◆ SpookStack

i 0 December 26, 1939 vzvzozeggvvlr The Industrial bafety Committee of the Cleveland Safety Council was organized shortly after the outbreak of the eurren
European har by Eliot Ness, Director of Public safety at Cleve- land, Ohio, Lieutenant Hashim, associated with the Navy Department, Robert Chamberlain, Assistant to Eliot Hess and several other individuals. The Safety Committeefhasjdesignated itself to serve as a clearing house for information relating to espionage, sabotage and subversive activities. The method of operation of the Committee is to solicit memberships from business and industrial institutions in the Cleveland metropolitan area and to assess each member approximately $1.00 per year per employee. The initial assessment was declared to be twenty- ive cents per quarter per employee but it appeara9thatF?he ¬urrent assessment 92nis eight cents per month per employee. Itos estimated that there are 150,000 employees engaged by concerns to be approached for membership by the Committee, which means an income of approximately $l50,000?OO a year for the Industrial aafety Committee- The Committee will function by designating in the various plants spies who will report through the plant managements to the Industrial Safety Committee all matters that transpire in the plant. It has been stated that the information obtained by the Industrial Safety Committee of Cleveland through these fchannels will be investigated by a specially selected detail of the Cleveland Police Department. On other occasions the promoters of the Industrial Safety Committee have denied that they will conduct any investigation directly or through the Cleveland Police Department of information obtained relating to the National Defense. The questions naturally arise, con- sidering the functioning of this organization, as to what is to become of the $150,000.00, whether the Cleveland Police Uepartment investigates the cases or whether the cases are referred to the FBI. Pespite statements of the Cleveland Industrial tafety Committee promoters that they would not conduct investi ation in cases involving espionage, sabotage and related matters but would refer all information received promptly to the Cleveland