The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1911-02-03
NUMBER OF DEAD
ABOUT THIRTY
Casualties as Result of Jer.
sey City Explosion.
PROPERTY LOSS IMMENSE

damage 70 property IN the Vicinity
Estimated at az High as ST 600, 900,
the Heaviest Loser Being the Central
Railroad Of New Jersey-Three
Separate official Investigations Of
Affair Started.
New York, Feb. 3.-Three separate
Investigations were started to fix the
responsibility for the dynamite explo.
sion in New York harbor. One will be
conducted by coroners jury under
Coroner James M. Houghton of Jersey
City; another by Inspector of Com.
bustibles James M. Connolly of Jer.
sey City, and third by Public Prose.
cutor Pierre P. Garven of Hudson
county, N. J.
The Jersey City police and the fed
oral authorities will assist in all three
Investigations. The federal authori
ties, however, have put the case
squarely up to New Jersey, although
the transportation of explosives about
the harbor is under the jurisdiction of
the treasury department and under the
direct supervision of the supervisor
Of anchorages, an officer of the reve.
nue. cutter service.
His investigation shows that when
the explosion occurred the boats re-
ceiving the dynamite were tied to a
pier located under the jurisdiction of
New Jersey authorities. The state of
New York will have no hand in the
investigation. 1t has jurisdiction over
all crimes committed in the Hudson
river, except when they occur on boats
tied up on the Jersey side.
Definite estimates of the number of
dead are still impossible. The total of
dead and missing is thirty. The list of
dead in the hands of the. coroner is
seven and it is that officials belief
that most of the twenty-three men
whom he. classes as missing" were
blown to atoms.
Property Loss 1000, 900.
The property loss, according to vari-
Gus official estimates, will be between
$4,000 and $1,000,O00. The heaviest
sufferer in this respect is the Central
Railroad of New Jersey, at whose
docks the disaster occurred. Vice
President Besler sets the railroads
loss at about 100000.
The United States government is
also heavy loser, with $4,000 dam
age at Ellis island and an additional
$4,000 or $4,000 at the army head
quarters on Governors island. and at
Bedloe's island, where the Statue of
Liberty was shaken bare Of many win
dows and big electric lights. D..
The. blast was probably the largest
explosion of dynamite that has ever
occurred anywhere, Intentionally or
by accident. Fifty thousand pounds
went up in the single detonation.
There was marvellous escape, how
ever, from much bigger disaster, for
there was another $4,000 pounds stand
Ing on a sidetrack within 100 feet of
the pier end, which stood unexploded
through all the tumult The cars
which contained it were twisted and
torn and the boxes were strewn on
every side, but the dynamite, thick
with the dust and debris of the ex-
plosion, was unframed and intact in
it's paper coverings.
The exact cause of the blast has
not been definitely established and
may never be explained to the sati,
faction of the experts.
Criminal prosecution as we'll as
civic actions for damages are to be
begun against the powder trust off,
cials responsible for the presence on
the Jersey City pier of the dynamite
that caused the disaster.