Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1919 — THINK BOMB PLOT IS GERMAN CRIME [ARTICLE]

THINK BOMB PLOT IS GERMAN CRIME

Machines of Death Resemble Hun Sea Mines on Atlantic Coast. THIRTY-NINE SHELLS SENT Post Office Trace More Infernal Machines Sent From New York— Naval Intelligence Officers Find Striking Resemblance to Mines. New York, May 2. —Post office authorities have located 3Q bombs sent from New York to prominent men. Three were traced Thursday. Two of them were for United States Senators Overman and Smoot The police received Information from the naval Intelligence officers that the construction* of the bombs sent In the malls to prominent persons showed a startling resemblance in operation and principle to the type of German mines found by the navy off the coast Agents of the department of Justice expressed their belief that the Infernal machines were of German origin and possibly imported from Germany. They said that anarchists in this country could not obtain the fulminate of mercury used tn the manufacture of the bombs. The naval officers who gave the information In regard to the construction of the bombs have been engaged in taking apart German mines which were washed ashore on the Jersey and Long Island coasts. One of the officers said to the police: “The description of the bombs bears a most marked and startling resemblance to the new type of German mine which was laid during the war along the Jersey and Long Island coasts.

Like German Mines. "One of these mines drifted ashore at Moriches bay, and we disassembled it. The description of the Infernal machines found In the mails, although much smaller, of course, tallies In every respect with this mine.” Two bombs, one of them addressed to Senator Reed Smoot of Salt Lake City and the other to an unknown address in Utah, were returned to Gimbers department store for additional postage and innocently remailed Tuesday by a shipping clerk, post office inspectors learned. According to the inspectors, the clerk opened one of the packages, took out the bottle of acid and examined the percussion caps and other mechanism of the infernal machine before returning them to the box and placing the additional postage on both packages sufficient to carry them to their destinations. The clerk thought the machine was a “joke” the Inspectors said. Efforts are being made to intercept the packages, the address of only one of which the clerk could recall definitely. Expect to Catch Guilty. Police and federal officials expressed confidence that the perpetrators of the nation-wide plot to take the Ilves of prominent men by the distribution of bombs through the malls soon would be under arrest. A painstaking Investigation of the mailing from New York of more than a score of the bombs, Intended to deal death as a May day demonstration. It Is believed, of some anarchistic group, was reported to be progressing with expectation of success. Recent activities of members of the Industrial Workers of the World were cited by the police as under scrutiny. Meantime, the international labor day was observed here by i several thousand workers who instituted a oneday strike, but there was no disorder. Experts Examine the Bombs. Inspector Faurot ordered the 16 explosive parcels found in the New York post office brought to police headquarters from the fire department’s bureau of combustibles, where they had been sent by the postal authorities, declared that he expected to find fingerprints on the infernal devices, which would be compared with bertlllon records of many anarchists and members of the Industrial Workers of World, who had been arrested In this city and elsewhere In the country during the last few years. An exhaustive examination was being made of each of the bomb packages, Inspector Faurot said. While the outer wrappings, handled by numerous postal workers, probably would furnish no clue, It was expected that Inspection of every part of the bombs’ mechanism would yield definite results In the way of fingerprint dues. A corps of finger-print experts has been called in the case.