The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-07-31
MAKE TWO ARRESTS


CONTINUED from page IL
the blame of the explosion lay with
either the Lehigh Valley Railroad
company, the storage company or the
lighterage company and that some OF
them had violated the laws Of Kew
Jersey, the Jersey City ordinances and
commission by permitting barges
loaded with explosives to remain
moored at the piers over night. These
barges were being used to transport
the ammunition to steamers lying III
Gravesend bay.
Barses of Munitions Blow Up.
Several Investigations were com
menced today to discover the origin OF
the fire, which caused the awful ex-
plosion that destroyed S5,ooe,o wv
worth of ammunition, eighty-hve
freight cars. set blazing ammunition
fharges adrift to lombard the Statue of
Liberty and the Ellis island fmmisra,
ttion station with shell and shrapnel
and shattered 100000 worth OF WIN
dowts in this city.
lspeetor of the bureau of explosives OF
1.-The American Railway association ana
the Interstate Commerce Commission.
He is aided by thirty inspectors me
county prosecutor and city authorizes
hin Jersey City, are making investiga-
zion also 1t is understood that agents
iaof the department of justice are max
Ing inquiries to learn whether the ex-
Inlosion was the work of an incendiary.
+ Conflicting reports as to the cause
IF the fires are still circulated. I.c-
high Valley officials assert that an IN
terloping barge loaded with ammuni-
ton was moored at their pier IN de-
fiance of their orders and that the
first explosion took place on noara
public safety said today that four
ammunition barges were at or near
the piers and that all Of them were
destroyed 1t is feared their crews
persisted.
The big pier just west of the Statue
of Liberty is today a mass of smoking
ruins with the debris piled hundreds
of feet high in places and with the
fire still burning.
Harbor Islands Bombarded.
The work of repairing the damage
to the buildings on Bedloe's and Ellis
Islands and in New York and Jersey
City began today. The immigration
station at Ellis Island had the ap
pearance of a war swept village with
every window shattered, the roof of
the hospital caved in, the main door
blown away and the dining and execu-
tive rooms wrecked while the island
was strewn with bits of shrapnel,
broken glass and three-inch shells
thrown ashore from drifting barges
which had bombarded the island as
they burned. The damage here was
estimated at $4,000.
The buildings OF Bedloe's island,
with doors blown in and windows
shattered, showed the marks of an
eight-hour bombardment of shrapnel,
iron belts and spikes, pieces of steel
and chain. The roof of an iron ware
house was ripped off and the walls are
full of holes, while the homes of the
army officers are stripped of their
chircneys and walls and plaster are
shattered.
- The loss there is 100000. The
Statue of Liberty virtually is undam-
aged but the doors to the pedestal are
blown in.
Thought End of World Had Come.
Il Stories told by those who narrowly
escaped death were miraculous. One
man said he was blown off a lighter
intotthe bay and swami to Bedloe's Is
laasN-hut had to swim back to the Jer-
| sey shore when the flaming oarges
THE air seemed to be full of flame
and 1 thought the end of the world
had come" said another survivor. A
third was blown fifty feet from the
top of a freight car and landed near
a building which fell OF, him.
-y Early Hour a Life Saver
Only the facts. that the two major
explosions occurred at the hour they
dfd-2:08 and 2:35 a. m-and where
they did, undoubtedly prevented far
greater loss of life and vastly more
property damage. Black Tom is stu
| ated at the bullying end of a long
peninsula that juts about three miles
| off Communipaw, slightly south of
| Jersey City and south of Ellis Island
and the small plot of land in New
| York harbor on which the Statue of
Liberty stands. Had the explosions
IL -
the New York or Jersey coasts, the
shock would have been much more
violent
| AS it was the giant concussion of
the explosions pushed in windows five
and six miles. away and the shock that
was carried to Manhattan rocked giant
skyscrapers and monster apartments
as far uptown as One Hundred and
Sixtieth street, as though a great
hand clutched the rock foundations Of
the city and shook them.
Origin Problematic
1t had been clearly established to-
| day that a fire that was not touched
off by an explosion started the dis
aster, As indication of the inpossi-
bility of determining the start Of this
fire was the almost humorous range
of theories which ran the gamut from
a lighted cigarette to a bomb from a
mysterious airship.
O-@~S WI 2 SCS dStuc tOuey
as not worthy, at least at this time, of
consideration. No evidence has an
peared investigators said, that the ex-
plosions and fires were a result of any
manipulating activities. Some idea
if this let-go of dynamite, Iyditte.
dunite' nitro-cellulose and mere gun
powder, was seen today when a re-
porter went to the far end of the
peninsula where the major explosions
occurred. Most of the terrain at that
point is made land. 1t narrowed to
about forty or fifty feet to the pier
where stood the barge load of nitro
cellulose- Two railroad tracks jutted
against the pier On these tracks were
four cars of high explosives.
- CANNING Hole. On No.