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Show The top picture shows the flames devouring the big three story rock building known as the spin- ning and cardirg bijilJirg. This structure was completely gutted by the fire. The lower scene , the old administration bulidkg; bui recently used as the store room. The fire started in- this , building in the wl drying dcpnrlment. j' niiiiislMffl ii provo sgta n fi ' Total Damage About f5'00" nc Amounting to Little Over $200,000. Great Loss to Provo; Garment Factory Will Start Work Next Monday. Annual Pay 0 roll was About $150,000. Business Men and Their Employes Fought Together to Checti Flames. Fire Caused byCombus- tion is Theory. : ' .' . YY' J; : ; , f i Y Y ' .v YY : . . f (Courtesy oi t he a ait i-ah Tribune) iqi8 will go down in history as a year of great disasters. ' ' When the story of Provo City is written into the annals of S h story across the top of the page wil appear his stnk-St stnk-St headS, "July 29th, 1918, The Knight Woolen Mills burned to tK$nd with a' total loss of $500,000." Provo Clty will be ; ihe priSal loser in the long run because she will lose an annual pavSl I of not less than $150,009 while "Uncle Jesse", Kmght wiU . K about $250,000. Yet this will be small in comparison with ' what this city will lose unless the mills are rebuilt. Since the re- . - oing of the factory in 1910 by Jesse Knight, there has been a constant stream of revenue from the treasury to the pockets of the employees the year around. When work has been slack fn other industries men and women, boya and girls, have found employment at this factory. But we should not forget that this has not been without sacrifice on the part of the management and for several years Mr. Knight has dug from his own. pocket frorrf forty to fifty thousand dollars to make up the deficit each . 1 ' vear. This has not been necessary for the past two or three years. By such sacrifice Provo was found ready when this gov- ernment called for the output of all textile mills to offer one of he best equipped plants in this western country. Thus Provo has been able to aid very materially in the output of uniforms tor our soldiers at home and abroad. ' In this manner Provo has been signally honored by our Federal authorities. -This Tire which started here Tuesday at 11:30 a. m. and i ontinued for about three hours, is undoubtedly the greatest catastrophe which has struck the Garden City for many years. The total loss is estimated at about $500,000 and only about $200,000 was covered by insurance. The pride of the people of Provo was manifest by their willingness to do and die if need be to save as much of this plant as possible during the fire last Tuesday. Practically every business house in this city was deserted de-serted and many heads of firms ordered their men to the scene and personally worked to prevent the spread of the flames. These men worked at the risk of their lives to help save the remaining tortious of the plant. l, ... h ' - . 4 If lr, - Li ii V t 'i 1 Aw government a similar blaze, on . account ac-count of the combustible nature of cotton, could have' started at any Through the quick response of the fire department andUhe general re-rponse re-rponse of the citizens, the large weave room wlM-re all the weaving looms are housed and a part of the finishing and garment manufacturing department and the office rooms were saved. , The loss in the garment manurac-luring manurac-luring department was about 50 per cent However Mr. W. F. Violet who . , ' t tKiu riAnnrtment states ' Theories For Rebuilding IA strong-senUment exists among the business men of Provo to rebuild the Knight Woolen Mills in a modern way. Three of the directors and the ; general manager, are in favor of starting start-ing to raise money to rebuild the plant. Manager J. S. Smith is hearti-- hearti-- lv In favor of the idea as is W. Lester iMangum, J. William Knight, and T. ( N. Taylor. Mr. Taylor's plan is to' classify the business men of Provo in I . their various classes as. to wealth and then ask them for amounts ranging from one hundred dollars up to f 1000 j - to he taken In stock in the company. I. if. Masters has this plan to suggest sug-gest In this connection: Since the Knight Mills have been practically1 turned over to the government and in view of the tact that they" have vast . government orders unfinished, Jet us ask Congress to make an emergency appropriation 6f from f 300,000 to IT.'.p.OOO to rebuild the plant as 4 war necessity just as money is being appropriated ap-propriated to build munition plants. The government can either purchase the equity of the Knight Interests or let the plant be owned Jointly until ne the war and at that time it can be disposed of to private parties or . continued 8.S a government owned Institution. In-stitution. Senator tteed Smoot is chairman of the Apr-ropriations committee com-mittee of the Senate, and he with Senator William H. King and the two congressmen from this state, should be able to get this appropriation in & short time. The factory has for several months past been engaged almost exclusive! In the manufacture , of army, suitings , and army blankets. Whether or not the mills' will bo rebuilt carnot now be stated The president, jesue Knight, is on his return trip from Canada and the question ques-tion of rebuilding will be taken up h Mr. Knight and the hoard on hU return, re-turn, according to Secretary W. Lester Les-ter Mangum and Manager Smith. The directors of the present corn-pan corn-pan v are: JeBse Knight, president; O. W. Nibloy, vice president ; E. P. Ellison, Elli-son, David A. (Smith. J. W.lllara .-!,., v i mior Manstim and T. K. that they have sufficient material on hard to run that department for 90 !days or longer. Motors ore now be-ling be-ling installed and work wUl be resumed resum-ed in this department Monday morning morn-ing with about 43 employees, with the inrnspect of continuing production proving material cayi bo procurec, from tome other manufacturing Instl-tntlon; Instl-tntlon; which Mr. Violet thinks is very probable. ' ' ' T , ,; Upon b"ing Interviewed. Mr. John ' s Smith, manager of the mill; Oliver i Senior, government inspector, and G. , w. Seagravea, superinUindont of man-Wure man-Wure for the mill, gave It as their opinion that the fire wa accidental, end although no one saw the fire in 'its beginning, it was the general opin-1 opin-1 ion that its start was purely accident-'al accident-'al Some rumore were Ptarted that the flrTwJ of, incendiary origin, but K management of the mill are of tho belief that it started from an over I heated condition of the dryer. I There are unusual difficulties in the I way of earlv resumption of work, even K it is decided to rebuild, as macbin-ery macbin-ery ia difttul? to obtain although It U thought, inasmuch as the factory la doinTgovernment wora. that maculn-er maculn-er arbe speeded up or pj.-Mj cured from other mills. TUs. nowev S i! only a matter of conjecture. The mills formerly known as the Pro5o Woolen Mills, were built under fhe0 diction of Urlghan . Young, and were completed in the early 70s, , ana S many years were th. JWJ en mills between the MUmutI river t.ifir roast. After Dting and e Pacific coast. After Being successfully operated for abou thirty V9 2, kSSS JdaisSs nSt'tSm Wthed company andhave sine, kept them At first this was done at. a loss, but ) S?Sncl5?r interested 1 In the mills to funUkh employment' for the Side and to assist in re-establish ng rbineflcial manufacturing enterpr.se. WB, dVtonnined to k'P them going. ?Ju't,to sec the 'moke come out of sir'rforthrtto ning behind. , f Taylor, directors. At about 11:30 Fred Wllkins and Al-bian Al-bian John, two boys who wtrs working work-ing at the mill, discovered tho lire when they were passing through the try room "They Immediately sounded the alarm, and 'Mr. O. W. Seagraves, superintendent of the mills, and Jesse WcCullough and others Immediately sought to extinguish the flames, but they found the city water pressure so low that it was impossible to spr-y the fire with any success, and as t'ie room had considerable wool and cotton cot-ton in, tho fire spread rapidly and before be-fore tho fire department could reach the mill it was beyond control and sooa spread to other buildings completely com-pletely destroying the iargo wool house where they had JL'.O.OOO wortu Their destruction win - by Mr Kr.Wit, not mainly because of the pecuniary loss, but because, of the at least temporary suspens on of an Kdistrial enterprise to w hich he is almost al-most affectionately attacked The work of the fire department a -ter it arrived is highly commended. Nllnv hundred citizen gathered on the streets around tho firo and watched a progress with intense and regretful interest in-terest and as many as could assisted the employ" in saving a small Hr-tion Hr-tion of theWont of the burn.nK l and threatened buildings, but the salvage sal-vage was very mM. of wool stored and also destroyed Cie boiler rooms, the dye room, storing l bunding, a part of the finishing room , and the large four story rock build- ; iK where all of the machinery of the picking and spinning departments were, housed. I Th fire is believed to have been accidental and be'juii either from combustion com-bustion or friction. It wafc first located lo-cated In the drying room, where only a f(-w weeks before a fire whs discovered discov-ered wid extinguished, and as explain-' explain-' .Ml by Superintended Seagravos, on nccrtjnt of some cotton being m-ed in the products now being mad fur tin |