Imperial Valley press., 1943-03-03
NO ORGANIZED EFFORT


The fact stands out that there
has been no organized, enemy-di-
rected sabotage in the United
States since the war began.
Germany has made one major
attempt to land saboteurs in the
United States with sufficient funds
and equipment to organize a pro-
gram of destruction in American
centers of war production. That
effort met with failure. but it is
obvious that the Nazis would not
have gone to all the trouble they
did to land trouble-makers on us.
shores from submarines if there
had been any active organized
groups in the country on whom
they could depend.
If none of the sabotage cases
thus far reported and inveSti-
gated has there been major dam
age to any war plant or to any
munitions, planes, ships, tanks,
guns. In most of the cases, the
sabotage has been detected be-
fore damage has been done. The
whole story of anti-SabOtagc work
i'm this war, in fact, has been a
record of sabotage prevention.
IL makes much less spectacular
reading this way, hut countless
lives have thus been spared and
many thousands of dollars have
been saved.
And SO, while the United States
has escaped major damage from
sabotage in the first II months of
the war, it has done so only at the
price of eternal vigilance. The rec
ord is VindicatiOn and a tribute
to the methods of J. Edgar HoOV-
er and his G-men. Long before
1889, Hoover was one of the first
to preach the doctrine that we
must be constantly on the alert
TONS OF PREVENTION
Prior 10 the war. the FBI con-
Quoted survey of some 1880 war
plants, checking UP with factory
guards and local police to make
sure that ample security measures
were being taken-that fences were
adequate, pass systems enough TO
keep out unWanted visitors, the
records of employees above Sus-
picion, the guards themselves OF
the right Caliber, and that ismple
! precautions against fires and ex-
| ploSlonS were enforced. There arc
fires and accidents even in peace
time, but in wartime the safety
first measures are all the more i'm
pOrtant. Continuance of the good
3ntl-SabOtage record for the rest oi
the war is possible only by main
tanning this vigilance.
The two acts of sabotage involv.
ing Axis sympathizers were tht
Ethel case in Baltimore in which {
German national did succeed il
damaging some 81 Martin bomber'
before he was caught, and an at.
tempted arson case at the Kaise
Shipyards in Richmond, Calf. TIL,
Ethel case attracted considerabl,
attention, bC. the west coast cas-
received little publicity. 1t hap
pened at las am last July %
when an alert guard saw a MAJ
trying to set fire to a pile of lum
Der with ignited oakum, or shin
calking Detected, the saboteu
pulled a gun, which the guar,
knocked out of his hand The sa
boteur picked up a stick and tn
guard ran for help. When he 90
back, the culprit had escapcc
Identified by photos, the saboteu
proved to be one Heinrich ROede
a German alien who had entere,
the United States illegally in l93f
He had been employed at the shin
yard for a short time, but was dis
missed because of his alien statu,
and was a subject for deportation
A taxi driver also identified Roede
as the man he had driven from tn
Shipyards TO Oakland the night Q
the fight
Among Roedel's effects Wer
found certificates which identifie
him as having been a nautica
storm trooper in 1888. He got 3
years.