The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-05-09
RED PLOT TO
SPREAD DEATH
Bombs In Mail for Leaders in
War on Disloyalists
CAUTIONED TO BE WATCHFUL
Sixteen Internal Machines Seized BY
Postoffice Inspectors In New
York Were Intended For Such
Men As Justice Holmes.

Washington. Discovery in New
York OF sixteen bombs, each put to-
gether by experts, resulted in a gen
eral warning to government employees
to be on watch for what authorities
here believe to be an anarchist plot
to spread terror through the country.
While steps were taken immediate
iy to deal with the situation already de-
veloped, Postofice Department Off
Gals frankly admitted that there was
absolutely no means of telling exactly
how many bombs might have been de-
posted in the mails. The 16 picked up
in New York were regarded as a catch
find, having been held for lack of
postage. Coming on the heels of the
damage caused by an Internal ma
chine mailed to former Senator Hard
wick, of Georgia, and in the same sort
of package, with the same department
store label, led to prompt confiscation
by the government and quick search
for similar weapons of destruction
moving through the mails.
Because of the character of the
men of whom the packages were adj
dressed, the one thought of the au-
thorities conferred in the motive. In a
general way the attempt on the lives
of cabinet members, justice of the
Supreme Court Of the United States,
governor, mayor, and others, was
linked UP with recent agitation and
discussion of the question of after-the
war immigration. But the authorities
could not altogether agree on this as
the reason behind the wholesale at
tempts at destruction of life.
Word reached the investigators
that Gimbel Brothers, New York de-
partment store owners, whose mailing
tags were on each package, including
that sent to former Senator Hardwick,
had declared the tag forgery. No
that this information was disquieting,
for it means, officials said, in the event
of wholesale mailing of bombs that
many would reach their destinations
bearing the mark of other firms, which
would make the work of preventing
delivery all the more difficult.
The public was cautioned as to the
opening OF strange packages, the de-
partment's detective force realized
that if all of the Internal machines
Put in the mails have not been re-
covered. it is the departments job
to get them before delivery.
Every branch of the bureau of COM
munications was set to work to this
end, starting with the men who take
mail from street boxes, and ending
with the carriers who deliver it at Of
flee and home. Not content with
these precautions, steps were taken in
Washington to safeguard government
officials to whom other dangerous
bombs might be sent. Personal or
ders went to all departments, includ-
ing the courts, so that by no possible
chance will strange bundles pass the
net spread out to seize them.
So far the only damage reported
was that in the home of former Sena-
tor Hardwick at Atlanta, where the
package, mailed at New York, was
opened by his wife's maid in his alb
sence. 1t was said here that the ma
chine received there was similar in
every way to the others, but officials
could not account for the different day
and hour of mailing.