Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-09-24
BLAST KILLS Sc
IN WALL STREET
more Than $50 Other Persons
Are Injured by Mysterious
Explosion.
MORGAN FIRM MEMBER HURT
Federal Officers Find Evidence to JUS
tlfy Conclusion That the Mysteri-
Gus Defamation Was Caused
by Huge Bomb.

New York, Sept. 18.-Thirty-six per-
SONS are known to be dead, five others
are missing and believed to be dead,
and more than 800 persons are known
to have been wounded in an explosion
between the United States subtreasury
building and the Office of j. z. Nor
gan & Co. at Broad and Wall streets.
The damage to the great buildings IS
estimated at $1,0O0,0O0.
The Morgan building appeared q
lshambles and part of the front of the
subtreasury across the street was torn
away.
After hours of Investigation, city
and federal officers and William j..
Burns said they had found evidence
to Justify the conclusion that the mys-
ferrous defamation was caused by
huge bomb loaded with T. N. T. (trini-
trotoluol), titan Of explosives, re-en-
forced with iron slugs' crudely' manu-
featured from old-fashioned- tenement
house window weights.
The weight of overwhelming evil
dence caused the authorities to give
over their earlier theory that the ex-
plosion was caused by an accident to
a misunderstanding truck. Every
available detective and department Of
justice agent in the city was set to
the task of ferreting out the band of
anarchists believed responsible for the
outrage.
Scattered bits of the truck and the
horribly mangled form Of roam horse
p1osion, while rude bomb slugs We're
found in Wall street in adjacent thor
oughfares and embedded in the walls
of the Morgan and other edifices,
which were pitted as by a shrapnel
bombardment.
At the morgue, where there were SO
mutilated bodies, including those of
four women and one boy, Chief Medi-
cal Examiner Charles N. Norris said !:
"In several of the bodies we found
parts of iron, such as might have been
made by breaking up sash weights.
There is no doubt that bomb was the
cause of the explosion"
Evidence gathered by the depart
ment of justice indicated that the plot
tiers, in an effort to carry out numer-
GUS radical threats of a forcible DEM
onstration against the house of Nor
gan, carefully manufactured hum
dred-pound bomb, loaded it on truck,
either hired or stolen, and drove their
deadly burden into the financial dis
trict.
William J. Burns, house detective
for ]. p. Morgan & Co.. declared that
he is certain that the explosion was
by design. Mr.. Burns said:
"A bomb caused the explosion. There
is not the slightest doubt about this. I
might be closer to the truth perhaps
if / said a wagonload of bombs.
.From my investigation am Ger
tain that the bomb was in the wagon
which was destroyed. There is 10
other reasonable theory.
1.-THE pieces of window weights
picked up in the nearby office build
ings, where they had been hurled by
the explosive, could have no other
connection with the disaster than to
be parts of the bomb and used as its
Dro1ectiles by some one who had
schemed to do the greatest possible
damage that could be imagin I'd"
The bomb, he believes, was brought
to the corner in a wagon which was
abandoned by the four men who
brought it. 1t was composed of high
explosive and had window weights for
missiles it was merely a mobile
high explosive shell of greater dimen-
sions probably than any that were ever
thrown in the world war.
One other theory is offered. That
is the explosion was an accident oc-
casioned by the colliding of wagon
load of explosives with an automobile.
A messenger boy declared that few
minutes before the explosion he saw
the wagon that carried the explosives
abandoned at the curb in front of Nor
gan's by four men. These four, he said,
were joined by two others. This de-
scription, however, it is pointed out,
would fit the theory of either accident
lor design.
Every reserve of the New York po-
lice force. is in the area. A battalion
of federal troops from Governors
island is standing guard with fixed
bayonets.
One of the injured was Junius Spen-
Ger Morgan, son of ]. p. Morgan.
Joyce, a clerk in the Morgan house,
was killed..