The American papers are full of a sensational story that
the German Government batched a gigantic scheme for obtaining control of all the leading gun and munition factories in the United States, with the object of preventing them from delivering any further supplies to the Allies. Count Bernstorff is said indeed to have begun buying con- trolling interests in such enterprises as the Bethlehem Steel "Works and Cramp's Works at Philadelphia, toname only two. A dramatic story is told of a conference between German- American bankers and the Ambassador, in which one of the bankers is said to have asked Count Bernstorff if be had any conception of the magnitude of the financial problem involved. In reply he was told that the Germans were prepared to pay "any sum," no matter bow gigantic, to realize their scheme. "There is no limit, gentlemen," exclaimed the Ambassador, "to the amount of money available." Accord- ing to a telegram in Thursday's Beetling News, American Government officials declare that the scheme is impossible. It would render its authors liable to prosecution under the Anti-Trust Act, and also to charges of conspiracy to engineer repudiation of contract.
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