The Sun (New York)
The Sun est un journal quotidien américain édité à New York, qui paraît de 1833 à 1950.
Le journal est le plus gros tirage de la presse américaine au milieu du XIXe siècle. C’est le plus emblématique des titres de la Penny Press.
La presse américaine évoque souvent l’affaire Cadiou autour des 5 et 26 février, en insistant sur le caractère sensationnel de la découverte grâce à la « fortune-teller ». The Sun ne publie qu’un seul article, le 14 juin 1914, quasi identique à celui paru le même jour dans The Richmond Virginian. Sa particularité réside dans la longueur du texte et les conclusions avancées par le journaliste.
Selon cet article, Cadiou aurait été assassiné après son implication dans un scandale lié à la fourniture d’explosifs au ministère de la Guerre. Son entreprise, d’abord financée et dirigée par des intérêts allemands, avait déjà été mise en cause après plusieurs explosions navales et écartée des marchés publics. Réorganisée sous direction française, elle fut ensuite le cadre de fraudes orchestrées par Cadiou, qui surfacturait et livrait des produits de qualité inférieure. De nouveau exclu des contrats militaires, il se retrouvait au bord de la faillite. L’ingénieur Pierre, un temps suspecté, est désormais largement considéré comme innocent. L’hypothèse privilégiée est que Cadiou aurait été tué parce qu’il menaçait de dévoiler les pratiques douteuses de ses anciens associés, lesquels avaient refusé de racheter son usine.
Source : Library of Congress
14 juin 1914 – p. 25
CADIOU MYSTERY IS PUZZLING ALL PARIS
Murder of Powder Manufacturer Recalls Sensation in Business Life
VICTIM WAS NEAR RUIN
Case Likely to Develop Into a Scandal Regarding Explosives
Special Cable Despatch to The Sun
Paris, June 13. The Cadiou mystery is still puzzling the police and the authorities! M. Cadiou was the head of a manufacturing firm In the Finistere department who was found murdered some month ago. An engineer named Pierre was arrested on suspicion, but after a longtime in jail was released.
A judicial investigation revealed the fact that the murder was connected in some way with the manufacture of powder for the French Government. M. Legrand. ex-Mayor of Landerneau, founded
the Grand Palud Company in 1907 with capital furnished by German cotton merchants. Herr Greiss, a German army reserve officer, was placed at the head of the factory as technical engineer. The company was entirely German, with M. Legrand as its French representative. Its chief and practically its only customer was the French War Department.
When the disaster to the battleship Liberte followed the explosion on the Iena the powder used on both vessels was held to be responsible for the disasters. One result of the subsequent investigation was to draw attention to the essential German character of the Palud Company. The company was thereupon prohibited from making tenders for War office contracts.
The chief German stockholder then withdrew his capital from the firm. Legrand reorganized the company and asked Emile Cloarec, Deputy from Morlaix, to suggest a new president. He named Cadiou, who was appointed. The French engineer, Pierre, replaced Greiss as technical engineer.
This change allowed the company to bid again for supplies for the War Department, but Cadiou was soon found guilty of swindling by obtaining pay for greater quantities of stuff than had been delivered to the War Department. He was also found guilty of furnishing an article to the War Department which was inferior to that supplied to the regular trade. Cadiou continued his practices for two years, thanks to a mysterious « pull » but at the end of 1913, after an official investigation, both he and his factory were definitely excluded from War Office contracts. A month before his disappearance Cadiou bought out his partners and became the sole proprietor, so the exclusion from War Office contracts meant his financial ruin.
Just about this time Legrand founded a new company with a factory on the opposite bank of the River Elorn, facing the Palud works. M. Pierre, the French. engineer, was to direct the operations at these works, in which several of Cadiou’s former associates were interested.
Popular local opinion acquits Pierre, who is now out on bail, of any connection with the murder. The explanation currently believed is that Cadiou tried to sell his factory to his former associates. His offer was refused and he then threatened, it is believed, to reveal their share in questionable transactions. Such a revelation might have prevented the new factory from receiving War Office orders.