Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1915-07-30
Sweeping Investigation Is Started by Federal State and City Au
thorties to Fix the Blame for the Dsaster-Error or
Oversight Is Believed to Be Responsible.

med each body as it came ashore. He
said that many OF them had died from
suffocation. There was no water in
their lungs, he said. They had fioated
on top Of the water in the recesses of
the boat until the air had become ex-
hausted.
Occasionally a passenger was found
alive In a pocket of air. In mid-after-
noon, when, with an acetylene torch,
a hole had been made in the steel
plates forward, two women were taxi
en- out raving. A few minutes later
one of the divers, his brain turned by
the horrors, came up and rushed
about the hull shrieking until the po-
lice got him under control.
And last night, with spot lights and
electric arcs turning the stream into
CHASTITY river of death, the work of
taking the bodies from the hull con-
tinued.
The spectacles were narrowing. Po-
licemen wept as the bodies of women
were taken out, with their babies still
clutched to their bosoms in the grasp
of death.
GREATER THAN IRoouoIs.
Chicago is still counting its dead
The mortuary lists are still growing.
A despair has settled over the city
akin to that following the IroQuois
disaster. Its roster of victims is
greater. 1t is the worst excursion
boat horror on record in America. 1t
claimed more victims than the wreck
Of the fire-scourged General Slocum,
eleven years ago, off He'll Gate in New
York harbor.
1t is the worst ship disaster in his
tory-greater than the Titanic and the
Lusitania catastrophes In its appalling
roster of the dead
All day long and all night great
crowds thronged the waters edge and
choked the streets leading to the
scene of the disaster. On the side of
the boat, which protruded several feet
above the water, groups of men gath
cred around the portfolios and with
ropes dragged up the dead bodies as
fast as the divers would get them.
Many are still in the boat, while the
river still holds bodies, and it will be
days before the final number of dead
is established.
AUTHORITIES PROMPT TO ACT.
Within an hour or two of the disas-
ter the authorities had started the
task of fixing the responsibility
States Attorney Hoyne took the mat
ter in charge and sent out grand jury
subpoenas for witnesses.
WAS the Eastland crowded be-
yond capacity?" This is the gravest
question into which inquiry will be
made. Eyewitnesses assert that the
boat was carrying from five hundred
to one thousand more persons than
the $500 for which she was licensed
Some of the holiday-makers. who got
as far as the gangplank and then de-
cided to take another boat, fearing
the crowds on the Eastland, say that
between 5000 and $500 persons were
aboard, and that the ticket-takers
kept admitting excursionists up to
within a few minutes of the capsiz-
ing.
This is denied by the government
inspectors. Robert II. McCreary.
chief of the marine bureau, says an
exact check of the passengers was
taken, and that as soon as $500 had
gone aboard no more were allowed ad-
mission.
OTHERS CRY oVERcRoWpING.
On the other hand, Emil G. eros.
choll and George Mock, employees OF
the Western Electric company. who
aided in arranging the outing, esti
mate that $500 persons we're aboard
the boat.
One thing on which the bewildered
survivors and the eye witnesses IN
general appear to agree is that ever
| after the boat started to list neither
the captain nor the crew gave warn
| ings to the passengers. The orches
ira kept on playing until the chairs
| of the musicians slid across the decl
and the vessel had attained a perilou'
angle before the laughter and joking
were turned to shrieks and cries.
Before the waters had claimed /;
victim. company officials on shore saw
the danger and began to prepare TO
the work of rescue. w. X. Greene
baum. general manager of the Indian;
Transportation company, which hat
chartered the Eastland for the da.
from the ST. Joseph Chicago Steam
ship company, when called befor
States Attorney Hoyne, said:
| About 1920 m 7 was standing a