service, which President Woodrow Wilson had recently, in the wake of the May 7, 1915 sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine, assigned to provide surveillance of German and Austro-Hungarian embassy and consular staff. In the briefcase Burke stole in New York on July 24, 1915 were papers documenting the establishment of shell companies to purchase supplies and raw materials for manufacturing weapons including explosives, shells, and poison gas, and to solicit British purchases of weapons, orders that would never be fulfilled. Other papers documented payments to encourage press reports favorable to German interests, and labor activity contrary to those of the Allies. Because the documents had been stolen from a German diplomat, the United States could not officially use them, but they were leaked to the press. The United States did substantial business with the Allies, but because of the British blockade of Germany, commercial ties with it were limited.

Source

Dark Invasion; 1915; Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America by Howard Blum, page 342, copyright © 2014 by Howard Blum, publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, publication date: 2014

Tags

1915-07-24, United States, German agent, 1915, July