Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-04-29 | Page 7 | Edenborn to Face Espionage Charge

EDENH 10 FACE ESPIONAGE CHARGE President of Louisiana Railway Rail-way and Navigation Company Com-pany Arrested. NEW ORLEANS, April 2$. William Edenborn, president of the Louisiana Railway & Navigation company, and a naturalized citizen of German birth, wae arrested by department of justice agents tonight at Shrewsbury, La., on an affidavit affi-davit charging violation of the espionage act. The arrest followed a meeting here of the Executive committee of the National Security league, Louisiana section, at which resolutions were adopted characterizing charac-terizing alleged utterances by Edenborn at an Americanization meeting of citizens citi-zens of German descent last Friday night as "seditious treason against the United States and its allies." Edenborn, who is TO years old and reputed re-puted to be many times a millionaire, was taken into custody, as he stepped from a. train or tne road of wnich he is president. The resolution adopted by the Security league committee quoted Edenborn as having said at the Americanization meeting: meet-ing: "We need have no fear that Germany will ever attack the United States. It would take a maritime nation to do that, because America is surrounded by water. America can look to other countries for anv possible attacks in the future." Edenborn, founder of the American Steel & Wire company, now a part of the United States S-teel corporation, has been referred to as "father of the wire industry indus-try in America." He came to the United States from his birthplace, Westphalia, Prussia..