July 25, 1918 
Land & Water 
13 
a half-lawyer, half-farmer in a country town in Illinois was 
expiring in the last days of a term in Congress, was suddenly 
revived, l)eforc liis final extinguishment, by the light glitter- 
ing from' anonymous gold. Herman J. Schulteis, whose 
talents, insufficient for success in the law, had been more 
profitably emploved in tlie defunct Anti-Trust League (of 
which more later), rose rapidly in the monetary scale. 
These men were the instruments Lamar used in his scheme 
to stop the munitions industry and to get Rintelcn's money. 
That scheme was to build up a great political organisation 
of labouring men and farmers. This organisation would 
oppose the making and shipment o munitions ; it would 
exert pressure to compel ' 
workers to abandon the 
factories, and it would 
exert pressure to compel 
Congress to declare an 
embargo on the shipment 
of arms. This organisa- 
t i o n was labelled 
"Labour's National 
Peace Council." 
Lamar, fortified with 
Rinte en's money launch- 
ed his scheme in Wash- 
ington. This scheme was 
an inspiratidn of genius. 
Able lawyers have de- 
clared that no cleverer 
conspiracy has ever come 
to their attention. Its 
beauty was its simplicity. 
Rintejen dealt with no 
one but Lamar ; the other 
leaders never saw him. 
and most of them never 
heard of him until after 
the scheme was exposed 
by the Government. In' 
his turn, Lamar operated 
entirely through Martin. 
To Martin he gave his 
instructions to see Labour 
leaders, to organise the 
fake Peace Council, to 
hold its camouflage "con- 
vention," to flood the 
country with lecturers and 
printed matter urging an 
embargo on munitions. 
And tlirough Martin he 
paid the bills. 
When Martin undertook 
to organise Labour's 
National Peace Council, 
under the direction of 
Lamar, the first man he approached was Frank Buchanan. 
Buc'Tianan was Labour's leading champion on the floor of 
Congress. He had been president of the International 
L'nion of the Structural Iron Workers, and he had earned 
the confidence of organised labour, and the friendship of 
Samuel Gompers, the patriarch Qf organised labour. 
Lamar, Buchanan, and Martin, assisted by Fowler and 
Schulteis, engineered a mass meeting of working men in^ 
Chicago in June, 1915, at which resolutions were adopted 
calling for a convention of labourers and farmers at Washing- 
ton to protest against the traflic in munitions. The same 
men, with this "mandate" behind them, met in Washington 
on June 22nd, and organised Labcmr's National Peace 
Council. They prepared printed appcjils, in the high language 
of humanitarianism, addressed to the labour unions and 
the granges, and mailed them by the ton to all parts of the 
country. They offered to pay all travelling expenses and 
for loVt time to delegates which tlicse bodies should send 
to a convention to be held in Washington on July 31st and 
August 1st. 
But Samuel Gompers opposed the convention of Labour's 
National Peace Council. He, too, was a pacifist — had for 
years taken a leading part in the movement for international 
peace. But Gompers was a thoughtful man as well. And 
experienced. And wise. He told Buchanan some things he 
ought to have told himself. Buchanan came from ('hicago 
to Atlantic City to meet .Mr. Gomjjers and upbraid him for 
his opposition to the Council. Mr. Cibmpers gave him 
some fatherly advice. 
Gompers's eloquence left Buchanan cold. In the face of 
his pleadings and advice, Buchanan accepted $2,700 from 
Martin in the following six wceL'^ He saved his face at 
The pitturcsijue adventurer in finance who i 
and used it to fleece Rinteien of $300,000 
i> still felt in the pacifist sentiment in ccrtai 
the last minute by resigning the presidency of Labour's 
National Peace Council the day before the convention met. 
The convention met in Washington. on July 31st, at the 
New Willard Hotel. Its members were impressed, as it was 
intended that thcv and the country in general should be 
impressed, by the sonorous voice and important presence 
of Hannis Taylor, former American Minister to Spain and 
author of text-books on constitutional and international law, 
such as "The Origin and Growth of the English Constitu- 
tion" and " International Public Law." He made an opening 
address in-which, from his heights of knowledge, he solemnly 
declared that munitions shipments were in violation of inter- 
- national law. His address 
was largely devoted to 
assurances to his hearers 
that he was an authority 
on such matters and that 
they could take his 
opinion as disposing of 
.the legal aspect of this 
question. Mr. Taylor was 
there to lend distinction 
to the gathering, and he 
left no doubts in their 
minds that he thought he 
was doing it. 
But when the delegates 
got down to business, 
there was trouble. The 
farmer delegates became 
suspicious — they had 
vague fears of the source 
of the money that was 
paying the bills ; they 
did not like the company 
they found themselves in. 
They first declined to bind 
their constituents to the 
resolutions that were 
offered ; then they left 
the convention. 
On the second day the 
Labour delegates became 
equally restless. Buchanan 
had withdra\Vn. The dele- 
gates who used the oppor- 
tunity of being in Wash- 
ington to cal on Mr. 
Gompers, came away from 
his office with a heavy 
heart. Returning to the 
Willard, they saw the ma- 
chinery being manipulated 
by the discredited Martin 
and Schulteis. "What 
have these fellows got to 
do with us ? " they asked one another. And then they 
asked "these fellows" quite bluntly: "Who's putting up 
the money for this show ? " Martin, backed to the wall of 
the Willard bar' by their insistent demand for an answer, 
replied with an evasive, "what difference does it make?" 
And when they shouted that it made a profane lot of differ- 
ence, he answered defiantlv that it was all right "even if 
it's German money." 
That finished the Labour delegates. They, too, went 
home. 
But the ringleaders had put out a resounding resolution 
calling for an embargo on munitions. And though the 
convention had fizzled out, it had done an enormous lot of 
harm. Thousands of laiiouring men and farmers had been 
indoctrinated with a specious pacifism that was reflected 
later in the attempts to evade the Conscription Act when 
we entered the war. 
Out of Rintelcn's multifarious activities arose many of 
the mysterious fires and explosions in munitions plants, 
the burning of ships at sea, the attempts on the Welland 
Canal in Canada, strikes in war industries, and the like. 
The discovery of Dr. Walter A. Scheele's part in the incen- 
diary bombs matter, and his connection with Rinteien, 
began to make the ground fairly warm under Rintelcn's 
feet. And the Government was taking an uncomfortable 
interest in Labour's National Peace Council. Rinteien 
became uneasy. 
Meloy and a New Scheme 
His fears were now fed from, a new quarter. Andrew 
D. Meloy became a confidant of his, and Meloy had his own 
David Lamar 
nventcd Labour's National Peace Council 
The evil influence of this bogus organisation 
n sections ol American labour. 
