Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-02-02
ANTE-BELL UMFARMERS GREW
WEALTHY WITHOUT COTTON
THEATER DISASTER
PROBE IS STARTED

| powers OF the Ieuerdl government
will be exercised to probe the
Knickerbocker theater catastrophe
it was learned today at the depart
ment of justice.
If the investigation shows faulty
or cheap construction and lax build
ing methods. those responsible will
be charged with criminal negligence
and relentlessly prosecuted, Attor
ney General Daugherty has deter
mined.
Congress, the executive depart
ments and the district government
have joined in comprehensive in
quiry into every phase Of the dis
aster.
Police today claimed that a care.
full check-up had decreased the death
list to 81 that several errors and
duplication had been discovered
Other deaths are expected in the
hospitals here today. Sixty-two OF
the 144 injured still are in the hos.
pitfalls.
Six Of the best army and navy
construction engineers will investi.
gate the construction Of the theater
for the department TO justice. Re-
ports are current that concrete in
the roof and walls was in a crumbly
state and that reinforcements were
lacking.
This report Of the army-navy ex-
perts will be placed before a federal
grand jury here, which already has
started an investigation of the case.
COrOner's Jury ImpaneIed
Already a coroner's jury has been
lmpaneled and will start it's inquiry
within a few days Local building
inspectors have made preliminary
tests.
The prevailing opinion of engi
neers, such as Colonel Charles Keller,
district commissioner, is that the
weight of the snow on the tOof
would not have caused the roof to
cave in with deadly effect, if there
had not been some fundamental de-
feet ir construction.
Meanwhile. the senate today was
expected tC adopt resolution OF Sen.
ator Capper, Kansas, which calls for
an inquiry by the senate district
committee, particularly in reports
that a ring of profiteering contrac,
tors in league with local building in
spectors has been putting up cheap
and dangerous buildings here.
The demand for a complete inves.
tigation is most insistent over the
stunned and saddened city which to.
day is burying ten Of the dead.
Tearing Down Walls
Meanwhile the work of razing the
remaining walls of the theater has
started. The work is progressing
slowly, because of the danger of a
collapse which would bury work
men.
The hospitals had no new death
cases overnight. Their last was Miss
Mary Forsyth, who died in Garfield
hospital late yesterday Of her in
juries.
Walter Reed hospital reported
that Second Assistant Postmaster
General Shaughnessy, while still in
critical condition, was holding his
own, and with slight Improvement
overnight"
DR.. Clyde Gearhart, dangerously
/! wounded, was showing a slight i'm
provement. Miss Caroline Upshaw,
niece of Representative Upshaw. of
Georgia. her leg severed when the
theater roof came laundering down,
was still clinging to life, as was Ed
Williams, another badly injured vic
finn SnIynY,o1 ol0n1 4ro ocf,
have been made during the last
twenty-four hours in the hope of
saving the more dangerously
w Iunded.
The police crossed off the dead
list the name of Howard Kneessi,
(son Of Howard G. Kneessi, vice pres
ident OF the Senmes Motor company,
victim), Miss Gertrude Taylor and
Jack Mckimmie. They said that
the following listed as dead, with
addresses unknown, should be
checked off: D. N. Walsh, Miss w.
E. Walsh, Mr.. and Mrs. Russell
Names. Paulus Lamby, Albert
Baker F. II. Hall, w. M.
Crawford, L. H. Lehler, Qisted err
roneously for Leroy Lehmer, vic
TIM, and Ernest ~Martello, Qisted
enormously for the dead orchestra
leader, Ernesto Natiello0
Capital at Half Mast
The city was at half mast today
in token of a mourning which
| touched all. Scarcely any one but
knew one or more of the victims.
Churches prepared Tor memorial
services; Georgetown university, sad
dened by deaths among it's mum.
kber, was planning too, for such
ceremonies.
South American diplomats attend
| ed services for Nine. Virginia
! Feraud, sister of the Guatemalan
Minister Bianchi held this forenoon
! from the Guatemalan legation and
/ st. Pauls Catholic church, after
which the body was so?t to Ventura
| Cal.
Hearses careened through great
snowdriftS in various parts of the
city, to- the capital was still bound
down by the great stor;n which was,
in measure, responsible for the
| tragedy
Stories of how the concrete root
came smashing down, tearing away
| the thin vel that separates life
from death were still coming forth
today. Joseph Younger, an archi
tect, injured with his wife declares
the tragedy was far worse than the
scenes he had witnessed in the Ar
| gonne.
$25,0OO,0OO Road
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