Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-09-23
ACCIDENT THEORY
BUNK" SAYS FLYNN
Declares Those Responsible for
Wall Street Explosion
Will be Caught.
ey Assec iateel rress % Everr Errning

New York, Sept. 23-After ono week
of investigation If The explosion that
spread death and terror in Wall Street
last Thursday, officials tnday still hopes.
for light that might lead them 70 a solu-
tion Of the mystery.
William ] Flynn. chief % The Depart
u1ent Of Justice agents. today characteriz-
cd ~ plain bunk renewed stories that the
explosion was accidental and predicted
that thcse responsible for the disaster
would ultimately be brought 70 Justice.
at was criminal outrage. he declared
''We are positive Of that and we are going
ahead on that theory.
Our mistaken conviction is that talk
Of the disaster in Wall Street last Thurs
day being an accident is plain bunk
We are not being diverted or deferred bv
rtrmors and reports of stray powder wagons
in the neighborhood or anything of that
sort. II was a criminal outrage. We are
positive Of that and we are going ahead
on that theory.
II cannot make prophecies. but I viii
say this much: The government never
SLEEPS and II never quits Our job is to
get these men, whether it takes a day or
lifetime. And, without making bOastful
predictions, | will 20 so far rs to say that
encouraging.
These things Mr. Flynn said at the
conclusion Of a conference in his hotel
with dozen or more Of the most trust
ed agents Of the department-men who
have been busy day and night since the
explosion of a week ago today which
killed thirty-fve persons and wounded
hundreds.
His announcement not onIv s,,nncr+ad
earlier declarations to the same effect
by his subordinatos, but backed UP the
expressed opinion Of Attorney-Ceneral
Palmer, who has reviewed much Of the
evidence thus far collected. While Flynn
himself was not authority for any state
ment beyond the foregoing it was learned
that thl general feeling among the Federal
investigators was that the repeated out
cropping Of expressions Of doubt that it
was an inferanl contrivanee which caused
such terrible destruction was traceable in
part TO the inspiration of radical sources
anxious TO have the affair gotten.
If expressions heard generally among
the governments investigators are to
be credited, it is not to be forgotten
They make no pretense that they expect
TO hunt down the criminals in day or
a week. But they are most emphatic in
asserting that if terrorism was the mo-
tive of the perpetrators, they reckoned
without true understanding Of the
temper of the American people and
those charged with protecting them. and
avenglng such crimes. Just as German
air raids which spread death and de-
structioh in London and other English
cities served only TO stiffen the resist
ance of the people, just so, it WAS said
by men high in the Bureau of Investi-
cation, have they been inspired with
grim determination to keep at their task
until they win
The chief support offered for a revival
OF the accident theory was q report
by Ray Clark, construction foreman for
Albert A. Nolk & Co. contractors who
are razing an old structure at the south
west corner of Broad and Wall Streets,
where the extension of the Stock Exchange
building is to be erected, had told officials
a driver came to him Just before the
explosion, said he had load of explosives
to deliver and, when he learned it had not
been ordered for that job went to tele-
phone TO inquire from his EMPLOYERS as to
It's correct destination. While the man was
telephonmg IN, so the story went, the
material IN the wagon he had left stand
ing before the Assay Office a few hundred
Ieet away on Wall Street, exploded.
Moreover it was asserted that three men
employed on the. job with Clark had
backed up his story