Evening star., 1940-06-06
US. Takes Step!
For Protection
OF Utilities
War Department
Acts to Prevent
Sabotage

Precautionary measures for the
protection Of vital utility services
and industries against sabotage, in
the National Capital and other
places throughout the Nation, are
being perfected, according to War
Department officials.
While such preventive efforts have
been made for years, the plans be-
ing subject to periodic checking and
Improvement, present precautions
here are considered in some quar-
tiers to be of an extraordinary de-
gree for peacetime.
Informal statement of anti-sabo
tage plans affecting Washington and
other points was made late yester-
day by War Department officials as
a result of inquiries concerning the
special emergency radio transmit
ting station which the Potomac
Electric Power Co. plans to erect on
property to the east of the Ben
ming Power Plant for relaying
emergency directions to the crews
of its repair trucks and other emer-
gency vehicles.
Details Kept Secret.
War Department officials said de-
tails of precautionary measures be-
ing taken or planned must remain
secret.
1t was believed precautions for
Washington were being taken to
protect not only plants of the Pepco,
which provides power service to the
Navy Yard and other vital Federal
agencies here, but also railroads,
street railways, the gas plants, tele-
phone, telegraph and wireless.
Power company officials insisted
their plans for the emergency radio
transmitter were drawn before the
outbreak of the new World War
and that the project was in nowise
inspired by the War Department,
but discussion of their plans brought
out that for some months they have
drastically restricted visitors to the
Pepco power plants here. They said
visitors now are barred from the
plant except for engineers and stu
dents known to company officials" 4"
A. G. Neal, president of the
power company. said yesterday the
emergency radio transmitter was
intended primarily to assure con-
tinuity of the normal power service.
but that other possibilities" we're
kept in mind in view of present
world conditions.
Ferry Issues Statement.
Later in the day J..H. Ferry, vice
president and chief engineer of the
power company, issueds' formal
statement in which he insisted that
the project lis intended entirely as
a means OF preventing or reducing
the extent of Interruptions to serv-
ice, or the restoration of service, fol-
lowing accidental Interruptions"
The power company last Novem-
bel 3 applied to the Federal Com
munlcatlonS Commission for a per-
NIT TO construct and operate
special emergency transmitter.
The radio permit was issued January
Is. The transmitter would operate
at 2,726 kilocycles with a power of
1000 watts. The transmitter would
include a 2Oo-foot antenna mast
near the Benning plant. 1t would
be operated by remote control from
the Pepco office at Tenth and E
streets NV.
Permission for establishment of
the transmitter was sought yester-
day by the power company in petit
ton to change from residential to
second commercial the zoning classi-
fication OF the site north of Benning
road adjacent to the Benning power
plant. The commission also consid-
cred its alternative suggestion for
an amendment to its zoning rules
which would permit the Board of
Zoning Adjustment and the Public
Utilities Commission to grant the
project without a change in the
zoning map.
These and a long list of other
cases considered by the Zoning
Commission at its. public hearing
yesterday are to BE- decided at an
executive session later.