Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-03-31 | Page 1 | Woman is Found with Prints of Curtiss Plane

III IS FOUND fflTH PM1S IF CURTISS PLANE Admits That Group of German Ger-man Spies Has Been Employed Em-ployed in Engineering Plant at Hempstead. ARRESTED TOGETHER WITH A BOARDER Death Penalty for Many Acts of Espionage Proposed Pro-posed in Legislation Before Congress. NEWARK, N. J., March 30. Admission Admis-sion that a group of German spies have been employed in the plant of the Cur-tiss Cur-tiss Engineering corporation at Hempstead, Hemp-stead, N. Y., on Long Island, has :been obtained from Mrs. Lydia White, a woman arrested today with blueprints of airplanes in her possession, the police have announced. The woman, who is 25 years old, was turned over to the federal authorities and held in $10,000 bail, together with Frederick Arnoldi, a boarder in her home in Hempstead. The pair were arrested ar-rested here, after they had been located by Albert White, the woman 's husband. The police say a search of their room here disclosed the blueprints, one told her story of German spies in the Cur-tiss Cur-tiss plant after being questioned by Inspector Corbally, who immediately notified no-tified the federal authorities. Arnoldi 's explanation for having the blueprints in their possession was that they were his own. Declaring that she was a loyal American, Amer-ican, Mrs. White said she had been threatened with death by her husband, a foreman for the Curtiss Engineering corporation, if she did not sign a statement state-ment implicating Arnoldi and several I others employed in the plant with German Ger-man spy activities. She refused to sign, she said, because she knew it was not Arnoldi, but others who were working work-ing against the government. "I know Germans are working in the airplane plant," she told the investigators. investi-gators. "Work i being held up there, blueprints are being changed, brazing on the machines is being tampered with and lead is being substituted for steel in certain parts of the machines." Arnoldi, who admitted that his father was born in Germany, denied that he was a German agent. Charges were recently mado in the Uniteil States senate by Senator Overman Over-man that steel parts had been removed re-moved from aiplanes in process of construction con-struction in the United States and substitutions sub-stitutions of lead mado by German agents. To Propose Death Penalty. WASHINGTON, March 30. The death penalty for many acts of espionage espion-age will be proposed in legislation to be brought before congress, Senator Overman of North Carolina, active head of tho senate judiciary committee, said todav, after hearing testimony of several" sev-eral" government agents in charge of anti-spy work. The "subcommittee also approved an amendment to the espionage law penalizing penal-izing "attempts" to obstruct the selective selec-tive draft law, as well as actual obstruction. ob-struction. Confidential testimony regarding enemy espionage ami propaganda ami 1. W". W. activities was given to the subcommittee today. According to Senator Sen-ator Overman, the government agents said that the activities of spies are widespread throughout the country. Although Al-though the government is taking vigorous vigor-ous steps to stop their operations, its control of the situation, it was said, is not. "yet all that could be desired.-" Letters many in invisible in I;, pie-tures. pie-tures. and other documents seized by the officers were submitted to the committee, com-mittee, and. aeeording to committee members, were of a most seditious and hostile character. The subcommittee todav to-dav approved an amendment to penalize use of invisible ink in correspondence and providing for seizure by tile mail censors of :-;iil matter believed to be of seditious oriv'in. I rinii extension of the espionage act to attempts to obstruct the or:ut. department de-partment of justice agents told the committee com-mittee that indi'teil persons have escape. es-cape. 1 eouvieion because it was shown that their attempts were not successful. The i-oniniittoe plans next Mond.-iv to report and ask immediate passage of I the legislation proposed.