The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-09
Saboteurs Invent New Tricks
BY PETE REDSON (NEA Service Staff CorrespOndent)

(NEA Service Stau COrEeSpUnueHGt
 Washington, July 9-1n the five year period from 1883 to 1888, the FBT handled an average of 35 ir- vestigations dealing with espionage and sabotage each year.
 From July, 1888, through June, 1939 there were 250 cases, while in the year following there were 1850 investigations of national defense matters. On one day recently, there were over 2800 national de- fense complaints dumped in the G. mems laps.
 In spite of the increase in the number of defense matters which the Federal Bureau of Investiga- ton has had to handle since the outbreak of the war in Europe, Di- rector J. Edgar Hoover is authority for the statement that, with the ex- ception of the recent sabotaging of their merchant vessels In U. s. ports by sailors of interned German and Italian ships, there have been re- vealed no organized acts of sabotage by foreign agents within the United States.
 This does not mean that there has been no sabotage in American plants since the war began, and 1t Is not a fact that should lull any, one into & false sense of security. The saboteur and the spy are still on the job and it has become in- creasingly important for law en- forcement officers and the general public to keep the work of the or- ganized wreckers under control. "SOREHEADS" DO
 MOST OF DAMAGE
 All recent cases of sabotage which have occurred have been the work of individuals. Disgruntled em- ployes, workers who feel that they have not been done right by and therefore have a personal grudge to settle with the boss or the com pany, have taken out their spite by damaging plant equipment or its products. But these sabotage att tempts have not been the technical ly perfect efforts of organized groups of foreign agents, operating to destroy or impair American in- dustrial production for defense.
 Most of the tricks of the profess sional saboteur are of course known. They have been catalogued ever since the last war, and that of course makes 1t easier now to watch for them, and prevent them.
 There is the old stuff of damage to machines by breakage, manipu- lation, abrasives, chemicals and SO on. The use of bombs and in- cendiaries. Damage to power sta- tions and power transmission lines. Damage to raw materials. Damage to precision tools. Theft or de- struction of blueprintS or specifica- tions. Damage to lines of comnuni- cations and transportation. Pollu- tion of water supply or of food sup plies. Damage to personnel. Those dodges are all known and can be guarded against If not actually pre- vented.
 SABOTEURS FORCED
 TO NEW TRICKS
 But because the police and pro- lection methods are better now than they were in the last war, the saho- teur of today has had to invent new tricks. And now and then a man will come up with a strange device that is diabolical in its cum ming.
 Take the case of the photograph needle that crippled battleship.
 Here was one that could hardly have been detected but for the won- der of the x-ray. In this case, the steel photograph needle was im- bedded in the insulation of an elec- tric cable. x-ray photos showed that only the point of the needle pene-