The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-04-24
Investigation Made of Charge
That Suppression of News
Hindered Rescue Work At
the Mine.
TOTAL DEATHS MAY
RUN OVER HUNDRED
Company Received Word OF
Disaster Early in After
nosn But u. S. Rescuefs
Not Summoned Then.

National News Association)
FINLEYVILLE, Pa, Apri94
That the company's efforts to
minimize the extent of the dis
aster here, which resulted in the
loss of at least one hundred
lives as result of the explosion
in the Cincinnati mine of the
Monongahela Consolidated Coal
and Coke company, probably
caused the death toll to have
been heavier than it otherwise
would have been was the report
being investigated today by Cor
oner Huffran.
According to this report the
company was aware of the disas-
ter about 1 o'clock yesterday.
Officials of the bureau of mines
at Pittsburg offered their serv-
ices at 8 o'clock and declared
they could have gotten a mine
rescue car on the scene an hour
later. The company officials,
however, declared they had no
details of the explosion and re-
fused the proffered aid on the
ground that they had a first aid
crew which could handle the sit
uation.
Federal aid was not summoned
until late in the afternoon and
government experts believed If
they had been called earlier.
some of the men might have
been gotten out alive. At noun
today E. M. Johnston, attorney
for the Monongahela company,
issued a statement that thirty
five bodies had been recovered.
and eighty-five men were still1n
the mine. This brought the
probable death list up to 120.
Thirteen of the recovered bod
les have been identified, seven
of them Americans.
| Refuses List of Dead.
The company refused TO give ont
a full list of the known dead. Some
of the bodies were badly n5atfrat6a
while others showed that death came
from afterdamp following the expim
ion. The authorities refused to ALLOW
the relatives to view the bodies until
after they had been prepared for
burial. ---a-----=.
At o'clock ten additional bodfSa
had been definitely located.
| Worked All the Night.
Rescuers worked frantically all
night endeavoring to break through
the walls of debris so that the bodies
could be reached. Outside at the
various entrances stood hundreds of
relatives and friends Of the entomben
miners, waiting patiently for soma
word regarding their loved ones In
side. The people seemed to be over
awed by what had occurred. A few
women were weeping but there was
an absence of the usual display az
grisS attendant upon such disasters-
According to mine foremen, 17S men
were in the mine at the time of the
explosion. Only seventy-eight, many
of whom were badly burned and In
jured, made their way to safety. The
whereabouts of the remainder are un-
known but old miners here who aided
in the rescue work declared that they
believed IL would have been impossi-
BILE for the imprisoned men to ffre
long following the explosion owing
10 the fredamp and other gases which
seemed to invade the entire workings
/ An Uneomfrmed Report.
An unconfirmed report early today
declared that several members OF
government rescue crew had been
overcome by the fatal gases and that
one was dead. According 10 the re-
port the men entered the mine equip
ped with oxygen helmets, but after
going some distance something went
wrong with their apparatus and they
fell unconscious. One was not a.
badly overcome as the others and he
managed to communicate with those
at the mine entrance By means OF =
iportable telephone which the party
icarried
Early last night two box cars were
iplaced on a siding near the Courtney