Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1904 — SLOCUM JURY NAMED. [ARTICLE]

SLOCUM JURY NAMED.

President Choosee Commission to Look Into the Steamer Horror. President Roosevelt has appointed, as a -commission to investigate the General Slocum disaster, Lawrence O. Murray, assistant Secretary of Commerce and Labor; <Jen. John A. Wilson, U. S. 4-. retired; Commander C. M. Winslow, U. S. N.; Herbert K. Smith of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and George Uhler, inspector general of the steamboat Inspection service. The commission will investigate independently of the New York board, but Mayor McClellan has arranged to aid the body in every way. At the coroner’s inquest Henry Luudberg, a United States steamboat inspector, refused to answer questions on the ground that he might incriminate himself. He acted on the advice of his attorney. He was placed under SSOO bail. Testimony brought out showed thtft there was no equipment for turning steam into a cabin In which oils, paints and . other dangerous combustibles were stored; no fire drill; no testing of fire hose; no licensed mate; no new life preservers since 1895, and fire hose bought at 16 cents a foot, against a price of $1.50 a foot paid by the city fire department Many of these omissions are said to be violations of the federal laws. A bookkeeper testified that she had altered, many times, the name "Grand Republic” on the bills for life preservers so as to make, it appear that the belts had been bought for the Slocum. This she did by means of acid. Dynamite and fiMd guns were used in the search for bodies, and many more dead were raised. In all 846 bodies have been recovered, and 706 have been identified. The missing number 808.