The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-01-13


 One was the Lehigh Valley Railroad terminal at Black Tom, N. J., blown up in 1916. The other was an ammunition assembly plant at Kingsland, N. J., blown up in 1917.
 The two groups of claims, amounting to about $23,000, ,000, first were dismissed by the U. s. German Mixed Claims Commis- sion in 1880, partly on the ground that the Kingsland disaster was an industrial accident" not sabotage by German agents. They are now in the process of ap- peal.
 In the new hearing of the case, with Supreme Court Justice Rob- erts acting as umpire, Dr. Tan enberg will be accused of having, on behalf of the German govern ment, paid witnesses for saying 1t was an industrial accident. The word bribery will be avoided, but the United States will allege that UllC CNlQCllCc WdS UOUSllU.
 Tannenberg was formerly the German agent on the Mixed Claims Commission. Desperately in need of evidence to refute the accusation that saboteurs acting for Germany blew up the plants, it is charged that German agents went to Lynd- hurst, N. J., and obtained affi- davits from Italian workmen that a fire had started in the Kingsland plant from natural causes.
 Introduced at the eleventh hour into the 1880 hearings at The Hague, this upset the case of the U. s. Agent and the Commission dismissed the claim.
 Now the U. s. Agent has new evidence purporting to show that Tannenberg promised the Italian workmen substantial rewards if the case were decided in his favor. Investigators attach sig nificance to cable sent by Hans Dieckhoff, lately German ambas- sador but at that time attached to the foreign office in Berlin. Addressed to the embassy here. the cable read: You are auth orized to pay up to $500"
 This was sent in 1881, not long after the case had been de- cided in Germans favor. The U. s. Agent will now contend that the old evidence was false and perjured".
 NOTE-The U. s. Treasury has on deposit a sum of about $27,- 100000 for payment of these and other claims when they are final lay awarded. This money re- suited from the sale of German property in the United States, seized under the Trading With the Enemy Act of 1917.
 HONEST SENATOR
 Asked by a youthful constituent for a good axiom to follow in life, Senator Henry Ashurst of Arizona replied: Honesty is the best policy. I've tried both and know from experience"
 GOVERNMENT
 HEALTH PROGRAM
 Senator Bob Wagner, father of the NRA Labor Disputes Act, and the low-coSt housing law, will sponsor another history making measure at this session. He will introduce the bill for an $80O,- 100000 health program to be out lined by Roosevelt in special health message to Congress.
 Such legislation has been a New Deal objective since it's earliest days, and the original So- cial Security plan included health program. But the medical profession raised such a storm of protest that the White House lim- ited the measure to unemploy- ment insurance and old-age pen- Sions.
 Since then, however, the medicos have got into hot wa ter. They split among them selves over the issue of so- ciaiized medicine, and last fall the powerful American Medical Association, which had fought any form of social medicine, was attacked with charges of mon- Opoly by the Justice Depart ment.
 Taking advantage of these de- velopments. the White Hol,se has