Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-08-21

1t ought to be pretty definitely settled by this time that
there is little danger to the surrounding country from the mu-
nitions stored at Raritan Arsenal. Not only have statements
giving a complete record of everything stored at the arsenal
been laid before the public on numerous occasions, but local
officials have made tours of inspection and they all agree that
they could find nothing that would cause alarm.
The invitation and tour of inspection made yesterday in
company with United States Senator Frelinghuysen, Congress-
man Seully and officers of the Ordnance Department left moth
ing to be desired in the way of ascertaining the facts. The re-
suit showed that while there is a quantity of black powder and
fuses on hand, there are no high explosives such as caused such
destruction at Morgan, excepting what may be contained in
the finished shells that are stored in some of the magazines
and these are hardly able to do any damage outside the plant
itself.
To be sure, where there are explosives of any kind there
are likely to be explosions. But for several years before the
war we had powder works in full operation not many miles
away. Occasionally there would be what is called a flash in
which a large quantity of powder would go off at once and pos
sibly a few workmen would be killed, but there was never any
real alarm about doing damage outside. tits possible for more
explosions to take place at Raritan, such as occurred a few
weeks ago, but aside from a faint report or possibly a rafting
of windows in the immediate vicinity, there is apparently little
to be afraid of.
AS a matter of fact, the Raritan arsenal is so constructed
that it would be next to impossible to destroy the whole plant.
The magazines are permanently built; they are down on the
meadows in an isolated part with great distances between them
and each one is protected by lightning rods. Even if one should
explode it seems next to impossible that any more would fol-
low as a result. OF course, it is sometimes the impossible"
that takes place, Just as was the case at Morgan, but then con-
ditions are altogether different at Raritan from what they were
at Morgan. In fact, there is reason to believe that there is no
more danger from the arsenal at Raritan than there is from
some of the industries close by where materials are handled
daily that might cause more local damage than any one of the
magazines at the arsenal.
tits evident that Senator Frelinghuysen and Congressman
Scuny have been doing everything within their power to relieve
the situation as far as explosives in this vicinity are concerned
and the assurances that are given that there are no more high
explosives anywhere in this section may be accepted as final.
But care must be taken to see that no high explosives are
quietly brought in later on. To this end we will expect our
representatives at Washington to keep in touch with the situa-
ton at Raritan, demanding a report occasionally of Just what
has been put there and what the magazines contain.
At the present time we believe there is absolutely no cause
Tor concern and we would advise the people to take no stock
In idle rumors they may hear, regardless of how AUTHENTIC
they are said to be. Official records, which there is every rea-
son to believe are correct, show that there are no high ex-
piosiyes at Raritan, and knowing the manner in which the
plant is constructed, the danger, we would say, is nil