New-York tribune., 1918-03-30
Big Stores of Explosives in
New Yorks Congested
Districts
Warning by Official
Report ON Warehouse Condi-
tions Sent 10 WASH
lngton

New York City and Brooklyn are in
constant danger of explosions similar
to that which started the fire which
wiped out the Jersey City premises of
the Jarvis Warehouse Company last
Tuesday, according to James B. Con-
of Combustibles.
He declared yesterday that he had
information that large quantities of
potassium chloratc, which is said to
have caused the Jersey City explosion,
are being stored in warehouses in
tthlckly. populated districts on the New
York side Of the Hudson River.
lie said that under present license
laws of New York and New Jersey
there is nothing to prevent alien
enemies Or others from planting eX-
plosives in warehouses and thus caus-
ing disastrous fires.
Package Contents Unknown
Storage companies are allowed to
accept packages the contents of which
are not dlsc.oseu by their owners" he
said "Ihey merely write in their
books: Contents unknown and that
is all the law demands.
"A package marked tomatoes may
contain dynamite, for all the storage
company knows. What is needed is a
law demanding a statement of the
nature of every consignment to a stor-
age warehouse"
Mr.. Connolly did not imply that the
Jersey City explosion was due to
enemy agency, or that the warehouse
company was ignorant of the chemicals
stored in its plant by the j. L. & D. S.
Riker Company and other firms.
He declared, however, that if the
warehouse company had been COM
PEELED to take notice of the nature Of
its charge he would not have allowed
the potash to be stored in Jersey City.
ut would have been out in the
middle Of a meadow, beyond the city
limits" ne said.
Such precautions as he recommend
ed, he went on, could not be taken by
his department. 1t was rather a mat
ter for the Federal government, which,
in the Jarvis case, should have been
the more vigilant because of the fact
that steel plates for ships were on the
premises.
Asked what precautions were being
taken against a repetition of the ex-
plosion, he said:
w nat precautions can we take? So
Tar as we know, no explosives are
being stored in New Jersey now. We
are always on our guard against such
things. Each captain fireman is ex-
pected to know the contents of build
ings in his district.
Licenses Only Remedy
"The licensing of explosives is our
only instrument. 1t is not enough.
Over in Brooklyn and New York there
is similar state of affairs"
Potassium chlorate is one of the
most popular chemicals in use among
amateur bomb makers, who mix it
with sugar and use drop of sulphuric
acid to start it off
Mr.. Connolly, who is Federal in
spector of licenses for Jersey City, as
we'll as head of the Bureau of Com
bustibles, has made a report on the
explosion to the Bureau of Mines in
Washington.
The report contains the names of
four New York firms besides the Riker
company, which Mr.. Connolly saws
stored potash in the Jarvis BUILDING.
They are Lehn e. Fink, the American
Trading Company, Rockhill e. Victory
and the Bartoa Manufacturing Com
pany.
He recommended an investigation of
warehouses.
r.. M. Jarvis, president of the ware
house company, and Edward P. Flovd
Jones, secretary Of the Riker companv
are free on $4,000 bail, and are to ap.
pear IN court next Thursday on a
charge OF storing explosives without
license. They have decided to fieht
the case on the ground that the potash
did not cause the cyr1oc;op